Standardizing Detail Borders and Attributes in VDCI Drawings

We are in our VDCI detail border, one horizontal by one vertical drawing. We've imported two rectangles, one that fits within the 22 × 34 title block, the other that fits within the 30 × 42 title block. When we do our work, everything will be contained within the inner rectangle, because that's the space that we can see in both drawings.

Whenever we use the detail on the 30 × 42 sheet, we will have a little bit more breathing room around the edges of the details. Again, what we're trying to do is to standardize details and detail formats so we can use them on different project types. So I'm going to go to the Home tab.

I'm on Layer 0, and what we need to do is we need to bring the title of the detail into this area. Now, we already have it done in the attributes drawing. So I'm going to go to the Insert tab, and I will say Insert, More Options.

I'm going to go to Browse. I'm going to go to my C drive. I'm going to slide down, and I'm going to choose VDCI Detail Border Attributes.

I'm going to go Open, Specify Insertion Point on Screen. We will end up exploding it once it's brought into the drawing. I'm going to pop it in at the end of this line right here.

Now, it's asking me for my attribute values. I'm just going to let it be blank and go OK. I need to move it, so I'm going to say move from the dot X of the quadrant over here, dot Y of the quadrant here.

I'm going to move that to that corner right over there. So again, I'm placing the detail so that the circle aligns with the right side and the bottom of the corner. I'm going to explode the detail, and as soon as I explode it, I have my attribute tags on display.

I'm then going to extend, so I'm just going to go and choose Extend to here, that line, and I'm going to save the file. Now, again, if you remember, we've created some attributes before, but to create it, I would go to the Insert tab, and I would go Define Attributes. When I define attributes, an attribute has a tag, a prompt, and a default value, and you can lock position or not.

You can specify insertion point on screen. So in this example, the tag, which is, again, one word, is detail_name. The prompt would be detail_name, and we've left our default value blank.

In this case, the bottom justification would be bottom right. It's using the text 01. The height for this particular one is 3/16 of an inch.

I go OK, and I would pop it in right about there. So, again, that's how I create the attributes. What we've done is we have the detail_name, and we have the scale over here.

The detail number will go into this circle, but what we don't do is we do not include a detail reference number inside the circle in this source file, simply because when we use this detail in more than one project, the number that's in here is the detail number on the sheet, and we can't be guaranteed that the detail will always be in the same position on a sheet, and we'll be talking about this more later. So, again, what we've done is we've brought in our attribute information. Whenever we start working on it, we will have the detail_name, the scale of the detail, and then the detail reference number will go inside this circle.

So, what we're going to do in a couple of seconds is we're going to go on and start formatting for where our text will be. If I look at the distance from the end of here to the end of here, you can see that I have just over 6 inches of space. So, what we're going to do is we're going to begin by going to the Home tab, and we're going to explode the inner rectangle, because our goal is to have two-thirds of the area reserved for the drawing, and the remaining one-third for the text.

So, I'm just going to go into the Divide command and divide this into three segments, each of which are right around 2 inches or so in width, and I'm going to make the node plot my current layer, and I can do an MA for match property. Here's the source. There's the destination.

And I'm going to draw a line from the node of here straight down with Ortho 1. I can now erase out my nodes. What I want to do next is I want to bring some text in. So, I'm just going to open Control-O, and I'm going to open my… I'm going to say my 302 drawing.

And I want to grab some of this text. So, I'm just going to say Edit, Copy with Base Point. The base point will be right about there.

Select this text. I can now close this drawing, discard the changes, Control-V, and put the text in right around there. Then I'm going to move the text from the insertion point of the text to the end of that line.

And so, you can now see that I have some text. That's in the drawing. Now, this text, if I list it, is MText.

And the text height is an eighth of an inch. And the eighth of an inch is our standard text height size. What I want to do, though, is I want to put some points in the drawing so that when I go to start creating my text, I can position the text at the points.

Because there are a number of ways of working with MText. Some people will have one long list. Other people will use MText and have different segments because they'll be pointing to different things.

So, I'm going to explode the text. When I explode it, I've now turned it into regular dynamic text, but I've maintained the row-by-row spacing for MText. So, I'm going to draw a point.

And I can go to Draw, and I can choose Point. I'm going to draw a point at the insertion base point of that text. So, what you can see now is I have individual bits of text.

And each line has its own base insertion point. In a few seconds, we're going to array this point. But I need to find out what the distance is from the insertion base point of this text to the insertion base point of this text.

Type DI for distance, then pick from the INS point here to the INS point here. And you can see that it's 27 1/128. So, I'm going to go into Array, Rectangular Array.

Select the point. I'll set one column. Since I'm unsure of how many rows I'll need, I'll start with 30. The distance between rows will be 27-1/128 inches. Ensure it's set as non-associative.

I'll hit ENTER. And you can see there are my points. And yes, they go higher.

Escape. Use Move Window, select all the points, and move them from the top node to the insertion base point of the topmost text.

And I'm going to erase out a few of these down here. If I type RE for Regen, you'll see that my points get smaller. Now, it looks as if everything is correct.

Everything looks good. So, I'm seeing that the text has the insertion base point right on top of the point. So, if I now go and erase the text, if I want to start using MText, I can start at this insertion base point and go down to this point.

And I can have standard MText if I want to have one unit of text in here. But if I want to have a segment of text here that's going to point to something on the top of the detail, something down here that will point lower, and something down here that would point lower yet, I'm maintaining consistent vertical alignment. And if I copy this from here to here and type RE for Regen, I'll also achieve horizontal alignment between the text blocks. Because ultimately, it's about making your sheets or drawings look professional and clean.

I'm going to erase out that vertical line. I don't need it any longer. Now, we're essentially finished with our 1 × 1 detail border.

We have the border that would go around a detail that would go into a 30 × 42 sheet. We have the boundary lines defined. What I can do if I'd like, I can type Modify Polyline.

Select this rectangle, choose Join, and convert it into a polyline.

Now I have a polyline rectangle here, a polyline rectangle here. I have my attribute information. I have the line.

I have the circle. And I have the points that we will use when we start putting our MText into the drawing. Zoom Extents and save the file.

If you would please get this done, that will be terrific. And then we will continue on creating other formats that we regularly use in detail drawings.