Typically, at the beginning of a project, you establish the standards that guide the project design. Project standards, called CAD standards, enhance efficiency, automate repetition, and maintain consistency across your project drawings and construction documents.
Templates store the following standards required to begin a drawing:
- Unit type and precision
- Drawing and plotting scales
- Dimension and text styles
- Layer structures
- Linetypes and lineweights
You can also establish the following design-specific standards on a drawing-by-drawing basis or add them to a template:
- Design and drawing preferences
- Coordinate systems
- Design and plotting display layouts
- Title blocks and borders
AutoCAD MEP 2024 toolset, together with AutoCAD Architecture 2024 toolset, provide several tools for establishing and managing standards. You can learn how to create standards for the following:
| To create | then learn about |
|---|---|
| custom layer structures | layers, layer standards, layer key styles, layer keys, and the Layer Manager in About AutoCAD MEP 2024 toolset Layer Standards |
| standard fonts | text styles and the Style Manager in About Creating Construction Documents and About Style Manager |
| standard dimensions | dimension styles and the Style Manager in About Creating Construction Documents and About Style Manager Note: AutoCAD MEP 2024 toolset objects do not support AEC Dimensions. Be sure to use AutoCAD MEP 2024 toolset annotation tools or AutoCAD
 dimensions. |
| annotation, such as labels | label styles and the Style Manager in About Essentials of Objects and About Style Manager |
| custom display representations | object types, standard display representations, and the Display Manager in About Essentials of Objects, About AutoCAD MEP 2024 toolset Displays, and About Display System |
| design layouts | design and layout preferences in About Drawing Preferences |
| title blocks and borders | layout tabs and templates in To Work with Default Drawing Templates |
| standard methods for plotting | plot styles, layout tabs, templates, and the Style Manager in To Work with Default Drawing Templates and About Style Manager |
The Project Standards feature lets you establish, maintain, and synchronize standards across all drawings in a Drawing Management project. Project standards include standard styles, display settings, and AutoCAD standards that are used across all project drawings. Standard styles and display settings are specified in one or more standards drawings associated with the project. Project drawings can then be synchronized with these standards throughout the project life cycle, either automatically, or on demand.