BC HYDRO

DRAFTING HANDBOOK
A TECHNICAL GUIDE
Hoekstra, Elisabeth
2013‐02‐22

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DRAFTING HANDBOOK
A T ECHNICAL G UIDE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Part One – AutoCAD Options and Workspace Customization............................................................................... 3
Section 1.A – File paths ..................................................................................................................................................... 3
Section 1.B – Display options ......................................................................................................................................... 5
Section 1.C – Other useful settings in Options ........................................................................................................ 6
Section 1.D – Customizing the User Interface ......................................................................................................... 7
Part Two – Creating a Redline from a Consultant Drawing ................................................................................. 11
Section 2.A – Opening the drawing ........................................................................................................................... 11
Section 2.B – Reducing the file size ........................................................................................................................... 12
Section 2.C – Changing the layers............................................................................................................................... 20
Section 2.D – Finishing up the redline...................................................................................................................... 23
Part Three – Creating a New Drawing .......................................................................................................................... 27
Section 3.A – Working with markups composed in Design Review ............................................................ 27
Section 3.B – Creating the drawing in McLaren ................................................................................................... 29
Section 3.C – Creating the civil drawing .................................................................................................................. 30
If you have an existing redline drawing ............................................................................................................. 30
If you do not have an existing redline drawing ............................................................................................... 33
Section 3.D – Creating the details............................................................................................................................... 33
Section 3.E – Filling in the title block........................................................................................................................ 35
Section 3.F – The final touches .................................................................................................................................... 38
Part Four – Creating a Drawing from Scratch ............................................................................................................ 40
Part Five – Raster Design ................................................................................................................................................... 42
Section 5.A – Inserting the raster ............................................................................................................................... 42
Section 5.B – Checking the scale ................................................................................................................................. 44
Section 5.C – Editing the raster ................................................................................................................................... 44
Section 5.D – Final touches ........................................................................................................................................... 45
Part Six – Editing Drawings ............................................................................................................................................... 46

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Section 6.A – Cautions for older drawings ............................................................................................................. 46

Section 6.B – Signing out and opening the drawing ........................................................................................... 46
Section 6.C – Editing the drawing .............................................................................................................................. 48
Part Seven – Additional Tools .......................................................................................................................................... 49
Section 7.A – Inserting lot lines from ICIS .............................................................................................................. 49
Section 7.B – Annotation scales .................................................................................................................................. 53
Part Eight – Solving Problems .......................................................................................................................................... 60
Section 8.A – Surrounding area not shown on consultant drawing ............................................................ 60
Section 8.B – Drawing oriented/scaled incorrectly............................................................................................ 61

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PART ONE – AUTOCAD OPTIONS AND WORKSPACE CUSTOMIZATION

The Options dialogue box and the Customize User Interface dialogue box contain all of the
tools needed to customize your regular day‐to‐day operation of AutoCAD.

Options can be opened by either typing “OPTIONS” or “OP” in the command line or by right
clicking anywhere within model or paper space and selecting “Options” at the bottom of the
menu.

Customize User Interface can be opened by either typing “CUI” in the command line or by
clicking on the gear button in the bottom right corner and choosing the “Customize” option at
the bottom of the menu.

SECTION 1.A – FILE PATHS

The “Files” tab in the Options dialogue box contains all the paths that tell AutoCAD where to
look for templates, tool palettes, plot styles, and everything else that it needs from outside
sources.
Each of these can be edited by double clicking an existing path that you are replacing, or by
highlighting the section and clicking “Add” to add a new path.

1. The “Printer Configuration Search Path”, found under “Printer Support File Path”, is
different for each area.

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2. The “Plot Style Table Search Path” is where AutoCAD searches to find out how you would
like the colours and lineweights of your drawing to be plotted. The path is:
J:\Engineering\Distribution\Drafting and Drawing management\CAD Standards\Block
Library & ctb File

3. The “Automatic Save File Location” is where AutoCAD will save files if you choose to turn
on Automatic Save. This is where you’ll look if AutoCAD crashes and you have not saved
for a while. The path is:
J:\Engineering\Distribution\Drafting and Drawing Management\CAD
Standards\AutoCAD Autosave\{area}.

