• AutoCAD

Bring content into an AutoCAD template

Identify the methods for bringing content into a template, such as the Design Center, and the problems to avoid.


00:04

Content can be brought into ad WT file in some cases by dragging and dropping it

00:10

or by inserting it as a block

00:13

or by simply using the copy paste command.

00:16

While all these methods are certainly usable methods.

00:19

A better practice is to use the auto

00:22

C ad design center

00:23

to grab content from other files and bring it directly into your template file.

00:29

We'll take a look at the auto

00:31

C ad design center in just a bit.

00:35

Now, let's take a look at some of these methods for bringing Autocad content in.

00:40

If you have a drawing file that has content

00:44

that you want to bring in

00:45

simply browse to it and file, explore drag and drop it into the model space area

00:52

where you'll be prompted to specify an insertion point.

00:56

So in this case, I'm going to do zero comma zero,

00:59

specify the X

01:01

and the Y factor

01:03

specify a rotation angle.

01:06

And then if I do a zoom extents,

01:08

the content was brought into the drawing,

01:13

the elements will be in block format.

01:15

So notice as I hover over this, it shows up as one element

01:20

or a block,

01:22

you'll probably have to use the explode command for this.

01:26

If you don't want it inserted as a block,

01:31

while this method works at bringing content in for you.

01:35

The downfall is that it brings everything in from the selected file.

01:39

So you will most likely have clean up to

01:42

do to eliminate unwanted items in your template file.

01:47

Additionally,

01:48

this method has been identified as a method that can bring corruption

01:53

into the destination file.

01:56

The next method we'll look at is the copy paste method

02:04

using windows command such as control C and control V.

02:10

We can select items like north arrow blocks,

02:14

scales and other items.

02:19

So then control V

02:22

brings our blocks into

02:25

the destination drawing.

02:27

While this is a quick and easy method for grabbing specific content,

02:31

there are a couple of things to keep in mind.

02:34

One

02:35

if this content was already in your template file,

02:38

the project team member would not have to go looking for it in other files.

02:43

And two,

02:43

this method also has the potential to bring corruption in from another file.

02:50

Finally,

02:51

let's take a look at a highly recommended

02:53

option for bringing content into your template file.

02:57

The use of the Autocad Design Center.

03:00

Let's take a look at bringing some blocks into our template file.

03:04

Using the design center

03:06

to access the design center.

03:08

You can either type in A DC

03:14

or

03:16

you can go to the view tab

03:21

over to the pallets panel

03:24

and click on

03:26

the design center icon.

03:31

Now to grab specific content,

03:34

we browse to

03:36

where the file is that we want to grab the content from.

03:41

Once we click on the file that has the content we want,

03:45

we can expand that file and notice that it has different categories.

03:51

If we click on blocks. For example,

03:54

we get a preview of all the blocks

03:58

that the source file has in it,

04:02

select each north arrow

04:05

and drag and drop them

04:07

into our drawing

04:09

or template file,

04:11

just like that

04:13

we've brought in block content.

04:16

Now one thing to note about bringing a block in to our template file in model space,

04:23

we can erase these blocks

04:26

and they will still reside in the template

04:29

as

04:30

reference blocks.

04:32

So I will erase these blocks.

04:35

And if I go to insert

04:39

those blocks are still in

04:41

the template file,

04:44

we can also bring in other content like layers,

04:49

layouts,

04:50

table styles, textiles

04:53

simply by dragging and dropping

04:56

into our template file.

05:02

After bringing all this content into your template file,

05:06

it's a good idea to take a look at the purge command

05:10

to see if there's anything extra

05:13

unwanted

05:14

or content simply not wanted in the template file

05:18

so that it can be cleaned out.

05:21

If we take a look at the purge command, we can see that there are three blocks

05:26

that we could purge out.

05:30

Another good idea is to run an audit on your template

05:33

file to make sure that there are no errors or corruption

05:38

in your template file,

05:42

zero errors found

05:44

and zero errors fixed.

05:47

So as you could see in these videos, template files are very important to create.

05:53

But there are many things to be considered during the creation process.

