The first thing you must do is make sure that absolutely no one on the network has that .dst file open or loaded on their “recent” list of sheet set projects in the SSM.  Once you have confirmed this, go to the drop-down menu of the SSM and right-click the project associated with the .dst file you are attempting to delete (this can also be done from the sheet list if you already have the project open within the SSM). After right-clicking, select “Close Sheet Set” from the short cut menu.  Now you can go to the .dst file on your PC or server and delete it without it “magically” returning to haunt you.

If you, or anyone on the server is referencing a .dst file, it cannot be deleted. It is not necessary to remove the sheets from the sheet set, only that everyone be out of it and have it removed from their lists within the SSM drop-down menu.  Once the .dst file is erased, you are free to re-associate the layouts to any existing or new sheet set.

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.

If you work in an office where many users could potentially work on a project together, you don’t want to create a sheet set  and place the .dst file on your PC.  If you do this, and others attempt to create a sheet set on their machine or on the server, it will be impossible for any of the layouts referenced in your .dst file to be included in theirs.

Before you know it, users are copying drawing files in order to include the layouts in their version of the sheet set and people are working on different copies of the same drawing. Not Good.  Long story short, create sheet sets and place the .dst files where they are accessible to everyone in the office.  Better yet, come up with a company standard on where the .dst files are to be located on the server (I always suggest in the same project folder that the drawing files are located).

One of the first and most common issues people have had with the Sheet Set Manager and, specifically, publishing, is the system variable PUBLISHCOLLATE.  The PUBLISHCOLLATE system variable was discussed earlier this month in this post, but as a quick review:  PUBLISHCOLLATE controls whether sheets are sent to a plotter individually or as a whole and whether or not plots by others can be sent between yours.  When applicable to plotting PDFs, it controls whether a separate file is created per sheet or a multi-sheet file is written containing the entire set.  Many people have experienced issues with PUBLISHCOLLATE when it is set to “1″. As I said, this is a quick review.  Go to the original post to understand the concepts behind the PUBLISHCOLLATE system variable fully.

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.

PUBLISHCOLLATE is an important system variable to consider when plotting.  It can affect not only your PLT files and PDF files,  but the order and interleafing of plots coming off the machine.

With PUBLISHCOLLATE set to “0″, a sheet set is processed one layout at a time with separate PLT files being created.  Plots from other users sent to the same plotter you are using at the same time may be interleafed, or mixed between yours.  Individual PDF files will be created for each layout when done in this manner.

With PUBLISHCOLLATE set to “1″, a sheet set is processed in its entirety as a multi-sheet PLT file and single job sent to a plotter.  A set sent this way to a plotter will be produced without interruption from other users.  When doing this, a single multi-sheet PDF file is created when sending a set as such.

Also of note, many users have found that when PUBLISHCOLLATE is set to “1″ they have regularly experienced problems.  There have been a whole range of issues from no plots being sent at all, to halfway through a sheet set the publish job will simply stall out.  Some of these issues stem from the fact that to plot multi-sheet files, you must have a driver that supports them.  Make sure you do and use this method with discretion.

With the drawing open and in one of the layout tabs, go into the Page Setup Manager.  This can be done multiple ways.  Type the command PAGESETUP at the command line, select “Page Setup” from the print options in the Application Menu, or right-click your current layout tab and select “Page Setup Manager…” from the short cut menu.

Once in the Page Setup Manager dialog begin by selecting the “New…” button to create a new page setup.

From here, select the plotter, paper size, plot area, pen style, orientation and any other options you desire as you normally would from the plot dialog box.  Then select “OK” to return to the Page Setup Manager.

Repeat this process as many times as necessary to create all plotting situations you normally find yourself using.  Refer to the image on the previous page of the Page Setup Manager for an example way of naming your setups so they are easily identifiable.

Save your template file in location that is easy to access for everyone that could be using the Sheet Set Manager as they will need to reference this file as well if they intend to publish in the way I will be describing.

Now, with the Sheet Set Manager open, open the project and right-click it.  Pick “Properties…” from the short cut menu as shown below.

