This article provides an in-depth guide on how to build an E100 sheet file, with specific details about inserting a title block, setting up layers, and plotting files in AutoCAD. It emphasizes the importance of checking layer states to prevent errors that could disrupt plan drawings.
Key Insights
- The article outlines a step-by-step process for creating an E100 sheet file in AutoCAD, starting with the use of a template and saving the file in a specified folder.
- It details the process of inserting a title block, setting up layers, and creating a viewport, with specific instructions for ensuring the correct scale and zoom level.
- The importance of correctly setting up layers is emphasized, with specific guidelines for changing layer colors and ensuring certain layers are turned off to prevent printing errors.
Note: These materials offer prospective students a preview of how our classes are structured. Students enrolled in this course will receive access to the full set of materials, including video lectures, project-based assignments, and instructor feedback.
Let's build our E100 sheet file. I can close this Blocks dialog box and then go File, New.
Use the template and File, Save. This is going to be saved in our Sheets folder, and this is CAD 201-E100. Enter.
The first thing we need to do is XRef Attach our Plan Model. So I'll go to Insert, Reference Attach, find my Plan Model, and Open. I'll hit OK.
Zoom Extents and Control + S to save. Now let's go to Paper Space and insert our title block: VDCI 8.5 × 11.
Insert. Blocks from Recent Blocks, and here's our title block once again. In this case, we want to set our Uniform Scale to 1, Insertion Point at 0,0,0, and Repeat Placement can be off.
I'll click it, bring it onto the screen, and type 0,0,0. Enter. Name will be your name. Date is today's date.
Sheet number is E1.0, and the drawing title is ELECTRICAL PLAN. I'll hit OK and OK. Finally, let's check our XRef and reload that image.
Go to my saved path, and there it is. I'll do a Zoom Extents, close this Block Editor, and Control + S to save. Now let's draw our viewport.
Again, to do that, I first want to change my active layer to the A-NOPLOT layer. Then go to the Layout contextual tab, Rectangular Viewport, Endpoint to Endpoint, and let's jump into the viewport with a double-click. Zoom out, Z, Enter, W, Enter, Shift + Right-Click Endpoint for this endpoint here, Shift + Right-Click Endpoint for this endpoint here.
That snaps our view into place, not only with the location but also the zoom level, and I can see that my scale is appropriate. I can lock the viewport, double-click out, and go to my Home tab. Let's make 0 our current layer and hide the No Plot layers.
Zoom Extents. Control + S to save. Now before we plot this, we want to make sure that our layers are set up appropriately. If we check the handout, we can see that A-FIXTURE, A-COUNTER, A-WALL, A-DOOR, and A-GLAZE are all turned to 253 as a color.
The only things that are black are the E-POWER layer and the A-TEXT layer. So I can go to Layer Properties, find all of these layers, and then—holding Control—I’ll deselect E-POWER and A-TEXT. Now I can change all of those layers to 253 and I'll hit OK. Finally, I'll turn on the A-COUNTER layer because it was previously off.
There we go. Control + S to save. The reason why I chose all of the layers instead of just isolating A-DOOR, A-WINDOW, A-GLAZE, and so on was because this is the E-POWER sheet file. I don't need any other layers, and if they do get accidentally turned on, I definitely do not want them printing in black or full screening.
So just to be safe, I turn them all to 253 except for E-POWER and A-TEXT. Now we can plot this. File, Plot, and I'll choose my VDCI Color Table file, and let's Preview. There we go. We can see that everything is gray except for E-POWER and the FAMILY ROOM, BEDROOM, and BATH text.
Right-click Plot, and I'll name this one. I'll get rid of that VDCI 8.5 × 11 and I'll name it with my initials—DS. Again, please use your initials. I'll hit Save, and we can see here is our PDF—excellent.
Now before we end this lesson, I want to make sure that we double-check all of the rest of our sheet files for the plan view. This is to ensure that none of them have the E-POWER layer turned on or anything like that that could accidentally break our plan drawings. Sometimes things don't get updated appropriately in AutoCAD.
So let's go File, Open, and I'll open up A201. Holding Control, I'll add A401 and S100, and I'll hit Open. This is exactly what we were looking for. Just because our Layer States weren't updated in the Plan Model, we can see that the E-POWER layer has come through into our other drawings.
So let's go to our Layer Properties, find E-POWER, and turn it off. Control + S to save. And just remember that the roof hatch is too large of a scale, and we see that on our PDF handout in our File Downloads. Please submit this PDF for your midterm anyway, and points will not be taken off for the mismatching hatch scale. We will update this PDF by the end of the course.
Let's go to S100 next. Let's turn off E-POWER. Let's check to see if any other layers got messed up—I don't think so. Control + S to save. And finally, let's go down to A201. Let's turn off E-POWER and Control + S to save. All right—excellent. You can re-plot these as PDFs if you would prefer, but if nothing else has changed, we do not need to print them as PDFs.
Please submit the appropriate PDFs for your midterm, and I am excited to see you as we start our elevation model and sheet files in the next part of this course. See you then!