05:57

Following these guidelines can assist you as well as your

06:01

design team in having a successful project every time.

Video transcript

00:04

Content can be brought into ad WT file in some cases by dragging and dropping it

00:10

or by inserting it as a block

00:13

or by simply using the copy paste command.

00:16

While all these methods are certainly usable methods.

00:19

A better practice is to use the auto

00:22

C ad design center

00:23

to grab content from other files and bring it directly into your template file.

00:29

We'll take a look at the auto

00:31

C ad design center in just a bit.

00:35

Now, let's take a look at some of these methods for bringing Autocad content in.

00:40

If you have a drawing file that has content

00:44

that you want to bring in

00:45

simply browse to it and file, explore drag and drop it into the model space area

00:52

where you'll be prompted to specify an insertion point.

00:56

So in this case, I'm going to do zero comma zero,

00:59

specify the X

01:01

and the Y factor

01:03

specify a rotation angle.

01:06

And then if I do a zoom extents,

01:08

the content was brought into the drawing,

01:13

the elements will be in block format.

01:15

So notice as I hover over this, it shows up as one element

01:20

or a block,

01:22

you'll probably have to use the explode command for this.

01:26

If you don't want it inserted as a block,

01:31

while this method works at bringing content in for you.

01:35

The downfall is that it brings everything in from the selected file.

01:39

So you will most likely have clean up to

01:42

do to eliminate unwanted items in your template file.

01:47

Additionally,

01:48

this method has been identified as a method that can bring corruption

01:53

into the destination file.

01:56

The next method we'll look at is the copy paste method

02:04

using windows command such as control C and control V.

02:10

We can select items like north arrow blocks,

02:14

scales and other items.

02:19

So then control V

02:22

brings our blocks into

02:25

the destination drawing.

02:27

While this is a quick and easy method for grabbing specific content,

02:31

there are a couple of things to keep in mind.

02:34

One

02:35

if this content was already in your template file,

02:38

the project team member would not have to go looking for it in other files.

02:43

And two,

02:43

this method also has the potential to bring corruption in from another file.

02:50

Finally,

02:51

let's take a look at a highly recommended

02:53

option for bringing content into your template file.

02:57

The use of the Autocad Design Center.

03:00

Let's take a look at bringing some blocks into our template file.

03:04

Using the design center

03:06

to access the design center.

03:08

You can either type in A DC

03:14

or

03:16

you can go to the view tab

03:21

over to the pallets panel

03:24

and click on

03:26

the design center icon.

03:31

Now to grab specific content,

03:34

we browse to

03:36

where the file is that we want to grab the content from.

03:41

Once we click on the file that has the content we want,

03:45

we can expand that file and notice that it has different categories.

03:51

If we click on blocks. For example,

03:54

we get a preview of all the blocks

03:58

that the source file has in it,

04:02

select each north arrow

04:05

and drag and drop them

04:07

into our drawing

04:09

or template file,

04:11

just like that

04:13

we've brought in block content.

04:16

Now one thing to note about bringing a block in to our template file in model space,

04:23

we can erase these blocks

04:26

and they will still reside in the template

04:29

as

04:30

reference blocks.

04:32

So I will erase these blocks.

04:35

And if I go to insert

04:39

those blocks are still in

04:41

the template file,

04:44

we can also bring in other content like layers,

04:49

layouts,

04:50

table styles, textiles

04:53

simply by dragging and dropping

04:56

into our template file.

05:02

After bringing all this content into your template file,

05:06

it's a good idea to take a look at the purge command

05:10

to see if there's anything extra

05:13

unwanted

05:14

or content simply not wanted in the template file

05:18

so that it can be cleaned out.

05:21

If we take a look at the purge command, we can see that there are three blocks

05:26

that we could purge out.

05:30

Another good idea is to run an audit on your template

05:33

file to make sure that there are no errors or corruption

05:38

in your template file,

05:42

zero errors found

05:44

and zero errors fixed.

05:47

So as you could see in these videos, template files are very important to create.

05:53

But there are many things to be considered during the creation process.

05:57

Following these guidelines can assist you as well as your

06:01

design team in having a successful project every time.

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