This is a refresher for some and possibly new information for others.
Dubcak has sent out information related to this in the past when he was the CAD Administrator but it was probably before many of you worked here.
“Best Practice” when working with Autocad files, Cadworx, Autoplant, or any other 3D Cad programs that don’t have a document management tool.
Opening drawings and models.
Open the program first, then open the drawing or model from within the program. Do not double click on the drawing or model in Windows Explorer to open it. As an alternative, you can drag the file from windows explorer into the program after the program is opened.
When opening 3D models, only open the model in the 3D module it was built in. Using Cadworx as an example, only open piping models with CADWorx Plant. Only open equipment models with CADWorx Equipment, etc. They all have their own settings behind the scenes and you may end up with corrupt models if you open them with the wrong module. This is another reason not to double click on the file in windows explorer. What happens is that Windows will automatically load the profile of the previous AutoCAD session you were in. So if you had equipment open and double click on a piping model in windows explorer it’s going to load it with an Equipment profile. You will never see it happen. It is done in the background. You will only notice it later on when the issues you are experiencing begin to show up.
Saving and Closing Models
The best practice for saving and exiting models is to save it first, then close it with a separate command. If you save first, then exit and it prompts you to save while trying to exit, cancel the exit command and resave and then exit. The reason for this is that you want all of the database info saved before you try to exit the program just in case it crashes on the way out and you end up with the database not being completely saved. I’m not sure if CADWorx is affected by this so much but 3D programs that have external databases are, like Autoplant and Plant 3D.
Gumaro, please cor figured out in the past, and thank you Gumaro and Harold for helping out today.)