4. The “Drawing Template File Location”, under “Template Settings”, tells AutoCAD where to
look for the templates it uses to create a new drawing. This file path is:
J:\Engineering\Distributiion\Drafting and Drawing Management\CAD
Standards\Drawing Templates

5. The “Default Template File Name for QNEW”, also under “Template Settings”, tells
AutoCAD which template to use when you simply press the “QNEW” button.

The path is:

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J:\Engineering\Distribution\Drafting and Drawing Management\CAD

Standards\Drawing Templates\U07.dwt

6. The “Tool Palettes File Locations” path tells AutoCAD where to look for your Tool Palettes
containing all of your blocks. The path used is:
J:\Engineering\Distribution\Drafting and Drawing Management\CAD Standards\Tool
Palettes
If you plan to edit the tool palettes at all, adding another path above the main one will
cause your edits to affect your tool palettes only.

SECTION 1.B – DISPLAY OPTIONS

The “Display” tab in the Options dialogue box controls how your AutoCAD looks. Much of this
depends on your own preferences.

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For editing the drawing window colours, the ones used most would be 2D Model Space,
Sheet/layout, Command line, Block editor, and Plot preview. You can change the colour of
almost anything.

SECTION 1.C – OTHER USEFUL SETTINGS IN OPTIONS

1. The section in the bottom left corner of the “Open and Save” tab in the Options box is “File
Safety Precautions”. The “Automatic Save” checkbox in the top of this checkbox causes
AutoCAD to save your file to the automatic save location you set in “Section 1.A – File
Paths” at a frequency that you specify.

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2. In the bottom left corner of the “Selection” tab in the Options box is “Selection preview”.
This is what causes items to highlight when you mouse over them. This can slow AutoCAD
down severely. It is generally a good idea to uncheck the button stating “When no
command is active”

SECTION 1.D – CUSTOMIZING THE USER INTERFACE

The user inteface of AutoCAD can be edited to better fit your preferences, with tools being
added or removed as necessary.

1. To change a workspace, select it under “Workspaces”. You can customize it without

clicking the “Customize Workspace” button. However, most edits are easier to do after
pressing the button.

2. The Menu bar is placed above the ribbon, if it is turned on. It is a set of normal drop‐down
menus. Having the “File” menu available is generally useful, as the “Drawing Properties”
as well as several other tools can be accessed quickest through there.

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3. When editing the Ribbon, there are a large amount of tabs that you can add. The defaults
are generally more than you need, but if you decided to create your own Ribbon tab, you
can add it here.
4. Each Ribbon tab is made up of panels, and each panel contains several commands. Right
clicking in the Panel section will allow you to create a new panel.

5. You can search in the Command List to find commands that you might find useful to add
to your panel. You can also add a command, if the one that you would like is not available.

6. To add your command to your panel, click and drag it into the proper row.

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7. After creating your panel, you can click and drag it into a ribbon tab, which you can then
add to your workspace.

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PART TWO – CREATING A REDLINE FROM A CONSULTANT DRAWING

SECTION 2.A – OPENING THE DRAWING
1. Open drawing
2. “Save As” drawing as “REDLINE – IN PROGRESS" or a similar name that you will
recognize as being a drawing that you are working on.
3. Open the Layer Properties Manager
a. In the ribbon, click the “Home” tab, then click the small button in the top left of
the “Layers” section

b. Type “Layer” in the command line

4. Ensure that all layers are On , Unfrozen , and Unlocked

5. Ensure that Non‐BC Hydro layers have their colours changed from “Red”, “White”, etc,
or colours with a number of 10 or less to colours with a number of 11 or greater

6. Close the Layer Properties Manager

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SECTION 2.B – REDUCING THE FILE SIZE

1. Delete unneeded grids, legends, etc

2. Make sure that the properties pane is open. If it is not open:

a. In the ribbon, click the “View” tab, then click the “Properties” button

b. Type “Properties” in the command line

3. Press the “Quick Select” button

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4. Choose the options shown in the screenshot below and click “OK”

