Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
gon name and password can see and download files. FTP overcomes the file size limita-
tions that often occur with e-mail.
Because of all these FTP benefits, it's increasingly common for people at larger compan-
ies to place drawing files on their company's FTP site and tell you to go get them. This
approach relieves them of having to e-mail you the files, and relieves you of waiting for
that 10MB e-mail download when you least expected it.
In most cases, the person making the files available to you via FTP will send you a Uni-
form Resource Locator (URL) that looks like a Web-page address, except that it starts
with
ftp://
instead of
http://
. If you open your Web browser and enter the FTP URL
into the address field, the browser connects to the FTP site, asks you for a location and
name to use for the file when it gets copied to your system, and begins downloading the
file. If the FTP site uses password protection, you'll have to enter a logon name and
password first.
If you want fancier FTP download options, you can use an FTP utility such as FileZilla
Bad reception?
Other sections in this chapter focus on sending files to others. What happens when
you're on the receiving end? Not everyone will be as conscientious as you are about fol-
lowing the Golden Rule of Drawing Exchange. You'll receive drawings with missing de-
pendent files and no information or support files for plotting.
When you receive an e-mail message or FTP download that contains drawings (zipped, I
hope!), copy the file to a new folder on your hard disk or a network disk and unzip the
files.
Check at least a few of the drawings in the package to make sure that all the
xrefs and other reference files, fonts, and raster image files were included. You can
perform this check by opening each main drawing in that folder. After you open
each file, press the F2 key to view the AutoCAD text window and look for missing
font and xref error messages of the following sort:
Substituting [simplex.shx] for [helv.shx].
Resolve Xref “GRID”: C:\Here\There\Nowhere\grid.dwg
Can't find C:\Here\There\Nowhere\grid.dwg
