Tips and Tricks: The Fast Route

The quickest way from a CAD export to a finished sheet is to let a recipe do the styling and spend your time only on what it cannot know. These pages are the short version of how to work. The reference pages they link to have every detail.

See it first

The 4-minute how-to video runs this route on a land plan, from opening the export to the PDF. The example files let you follow along with the same drawing.

From Export to Exhibit

Open the export and answer the questions. Studio reports what it found in the CAD: blocks it recognized, doubled symbols, a site boundary. Keep block matches as mapping rules so the next drawing needs fewer answers.
Apply a recipe. FILE ▸ Apply Recipe styles the whole sheet as one undo step. Read the summary: the layers it left alone are your list. See Recipe tips.
Lock what should not move. A recipe does not carry locks, so lock the aerial and the sheet layer before you start clicking on the plan.
Set the land uses. Window the many, point at the few, and click a picked lot to leave it out. See Land use tips.
Place the Site Key from the SITE tab and compare its count with your plan.
Tune the look. Slide Look Settings aside so you can watch the sheet while you drag. Cancel puts everything back.
Save, then export. Then save a recipe from this drawing, so the next one starts here.

Which Tool Fills It?

Most slow styling comes from using the right tool on the wrong kind of area.

The area	Use	Why
Already a closed polyline on its own layer in CAD, such as turf or mulch	The layer's fill, or a recipe	One step for every shape on the layer, and it stays right when the drawing is revised.
Bounded by loose lines, with no closed outline to style	Paint	Traces the outline from the CAD lines around your click.
A lot or tract that should read as a product, or appear in the key	Land Use	Colors it, names it and, for a lot product, counts it.
Does not exist in the CAD at all	Draw it in CAD if you can	A shape in CAD comes back with every re-export. Draw in Studio for what only the presentation needs.

Small Habits That Save Time

Try things freely. A recipe, a look change and a window of lots are each one undo step. Ctrl+Z puts them back.
Hide the aerial to find the lines. Turn the aerial off for a moment when linework is hard to see against it.
Style the layer, not the object. Layer styling is what a recipe carries and what comes back after a re-export. Keep object overrides for true exceptions.
Fix the stacking in the tree. When something lands under or over the wrong thing, use Send to Front on the object or Bring Layer to Front on its layer (shown here).