5. All hatches should now be selected. If there are any that are absolutely necessary for the
designer to see, hold down your “Shift” key and select them in order to remove them from
the selection.
6. Delete the hatches.
7. Repeat steps 4 through 6 for object types “Points”, “External Reference”, “Raster Image”,
and “PDF Underlay”
a. If the following dialogue box comes up, click “Yes”

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8. Open the External References pane by

a. In the ribbon, click the “Insert” tab, then click the small diagonal arrow to the right
of the “Reference” label

b. Type “XREF” in the command line

9. Highlight the references. Right click on them and choose the “Detach” option.

10. Select everything in the drawing

11. In the “Properties” pane, change “Color”, “Linetype”, and “Lineweight” to “ByLayer”

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If it is possible to change “Linetype scale”, change it to 1.000

12. Click the down arrow key beside the “All (#)” label and go to each object type. The key
things to look for are:
Linetype scale, Thickness, Global Width, Elevation, Linetype Generation

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Start Z, End Z

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And the Leader Color

13. Type “AUDIT” in the command line. When it asks you whether you wish to fix any
detected errors, type “Y”

14. Type “OVERKILL” in the command line. When it asks you for a selection, either select
everything in the drawing or type “ALL”

Press the enter button.

15. Make sure that the options in the dialogue box are as follows, then click “OK”

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16. Repeat steps 13‐15 until it says:

a. After Audit:

b. After Overkill:
17. Type “PURGE” in the command line. Choose “Purge All” in the dialogue box.

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18. Type “‐PURGE” in the command line. Choose “Regapps” or type “R”

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19. At “Enter name(s) to purge <*>:”, hit the enter key

20. At “Verify each name to be purged? [Yes/No] <Y>:”, type “N”
21. Save the drawing. You should notice that it is smaller, often much smaller, then it was
before.

SECTION 2.C – CHANGING THE LAYERS

1. Open the Layer Translator
a. Type in “LAYTRANS” in the command line
b. In the ribbon, click on the “Manage” tab, then click on the “Layer Translator”
button

2. Under “Translate to”, on the right side, click the “Load” button

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3. For some consultant drawings, there may be a pre‐defined standards file for changing out
the layers. If there is not one, choose the “Drawing Templates (.dwt)” file type and choose
the proper template for the type of drawing you are creating.

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4. Go through the layers. Click the layer on the left that you wish to change (you can select
more than one), and click the layer on the right that you wish to change it to (you cannot
select more than one). Click “Map”. Repeat until you have changed out all the layers that
you wish to change.

5. Once you are finished changing out the layers, click the “Translate” button at the bottom
of the dialogue box. Click “Translate Only” when it asks you if you want to save the
mapping data.

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6. You can now repeat steps 13 through 20 of “Section 2.B – Reducing the file size” to further
reduce the size of your drawing.
7. Save the drawing.

SECTION 2.D – FINISHING UP THE REDLINE

1. Create a new drawing with the correct template.
2. Save your new drawing as “REDLINE FOR {designer’s name}”
3. Select everything in your “REDLINE – IN PROGRESS” drawing.
4. Either press “Ctrl+Shift+C” or right click and choose “Copy with Base Point”

5. Type in 0,0
6. In your “REDLINE FOR {designer’s name}” drawing, either press “Ctrl+V” or right click
and choose “Paste”

7. Type in 0,0
8. Save “REDLINE FOR {designer’s name}”. You can now close your “REDLINE –IN
PROGRESS” drawing.
9. Right click on the “Sheet 1 CIVIL LAYOUT D‐SIZE” layout tab and choose “Move or Copy”

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10. Choose “(move to end)” and check off the “Create a copy” box. Click “OK”

11. Rename the new layout as “REDLINE FOR {designer’s name}”

12. Create a rectangular viewport matching up with the dark border of the title block. The
layer is not incredibly important for this.

