Hi all,
I'm thinking about automating the process of managing revision clouds within drawings (and thence issues and revisions) by logging them into an external database, and I'm just wondering what options there are for controlling the visibility of individual objects within autocad.
Here are my thoughts so far. In the scenario I'm envisaging, a 'revision cloud' would actually be a 'cloud cluster' something like a group or maybe a dynamic block (not much experience of either) comprising both the cloud itself and an associated attribute indicating what changed and why.
Option 1. Create a new layer for EVERY revision cloud. Use filters to manage and obscure these from the CAD operator. This would end up being a lot of layers.
Option 2. Create all 'revision clouds' on one non-printing layer. Somehow automate the process of tracing desired clouds onto a printing later.
Basically, an ideal scenario would be to place all clouds onto one layer but somehow control the visibility of individual 'cloud clusters' through some other process. Although several clouds might be created by the same user at the same time, they would certainly be provided on xref'd drawings and not all would be of relevance to the final sheet. I'd like the operator to be able to pick those that were, and have the reason for those amendments to appear in an 'issues and revisions' column.
Any thoughts?