PSA: I was putting my dimension text on the wrong layer for years.

I was working on a set of shop drawings for a steel fabricator in Tacoma last month. The project lead called me and asked why the dimensions weren't showing up on their plotted check set. I had them on a layer set to 'no plot' the whole time. I must have copied that layer setup from an old template a decade ago and never checked. Has anyone else had a layer standard that caused a big mess down the line?

3 comments

3 Comments

joel_clark371mo ago

Actually, that sounds like a solid system to me. Keeping non-plot stuff on its own layer is clean drafting. The real problem is someone not checking their layer states before sending out a final set. A template shouldn't babysit you. It's on the person doing the work to run a proper plot check, not blame an old file.

the_thea1mo ago

Lock your layers or lock yourself out, simple as that.

wilson.joseph1mo ago

Hang on, I see it a little different though. A template's job is to set you up for success, not just hand you a blank page and hope for the best. If your layers are a mess or the default state prints wrong, that's a design flaw in the template, not a user error. I've seen way too many projects get held up because someone had to manually fix layer visibilities every single time they opened an old file. It's like handing someone a car with the parking brake on and blaming them for not checking before driving off. A good template should make it easy to do the right thing, not just shrug and say "well you should have caught it." The person still has to do their checks, but the template shouldn't be working against them from the start.