CAD Prep Tips

Studio draws what the layout plots, so a few habits in CAD save the most time later, and whatever you fix there comes back with every re-export. Export to Studio has every detail.

Set Up the Sheet

  • Export from a layout with a page setup. The command does not run from the Model tab, and the Studio page is the layout's plot paper size.
  • Set INSUNITS. Symbols dropped at true size and measuring in the PDF both need the drawing's unit. Without it the PDF does not guess.
  • Turn on what you want to style. Layers that are off, frozen or non-plotting are skipped. What you would plot is what you get.
  • Set the location. With GEOGRAPHICLOCATION or a Civil 3D drawing zone, the export records where the site is, for the sun by date and time.
  • Save the drawing first, so the project can record where it came from.

Draw Areas So They Fill

  • Close your areas, on their own layers. A lawn or a bed drawn as a closed polyline on its own layer fills from a recipe in one step and comes back with every re-export.
  • Use the same layer names on every job. A recipe styles layers by name, so steady names mean a recipe does more of the sheet each time.
  • Run lines to the corner. Paint and Land Use bridge a gap of 0.02 in on the sheet, which is 1.2 ft at 1"=60'. A wider gap lets a fill run past it.
  • Draw the boundary as one closed polyline, on a layer whose name says BNDY, BDRY, BOUNDARY or property line. Studio then offers it as the site boundary, and fills stop at it.
  • Keep lot lines on their own layers, apart from walks, drives and setbacks, so you can tick just those for Land Use. Keep building pads and the floodplain on layers of their own too.
  • Avoid a polyline that crosses itself, such as a trail drawn out along one edge and back along the other. Paint stops at every crossing.
  • Leave nested loops as they are. A closed polyline inside another on its layer is read as an island, as AutoCAD's Hatch reads one, so a walk drawn as its two edges needs no redrawing.
  • Leave standard linetypes assigned. Studio reads the linetype and hatch names to choose strokes and materials.

Set Up Blocks and Plants

  • Name a block for what it is. Kept as a symbol, TREE-OAK-24 becomes an oak and BENCH-6FT a bench. A mapping rule covers whatever your office calls the rest.
  • Choose the treatment in the export dialog. Keep as Symbol for trees, shrubs, furniture and vehicles. Explode for title blocks, callouts and utility, parking or accessibility blocks, which have no library symbol.
  • Keep a legend on the sheet. A copy of each plant block beside its name lets Plant Symbols name the plant. The legend's copies are never counted.
  • Use one block per species. A row in Plant Symbols is one block, so one block drawn for several species has to be swapped by hand. A mix deals by share, not by which tree is which.
  • Do not place a block twice on one point. It counts as two plants. Studio offers to drop the extra one, but an Update brings it back, so remove it in CAD.

Images, Xrefs and Text

  • Place pictures as raster images. PDF, DWF and DGN underlays are left out. Save the page as a PNG or JPG and place it with Insert Image.
  • Keep the title block exactly as drafted. Check Capture paper space as background image, or explode the block.
  • Leave xrefs attached. Objects you styled one by one keep their styling through a revision, as long as the xref is not detached and attached again.
  • Check your lettering font. An SHX font AutoCAD does not ship draws in Segoe UI unless FontMap.json names one for it. The command line warns you.
  • Bring in one surface. Pick it under Shade Civil 3D surface. It needs Civil 3D or the Object Enabler.

After the Export

  • Read the command line. It reports what was left out, by type and count.
  • Open the CAD Check when the status bar says there is something to look at. It lists short ends and crossings, and can fix them.
  • Fix it in CAD where you can. A fix in Studio stands only while CAD agrees, and other sheets from that drawing do not get it.
  • Re-export over the same .asp. The geometry refreshes and your styling stays, since layer styling is keyed to layer names.
  • Restyle a group by changing its layer in AutoCAD. A CAD object moved to another layer in Studio goes back to its CAD layer on the next export.