13. Delete the title block, the legend, and the small north arrow.

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14. Change the scale to 1:250, or 1:500 if 1:250 does not show everything needed. If 1:500
still does not show everything, you can add more sheets by repeating steps 9 through 11,
but copying your “REDLINE” layout instead.
15. MAKE SURE TO LOCK YOUR VIEWPORT!

16. Place the block “BCH North Arrow”, found under “CIVIL DETAILS” in your tool palettes, in
the viewports. Type 0 if it allows you to rotate the block to insure that the arrow is facing
north.
17. Double click outside of the viewport
18. Add the “CIV‐SCA” block, found under “STAMPS” in your tool palettes”, and change the
scale to the one you used when it prompts you.

19. Near the bottom‐right corner, create text by clicking on “Multiline Text” under the
“Home” tab or the “Annotate” tab in the ribbon, or by typing “T” in the command line.

20. Copy the File Path to the folder where your drawing is kept, and paste it into the text box

21. Save the drawing

22. Right click on the “REDLINE FOR {designer’s name}” layout tab and choose “Plot”

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23. Does the designer that the drawing is for use Design Review?
a. If yes, change Printer/plotter name to DWF6 ePlot.pc3

b. If no, change Printer/plotter name to the plotter used at your office

24. Click the “Preview” button, and check that the drawing will plot correctly
25. If everything is correct, click the picture of the printer in the upper left corner to plot the
drawing.

26. You can now email the DWF to the designer or walk over the printed copy.

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PART THREE – CREATING A NEW DRAWING

SECTION 3.A – WORKING WITH MARKUPS COMPOSED IN DESIGN REVIEW
1. Open the drawing that the redline was created from (See Part Two – Creating a Redline
from a Consultant Drawing).
2. Type “Markup” in the command line or click on the small “Markup Set Manager” button
underneath the “View” tab on the ribbon.

3. In the window that opens, click on the drop‐down menu and select the “Open” option.

4. Find and open the “.dwf” file you received from the designer.
5. Double click on the layout to place the redline into your drawing.

6. You can now see the designer’s markups in your drawing.

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7. You can now double click inside your viewport and insert the duct(s) and device(s) in the
correct locations.
8. In the Markup Set Manager window, you can turn on/off the markups by pressing the
button that looks like a small red cloud.

9. After you have placed all of the required items into your drawing, you can close the
markups by right clicking on the “.dwf” file in the Markup Set Manager and choosing the
“Close Markup DWF” option.

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10. Close the markup set manager.

SECTION 3.B – CREATING THE DRAWING IN MCLAREN

1. Open McLaren Work Manager
2. Underneath the Distribution tab, click the “Drawing” button and choose the type of
drawing that you would like to create.

3. Fill in the required fields in the “Create New Drawing” dialogue box.

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4. Click “OK” once complete.

5. The drawing has now been created.

SECTION 3.C – CREATING THE CIVIL DRAWING

IF YOU HAVE AN EXISTING REDLINE DRAWING
1. Open the existing redline drawing.
2. Select everything in the drawing, either by dragging the selecting window over all of the
options or by typing first “SELECT”, then “ALL” in the command line.
3. Copy the selected items by using “Ctrl+Shift+C” or by right clicking and choosing the
“Copy with Base Point” option under “Clipboard”. When it prompts you for a base point,
type in “0,0”.

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4. Open the drawing that you created in McLaren by right clicking on the drawing name and
choosing the “Edit” option.

5. Paste your drawing into model space by using “Ctrl+V” or by right clicking and choosing
the “Paste” option under “Clipboard”. When it prompts you for a base point, type in “0,0”.
6. If the designer created his/her markups using Design Review, you should have already
placed the proposed work in your drawing through “Section 3.A – Working with markups
composed in Design Review”. If the markups were created by hand, you will have to put
them in now.
7. You should now choose what sheet size you would like the drawing to be.
8. Draw a rectangular viewport on the BchViewports layer with a scale of either 1:250 or
1:500, depending on what is required. Remember to lock your viewports.

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9. If you are confident of the sheet size you have chosen, you can now delete the other
layouts by highlighting the layout tabs that you would like to delete, right clicking, and
choosing the “Delete” option. Make sure not to delete the layout that you are using!

