Many CAD Manager columns by Michael Dakan and me address CAD standards directly or indirectly. You’ll find CAD Manager columns for the past couple of years on the CADALYST site under CAD Management.

General interest
The International Standards Organization has reams of documents on CAD and other standards, including a trio of documents that cover CAD layers: ISO 13567-1, 13567-2, and 13567. www.iso.ch

Industry specifics
NIBS National CAD Standard (see p. 42 of the April 2000 issue of CADALYST for details): www.nationalcadstandard.org.

CAD Layer Guidelines, Second Edition: Booklet from the American Institute of Architects. You can order it from the AIA (888.272.4115, order number R809-97) or purchase it as part of the NIBS National CAD Standard.

CSI’s (Construction Specifications Institute) UDS (Uniform Drawing System) is available from CSI or as part of the NIBS National CAD Standard: www.csinet.org

The U.S. military’s CADD/GIS Technology Center publishes an A/E/C CAD standard: tsc.wes.army.mil/products/standards/aec/intro.asp

Softco’s S-MAN Standards Management system is a "fill-in-the-blanks" system for AEC drawings. Translation software converts between different sets of standards: www.softcosys.com

CADCOM’s ASCAD system for civil engineering drawings: www.cadcom.ca

GDM Software offers a CAD toolkit for MicroStation users. It lets you define your CAD standards as a rule file, then uses the file to check drawings for compliance. An AutoCAD version is due out soon: www.gdmsoft.com

British Standards Institution’s BS 1192-5: A popular AEC standard among CAD users in the United Kingdom: bsonline.techindex.co.uk/

Managing AutoCAD in the Design Firm, a book by Karen A. Vagts, Addison-Wesley.