Continuing with the potential issues that can arise with the AutoCAD Sheet Set Manager, another issue to be considered is it’s use in an office where multiple people may be working on the same project simultaneously.  Opening files to editing works just the same as without the SSM.  If someone has the drawing open, it is locked for editing and others can open it read-only.  While this is great for controlling the content of your drawings, it also poses an issue for plotting.

If someone has a drawing(s) from the set open while you are attempting to publish, the publish job will not send that specific drawing(s) and may actually stop all-together because of it.

It is easy enough to tell when someone is in a drawing from the set by simply looking at the SSM.  If someone has a drawing open for editing, a small symbol representing a lock will be displayed by that layout in the sheet list.  However, I like to perform a “Resave All Sheets” action from the SSM short-cut menu before publishing as it updates the Sheet Set Manager display to remove the “locked” icons that are inactive.  Doing this will also prompt you with a window containing all layouts that are open for editing and who has them open.  The last thing that the “Resave All Sheets” action does is absolutely guarantee that all the external references are updated in your layouts.  If you’ve done this and no one but you has any of the drawings open, you can proceed to Publish with one less concern of what could go awry.