10. It will ask you if you are sure that you would like to delete the selected layout(s). Double
check that you are not deleting the layout that you are using and click “OK”.
11. Right click on the remaining layout tab and choose the “Rename” option. Rename the
layout as “SHEET 1”.

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12. You are now ready to create the details.

IF YOU DO NOT HAVE AN EXISTING REDLINE DRAWING

If you did not have a consultant drawing to create the original redline from, you will have to
create a new drawing from scratch. Part Four – Creating a Drawing from Scratch explains
how.

SECTION 3.D – CREATING THE DETAILS

1. Select the proposed work as well as the surrounding services, lot lines, curbs, and any
other significant information.
2. Copy the selected items by either typing “CO” or “COPY” in the command line or by right
clicking and selecting the “Copy Selection” option. When it prompts for a base point,
choose an appropriate point near the center of the selection.
3. Move the cursor to a section that is completely clear of interfering items and click to paste
the selection.

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4. Replace the model space device blocks with the civil detail blocks of the same devices.

5. In your layout, create (a) rectangular viewport(s) on the BchDetails layer showing the
device(s). The scale should be at 1:75. Remember to lock your viewports.

6. Label the devices as required in the standards.

7. Insert any required trench details from the blocks available in the “TRENCH DETAILS”
tool palette. Burst the blocks and label them.

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SECTION 3.E – FILLING IN THE TITLE BLOCK

Much of the title block will have already been filled in by McLaren. There are still a few items
that you will have to add yourself, however.

1. Open the “Drawing Properties” window by either selecting it in the “File” menu, or by
clicking the AutoCAD symbol in the top left corner of the screen, choosing “Drawing
Utilities”, and clicking “Drawing Properties”

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2. Choose the “Custom” tab.

3.
4. Here you can change properties such as the initial designer of a drawing, the initial
drafter of a drawing, the BCH Map Number, the Design Number, along with others. After
you have filled in the required information, press “OK” to exit.
5. To see your changes, you will have to type “REA” or “REGENALL” in the command line.
6. If you need to edit the other sections of the title block, you can either type “DDATTE” in
the command line and click the title block or double click on the title block. The dialogue
box that comes up when typing “DDATTE” is generally easier to use. The dialogue box

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that comes up when double clicking on the title block allows you to change the text
colour, spacing, and other properties.

SECTION 3.F – THE FINAL TOUCHES

1. Insert the “DETAIL‐NTS” block, found in the “STAMPS” tool palette, near the detail
viewports. When you are prompted to enter a scale, enter “N.T.S.”
2. Insert the “Paper Scale DYN” block, found in the “STAMPS” tool palette, near the civil
viewport, preferably underneath. Click the arrow that appears when the scale bar is
selected to change the scale to match the scale of your viewport.

3. Insert the “CIV‐SCA” block, found in the “STAMPS” tool palette, near the scale bar,
preferably centered underneath. When you are prompted to enter a scale, enter the scale
of your viewport.
4. Insert the “DWG STAMPS DYN” block, found in the “STAMPS” tool palette, in an empty
space in your drawing. It often fits better if it is rotated with the text reading horizontally.
5. Click the arrow that appears when the drawing stamp is selected and choose the proper
issue reason. The stamp may need to be relocated.

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6. Rearrange items in your layout to enhance clarity.

7. You can now plot your drawing. Depending on the designer’s preferences, you may need a
pdf, a dwf, and/or a hard copy of the drawing.

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PART FOUR – CREATING A DRAWING FROM SCRATCH

Sometimes you need to create a new drawing with no consultant drawing to base it from.
This could be to replace a relatively uncomplicated old tiff drawing, or for a variety of other
reasons.

1. Insert the lot lines from ICIS, as explained in “Section 7.A – Inserting lot lines from ICIS”.
2. Add street names and lot numbers. Google Maps, DAD, as well as various municipal
mapping websites can be helpful in this case. Be sure to add the text on layer
“BchTitleText” with text style “BchTextTitle”.

