Creating Drawing Sheet Sets

Use the Create Drawing Sheet Set wizard to automatically create drawing sheet sets.

You can create drawing sheet sets:

• From scratch, based on existing drawings that contain sheets. For example, you can create a drawing sheet set from the drawings of one of your existing project.
• Using an existing drawing sheet set as a template. The existing drawing sheet set provides the structure and the default settings for the new drawing sheet set.

All drawing sheet set information is stored in a sheet set data file (.dst). You can specify a different location for the .dst file at creation time.

Store the .dst file in a network location to allow your colleagues to work with the drawing sheet set.

Using the Create Drawing Sheet Set wizard you can do the following:

• Specify the existing drawing sheet set to use as a template
• Specify the name, description, and location for the drawing sheet set data file (.dst)
• Specify the default drawing sheet creation template
• Specify the drawing files from which to add the sheets to the drawing sheet set
• Preview the information stored in the .dst file before completing the drawing sheet set creation.

The NewSheetSet command opens the Create Drawing Sheet Set wizard.

Once you create your drawing sheet sets, you can use the Sheet Set Manager to organize and manage drawing sheet sets.

Best practices

For efficiency, it is recommended that you plan your work in advance:

• Organize the drawing files to use in the drawing sheet set into folders. Reduce the number of folders as much as possible.
• Use drawings with only one sheet. This enables multiple users to work on different sheets at the same time. When one user opens one drawing sheet, the corresponding drawing file is locked. If the drawing file contains other sheets that you have also included in the drawing sheet set, opening one drawing sheet will prevent other users to access the other sheets from the drawing.
• Use a sheet creation template. Create a .dwt file to be used by the drawing sheet set for creating new sheets.

To create a drawing sheet set:

1. Do one of the following:
   • On the Sheet Set Manager palette, click .
   • Type NewSheetSet.

   The Create Drawing Sheet Set wizard appears.

2. On the first page, specify how to create the drawing sheet set:
   • A template drawing sheet set. Lets you create a drawing sheet set using an existing drawing sheet set as a template.
   • Existing drawings. Lets you create a drawing sheet set from scratch.
3. Click Next.
4. If you choose to create your drawing sheet set from an existing one, on the Drawing Sheet Set Template page, specify the .dst file to use as template and click Next.
5. On the Drawing Sheet Set Details page, specify the name of the drawing sheet set. Optionally, add the description and set additional drawing sheet set properties.
6. Click Next.
7. On the Choose Sheets page, specify the path to the folder where the drawings are located. Additional import options let you create a subset for each specified folder from the list.
8. Click Next.
9. On the Finalize page, preview the result.
10. Click Finish.

    The drawing sheet set with the specified name automatically opens in the Sheet Set Manager palette.

11. After adding subsets and drawing sheets, as necessary, right-click the drawing sheet set name and select Resave All Drawing Sheets from the context menu.

    Note: To remove the link created between the drawings containg the sheets and the newly created drawing sheets set, you must delete the newly created .dst file. As the file is still opened in the Sheet Set Manager, you can delete it only after closing it. Deleting the .dst file without closing the drawing sheet set, automatically recreates the .dst file.

    To close the drawing sheet set, right-click on it in the Sheet Set Manager and select Close Drawing Sheet Set from the context menu.

Access

Command: NewSheetSet