Spent 2 years using the wrong layer alignment on my structural plans

I was doing a big commercial reno in Cleveland and kept having my wall sections not line up with the floor plans, drove me nuts. Turns out I had my xref base point set to 0,0 instead of the building footprint, so everything was shifting by like 3 inches across sheets. Has anyone else had a long-standing bad habit in their drafting setup that took a client redline to finally notice?

2 comments

2 Comments

dixon.spencer7d ago

Catch yourself before it becomes a problem. Your xref base point issue is pretty common, but I think the real problem might be something different. A lot of people mix up the base point and the insertion point in their templates. If you set your base point to the building corner instead of 0,0, you actually want to use the "base" command in AutoCAD to snap it to that corner, not just type coordinates. That way when you xref it in, everything stays tight.

nathanj567d ago

lol honestly man is it really that deep? I've been using xrefs for years and half the time I just wing it and things work out fine. Yeah the base point thing is good to know but if you're not working on some massive coordinated project with 50 consultants it's probably not gonna blow up your drawing. Most people can just move the xref after they insert it and call it a day. Feels like autocad people love to make simple stuff sound like rocket science lol.