MikeBISD

We typically do multiple subsystems in each project. House audio, video systems, KSU or PBX phone system, network, HVAC, CCTV, etc. So far, we have always created a separate planview page for each floor for groups of related subsystems:

Phone/Network
Audio/Video/Control/CCTV
HVAC (usually its own page)

We would like to begin doing this differently, so that we use only one page for each floor. We can just turn off unnecessary layers as needed when working on the drawings. But when we plot out plans to hand to a builder, client or techs in the field, the sheet name and number on the title block won't reflect that - it would always show the name of the sheet, which might just be "First Floor".

What's the best (easiest?) way to alter the page name and drawing number in the D-Tools title block to show what we want? Or maybe there's an alternate way of looking at this I'm not considering?

Thanks,

JohnVisioMVP

Use a background page for the common information including fields that reflect information from the foreground page (like page name, page number, scale, number of pages etc... )

MikeBISD

OK, thanks John, do I have this right?

I would create a background page for each floor: "1st Floor", "2nd Floor", etc. Those pages would have floorplan objects imported from AutoCAD, and I'd drop all of my planview icons on these pages, for all disciplines. These pages would also have the D-Tools Title Block page as THEIR background.

Then I would set up a BLANK page for each separate view for each floor:

First Floor Phone/Net
First Floor Audio/Video
Second Floor Phone/Net
Second Floor Audio/Video

Each of these pages would have the First Floor or Second Floor background page as appropriate. I can turn off all layers but phone and network on the 1st Floor page and plot "First Floor Phone/Net" and I get only what I want.

I can see where this would work, but still have one question. In AutoCAD, you can set up viewport windows in paperspace - each window has only the layers you need to see for that view (phone/net, A/V, etc). These viewports are frozen. You basically set them up once for the layers needed and that's it, you generally don't need to change that again.

Is there a way to do that in Visio, so that I don't have to turn layers on and off each time I want to plot a new page?

fryeguy

This does work but keep in mind that you would have to turn layers on and off from the background pages because background layers are not available from the pages that reference them. Otherwise this would work almost like xrefs in AutoCAD...

I don't know of any capability within Visio to create layer states like you can in AutoCAD. Every time I read about something like this I get really anxious to starting using AutoCAD w/ D-Tools but then I have nightmares about the original SI5. I know some folks use AutoCAD with D-Tools but I can't speak for them. What I do know is that AutoCAD can handle this type of scenario with ease.