The company I work for is in the process of setting up a standards system. They are trying to make minimal changes to keep everyone happy. The trouble is, the ones that squeak the most are the ones that are getting the attention and they are opposed to standards (completely). I am currently trying to convince them of the importance of using attributes and "as many layers as we need" to make drawings as intelligent as possible. They want to put entities (especially in the title block) on color by-entity rather that by-layer. I feel this is not good practice. I have always made sure everything was color by-layer but, with the changes in AutoCAD in being able to plot by layer rather than by color, I cannot give a very convincing argument. If you can help me with this also, I would greatly appreciate it.
Danny
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To tell you the truth I think that some CAD managers take standards to the extreme. Weather or not to use standards I think depends on the final product. If you are working on a large project and a lot of people are working on the same project then yes by all means you need standards. If only one person is working the drawing from start to finish and once drawings is completed you will never see the drawing again, then why do you need standards. I am currently responsible for my department�s standards and we fall into the latter situation. I do not strong arm mapping standards unless they are impervious to the job at hand. Each one of my guys has a style of their own and when I look at a map I can usually tell who has done the map by the style. Draftsmen usually have a little creative demon in them and sometimes you have to let it loose. Keep those Draftsmen happy and they'll work hard for you. Create problems and you get problems. I'm not saying that standards are a bad thing when you need them, I'm just saying that if it�s not necessary then why create problems. Besides if you are running AutoCAD 2002 you can use the new Standard's feature and fix anything that is nonstandard in seconds.
Good Luck
Jim
