BUIL6414-Conventions 2023 s1

Advanced Diploma of Building Design (Architectural)
BUIL6414 Integrate Digital Applications into architectural workflows
Drawing Standards and Conventions

INTRODUCTION
Every well organised CAD office or workplace will have office standards or conventions for all
aspects of architectural workflows such as file/folder naming conventions, drawing conventions etc.
This is to ensure that all team members are working productively.
This course will be our simulated CAD office/workplace. This document describes some
conventions that must be adhered to by all team members. More conventions will be introduced
and discussed in class. Students must also refer to the Architectural Documentation Handbook
from Working Drawings.
FOLDER STRUCTURE
To ensure we all know where to save and find files, the following folder structure will be created
exactly as shown below and must be adhered to.
As AutoCAD will be used in other courses, students can use this folder structure for those courses
(WD and USS) and add to this folder structure when they move on to Revit and as required or
instructed in other courses.
Folder name Description
_BD Top level folder for Building Design
1.0_ADMIN
1.1_NOTES Student’s notes taken in class
1.2_LEARNING Learning material downloads from Canvas
1.3_STANDARDS Standards & conventions eg. AS1100, NCC, BUIL6414 conventions doc, etc
1.4_SPECIFICATIONS Product, materials research and specifications etc
2.0_CAD
2.1_SUPPORT_FILES AutoCAD support folder for templates, CTB, PSS files etc
2.2_LIBRARY Component library (WBlocks)
3.0_REVIT Revit folder for IDA semester 2
4.0_IDA_PROJECTS IDA Projects top level folder
4.1_AT1 IDA Assessment Task 1 (AT1) main folder
4.1.1_BRIEF Project related brief, notes, sketch plans, engineering etc. for AT1
4.1.2_DWGS Main working folder for AutoCAD drawings for AT1
4.1.3_TIMESHEETS Time sheet folder for tracking your time for AT1
4.1.4_CHECKPLOTS Interim plots (check plots) for AT1
4.1.5_FINAL Final submission files for AT1
4.1.6_BACKUP Project backups using date appended to file name for AT1
5.0_WD_CONS_PROJECTS Working Drawings & Construction projects top level folder
6.0_USS_PROJECTS Undertake Site Surveys projects top level folder
The 2.2_LIBRARY folder will contain AutoCAD WBlocks (components) that are used frequently
such as windows, fixtures etc. Separate sub-folders must be created within the 2.2_LIBRARY
folder as instructed in class for data sheets and WBlocks to facilitate easy access.
RMIT: C6161, BUIL 6414, NAT. QUAL. 22477VIC, VU22466 (Conventions 2023s1 v7; July 2023 Sam Crupi) 1
FILE NAMING FOR FILES TO BE SUBMITTED

Any files that students submit to Canvas must be prefixed by the student’s name using the
convention below:
LastName_FirstName
For example: Smith_Bill_AT1.dwg
Smith_Bill_AT1_SitePlan.dwg
AUTOCAD TEMPLATE FILE & DRAWING CONVENTIONS

A template file is an easy method to ensure that CAD drawing standards and conventions are
adhered to as many conventions can be set in the template file for use in all projects.
Students must use the supplied AutoCAD template file available on Canvas for the current
semester. Students will add to this template file as they progress through the semester.
This template file is a metric-based template, using colour dependant plot styles, that has several
settings tailored for Building Design as described below.
Units
Units for linear measurements are set to decimal and millimetres and angles are set to Australian
surveyor convention of Degrees Minutes Seconds, with North set as zero (0) degrees (i.e., base
angle) and positive angles are in a clockwise direction. See UNITS command.
User Coordinate System
There are four pre-set user coordinate system settings corresponding to north, east, south, and
west elevations. Students are to use these saved named UCSes for laying out elevations and
sections around the floor plan. See the UCS command (or easier to right-mouse-click on the UCS
icon). Remember to first set the correct UCS before annotating such as dimensioning.
Layers and layer properties
It is important to be able to organise and manage drawing data effectively especially as students
move on to working on more complex and larger projects. The Layers feature of AutoCAD allows
this. Layers and layer management is one of the most important features to learn.
Layers will be used to categorise the project/drawing data by views and elements. The template file
already has several layers for students to get started. Students will add many more layers as they
progress. It is important to set layer properties such as colour, linetype and lineweight. Do not
change the properties of the layers as supplied in the template
provided.
We will be working ByLayer and will not be overriding Object
properties. These must all be left set to ByLayer.
To help manage layers (i.e., help categorise) the following naming convention will be adhered to:
Layer names will have a prefix to specify the view, eg. pg for the Plan Ground floor view; epg for
the Electrical Plan Ground floor; sec for the Section view(s) and so on.
Following the prefix, separated by a hyphen (-), will be the descriptive element, for example: pg-
studwalls represents the layer for stud walls in the ground floor plan view.
Some example layer prefixes and their related view that will be used are shown in the table below.
Layer prefix View Layer prefix View
pg- Plan Ground floor p1- Plan First floor
rp- Roof Plan sp- Site Plan
epg- Electrical Plan Ground floor det- Details
elev- Elevations sec- Sections
ps- PaperSpace elements psf- Plan Sub floor
Below are some example layers to be used with a brief description of their use.
Layer name Used for It is very important to place
pg-brickwork Brick work in ground floor plan objects on their correct
pg-beam_over Structural beams overhead in ground floor plan
layers.
pg-text2.5 2.5mm high text in ground floor plan
ps-viewports Viewports in PaperSpace This will ensure that they
rp-roof_outline Roof outline in the roof plan
print with the correct
rp-text-3.5 3.5mm high text in the roof plan
elev-dimensions Dimensions in the elevations properties (lineweight etc.)
elev-fl_cl Floor to Ceiling level lines in the elevations and allow efficient
elev-text-2.5 2.5mm high text in the elevations management of drawing
sec-fl_cl Floor to Ceiling level lines in the sections data.
sec-frame_in_elevation Elements not cut through in the section
sec-frame_in_section Elements cut through in the section
Which Layer do I use?