3. If you have been supplied with dimensions, use lines and offsets on layer “0” to discover
where the ducts and devices should go. If you have not been supplied with dimensions,
use the existing drawings or sketches to place the ducts and devices as accurately as
reasonably possible.

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4. Delete the items on layer 0.

5. Sometimes you will have information on other services. Insert this in the same way that
you inserted the ducts and devices, as accurately as reasonably possible.

6. You are now prepared to continue on to “Section 3.D – Creating the details”.

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PART FIVE – RASTER DESIGN

There are many hand‐drawn drawings in the database, created before AutoCAD came into
common use. These are saved as “tiff” files. Some of the simpler ones can be completely
redone, as shown in “Part Four – Creating a Drawing from Scratch”, but for larger, more
complicated, drawings this is impractical.

SECTION 5.A – INSERTING THE RASTER

1. In your drawing, ensure that the active layer is layer “0”

2. In your AutoCAD file, you can insert the drawing by either typing “IMAGEATTACH” in the
command line, by choosing the “Raster Image Reference” option in the “Insert” drop
down menu, or by clicking the “Insert” button on the left end of the “Raster Tools” tab of
the ribbon. The last option is necessary if you are inserting a multi‐page tiff.

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3. What you need to do to insert the drawing depends on the option that you chose.
a. If using the first two options, choose the file that you would like to insert and click
“Open”. Check the options given in the next dialogue box and click “OK” again.

Choose an insertion point of 0,0 and a scale of 1 for now.

b. If using the third option, choose the file that you would like to insert and click
“Open”. If you are inserting a multi‐page tiff, make sure that under “Multi‐frame
options”, “Insert all frames” is selected.

You will need to move the extra pages after you have inserted them, as they will have
been inserted on top of each other.

If you are inserting a single‐page tiff, simply click “OK” at the next dialogue box.

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SECTION 5.B – CHECKING THE SCALE

It is very likely that the inserted drawing is at an incorrect scale. If there is a notation
regarding the scale of the drawing, scale it up by that amount. If there is no notation
regarding the scale, you will have to find an existing dimension, measure it’s actual
distance, and scale the drawing in a way as to make the actual distance as close as
reasonably possible to the dimension. The scale is often a large round number
Method 1:

40’ = 480”

Method 2:

120’ = 36.576m

36.576/0.0766 = 477
477 ~= 480

SECTION 5.C – EDITING THE RASTER

1. Under the “Raster Tools” tab in the ribbon, click on the “Touchup” button.

2. If there is more than one raster in your drawing, it will ask you which one you would like
to edit. Click on the one you are working on.
3. The Touchup toolbar allows you to change the shape of the touchup tool, resize the tool,
to toggle between erasing and adding lines, and to save/delete your changes. Most of
what you’ll be doing involves erasing lines, as added lines can be done normally through
AutoCAD. The erasing lines colour is the same as the background colour of the section you
are working on your drawing.

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4. After you have completed your changes, save and close out of the toolbar by clicking on
the check mark.
5. Adding lines and text can be done normally in AutoCAD.

SECTION 5.D – FINAL TOUCHES

After your final changes are made, all that remains is to embed the drawing. If you do not
do this, and you delete or move the existing tiff drawing, the raster will disappear out of
your AutoCAD file, as AutoCAD can no longer find the tiff file.
The drawing can be embedded by either typing “IEMBED” in the command line or by
clicking the small embed button under the “Raster Tools” tab in the ribbon.

If you have more than one image, you will have to select all of them.

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PART SIX – EDITING DRAWINGS

SECTION 6.A – CAUTIONS FOR OLDER DRAWINGS
There can be many problems with older drawings, besides the usual older layers and
standards. Drawings that have been edited several times could have had several base
drawings pasted over each other. Often these do not line up exactly, and it can be difficult to
determine which is correct, or even which lines match up with which base. Drawings that
were created when the use of AutoCAD was in its early stages are often created in model
space, at a scale other than 1:1. These will often not have any of the surrounding area. You
may also find drawings that were not drawn to scale, or drawings where the blocks used
were incorrectly scaled, often much larger than they should be. Some of these problems have
solutions outlined in “Part Eight – Solving Problems”. For others, you will have to find your
own solution, often by asking your work leader and/or the designer what solution they would
prefer.

