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Tip of the Week #32 - Customize Drafting Templates

By Joseph Blecha posted 03-15-2018 19:31

  

Did you know that with v4.00, TBC Advanced includes the drafting and plotting routines that had been included in the Advanced Drafting module?  With the ability to create custom plan, cross-section, and plan-profile sheets all within TBC Advanced, time for a drafting Tip of the Week!

Starting with a pre-built drafting template included with TBC, launch the Drafting Templates command furthest to the left in the Drafting tab and drag-and-drop a *.vcl into your TBC plan view.  In this example, the Feet - Arch D (24x36) - 1 Column - Inset Grid template is used.

Further customize by adding text, blocks, or images to the Plan Sheet Set or Cross-Section Sheet set.  Note below how to insert an image, such as a company logo, to the Plan Sheet Set, with the Insert Image command.

Once you have your company logo and any other standard info you want to include in your personalized drafting template, you can export as a new *.vcl for future use and sharing.

To export, first delete all data from the project that you do not wish to include in your template, such as survey data, corridor information, and CAD geometry.  But remember to keep your company logo!

Then, select the components in the Project Explorer you want to export, be it sheet sets or individual sheets.  Multi-select by clicking the first template object you wish to export, then hold down the <Ctrl> key and pick any other drafting template object to include.

In the Export Pane, select the Construction tab and scroll down to the VCL Project Link.  The selections are recognized in the Data box, and give the drafting template a name. When happy with your selection and name, click the Export button at the bottom of the command.

Import your custom drafting template into any TBC project via the same, simple drag-and-drop routine and stay in TBC to complete your plan set deliverables!

TBC - Field to Finish with Confidence.

3 comments
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Comments

04-06-2018 11:46

Hello,

 

Newbie question here: How do I associate a dynaview with an existing drafting template?

 

I created a custom sheetview with my company logo and when I refreshed the view by rebuilding the sheets I lost all my work. I tried then to take an existing dynaview and display it on one of Trimbles drafting templates but I don't seem to have the proper steps down as I can't see my layers in the Sheet View. Pleas help!

 

Matt

03-16-2018 06:07

Agree 100% Tobbe with your metric support and enhancements request

03-16-2018 03:10

Hi

 

For the ones of us that work in Metric the selection of pre-built templates is a little thin. 

 

Most users will not be willing to start from scratch and will probably have a Paper Space template in a DWG that they’re looking to hijack. This is easily done by importing a DWG containing the desired template into an empty TBC project.

 

In the project explorer you can access Paper Space by expanding the nodes under Plan sets and then right click the sheet containing the template and choose New Sheet View.

 

In the Sheet View you’re now free to edit your hijacked template. Workflow for exporting your hijacked template is same as workflow for exporting a pre-built template. You might want to change the name of your drawing and sheet set prior to export. Simply right click them in the project explorer and change the names in the properties box.