To determine the appropriate layer, first determine the drawing view you are drawing and then the
element being drawn. For example: if drawing a brick wall in the ground floor plan then select the
pg-brickwork layer; brick work for a section view resides on the sec-brickwork layer and so on.
Layer Colour and Linewweight (working ByLayer)
The Layer colour property will be used to identify lineweights according to the following table.
AutoCAD Colour Lineweight Refer to 17-CAD 2D Working with Object Properties
Colour Number Name reference learning material in Canvas for further
1 Red 0.18mm
information on the use of colour to identify pen
2 Yellow 0.35mm
3 Green 0.30mm lineweight in AutoCAD drawings.
4 Cyan 0.60mm
The layer lineweight property must also be set and
5 Blue 0.70mm
6 Magenta 0.13mm follow the colour as shown in the table to the left.
7 White 0.25mm Do not override the
8 “Grey” 0.18mm
9 “Light Grey” 0.18mm
object properties.
17 “Brown” 0.50mm These must all be
30 “Orange” 1.00mm left set to ByLayer.
Text and Dimension styles

Text and dimension styles will use the AutoCAD isocp.shx font. All text in drawings must be in
UPPERCASE.
Text styles will be named according to the text paper height setting, for example the text style
Text3.5 is for 3.5mm high text and so on. Some text styles are already supplied in the template file.
Students will create the other necessary styles. The supplied ArchDimensions dimension style is to
be used for dimensioning. See STYLE and DIMSTYLE commands.
Text heights
Text heights will adhere to that recommended in Table 4.1 of AS1100.101 as shown below.
Text lineweights
Text lineweight will be according to clause 4.1.3 of AS1100.101, whereby the lineweight
(thickness) of the text characters will be one-tenth the height of the text. Text styles will use
isocp.shx font, which is an AutoCAD vector font, thus allowing it to print with lineweight, as
opposed to the TrueType raster fonts such as Arial.
To ensure that text will print with the correct lineweight as described by AS1100.101 above,
separate text layers will be used to differentiate the different category (view). The lineweight
property (and colour) for the different text layers will be set according to text height as shown in the
examples below to ensure that text prints with the correct lineweight, i.e., one-tenth the height.
Layer name Used for Layer properties
pg-text-2.5 2.5mm high text in ground floor plan lineweight = 0.25mm & colour = 7
elev-text-3.5 3.5mm high text in elevations lineweight = 0.35mm & colour = 2
sec-text-5.0 5.0 mm high text in section lineweight = 0.50mm & colour = 17
ps-text-10.0 10.0mm high text in paperspace lineweight = 1.00mm & colour = 30
Plotting (printing) output

The AutoCAD template file supplied uses colour dependant plot styles, i.e., CTB files. Students will
create their own plot style file (CTB) by first starting with the default supplied monochrome.ctb file
and then saving as a unique file name of their own – use IDA_PlotStyle.ctb as a filename - with
the amendments exactly as shown in the table below.
AutoCAD Lineweight Plotted (printed)
Colour Number set in CTB colour, set in CTB
1 0.18mm Black
2 0.35mm Black
3 0.30mm Black
4 0.60mm Black
5 0.70mm Black
6 0.13mm Black
7 0.25mm Black
8 0.18mm Use object colour
9 0.18mm Use object colour
17 0.50mm Black
30 1.00mm Black

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Advanced Diploma of Building Design (Architectural)

BUIL6414 Integrate Digital Applications into architectural workflows

Drawing Standards and Conventions

FILE NAMING FOR FILES TO BE SUBMITTED

AUTOCAD TEMPLATE FILE & DRAWING CONVENTIONS

Which Layer do I use?

Text and Dimension styles

Plotting (printing) output

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