SECTION 6.B – SIGNING OUT AND OPENING THE DRAWING

1. Open McLaren Work Manager and log in.
2. Click the “Sign Out” button, available underneath the “Distribution” tab.

3. Fill out the required fields underneath the “Request” tab.

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4. With the “For Revision” tab selected, click the “QuickFind” button to search for the
drawing you would like.

5. Fill out the dialogue box that will come up with the known information about the
drawing. Click “OK” once filled out. You do not need to fill out every field. The “Titles” field
in particular should only be used if you do not know the drawing number, unless you are
absolutely sure of what you are entering in.

6. Depending on how many fields you filled out, there may be several options available on
the next screen or just one. Select the one that you want, and click “Select”.

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7. Click the “Send” button.

8. It might take a few minutes for your drawing to appear in the project. Once it does, right
click on it and choose the “Edit” option to open the drawing.
9. Follow the steps outlined in “Section 2.B – Reducing the file size”.
10. Follow the steps outlined in “Section 2.C – Changing the layers”, using caution to avoid
doubled lines and other problems that might arise from situations described in “Section
6.A – Cautions for older drawings”.

SECTION 6.C – EDITING THE DRAWING

1. If the original drawing is a tiff file, follow the steps outlined in “Part Five – Raster Design”.
2. If the designer created their markups using Design Review, follow the steps in “Section
3.A – Working with markups composed in Design Review”. Otherwise, insert the changes
in the locations shown in the designer’s markups.
3. Edit and/or add details as needed, using “Section 3.D – Creating the details” as a guide.
4. Following “Section 3.F – The final touches”, ensure the drawing is as clear as possible.

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PART SEVEN – ADDITIONAL TOOLS

SECTION 7.A – INSERTING LOT LINES FROM ICIS
Sometimes it is necessary to insert lot lines from somewhere other than the consultant
drawing. This can happen in cases such as:

Section 8.A – Surrounding area not shown in consultant drawing

Section 8.B – Drawing oriented/scaled incorrectly

Part Four‐ Creating a Drawing from Scratch

In this case, existing lot lines can be found on the website of the Integrated Cadastral
Information Society, or ICIS.

1. Go to the website at http://www.icisociety.ca/web‐map/member‐web‐map.htm and click

the “Accept” button at the bottom of the page, underneath the Terms and Conditions. This
will open a new window.

2. Log in to the site with your user name and password.

3. This is the ICIS Members’ Web Map.
a. The “Zoom‐In” button can be used by simply clicking, or by clicking and dragging
a window around what you would like to select. When clicking, it zooms in by a
factor of two.
b. The “Zoom‐Out” button can be used by clicking. It zooms out by a factor of two.
c. The “Pan” button allows you to click and drag the map, so when zoomed in you
can move to nearby locations.

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d. The “ICIS Cadastre” layer is only selectable when the scale is <= 1:250 000. This is
the layer that you’ll get your lot lines from.

4. Zoom in to the location that you need the lot lines for. It may be helpful to find the
location in Google Maps first, unless you have the UTM coordinates. (See Part Seven –
Definitions). Turning on the “Digital Road Atlas”, under “BC Government WMS Base
Mapping”, can also be helpful.

5. Once you’ve found the correct location, click on the “Data Transfer” button on the right
side of the top toolbar

6. Choose “Spatial Area of Interest” for the Extract Method

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7. Check off the “ICIS Cadastre” layer when it asks you which layers you would like to
include.

8. Select “Current Extent”

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9. Leave the “Clip Features” checkbox unchecked.

