by John Flanagan
Naming Layers
There is a specific naming convention when creating your layers for Architectural, Engineering, Structural and Civil projects. The layer names in a drawing are often specified by corporate, industry, or client standards. If you organise your own layer scheme, choose layer names carefully. Use common prefixes to name layers with related drawing components to make it easier to manipulate groups of layers.
Configure the layer names the way you want to see them.
Breakdown of a Layer Name
Sample: AE – Wall – Full – EXTR – D
- Discipline Designator: The first letter(s) used in each layer name. In this example the A refers to Architectural and the E to Architectural Element.
- Major Group: Identifies a major building system (e.g. Walls, Doors, HVAC, Power, Site, Road etc).
- Minor Group: Further defines major groups. In the above example Full = Full Height and EXTR = Exterior.
- Status Phase: The Status Phase characters breaks out layers according to the status of the work or construction phase (e.g. D for “Demolition”, F for “Future Work”).
AEC (UK) Cad Standard for Basic Layer Naming
The AEC (UK) cad standard for layer naming covers the basic layering conventions in a simple format applicable for both small practices and minor projects. They are also applicable to early conceptual or preliminary work on major projects.
The AEC (UK) standard presents a layer naming convention as follows:
The AEC (UK) Protocol for Layer Naming provides five fields separated by a hyphen or dash1, to classify a layer based on the conventions outlined in BS1192:2007+A1:2015 for container naming within a file. Viewed complete, it provides a unique reference to a logical collection of elements:
Field 1: Role
The letters A to Z define the author, or owner, of the data. This allows various disciplines to use the same Classification codes.
Field 2: Classification
The Classification code describes the design component and is the most important field in identifying the component.
SL Spaces / Locations
Ee Elements
Ss Systems
Pr Products
Zz Non-physical Elements
Table Zz: Non-Physical Elements
Field 3: Presentation
Presentation indicates the type of data associated with the layer.
Field 4: User Description
Used to describe any part of the previous fields or any other aspect of the CAD data. Usually used as an English text string to clarify the Element codes used in Field 2. It is advised to use “CamelCase” (i.e. each word begins with a single capital, the remainder in lowercase and any words are concatenated without spaces) for clarity and comprehension.
Field 5: View
Common to many practices and added as part of the User Description field, the optional View field allows a user to define whether the elements are shown as cut (as a wall in section or a column in plan), forward (as a window in elevation), hidden (as beams below a slab) or reflected (as anything shown behind the direction of view, such as any part of a reflected ceiling plan).
This can be especially useful when defining layers of varying properties for 2D views from 3D models.
Examples To help clarify the use of these conventions, the examples below demonstrate some applications of the AEC (UK) protocol to everyday items:
Break down of Layer Name to AECUK Standard
A-Zz_20_20-D-Dimension
A = Role/Discipline = Architecture (Field 1)
Zz = Classification = Dimensions (Field 2)
D = Presentation = Dimensions (Field 3)
Dimension = Description (Field 4)
https://aecuk.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/aecukbasiclayernaminghandbook-v2-4.pdf
Use the above link to download the document.
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