Smart Client

Setting Drawing Preferences

You can select drawing preferences by selecting Set Up / Preferences from the Ribbon Toolbar.

The Preferences form from which you select user and drawing preferences appears.

Note: The preferences you set from the Smart Client apply to the Extension for AutoCAD, and do not apply to Revit. The one exception is the Update CAD on Grid Change setting, which applies to both the Extension for AutoCAD and the Extension for Revit.

The form presents the following types of preferences:

Both types of preferences are per-user preferences that are applied to the current user only.

Pay particular attention to the CAD Application preference listed below. This determines the drawing environment you will use and is required to access your CAD drawing tool.

Note: This release does not support Layer template preferences. To set these preferences, use the AutoCAD layerstate command instead.

Procedure: Setting drawing preferences

To set drawing preferences:

  1. Select Setup / Preferences from the Ribbon toolbar.

    The Preferences dialog appears.

  2. Enter your drawing preferences using the following descriptions as a guide, and click OK.
Option Name Description Default Value
Drawing Preferences
Restriction Highlight Color

Select the AutoCAD color to be used when fill-highlighting assets that meet the Archibus restriction.

The default is Red (255, 0, 0).
Restriction Splotch Size

Enter the size (in feet) of the “splotch” circle placed behind small assets to highlight them in cases where a “fill” type highlight would not be visible. The program uses splotches on any asset that is less than the “splotch” size.

Note: The size is always given in feet. The program converts to meters when displaying the splotch on metric drawings.

Default: 3 feet.
Restriction Highlight Layer Enter the layer of the drawing to use to hold temporary restriction highlights.

Default: HL-TMP
CAD Application Select the CAD application to use if there is more than one on the workstation.

Archibus offers the following drawing environments for editing CAD drawings:

The environment that you use depends upon the program that you purchased.
AutoCAD Profile

The AutoCAD profile name that Archibus uses when starting AutoCAD from the Drawing List and the Find In Drawing command.

If you use the Drawing List dialog from within AutoCAD, the program ignores this preference and drawings will open inside the open version of AutoCAD.

 Default: None
Publish Enterprise Graphics on Save

Select Yes if the program should always publish to enterprise graphics all active drawing publishing rules whenever the drawing is saved.

 Default: No
Update CAD on Grid Changes

Note: This setting applies to both the Extension for AutoCAD and the Extension for Revit.

Controls whether changes made in the Smart Client grid are automatically updated in the BIM model or CAD drawing, if currently open.  The Smart Client syncs renamed identity fields (for example, the Room Code or Equipment Code) and model-driven values.  The Smart Client respects the setting on model-driven values -- those that should always originate from the model -- and does not update those values.

If enabled, the following rules dictate if the CAD drawing is updated or not.

  • A CAD drawing is already open in either AutoCAD or Revit.
  • That open drawing is recognized as an Archibus drawing, that is, it has a record in the afm_dwgs table.
  • The grid is displayed in the Smart Client for records that are considered CAD Asset types, such as rooms and equipment
  • A change is made to a record(s), and the values being changed meets any of the following criteria:
    • Is part of the primary key
    • Is the standard value
    • Is part of the CAD asset label

    The end result of a CAD update initiated from the Smart Client grid is as follows:

    • For AutoCAD, the XData and Label will both be updated.
    • For Revit, the element properties will be updated
  
Document Management for Drawings
Local Drawings File Folder If your site is using Document Management for Drawings, you can optionally set this preference to specify the location on your local drive to which the system will check out drawings for you to edit. To remind you of the location to which it will check out drawings, the Check Out dialog displays the path that you set with this option. C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Archibus\projects\my-drawings