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At CADALYST, we field more questions about how to develop and implement office CAD standards than any other topic. In the past, very few off-the-shelf resources were available for CAD managers to refer to when writing office CAD standards. This changed in early 1999 with the publication of the first version of the NIBS (National Institute of Building Sciences) NCS (National CAD Standard).
The NIBS National CAD Standard is a compilation of publications developed independently by the AIA (American Institute of Architects), the CSI (Construction Specification Institute), and the Department of Defense Tri-Service CADD/GIS Technology Center. In 1997, NIBS agreed to serve as a clearinghouse and coordinator for a consensus approval process aimed at incorporating these preexisting documents into a national CAD standard. To date, NIBS has published, reviewed, and approved the first three parts of the NCS with amendments to the original publications.
NIBS National. CAD Standard
AIA CLG (CAD Layer Guidelines), Second Edition, 1997, was first published in 1990 and is the only layer-naming standard with significant acceptance in the building industry. Before adoping it, the NIBS consensus approval process produced more than fifty amendments, consisting primarily of additional layers or slightly revised layer names.
The approval process also resulted in a Minority Report that proposed significant modification to the AIA CLG to bring it into compliance with ISO (International Standards Organization) standards. This is a source of continuing debate among the NIBS NCS project committee members charged with reviewing additions to NCS-and it may not be resolved any time soon.
Tri-Service Plotting Guidelines was prepared by the U.S. Coast Guard for the Tri-Service CAD/GIS Center. It consists of a table that lists 255 NCS colors mapped to both AutoCAD and MicroStation color numbers. The NCS colors are identical to the standard AutoCAD color numbers. Each NCS color has an assigned pen plotter width limited to eight plotter pens (0. 18, 0.25, 0.35, 0.50, 0.70, 1.00, 1.40, and 2.00mm). Colors also have a more flexible and comprehensive set of laser, inkjet, and electrostatic raster plotter pen widths and MicroStation lineweight numbers. Each NCS color is assigned one of fourteen generic colors, with corresponding varied pen widths, for plotting in color.
CSI UDS (Uniform Drawing System), modules 1-3. In terms of volume of work...