Sheet Set Manager Simplified
June 27, 2025
Presented by: Jake Lott
It's time to build on our previous webinar introducing the basics of the Sheet Set Manager (SSM). Now we're diving deeper, showing you how to connect the SSM directly to your drawing templates so you're ready to roll from the moment a project kicks off. If you're hoping to streamline your workflow and take full advantage of what this handy feature has to offer, this session is for you.
Downloadable files mentioned in the webinar:
Webinar Contents:
Note: The following catalog of content covered in this webinar is time stamped to allow you to follow along or skip to sections of the video that are relevant to your questions. You can also search for content on this page using the FIND command in your browser (CTRL + F in Windows, Command + F in Mac OS.)
- Intro/TOC
- Organization of a New Sheet Set
- Understanding the Land F/X Default DWT
- Questions
0:00 – 5:29: Intro/TOC
5:30 – 33:51: Organization of a New Sheet Set
Folder structure overview (5:30)
Terminology (10:42)
- Sheet Set Manager: Palette used for organizing and managing drawing sheets and their associated data within a project.
- DST (Sheet Set): Stores the associations and information that define a sheet set. Functions as a project file that manages and organizes multiple drawing layouts from various DWG files.
- Sheet Set (DST): An organized collection of drawing sheets for a project.
- Subset: Collections used to organize sheets within a sheet set, often based on discipline, review status, or other logical groupings.
- Sheet: A selected layout from a drawing file that has been registered as a sheet within a sheet set.
- Attributes: Data fields associated with block definitions, allowing for the storage and display of specific information related to those blocks.
- Fields: Special text objects that dynamically display information that can change within a drawing.
Setting up your drawing template (DWT) and why we recommend using our default DWT (17:20)
Creating a new folder (29:46)
Editing a sheet set (32:05)
33:52 – end: Understanding the Land F/X Default DWT
Creating and configuring sheets based on the default Land F/X template (33:52)
Keeping each layout on a separate file, and why we recommend it (38:42):
- Flexibility
- Easier editing
- Prevention of drawing corruption
- Computer performance
- Linetype scale consistency
The sheet layout blocks available in our Discipline Graphics library (52:01)
Tips and tricks for editing title blocks (53:55)
Turning text into attributes using our TEXT 2 ATTRIB tool (56:07)
Updating attributes (58:09)
Reassociating the plot scale (59:20)
What to do if somebody accidentally edits the wrong way by double-clicking and overwriting the field text (1:01:00)
Questions
Question: I have had a problem with Sheet Sets locking and only the person who created it can only do any changes to it, which renders using SheetSets obsolete. I have contacted Autodesk for help on this but there hasn't been a fix for this.
Answer: That's frustrating! The sheet set does run from the DST file. Is it possible that your IT has put an automatic lock on some files/folders and is somehow catching the DST files in that net? It'd explain it and something to look into.
Question: You may want to tell how to turn the gray background on for the field – sometimes it's off. There is an ON OFF AutoCAD command.
Answer: To repeat for everybody, FIELDISPLAY is the system variable. 0 for the grey background OFF, 1 for ON. We prefer it ON so that any user can clearly see what's a field, and what's just a manually typed-in attribute.
Question: In the beginning, you mentioned the benefits of splitting up layouts into individual files. Not sure if it's beyond the scope of the webina,r but could you provide some examples of why it's better to split them up?
Answer: (Live answered at 38:42) See the community forum entry on Xref and sheet best practices.
I want to preface this by saying I also didn't fully understand the importance until I started working tech support here and saw how bad things can get very easily.
Some reasons:
- Corruption: Easier to contain infections. Less work to clean or re-do only the sheets that got hit really bad. If 10 layouts in a DWG, you'll need to redo them all.
- Computer performance: Each layout in a single drawing slows that drawing exponentially. Adding the 10th layout is way more slowdown than adding the 2nd.
- Ease of use with multiple users: You can have multiple users opening different DWGs without read-only issue.
- Linetype scale: You cannot scale linetypes in Paper Space correctly and linetypes in Model Space correctly at the same time (not talking about through a viewport). Only works when the sheet is a different DWG than the working model.
There's a few more, but those are the main headaches. Corruption and performance are the secret killers nobody realizes are building up. But as tech support for 1,000 offices, I've seen too many bad days and realized all the "my computer is slow" I experienced was actually due to these two.
Question: Just a question on formatting. Why do you all name your sheets some complex? L-LS01 and so on? Seems overly complicated.
Answer: The file naming is an office preference and sometimes dictated by another firm who is the project lead. Some of them do go that complex. Generally, this comes from the National CAD Standards in the US.
I sheet number as simple as 1, 2, 3, which is fine depending on the size of your drawing package.
My smaller firm typically used L01 for the first landscape planting plan, and D01 for the first Detail sheet."
Question: What are those blue squares on the Model space?
Answer: Jake drew the blue squares in Model Space to help initially organize how many sheets he'd need to show that large site at the ideal plan scale. It's a great method to get yourself organized before you start making layout spaces to plan your drawing package.
Question: Is there a way to mitigate the potential tediousness of opening several files or more to access layouts in that individual approach?
Answer: Yes. You can open them from the sheet set manager instead. Also, you should only open the files you are planning to work on in that moment.
Question: On some projects, I'll use a Layer State to keep a key map uniform across multiple layouts. Are you aware of any way to do that if we keep layouts on seperate files like you recommend?
Answer: You can use a relatively loaded Xref saved in the project folder in that case. That would be best.
Contact
- Land F/X
Our software tailors AutoCAD®, Revit®, SketchUp®, and Rhino® to the needs of landscape architects, irrigation designers, and other professionals. We automate your most tedious tasks and ensure accuracy, giving you more time to design.