Discover how to create the A201 sheet file using a template and then inserting a title block and attaching a floor plan. Understand the use of an external reference and its advantages in keeping your file size small, enabling collaboration, and maintaining consistent updates across multiple sheets.
Key Insights
- The A201 sheet file can be created using a template, where the title block and floor plan are inserted. It's essential to remember to use floorplan.dwg, not .bak during the file insertion process.
- External references offer an updating link to the original drawing, allowing consistent updates across multiple files. This feature enables real-time collaboration and keeps the file size small, promoting efficient workflow.
- A firm's architecture and practices can affect the use of external references. Therefore, understanding the organizational structure and processes is crucial when working on a file that could be referenced in many other files.
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.
In this video, we will create the A201 sheet file. Let's go to File, New, use the template, and File, Save. In this case, we're going to name this drawing CAD 101-A201.
Hit Save, and now we can insert our title block. But first, we want to attach our floor plan. We discussed how inserting a block or drawing allows you to place many instances or copies of that drawing. An external reference is slightly different.
It establishes an updating link to the original drawing. What does this mean? Well, let's first attach our floor plan, and then we will see how it updates. I'll go to the Insert tab, Reference panel, Attach command, and find the floor plan.
Again, we want to find floorplan.dwg, not.bak. I'll click Open, and now we see a dialog box similar to the classic insert dialog box. In this case, our scale is set to 1, our insertion point is set to 0,0, and our rotation is 0. There are two other options here, which we'll talk more about in future courses: the relative path type and reference type, which we can leave as "Attachment." I'll hit OK, then use Zoom Extents, press CTRL S to save. Now, this looks identical to our floor plan file, except that when I click, the entire drawing is selected at once, and I have one grip, which is the insertion point, or 0,0,0 in our original drawing.
What makes a reference special is that it is an updating link from the original drawing. I'll return to the floor plan drawing and draw a circle. I'll draw it in this bedroom area, and notice that the floor plan needs to be saved. Now I can press CTRL S to save, and when I return to CAD 101-A201, I will see a bubble appear from my Manage Xrefs button at the bottom.
It says an Xref was modified, which we just did, and we can reload the floor plan. I'll uncheck "Compare Changes" for now, and click "Reload Floor Plan." The circle now appears because the link was updated.
This allows you to work on a file and have it referenced in many other files all at once. It enables collaboration with co-workers or keeps your file size small by creating multiple sheet files that reference the same model file. This is a best practice, though some architectural firms might not follow it, so please make sure you understand what your firm or other organization is doing.
If I go back to the floor plan, delete the circle, and draw a line in this bedroom, press CTRL S to save, and return to A201, I can see it prompts me to reload the floor plan again. This time, I’ll check the box to compare the changes, then click the blue link. This takes us to the Xref Compare window.
The Xref Compare window will show us, in gray, all of the elements that have not changed, in red, any elements that were deleted, and in green, any elements that were added. If I understand these changes, I can check the box to confirm completion. Now our CAD101-A201 Xref matches our floor plan, because the link was updated.
I’ll return to the floor plan, delete the line, press CTRL S to save, and one last time, I will update by reloading the floor plan and confirming the changes. That is our updating external reference link. Now we can insert the title block using the blocks dialog box, and then our sheet file will be complete.
In this course, we will use model space for both of these elements, but in future courses, we will use paper space. I'll move the drawing over to the side using the Pan tool, then press I, Enter on the keyboard. This was the old school "insert" command, but now it automatically references the blocks dialog box.
To insert the title block, we first go to the button here and browse for it. I'll scroll down until I see vdci-ttlb.dwg, click Open, and again, we can see that it is coming in because our insertion was set on-screen, and our scale was set to 48. For now, I can’t see the perfect spot to place this, because I want the two no-plot views to line up.
So, I'll place it over here to the side and click, and our attributes dialog box will appear. The attributes are an interesting part of a block that do not exist with Xrefs, in that, per instance, each time you place the block, you can fill out specific text. In this case, there's only one title block, but each title block might be different per sheet.
Let's first change the name to your name. The date can be today’s date. The scale is automatically filled in at one-quarter inch equals one foot zero inches, as this title block is typically used with that scale. However, since it's an attribute, you could change this value.
The sheet number will be A2.1, and the drawing title will be "Floor Plan." You’ll see that it has a three-dot box on the right, as this is a multi-line text attribute. When I click this button, it will open a text formatting window, and I might need to pan over and find the location on my title block. Now, I can type "Floor Plan, " click OK, and click OK to finish entering my attributes.
We can now see that the attributes were added. Here is my name, the scale, the date, the drawing title, and the drawing name. These are all included with my block.
Now, to align my two drawings, you can see why we used the no-plot. The no-plot was built to match the printable space in our title block. Since the floor plan is located at 0,0, and it is a real-world element, I’d prefer to move the title block to match, instead of moving the floor plan.
Let’s use the Move command, pick our title block, and try to lock it in. I'll choose any of these four corners. I’ll select the top-left corner and place it at the top-left corner of the no-plot view.
Since the no-plot was brought in at quarter-inch scale, with a scale factor of 48, and the title block was brought in at the same scale, these align perfectly. Now we can press CTRL S to save, and throughout the rest of this course, we will return to the A201 sheet file to see how our project is updated. Then, at the end of the course, we will print this sheet file as a PDF.
For now, we can hide our no-plot layers by clicking the light bulb icon, because they won't be printed in the end. Use Zoom Extents and press CTRL S to save. Now, even if someone asks for a quick update, we can show them our progress.
For now, let’s close the A201 sheet file, close our blocks dialog box, and press CTRL S to save.