Within the Sheet Set Properties dialog, select the ellipses button on the far right of the “Page setup overrides file” row as seen below.

From here, path to the location of your saved page setup template file and pick the “Open” button to return to the Sheet Set Properties dialog.

You’ll see from here that the new path and file is displayed.  Select “OK” to return to the Sheet Set Manager.

Back in the Sheet Set Manager, right-click the project and roll down to “Publish” and then to “Publish using Page Setup Override”.  Notice how all of the page setups that you created in the template file are now displayed as options with the SSM.  Select any one of these options and AutoCAD will immediately begin publishing the entire set to the parameters created with the page setup selected.  Note that if you select one or more of the layouts in the project, that only the layouts selected will be published when doing this.

Something else to keep in mind is the multitude of other options available within this short cut menu tree.  Notice that you can publish directly to DWF, DWFx, or PDF (AutoCAD 2010 only), or directly to Plotter (will publish each layout with their respective saved page setups).  Depending on your plotter setup, you may also be inclined to “Publish in Reverse Order” allowing for a stack of ‘face-up’ plots.  Also new for AutoCAD 2010, publishing directly to PDF is an included feature without the use of any third-party software such as AcroPlot, Bluebeam, or Adobe Acrobat Professional.  There are many more options there, but I will begin to go into more detail on the “Sheet Set Publish Options…” , “Manage Page Setups…”, and “eTransmit” selections.

Right-click the project or any layout and roll down the short cut menu until you can choose “Sheet Set Publish Options…” from the Publish sub-menu.

All of the information within the Sheet Set Publish Options dialog has to do with DWF files.  Whether you want to save it to DWF or DWFx, have multi-sheet file or multiple single-sheet files for the set, where to save the file(s) to and what kind of drawing and document information you want included in the DWF.  I really like working with DWFs over PDFs and .PLT files for many reasons, but the biggest are file size, ability to review, and ease of use between Autodesk products.  When you are done, select “OK”.

Once again, roll down the short cut tree of the project to “Manage Page Setups…” from the Publish sub-menu.

This dialog box should look quite familiar.  As a matter of fact, this is the Page Setup Manager for the template file you have set for the SSM project.  It is a direct link to that file and any changes you make within this dialog will directly affect the template file itself.  Add, Modify, or Import any page setups you wish to be included or changed.  The process is identical to the way you had previously.  When you are done, click “Close”.

So we’ve gone over hard copy publishing with the SSM and digital documentation with DWFs.  However, there are many situations that call for the source files themselves.  You may consider this to be the drawings, images, and external references within a project, but others may also include pen setting .CTB files, font files, .DST sheet set files, and even line type files.  When the need for these items beckons, it is time for the eTransmit to shine.  You can simply type ETRANSMIT at the command line or go through the application menu to accomplish this, but using the Sheet Set Manager is best when dealing with an entire set of drawings and gives you additional options.  Roll down to “eTransmit…” on the short cut menu for the current project you intend to package.

When you select “OK”, you will see an image like the one below as AutoCAD scans the files.  It will then create .zip file with all of the selected files enclosed.

Once AutoCAD is done gathering the information (and you have made any changes that it suggests in the process) you will be brought to the Create Transmittal dialog as shown below (which I have duplicated to show the different files to be including in the transmittal).  A list of layouts to include or remove from the package is available under the “Sheets” tab.  The drawings, x-refs, images, and any support files are available to select or remove from the “Files Tree” tab.  You can also include any additional files, change the way the .zip file is created, and include notes with the file through this dialog.

If you eTransmit from the Sheet Set Manager as opposed to the command line or application menu, it will automatically pull in all of the drawings in the sheet set, all referenced files for any of the drawings in the sheet set, and any .dst file used in addition to the .dwt template file used within the sheet set project.  When the recipient of the Zip file extracts the contents, they can open the .dst file from AutoCAD and it will automatically path the drawing files at their current location on their server or pc.

