5. Click the browse button (the one with an ellipsis on it).
6. Navigate to and select the drawing that you created in Step 1, and then click Open.
AutoCAD will report an error if you try to import a drawing that doesn’t contain any configured layouts.
7. Select one or more layouts to import into the Sheet List and click OK.
AutoCAD adds the layout(s) to the Sheet List, as shown in Figure 14-3.
Figure 14-3: An imported sheet.
The sheet name is a combination of the DWG file name (S-sheet-plans-01 in this figure) and layout name (30x42).
8. Right-click the newly imported sheet and choose Rename and Renumber.
The Rename and Renumber Sheet dialog box appears.
9. Type a Sheet Number and Sheet Title in the text boxes, and then click OK.
If you later create a sheet list table — that is, a drawing sheet index — for your cover sheet, then AutoCAD will use what you type here to describe the sheet. (I demonstrate this procedure at the end of this chapter.) You usually should type the sheet number and title as they will appear in the title block. This information also helps you and others identify the sheet unambiguously in the Sheet List.
On the Sheet List tab, you can create sheet
? On a project with lots of drawings, you can find drawings and understand what kinds of drawings make up the set more easily. This kind of organization also makes it easy to select a group of related files for plotting or transmitting to someone else.
? You can configure each subset to use a unique template drawing (for example, DWT file). Thus when you create new drawings with the Sheet Set Manager, as described in the next section, different kinds of drawings can start from different templates. For example, you might use one template to start plans and a different one to start details, based on different scales or other considerations.
? You can configure each subset to create new sheet drawings in different folders. For example, you might keep your plan sheets and detail sheets in two different folders.
To configure both of the second two options, right-click the subset name and choose Properties.
Don’t confuse sheet
Use the following steps to create a new sheet drawing, using the configuration settings for the sheet set:
1. (Optional) On the Sheet List tab of the Sheet Set Manager palette, right-click the sheet set name and choose New Subset. Type a subset name and click OK.
2. Right-click the sheet set name or subset name and choose Properties.
The Sheet Set Properties dialog box appears.
3. Verify or change the Sheet Creation properties, and then click OK.
Sheet Storage Location determines where the new sheet DWG file will get created, and Sheet Creation Template specifies the DWT file that it gets created from.
4. Right-click the sheet set name or subset name and choose New Sheet.
The New Sheet dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 14-4.
Figure 14-4: Creating a new sheet.
5. Type a Sheet Number, Sheet Title, and File Name in the text boxes, and then click OK.
The previous procedure describes what the Sheet Number and Sheet Title are for. File Name determines the name of the DWG file that AutoCAD creates. AutoCAD generates the default file name by combining the sheet number and sheet title. You probably want to remove the sheet number from this automatically generated name, for the reasons described in the following Tip.
Don’t type .DWG in the File Name box. AutoCAD always adds the file extension, so if you type .DWG, AutoCAD will create a file named Whatever.Dwg.Dwg.
If you anticipate ever having to renumber sheets on your project — and even if you don’t anticipate it, it may happen! — you should name your sheet files based on their general contents rather than their (current) sheet numbers. For example, when you create an architectural floor plan that you anticipate will be sheet A-201, name the sheet file A-FP01.dwg (first floor plan in the series) instead of A-201.dwg. By giving sheet files names that are independent of their sheet numbers, you retain the flexibility to renumber sheets automatically later with just a few changes in the Sheet Set Manager.
After you create a new sheet (or add an existing one that doesn’t yet contain all the necessary drawing components), you use the Resource Drawing tab to compose views on the sheet. A view can be simply the entire drawing, or it can be a named view that you’ve created in the resource drawing. In all cases, the Sheet Set Manager attaches the resource drawing as an xref to the sheet drawing and creates a properly scaled viewport on the sheet drawing’s layout. Each sheet can contain one view (for example, a large plan) or more than one (for example, several elevations or a dozen details).
To place an entire resource drawing on a sheet, follow these steps:
1. On the Sheet List tab of the Sheet Set Manager palette, double-click the sheet to which you want to add the resource drawing.
AutoCAD opens the drawing for editing.
2. Click the Resource Drawings tab.
3. If you haven’t yet specified the folder that contains the resource drawing that you want to use, double-click Add New Location, browse to the directory, and click the Open button.
You can add more than one folder to the Resource Drawings tab.
4. Right-click the resource drawing that you want to add to the sheet, choose Place on Sheet, and move the cursor into the sheet drawing’s layout.
AutoCAD attaches the resource drawing as an xref and creates a viewport for it. You position the viewport with the cursor.
5. Right-click.
A scale menu appears, as shown in Figure 14-5.
Figure 14-5: Adding a view to a sheet.
6. Choose the proper scale for the resource drawing.
AutoCAD rescales the viewport, and you continue to drag it with the cursor.
7. Position the viewport where you want it and click.
AutoCAD places the viewport on the sheet.
If you need to adjust the viewport later, select it and use grip editing, the Properties palette, or the Viewports toolbar to make changes.
8. Click the View List tab on the Sheet Set Manager palette.
AutoCAD has added the resource drawing that you just used to the list of views for this sheet set.
