Setting Up a Drawing - AutoCAD 2011 and AutoCAD LT 2011: No Experience Required - page 94

U.s. n a t I of n a l Cad s t a n d a r d (nCs)

Where applicable, this topic will employ the use of the U.S. National CAD Standard
(NCS). Over the last several years, the popularity of this standard has grown
immensely, and it is now in use by many of the top architectural and engineering
firms. You'll learn more about the NCS when we begin learning about layers, but
for now we'll stick to file naming. Per the NCS our cabin drawing is considered a
model drawing, whose standard file-naming structure is as follows:

## DMM - NNNN

PREFIX
Chapter number
DISCIPLINE
A - Architecture

MODEL NAME
LAYO - Layout
MODEL TYPE
FP - Floor Plan

The discipline portion of an NCS filename must be one of the predefined single-
letter codes listed in Chapter 6, “Using Layers to Organize Your Drawing,”
which explores the naming convention as applied to layer names.
The U.S. National CAD Standards have proven flexible enough to support
firms both large and small. By working through this topic you'll get a good
introduction to how the NCS works. If after reading this topic you would like
to learn more about the National CAD Standards, visit http://national
cadstandard.org .
From now on, when you're directed to save the drawing, save it as
##A-FPLAYO , with ## indicating the two-digit number of the chapter (for
example, 03 for Chapter 3). This way, you'll know where in the topic to look
for review, if necessary. Name multiple saves within a chapter ## A-FPLAY 1 ,
## A-FPLAY 2 , and so on. To save the current drawing under a different name,
use the SAVE AS command (Application Menu ➢ Save As or SAVEAS ↵ ).

TIP Each time you save, check your work against the online project files.
throughout the topic, you will be directed to save your cabin project in progress
at major stages. Files corresponding to each stage where you save your files are
available on this topic's web page: www.sybex.com/go/autocad2011ner .

You can also access a full range of additional resources including tutori-
als, videos, and more specific to the exercises in this topic from www.auto
cadner.com .