Logical Names in References

RE: Logical Names in References

caddcop — Tue, 14 Apr 2015 20:33:13 GMT

I'm working on a project where the client dictated file names are less than descriptive. Using brief but descriptive logical names makes working with these files much easier. Now that the hover over tooltips will list reference file names and their logical names I believe there are even more reasons to use them.

RE: Logical Names in References

Lorys — Mon, 06 Apr 2015 08:37:21 GMT

In shared network or drawing office where others may use your files it makes good sense to document your use of ref files, especially for things that need updating and issuing to clients regularly by any member of your team or company ...

Its just good drafting practice to document everything and using logical names makes it very easy..

You may also forget how a drawing was / is constructed as you might only have certain levels on out of a whole lot of other levels... say a cadastral file might have council or municipal boundaries in it as well as loads of other data but you might only want the municipal boundaries and their names so if you turn off all the other levels

hence your ref file name is X:\mapdata\cadastral zone 55.dgn

but your logical name is Municipal_Boundary this makes it easy for others to analyse you drawing too... 12 months from now you might forget how you built some complex drawing with 10 or 20 ref files and 5 or more levels used and nesting too!

RE: Logical Names in References

George A. Martin — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 14:51:45 GMT

I use them all the time. I use them for the reasons Henk states and I also use them so I have a clue what that particular attachment is used for KP (KeyPlan), Sect1, B1 (Base file), T# (Topo file) C# (Contour), U# Utility and more. Many times the filenames don't tell you what or why you attached that file. I can also use the logical names to filter files. It is not unusual to have between 30 and 60 (or more) reference attachments.

RE: Logical Names in References

Henk Ligtvoet — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 08:48:13 GMT

Hi Marc,

How about the following:
- when you have the same file attached more than once (different views/blow-ups of details etc), the only way to be able to identify them is by using (meaningful) logical names.
- when you are not using the Reference Manager dialog, but instead are using key-ins/macros to manipulate reference files, the use of short logical names will make it so much easier to identify which reference file the manipulation should be applied to.

hth

Henk