Michael’s Corner

Michael's Corner is a monthly publication written by Michael E. Beall, Autodesk Authorized Author and peripatetic AutoCAD trainer. Michael travels all over the USA, bringing his fantastic experience and great understanding of AutoCAD to his clients. Michael's Corner brings together many of the tips, tricks and methods developed during these training sessions for the benefit of all users.

Michael's Corner provides something for every AutoCAD user. Every month, a number of articles cover a wide range of topics, suitable for users at all levels, including "The Basics" for those just starting out. Essentially, the aim of Michael's Corner is to help all AutoCAD users work smarter and faster.

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This month…

From the Vault

Originally published October 2005

Publish

For the last several versions now, the Publish command has been largely overlooked. Sheet Sets are great, but when you have a number of layouts to plot, the Publish dialog box is the best "batch plot" utility.

If you have a drawing open when you launch the Publish command, the drawing's Model and Layout tabs are listed. In addition to managing the list of sheets, you can also opt to output the drawings to the device named in the page setup for each sheet listed, or create a multi-page DWF file. Publishing to DWF is a great feature and I will review all-things-DWF next month.

Key Features of the Publish Dialog Box

Add Sheets: The Add Sheets button opens a dialog box from which you can select a drawing. That drawing's Layout tabs (and Model tab if specified to be included) will be added to the list of Sheets To Publish.

Remove Sheets (or hit Delete): Select the sheet (or sheets with click + drag), then click the Remove Sheets button or simply hit Delete on the keyboard.

Move Sheets Up/Down (or Pick+Drag): When you click the Publish button, the sheets in the list are sent to their respective output devices in the order listed. If you need one drawing sooner than the others, select it, then you can either click the Move Sheet Up button, or simply drag the selected sheet(s) to the top.

Save Sheet List: Use it. You know that if you think you won't need this list of sheets again, you will . Either the customer will call and ask for 'another' set, or you will have another meeting a couple weeks later and you'll need the same collection. By default, it saves the DSD file with the same name and in the same folder as the drawing that is current when the Publish command is launched.

Note: A saved sheet list (DSD) essentially points to the Model and Layout tabs of the listed sheets; it's just a "gopher" (an American slang word for someone who "goes for" whatever is needed; coffee, staples, lunch,… or sheets). After a sheet set is loaded, when you click the Publish button, the current status of the drawing is plotted/printed.

Load Sheet List: Loads the specified .DSD listing of sheets. If a drawing is open, you may get the Replace or Append alert box shown above.

Shortcut Menu: A shortcut menu is also available for all button features and includes the ability to change the page setup or rename the selected sheet(s).

Number of Copies: If plotting to the device named in the page setup for each sheet, you have the option of specifying the number of copies of each sheet. Please note these are not collated.

Publish Options: If plotting to DWF, use the Publish Options dialog box to configure both general and specific DWF-related features. I'll cover this more fully in November.

Gold Star Tip: For drawings with multiple layouts, click one layout tab, then hold down CTRL and select the other layouts to publish. Now right-click and in the shortcut menu, click Publish Selected Layouts. The Publish dialog box will open with only the selected layouts in the list!

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