10. The Projection that you want to use is “NAD83 UTM; Zone 10 North” and the Feature
Layer Format is “AutoCAD DWG (R2004)”

11. Enter your email address in the fields provided.

12. Look over the information provided to insure that everything is correct, then press
“Finish”

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13. You should receive an email within a few minutes from SpatialDirect@icisociety.ca. Click
on the first link and save it.
14. Right click on the saved zip folder and choose “Extract All”

15. Extract the files and open the AutoCAD file. It should be named “output_###########”

16. Use the “OVERKILL” command, as described in “Section 2.B – Reducing the file size”, steps
14‐15, to delete overlapping lines
17. Use the “LAYTRANS” command, as described in “Section 2.C – Changing the layers”, and
change out layer ICIS_WRITE.ICIS_CADASTRE to BchLegal

18. Copy the lot lines with base point 0,0

19. Open the drawing that you would like to insert the lot lines into, and paste, choosing base
point 0,0 again.

SECTION 7.B – ANNOTATION SCALES

Annotation scales control what size text and leaders show up at in your viewports, and
whether they show up at all.

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When selecting text in AutoCAD, you may see several copies of the same text in grey, larger
and/or smaller than the selected text.

This shows the size of the text in model space relative to other objects.

For example:

More importantly, the annotation scale controls how text is changed in viewports. As long as
the annotation scale of the viewport is set to be the same as the standard scale, text will look
the same in all viewports.

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In cases where you have several sheets with different viewports oriented in different
directions, you can use annotation scales to control what text is shown in what viewport.

First you need to add an extra annotation scale. In the annotation menu, click the “Custom…”
option.

Say you have two viewports at right angles at a scale of 1:250, and you don’t want the text in
one to show in the other. Add an annotation scale labeled 1:250_2.

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With both viewports at a scale of 1:250, you can see the text in both of them.

Unlock one viewport and change the scale to 1:250_2

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You can now no longer see the text in the viewport that had the scale changed.

If you would like to see it, or if you can still see the text, you can change what annotation
scales the text shows at in the Properties menu. Simply select the text and click the “…” button
that appears beside the “Annotative Scale” field when the field is selected.

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In this window you can add or delete scales. It can often be a good idea to delete scales that
you don’t need, as this can slow things down when you are selecting annotative objects.

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PART EIGHT – SOLVING PROBLEMS

SECTION 8.A – SURROUNDING AREA NOT SHOWN ON CONSULTANT DRAWING
Sometimes consultant drawings show the lot where the work is being done, and maybe a bit
of the road adjacent to the lot, but not anything else around it.

1. Follow the steps outlined in “Section 7.A – Inserting lot lines from ICIS”
2. Often after inserting the lot lines, you will find that your existing drawing is in a different
position
3. Select your existing lot (Not the lot lines you inserted from ICIS)
4. Either type “M” in the command line or right click and choose “Move”

5. As a base point, choose one corner of the existing lot

6. Choose the same corner of that lot in the ICIS lot lines to move your existing lot to the
proper position
7. If all has worked properly, the lot lines of the existing lot should be almost exactly on top
of the lot lines from ICIS. If they are off by a large distance, see “Section 8.B – Drawing
oriented/scaled incorrectly” for a guide on how to fix that. If they are off by a small, but
still significant, distance, move the existing lot to reduce the distance by as much as
reasonably possible.

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SECTION 8.B – DRAWING ORIENTED/SCALED INCORRECTLY

Sometimes you will receive a consultant drawing where “up” is not north. You may also
receive drawings that are to the wrong scale. These conditions often go together.
1. Import the surrounding lot lines from ICIS, as explained in “Section 7.A – Inserting lot
lines from ICIS”.

2. Type “ALIGN” in the command line and select the consultant drawing, making sure
not to accidently select any of the ICIS lot lines.
3. Choose a source point at one corner of the lot, and choose the same point as a
destination point at the ICIS lot lines.

4. For your second source point, choose the corner of the lot furthest away from the first
source point. Choose the same point as a destination point at the ICIS lot lines.

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5. Press the “Enter” key when it prompts for a third point.

6. When it asks whether to scale the objects based on the points, choose “Yes”

7. Your drawing should now be scaled and oriented correctly. If it is not, use the “Undo”
command by typing “U” in the command line, using “Ctrl+Z”, or clicking the back
arrow in the top of the AutoCAD window and try again with new points until it is as
accurate as reasonably possible.

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