As you can see, this can be a very powerful tool for working with subcontractors on a project or maybe even satellite offices in your company that can’t connect to each others’ servers.  Something to note, however, is that if you have a template file that contains settings, styles, or trade secret customized objects, don’t include that file with the transmittal.  That is the kind of information you don’t want getting into the hands of current or future competitors.

That’s it for plotting and sharing resources within the Sheet Set Manager, but there’s still more.  I know this subject is carrying on a little longer due to missed posts throughout the month, but we all know that the summer is the busiest time of the year for projects.  I’ll keep the posts coming, you keep coming back to read them and give some feedback.

The SSM consists of three tabs-Sheet List, Sheet Views, and Model Views.  The Sheet List tab displays an ordered list of sheets.  This list can be manipulated into different orders, subsets can be created for documents divided by their department, and many property and publish options can be executed from this tab.  The Sheet Views tab displays a list of views used in the current sheet set that is open and can be organized into categories, but can only do this for sheet views created in AutoCAD 2005 or later.  The Model Views tab pertains to the folders, files, and model space views incorporated into the current sheet set.  You can add and remove these folders and files to control what files are associated with the current sheet set.

Let’s move forward by exploring the buttons and pull-downs of the Sheet List tab of the SSM.  In the image below, you will see these features in a little more detail.

I have numbered the different buttons in order to better communicate the specific feature I’m talking about.  Number “1” in the image represents the drop-down menu which allows you to select the current sheet set, open an existing sheet set, choose a recently used sheet set, create a new sheet set, or close the current sheet set (done by right-clicking the current sheet set in the drop-down).

The button labeled “2” publishes the current sheet set to DWF.  Using this button to create a DWF file of your sheet set, AutoCAD will use the settings defined in the publish options dialog of the sheet set manager.  We will delve deeper into that shortly.  When you select this button, you will be prompted to create a file name and location for the DWF.  Beyond that, AutoCAD will begin making your plots.

The button labeled “3” will result in a short-cut menu for publishing options when pressed.  The next image displays the short cut menu and gives you the opportunity to see all possibilities within it. This short-cut menu is identical to a short-cut sub-menu within the sheet list.  That will be described in more detail as the exercise progresses.

The button label “4” represents the sheet selections and allows you to create, name, and manage a set of sheets.

Now, beyond the drop-down and buttons on the Sheet List tab, there are short cut menus within the sheet set.  Below, you will see the short cut menu that displays when you right-click on the heading of the sheet set.  You will also notice that I scrolled down to the “Publish” option in the menu to highlight the sub-menu for it.  As I said before, this sub-menu is identical to the short cut available on the “Publish” button on the top of the palette (labeled “3”).  You can save yourself a couple of keystrokes/clicks if you use the button at the top.  This is a good place to stop on the Sheet List tab until getting more detailed about SSM.

The other two tabs, Sheet Views and Model Views, are very helpful features in the Sheet Set Manager.  These tabs make it possible to utilize information from other drawings to do things such as create callout blocks referencing a detail or a drawing in another file.  I may cover more detail about these subjects in a future post, but if you are anxious to find out more, I would suggest looking at Heidi Hewitt’s lesson about them here.

The first step in working with sheet sets is creating one.  The following exercise will walk you through the steps one by one.  Either open up the Sheet Set Manager by typing SHEETSET at the command line or entering Ctrl+4 and selecting “New Sheet Set…” from the drop down menu as shown below or simply enter the command NEWSHEETSET.

From here you select “Existing drawings” (If you are setting up this set without a project created or sheets to populate within it, you can choose to omit adding sheets when finished).  Select “Next >” in order to progress to the “Sheet Set Details” page.

Define the name of the new sheet set, give a description if needed, and choose a location for the .dst file to be stored.  For these items I like to use the project number and client name for the name of the sheet set and then describe the type of project it is under the description area.  Also, when I choose the location of my .dst file, I put it with my project drawings so that when the project is archived, the .dst file isn’t sitting in a folder without any drawings associated with it.  When you are done, select “Sheet Set Properties” if you are going to define any advanced options within the sheet set.  You can find examples of this in one of my previous posts covering AutoCAD Fields here.  Pick “Next>” when you’re finished.

