Tutorial for an A3 Landscape Template.

• This tutorial will guide you through the process of creating an A3 landscape paperspace Template to ISO specifications for your own use.
   

• The template will have the following:
  1. Border, confines the drawing to the sheet.
  2. Title block, tells us what we are looking at, who drew it, when drawn, revision number, drawing number, reviewed by, approved by, scale, sheet number, sheet size, tolerances, title block revision number, part number and drawing view - first angle or third angle. Here in New Zealand, we draw all 2 dimensional drawings in third angle. This template will reflect that convention.
  3. Drawing revision block, tells us when the drawing was last updated, by whom and why it was updated.
  4. Page fold marks, for ease of placement in a folder so that it does not hang out past the folder. Brings to an A4 Portrait size.
  5. Center markings for X & Y coordinates, just helpful to show us where the center of the sheet is, helps also in layout.
  Before starting any drawing work, it is recommended that we first sketch what we are wanting to achieve, adding dimensions etc to the sketch – we PLAN in advance.
  
  The cad system I will be using for this tutorial is DesignCad 3D Max, version 12.0.025.
  
  When starting DesignCad, start a fresh drawing, selecting ‘P’. Set your Paperspace parameters as shown and click ‘OK’ or hit the ‘enter’ key.

• You should now have a screen similar to the one shown:
   

• The sheet size on the screen is 420mm x 297mm. A3 landscape.
  You will note that I have the rulers set on my screen. Normally, I leave them off as it gives us more real estate on the screen. This is an important issue, even with a 22” screen!
  
  I have set the origin to the bottom left hand corner of the sheet.
  
  Our next step is to start transferring our sketch into a real drawing, thus creating our A3 template.
  
  Starting with a 2D box at point 10,10 using standard DesignCad key strokes shift+: completing the function at 410,287.

• For ease of mathematics, we shall reset our origin point to the lower right hand corner. This is so we can start to draw our title block.

• Create the title block to the dimensions shown in the sketch. This goes in the bottom right hand corner. Do not forget, that dimensions on the X axis will be negative.

• Along with the title block, there is also a revisions and updates block. Do not forget, that dimensions on the X & Y axis will be negative. This I have created in the top right hand corner. The reason for this is when the page is folded to the fold marks, all the drawing information is visible to the reader.

• Our drawing should look something like this:

• At this point, we should save our template. I have a folder specifically for templates, independent to the template folder in DesignCad.
  
  To save our template, click on the icon that resembles a floppy disc. Apply a name to the file. Here we need to be very specific with our naming conventions. We will name this file ‘A3L_Template’ Save your file.

• Now would also be a good time to check that this new file we have created will indeed open as our template, go on try. Did it open? If not, check your save steps, and if you need, redraw your template.
  
  Our next step is to place all our annotations and finally save the document. Lets do it!
  The text font I am using on for this template is ‘Arial’. Text to fit. Technically, text height for A3 sheets is 2.5mm and 3mm. More on this later in Cad Standards.

• Do not forget to save your work now, as A3L_TemplateRev1.

This tutorial has been created by Steve Maynard-Smith of Christchurch, New Zealand.

Steve is a Manufacturing Engineering Technician for Dynamic Controls, where he uses SolidWorks on a daily basis. He has been using DesignCad privately since version 7 2D in 1996. His present DesignCad package is DesignCad Version 14.

Steve has designed and built many machines, some of which include a vacuum forming machine with a sheet size of 2m x 3m forming 6mm polycarbonate, ultrasonic welders, die tools and a milk tanker wash system to name just some.

Steve can be reached at:

or postal: 2/282 Selwyn Street, Christchurch 8002, New Zealand.

This tutorial has been created by Steve Maynard-Smith of Christchurch, New Zealand.

Steve is a Manufacturing Engineering Technician for Dynamic Controls, where he uses SolidWorks on a daily basis. He has been using DesignCad privately since version 7 2D in 1996. His present DesignCad package is DesignCad 3D Max.

Steve has designed and built many machines, some of which include a vacuum forming machine with a sheet size of 2m x 3m forming 6mm polycarbonate, ultrasonic welders, die tools and a milk tanker wash system to name just some.

Steve can be reached at:

or postal: 2/282 Selwyn Street, Christchurch 8002, New Zealand.