In order to
build a useful list of layers and classes for a project, think about all the ways you may wish to view the various sets of objects in the file during the life of the project; I use layers to keep groups of objects that are normally considered at the same height such as
grid,
deck, traps. So, everything on the
stage deck is
in one layer.
Then I use classes to get visibilities of related objects that are needed to create particular types of drawings, like
light plot, scenic
plot, audio,
etc. So in the simplest sense, you have layers representing stuff at various elevations in your space and classes breaking out stuff for different types of drawings such as lighting, scenic, audio,
etc.
The goal is to be able to produce all the drawings that you need from the same file by making the appropriate layers and classes visible that are needed for each drawing type.
This is the basic premise, but it is rarely simple. It’s complicated because you end up making classes like scenery Dash act, one, scenery – act two, lighting,
etc., in order to distinguish the objects well enough to produce your entire drawing set while hopefully only drawing each object once.
Typically, you can get all the drawings you need from one file, but there is often large numbers of layers and classes to produce the necessary separation to produce all of the needed sheets.
I would also recommend drawing in 3-D, so that you can produce all the needed views, such as front view, top view, side view,
etc., for details, with the same file.
Then, it’s a matter of creating useful sets of saved views in the file that produce each of the plates in your drawing set with a simple saved view.
—
Hth,
Frank Brault