best way of creating sheet formats

If you get any other answers at all (this being the first) you're going to get walloped with variety. Everybody is going to have a favorite and nobody will agree on any of 'em. I'm not even going to get into format, but I WILL give you some advice on informational content. A large number of title blocks I've seen gloss over or entirely ignore some specifications that I think are often important and shouldn't always be implicit:

1) A note indicating whether you use 3rd angle projection (as in the USA) or 1st angle projection (as in most of Europe) is something you should consider. That little standard truncated cone projection example is very useful. 2) A reference to GEOMETRIC DIMENSIONING AND TOLERANCING PER ASME/ANSI Y14.5 is also a good idea if you use GD&T symbology. 3) In addition to your standard default tolerances I recommend a note in the title block similar to the following: "HOLE, C'BORE & SLOT DIAMETER TOLERANCES TO BE:" (I specify a range of diameters with a specific tolerance such as 0" to 3/8" +.003/-.001, 3/8" to 3/4" +.004/-.001,

tolerance range than the common standard +/-.005, and holes won't be less than .001 under nominal anyway unless the tool bit is terribly worn -- in which case you probably don't want the machinist to be using it.

4) I specify a different angular tolerance for bends than for cuts (larger for bends) 5) I also specify dimensions to apply AFTER plating. Although that puts a burden on a machine shop that they often won't welcome, you need any particular part to FIT and you can't guarantee that if you leave it open-ended on the plating side of things. 6) I specify a default tolerance on fractional values. If you design in fractional equivalents you can utilize that default to open up tolerances (when that's appropriate) without having to add a special tolerance to a dimension. In fact, I often find it useful to design in fractional equivalents for this very reason. 7) I do have a space for QTY, but since it's sometimes expedient to specify the quantity per next assembly and sometimes good to specify quantity to be ordered (which can easily be different), I have two spaces labelled QTY NEXT ASSY and ORDER QTY. 8) Since sometimes I create configurations of parts or assemblies to be documented on successive sheets of a drawing, I might assign a dash number suffix to a drawing number to create a part number on each sheet. For that reason, I have a little block all by itself in the lower left corner of the title block which is for PART NUMBER THIS SHEET.

Less than you asked for in most ways, and more than you asked for in other ways, but I hope it helps regardless.

Best, Mark 'Sporky' Stapleton Charlotte, NC

neil wrote:

Hi Sporky, I guess my post was rather open ended- you have got me thinking about things - at the moment I don't really have enough info and it is a bit disorganised. I will just have to sit down and nut out something to suit my needs. thanks for sharing your thoughts neil

Neil,

The simplest way is to DXF in your old one's! If this is not possible, I would be happy to email you my generic SW formats.

Rich.............

ok DXF I'll try that, I attempted to be clever with OLE an Excel table but for some reason the links to properties I made got buried under it. thanks for the offer I'll see how I go first with DXF.

Sporky, some brill ideas, thanks, credit where credits due.