I am looking for line type standards when drafting utilities. National CAD standards doesn't appear to give advice on this. My own thoughts are to use solid lines for surveyed/located existing and dashed for record or proposed, but when looking for a standard instead of just what seemed to make sense to me, I now see that there is no apparent accepted methodology. I looked at several State, County, and City public works' CAD standards; some are specific, and most don't seem to have any opinion on the matter.
Is there a standard out there even if it isn't followed by most? How do you differentiate existing, record, and proposed utilities other than in the layers?
Is there a standard out there even if it isn't followed by most? How do you differentiate existing, record, and proposed utilities other than in the layers?
There are lots of standards out there but very little that could be called universal. I would caution you to remember that your mapping is - very likely -going to be used as a background for some engineers design. Set your CAD up accordingly, and be prepared to alter your deliverable to suit the clients preferences - without abandoning your principles, of course.
Some engineers like to "gray back" the topo and show their design elements black. Some like to show their design in bold continuous lines and show the pre-existing elements as dashed line. A few are using color.
Keep in mind that if you or your client is using a .ctb file that dictates lineweights by color, as so many people do, your topo may not look as you intend when printed with a different ctb.
I made some custom linetypes for my template and as far as utility linework I just did a continuous line with "gas", "water", "power", etc built into the line. I did do a unique linetype for duct banks which looks like the actual duct bank symbol locators paint so I'm pretty proud of that, but other than that I kept things pretty simple. I've never drawn a proposed utility; normally it's just a proposed utility easement I'm drawing and if that's the case then I use a simple dashed line (which is the linetype I use for all easements) and then leader in a label saying "proposed utility easement".
I also setup my template to use a .stb instead of a .ctb because the color based thing seems totally dumb to me. I haven't had a drawing go out to an engineering firm yet though so I'm not sure what kind of pushback I might get when it comes to .stb if any.
I also setup my template to use a .stb instead of a .ctb because the color based thing seems totally dumb to me. I haven't had a drawing go out to an engineering firm yet though so I'm not sure what kind of pushback I might get when it comes to .stb if any.
I predict that the pushback will be dramatic. While I agree - wholeheartedly - with the idea of disassociating the on-screen color from the lineweighting and transparency it just isn't necessary to go the stb route to achieve that goal. Use monochrome.ctb, which comes preloaded with your autocad installation, instead.
Monochrome prints everything in accordance with it entity settings for lineweight, transparency, and linetype. Typically all those entity settings will be BYLAYER , so the settings for the layer that the entity is on will control the plotted appearance. Note that the notion that linetype per entity setting is already universally accepted, but for some reason controlling lineweight and transparency in the same way are not.
The only thing monochrome does not plot per the entity setting is color. That will be all black. I've modified my copy of monochrome to print ten of the 255 colors in the entity colors - red(10), yellow(50), green(100), blue(160),magenta(200), and shades of grey(251-255). So I can make layers any screen color I like, and get whatever lineweight and transparency with going the stb route.
Typically all those entity settings will be BYLAYER , so the settings for the layer that the entity is on will control the plotted appearance.
That is exactly what .stb does though. This is why .stb is better, you still control everything by layer and don't have color problems.
As far as printing monochrome with a .stb you just toggle the viewport color override to print in color or black/white.
But yeah I suspect there will be some "this is the way we always dun it..." when faced with using a .stb...
Once a drawing is converted to use stb, it can't use ctb without re-converting. And since very few people use stb, it's going to be a problem. That's the rub. It's just not necessary to complicate things like that. It's all fine to use stb as long as you are working in isolation. But if you want to collaborate with outside entities you are hamstringing yourself. For. No. Reason.