Frequently Asked Questions about NCS/UDS
What is the current version of the National CAD Standard?
The current version of the NCS is Version 3.1 published in January 2005.
I appreciate the work that has been done. How can I help with acceptance and implementation of this extraordinary document?
To participate on the development of the standard please join the National CAD Standard Project Committee at http://www.nationalcadstandard.org/
I am in the process of setting up our office to use the National CAD Standard, and have been asked by the partners of the firm if there are any standards concerning colors for layers, i.e. do walls have to be the color yellow and notes the color blue?
The standard for colors to line weights is found in the NCS Plotting Guidelines. There is no plan to coordinate color with layers.
Is there customized traing available on the National CAD Standard?
CSI's Office of Professional Development can customize a program for your office. Please call CSI at 800 689 2900 for more information.
Do you have any other examples of clients requesting A&E firms to use the NCS? This would help me convince my local office CAD managers of the significance of NCS.
In the public sector, the Navy, Marine Corps, General Services Administration, the State of Utah, and the National Institutes of Health have adopted the standard. The Architect of the Capitol, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service is investigating use of the standard.
The standard is in various stages of use in the private sector by American Express, Federal Express, Intel, Nextel, the GAP, 3M Corporation, Einstein/Noah Bagel Corporation, Hartz Mountain Industries, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern Steel Company, Wal-Mart and Target Corporation to name a few.
Architectural and Engineering firms studying the components of the standard are Leo A. Daly Company, HDR, Inc, Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc., CH2M Hill, Inc., Raytheon Engineers and Constructors, Little and Associates, Perkins and Will, Richard Meier and Partners, RTKL Associates, Inc., Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, and NBBJ; the list goes on.
We have recently bought AIA's CAD Layer Guidelines, NCS Edition. Is there a CD-ROM or similar tool with layer list that can be loaded into CAD?
To date there is no authorized CAD software tool that has licensed the CLG from AIA. We understand that Bentley MicroStation and Auto CAD have used the CLG as a default standard in their recent software releases.
Our firm recently obtained a previous version of the UDS, which has listed, in its table of contents, modules seven and eight as being CAD standards and Color respectively. Our set does not contain these modules and upon inspection at the National CSI web site, these two modules are now listed as Notations and Code Conventions respectively. How did this come about and are there plans to create information in CAD standards and Color to be released at a later date?
The introduction to the UDS was created in 1997. In that time modules have been revised to respond to the user's need and the advances in CAD technology.
The than proposed CAD Standards module was revisited by CSI's UDS Task Team and the consensus concluded that the material which would be in the CAD Standards module would be inherent in all of the modules created and no stand-alone module on the subject was needed.
The proposed Color Module was also reviewed and it too was deleted as a stand-alone module. This was in part based on the CAD vendor consultants to the task team input which discouraged being specific on this topic. It was determined that color is user defined and is a tool -- not a product of presentation. UDS is concerned with presentation and format. While AutoCAD is color dependent and MicroStation is not (UDS does not want to be product oriented).
Why is the Construction Specifications Institute developing the UDS?
For over fifty years CSI has been developing technical documents, formats, guidelines and education programs to foster clear written communication among architects, engineers, specifiers, contractors, product suppliers and owners.
Over eight years ago the CSI Technical Committee created the Drawing Subcommittee to investigate the integration of drawings and specifications within the CAD environment. The investigation from more than 100 A/E/C organizations, government agencies, private firms and others showed the current standardization of drawings is much the same as existed for specifications before CSI and CSC introduced MasterFormat™. The purpose of the UDS is to provide a uniform location and standard format for information. Standards and formats promote standardization, aid in the retrieval of information, and improve construction communication.
CSI was created to develop standards for specifiers, why not develop the standards for drawings?
What does CSI know about drawings?
The membership of CSI is composed of the designer team, constructor team, supplier team and the owner team. All of these teams are made up of professionals who work daily with construction documents — a common element of their work is the drawing set. The Project Resource Manual - CSI Manual of Practice, discuss the elements of the drawing set. The past CSI publications of the Standard Reference Symbols ©, TD-2-6; Project Design Team Coordination and Checklist ©, TD-2-7; and Abbreviations ©, TD -2-4; are just a few of the numerous documents that have been tools for drawing users produced by CSI. While these documents (TD-2-4, TD-2-6, and TD-2-7) are no longer available as stand-alone publications much of their content if not all has been incorporated into the UDS.
So you see, CSI has years of experience creating documents for drawing users.
Why isn't AIA doing this?
The AIA plays a vital role in the NCS. They have created standards in Architectural Graphic Standards with the publisher, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. The AIA first published AIA CAD Layering Guidelines (CLG) in 1990, to standardize CAD layering. A very useful publication, it was reissued with a new layering standard in the fall of 1997, again 2004 as a part of the NCS 3.0, and now as a part of the NCS 3.1. The CLG is a key component of the NCS.
The UDS is addressing the full process from mock-up set to electronic receipt of files — a depth in project delivery systems that has yet to be addressed cooperatively within the construction industry.
CSI has the membership, the experience and the publishing track record to succeed in creating this important professional tool.
Does the UDS mesh with current CSI documents?
Absolutely. Great editorial care is being taken to use the terms, language and objectives of currently published CSI documents for quick reference.
Does the UDS mesh with current AIA documents?
Yes, one of the many important topics of the UDS, Discipline Designators, collaborated with AIA on the 1997 and 2004 "AIA CAD Layering Guidelines".
How does the UDS mesh with computer software, e.g., AutoCAD?
Two of the first three modules are provided on CAD platforms, AutoCAD, MicroStation and Generic CAD on a CD ROM. Other modules are being considered with links to these CAD platforms as third party software. Representatives from AutoCAD and MicroStation have assisted the modules development with the Task Team. The Symbols Module has a searchable key word index for the user to call up the relative symbol and create it on the drawing. The Terms and Abbreviations Module does the same, assisting the intern, architect, builder and product representative in creating, understanding and fulfilling the drawings intent.
How does the UDS serve the manual draftsperson and designer?
Drawings started manually and will continue to be created manually by many. The UDS will assist the manual drafter in the same way as it assists the electronic drafter. It creates the standard for locating information within the drawing set — consider it the guide to organizing drawing information.
The UDS is a collection of modules consisting of Drawing Set Organization, Sheet Organization, Schedules. Drafting Conventions, Symbols, Terms and Abbreviations, and Notations and Code Conventions.
What are the qualifications of the folks working on this?
The Uniform Drawing System Task Team is composed of leaders in the CSI membership and in the industry. Individuals are selected from the membership by the Executive Board to serve on the Task Team based on their professional contributions and expertise in project delivery. The diversity of the team is broad — specifiers, architects, engineers, principals of firms, representatives from electronic vendors, the federal government and established users of CSI resources contribute their time and knowledge daily to the effort of producing this document.
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