The AutoCAD Sheet Set Manager offers a great way to automate your sheet index tables.  Though, AutoCAD calls them “sheet list tables” and due to this, I will call them so throughout this post.  Creating a table for your sheets is easy enough during a project, but we all know that sheet titles and order can get changed several times during a project.  Creating a sheet list table through the Sheet Set Manager takes the hassle out of this process by doing the updating for you after the changes have been made.

My first suggestion for creating a sheet list table is to first organize your layouts within the SSM.  Drag and drop the layouts in the order they will be displayed on the table.  You can see an example of a simple, yet very organized project below.

The next tip I’ve got is to rename and renumber your sheets.  The information contained within this data set is going to be exactly as it displays on the sheet list table.  The easiest way to do this is by right-clicking a layout and selecting “Rename & Renumber…” from the short cut menu.  An example of this is represented below.

Bonus Tip: Selecting “Next >” will proceed to the next layout instead of jumping in and out of the Rename & Renumber dialog.

Super Bonus Tip:  Try using the CTAB system variable in a Field for your title blocks on all your sheets.  This way, when you update the Layout name in the Rename & Renumber dialog, the sheet numbers will update in your title blocks.

When all of your layouts have been organized and rename properly (as you can see in the image below), it is time to insert the sheet list table.  To do this, open the drawing that you wish to place the sheet list table and make sure that it is a drawing within the same Sheet Set Manager project.  With the layout open that you want the table to be placed in, right-click on the project within the SSM and choose “Insert Sheet List Table…” from the short cut menu as seen below.

Now you will be presented with the Sheet List Table dialog box.  This dialog works similar to the Insert Table dialog and shares many of the same options, but it is specific to inserting a sheet list table and offers properties that the Insert Table dialog does not.  Start by selecting the ellipses (“…”) button next to the “Table Style name” drop down.

This will take you into the Table Style dialog.  There are three standard options available, of which I’m going to modify the “Index” style.  You can create a new one for a company or client standard, however.  Select the desired style and then pick the “Modify…” button.

You are now in the Modify Table Style dialog.  Now, I know there’s quite a few dialogs here, but once you have your settings created, you shouldn’t have to worry about this again.  Continuing on…you can modify the “Title”, “Header”, and “Data” cell styles as well as any additional styles you wish to create.  For the purposes of a sheet list table, those should be all you need.  Go through the “General”, “Text”, and “Borders” tabs of all three styles (which can be chosen via the “Cell styles” drop down menu).  Once you have your preferences made and confirmed through the preview pane, select “OK”.

Back in the Table Style dialog, you are given the opportunity to preview your table style again and choose to modify and create other styles or close the dialog and return to the Sheet List Table dialog box.  When you’re done, select “Close”.

Okay, now just fill in the title of your sheet list and tell AutoCAD what data to pull into each of the columns as well as what the header should be for those columns.

Switch over to the “Subsets and Sheets” tab to confirm that all of your layouts are included within the selection set.  Pick “OK” when you’re finished.

Note:  If you have subsets and need a cell to divide and notate them, you’ll need to create a cell style for that.

Once out of the Sheet List Table dialog, just select the insertion point for the table (which will be the upper left corner of the title cell).

Your finished product should look something similar to the image at the right.  You’ll likely notice that the text in the cells are AutoCAD Fields.  AutoCAD uses those Fields to dynamically update the information in the cells with any changes made to the Sheet Set Manager.

Keep in mind that you may not get everything right the first time.  If you paid really close attention to the images in the walk-thru, you may have noticed that I altered the sheet number “NO.” column from being middle left aligned to middle center.  You may have to settle with the fact that some things you just won’t be able to do within the dialog boxes either.  As a whole, though, it’s a lot better than continuously modifying it to match your individual sheets.