At this point, you can add existing sheets to the set by “Browse…” or just “Next >” to continue without adding.  When you add layouts, you can add any layout tab from any project folder-it is just a matter of browsing for every file you want included in the set.  It is also possible to pick and choose only the layouts desired, leaving out the unwanted ones.  Also, you can choose structure and naming changes in “Import Options…”

AutoCAD will now give you the opportunity to review and confirm you work before picking “Finish”.

If you didn’t add sheets to the set as you created it or if you want to add more layouts, just right-click the project name and select “Import layout as sheet…” and follow the prompts.

Now that you have a sheet set created and it looks something like the picture below, you can begin reorganizing the layouts if needed.

You can do this by simply dragging and dropping the sheets into the correct location, or Shift/Ctrl selecting and moving groups of sheets at a time.  See that in action on the next image.  Also notice the the sheet properties display when you hover over them.  This can be useful in many situations.

Another way to edit the sheets in the SSM is to rename and renumber the sheets in your set.  Enter them manually by right-clicking the layout and picking “Rename and Renumber” from the short cut menu.  When you rename and renumber, work faster by pressing the Enter key or the “Next” button on the dialog when you are done to move on to the next sheet in the set.

One more thing that I want to discuss in this post is creating subsets for your sheet sets.  This is a great way to break projects up into work done by each department of your office or types of work being done.  You can create subsets by right-clicking on the project header and selecting “Create Subset” from the short cut menu.  From the Subset Properties dialog, name the subset and choose whether or not you will be using the same folder location and template file as the other sheet layouts and hit “OK”.

Now that the subset is created you can create or import new layouts into it or you can drag and drop existing layouts from the sheets set into the subset.  You can see from the image on the right that it is pretty simple to do and can be helpful in organizing your drawings further.

Okay, so now we know what the Sheet Set Manager is, what its components are, how to open and create a sheet set and subset, and how to organize the set the way we’d like.  What else is there?  Well, now that you have a sheet set loaded, you can double-click on any layout to open the drawing.  You can also Shift/Ctrl select multiple layouts to open them all at once.  You can also remove sheets, eTransmit a project or individual sheets in the project, publish, edit sheet properties, and so much more.  Join me for the rest of the month to discover what else the Sheet Set Manager has to offer.

“A sheet set is an organized collection of sheets from several drawing files. A sheet is a selected layout from a drawing file.

Sets of drawings are the primary deliverable for most design groups. Sets of drawings communicate the overall design intent of a project and provide the documentation and specifications for the project. However, managing sets of drawings manually can be complicated and time consuming.

With the Sheet Set Manager, you can manage drawings as sheet sets. A sheet set is an organized and named collection of sheets from several drawing files. A sheet is a selected layout from a drawing file. You can import a layout from any drawing into a sheet set as a numbered sheet.”

I think this description of sheet sets and the Sheet Set Manger (SSM) is more than adequate.  It paints as much a picture about sheet sets and the SSM as possible without depicting all of the functions, features, and procedures-which is what I’m about to do for you.

There are a few ways to open the Sheet Set Manager.  The command is SHEETSET, or you can hit Ctrl+4 on your keyboard.  Likewise, SHEETSETHIDE and a repeat of Ctrl+4 will close the Sheet Set Manager.  Prior to the Ribbon in AutoCAD, you can also open the SSM from the File drop-down menu.  There are a couple more commands that work in conjunction with the SSM and several system variables.  Below is a thorough list of those commands and variables, although I can’t guarantee that it is all-inclusive.

NEWSHEETSET – Creates a new sheet set

OPENSHEETSET – Opens a selected sheet set

SSFOUND – Displays the sheet set path and file name if a search for a sheet set is successful

SSLOCATE – Controls whether the sheet set associated with a drawing is located and opened when the drawing is

SSMAUTOOPEN – Controls the display behavior of the SSM when a drawing associated with a sheet is opened

SSMSHEETSTATUS – Controls how the status data when a sheet set is refreshed

SSMSTATE – Indicates whether the SSM window is open or closed