Expert: Bill DeShawn - 9/25/2007

Question
MR. DeShawn, it seems like you've been asked this questions regarding keynoting quite a bit.  My office is currently on AutoCAD 2008 suite with Revit.  We haven't dove into Revit yet, which is part of the problem, but anyways we are still using AutoCAD as though it was 2000 version.

My question pertains to reference keynote or keynoting which to my understanding refers to the ability to link a list of keynotes to plotsheets or drawings.  Does this allow one to insert only the keynotes that pertains to the drawing and does it display a keynote legend with just those keynotes.  Also, if we change the numbers or text on the master keynote does it change it thru out the drawing set?  

What I have been told is that the Architectural Suite 2008 does not have this capability.  Is this correct, and if so is there a way to create a lisp or something that would allow us to have this function?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Jason Walters

Answer
Jason:
Owen asked me a similar question.  This is what I told him:
One thing that I have done is attach a hyperlink to an object (be it a text, mtext, or block reference), and set it to open a word document, text document or spreadsheet.  So, you would therefore have an externally referenced document that would need to accompany the drawing just like an XREF.  ETRANSMIT would not look for it, so you would just have to remember that the document exists or place a note in the drawing to remind a viewer or drafter that the document needs to be found by AutoCAD to reference it.  All "keynoted" objects could have attached separate or identical hyperlinks to either separate documents or the same document.  

So, if Architectural Suite 2008 doesn't have keynoting anymore, then do the hyperlink trick to a document that you can open with the software on your computer.  Even a small text file that can describe the item you're referencing would be good.  You can keep all such files in one sub folder of your project folder, so they won't get erased by somebody who doesn't know what they are.  You can even point them to the same file like an excel or works spreadsheet when you can have a bill of materials or window and door schedule.  I am sure that Architectural can create a schedule of windows and doors, so, what other keynoting do you need to do?

Bill DeShawn
http://my.sterling.net/~bdeshawn