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IPS COMPUTER STANDARDS MANUAL

3.

REFERENCE FILES

REFERENCE FILES
3.1

Introduction
To facilitate proper coordination, information contained in reference files must be
available to all disciplines. All sheet files are to be assembled from smaller
components (reference files) that include: base plans, title blocks, and note files.
The color property for all entities must be defined as BYLAYER. This will allow
each user to redefine the display of the drawing information without affecting the
original elements properties.
All reference files must be started from drawing templates located in the
Standards job service. Two templates are available. IPS-ARCH.DWT should be
used for all drawings utilizing the architectural foot-inch-fraction number format.
IPS-DEC.DWT is the template to use for drawings with decimal number format
(typically only site/civil drawings).

3.2

Base Plans
All graphic information and any additional information requiring multi-discipline
coordination must be drawn in a base plan. All information contained in base
plans will not necessarily be displayed on each sheet file. Base plans shall
include all existing construction, new construction, demolition entities, match line
location, room identification and contract limit line location. Plan detail and
annotation entities (i.e. insulation, brick ties, wall sheathing, dimensions, notes,
etc.) will not be drawn in base plans (refer to Ch. 8 -- Appendix for a more
detailed listing of what is contained within each base plan).
All base files must be drawn in model space at a 1:1 scale. Use precision input
when developing all drawing files. Do not use a tolerance factor less accurate
than 1/64 or round off for any reason. Drawings produced with this accuracy
offer several advantages such as: determining conflicts between disciplines, auto
dimensioning and accurate square footage calculations.
The X-REF . . . OVERLAY command will be used to externally reference other
disciplines base plans for coordination only (refer to the Drawing Setup chart at
the end of Chapter 4 - Sheet Files). All externally referenced files must be
referenced into drawings on layer 0.
Large base plans (+/- 750,000 bytes) must be divided into smaller areas to avoid
excessively large CAD files.
When a base has multiple copies of the same components, the base plan may
be constructed from nested external references of smaller components (i.e.
guest rooms in a hotel). Nested base files must be named with a system suitable
to the specific nature of the individual occurrence. The file names of such
architectural base components must be no longer than 5 characters. The base
plan into which these smaller component plans are referenced shall be named
with the standard base plan naming convention
3.1

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IPS COMPUTER STANDARDS MANUAL

REFERENCE FILES

After a project has entered the Construction Documents phase, all changes to
base plans must be indicated within the base plan with revision clouds. Revision
clouds will be created on a layer named with the date of the change. Revision
clouds in base files aid coordination, and are to be frozen prior to plotting of
sheets.
Bases for each discipline are saved in the respective disciplines REF directories.
Refer to the Appendix for a complete listing of base file names and a description
of what each file contains. Note that the * represents each respective floor level
(i.e. B for basement, 1 for first level, etc.).
3.3

Title Blocks
Approved large-format title block files are located in the Standards job service and
are separated by style (Traditional and Contemporary). The Project Manager
shall determine which title block to utilize on each job. The Project
Architect/Project Engineer must copy the chosen title block file (i.e.
CD30x42.dwg) and corresponding attribute information file (i.e. IN30X42) into the
DWGS\ARCH\REF directory of the project service. The Project Architect/Project
Engineer will add client name, client logo, project address, and job number to the
appropriate title block. The two files used for the title block are drawn to 29
1/2x41 1/2 and 23 1/2x35 1/2 sizes to facilitate plotting.
Approved supplemental drawing title blocks are located in the Standards job
service. Supplemental drawing title blocks to be used must be copied into
\DWGS\ARCH\REF on the project service and modified as necessary, depending
on whether they will be x-refd or inserted. The supplemental drawing title blocks
are drawn at a true 8x11 size with an additional no-print line indicating the
plotted extents of the small format printers.

3.4

Notes
When notes, legends, and schedules are externally referenced into sheet files,
they will be drawn in model space at 1:1 scale. The insertion point for the file is
the insertion point of title text or the upper right corner of the schedule. These
drawing files will be stored in each disciplines REF directory with the following
names:
File Name

File Content
Notes

CASENOTE
DEMONOTE
EQPTNOTE
FNSHNOTE
GENNOTE
KEYNOTE
PLANNOTE
RCNOTE

General casework notes

Demolition notes
General equipment notes
General finish notes
General notes
Keynotes
Plan Notes
Reflected ceiling plan notes
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REFERENCE FILES

WALLTYPE
SDNOTE
SGNOTE
SPNOTE

Wall types
Structural demolition notes
Structural general notes
Structural plan notes

MDNOTE
MGNOTE
MPNOTE

Mechanical demolition notes

Mechanical general notes
Mechanical plan notes

PDNOTE
PGNOTE
PPNOTE

Plumbing demolition notes

Plumbing general notes
Plumbing plan notes

EDNOTE
EGNOTE
EPNOTE

Electrical demolition notes

Electrical general notes
Electrical plan notes
Schedules

ASCHED
CSCHED
DSCHED
EQSCHED
FSCHED
GSCHED
LSCHED

Accessory schedule
Casework schedule
Door and frame schedule
General equipment schedule
Finish schedule
Glass schedule
Lintel schedule

3.3