How do you review and audit your CAD designs for quality and consistency with CAD standards and guidelines?

1 Why review and audit your CAD designs?

Reviewing and auditing your CAD designs is not only a good practice, but also a requirement for many projects and contracts. By checking your designs for quality and consistency, you can verify that they meet the specifications of your clients, stakeholders, or regulators. This process will allow you to detect and correct any mistakes, inconsistencies, or deviations from the standards and guidelines before they cause any problems or conflicts. Additionally, it can improve your efficiency, productivity, and reputation as a professional CAD designer. Ultimately, this process can save you time, money, and resources by avoiding unnecessary revisions, rework, or disputes.

2 What are CAD standards and guidelines?

CAD standards and guidelines are sets of rules, conventions, and best practices that dictate how to create, organize, and present CAD designs. These can encompass aspects such as file naming, formatting, management, layering, grouping, referencing, dimensioning, annotation, labeling, symbols, colors, fonts, styles, units, scales, coordinates and data quality, accuracy and integrity. Depending on the industry, discipline or project CAD standards and guidelines can vary. Examples of common CAD standards and guidelines include ISO standards for technical drawings; AIA standards for architectural drawings; ASME standards for mechanical drawings; BIM standards for building information modeling; and GIS standards for geographic information systems.

3 How to set up your CAD software for standards and guidelines compliance?

Before you begin creating CAD designs, it’s important to set up your CAD software to comply with the standards and guidelines you need to follow. This will help prevent errors and inconsistencies down the line. To set up your CAD software, you can create or import templates that include the settings, styles, and formats you need for your designs. Additionally, you can use or create libraries of symbols, blocks, or components that match the standards and guidelines. Furthermore, configuring or customizing your CAD software preferences, options, or tools to suit your needs and preferences is a great way to get started. Finally, scripts, macros, or plugins can be used to automate or simplify tasks and processes.

4 How to review your CAD designs manually?

Reviewing your CAD designs manually is an effective way to ensure they meet standards and guidelines. Whether you do it yourself or enlist the help of a colleague, supervisor, or client, using checklists or check sheets to list items and criteria to verify is a great place to start. Additionally, utilize the tools and features of your CAD software to zoom, pan, measure, compare, or highlight your designs. Moreover, take advantage of the print or export functions of your CAD software to generate hard copies or digital copies for review. Finally, use markup or annotation tools of your CAD software or other software to add comments, notes, or suggestions to your designs.

5 How to audit your CAD designs automatically?

Auditing your CAD designs can be done automatically with software tools that scan, analyze, and report on your files and check them against the standards and guidelines. This is an efficient way to review your designs, as it provides more accurate and consistent results. Some examples of software tools that can audit your CAD designs are built-in functions or commands that check for errors and inconsistencies; add-ons or extensions that enhance or expand the capabilities of your CAD software; and independent or standalone applications that work with your CAD software or files.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?