The drawings in this file are Autocad R14 format.

These blocks were drawn using information from the National Fire Protection Asso
ciation(NFPA) Manual, NFPA 170 Standard for Fire Safety Symbols 1996 Third Editi
on.
Below are the reasons I drew the blocks like I did. Hopefully this will answer t
he questions of "Why the heck is it drawn it like that?".
The blocks are drawn "Full Scale" so that if these blocks are inserted into a 1"
=1" drawing, any text within the block will have a height of 1'-0" and a width o
f 1.0. When plotted to a 1/8" = 1'-0" scale drawing, the text will have a height
of 1/8". A "Standard" style was used with a "txt.shx" font so that there were n
o problems with someone not having the correct font file.
The base points of the blocks(the insertion points) are to make placement easier
and correctly within a drawing. The color and linetype of the blocks are define
d as bylayer. This is so that if you use various colors and linetypes to define
"New" or "Existing" devices, the color and linetype will reflect the layer setti
ngs.
Some of these blocks have text that is an attribute. Making the text into an att
ribute instead of plain text gives you the ability to move the text around and a
djust the angle of the text without having to first explode the block. The block
s with just plain text are those that have text located within the lines of the
block and should remain within the lines of the block. If you place the block co
rrectly, the text within the block should easily be read. There is one block tha
t has an attribute defined within the lines of the block (HORNSTROBEMINI.DWG). T
he text within this block is an attribute becuase proper placement of Fire Alarm
Notification Appliances does not always allow your text for this block to be or
iented correctly due to the design of the block. The text justification of this
block is set to "Middle Center" so that the text will rotate around the exact mi
ddle of the lines in which it is located.
I have set the text justification of the blocks instead of accepting the default
Autocad justification becuase I know that if I want to change the text justific
ation of some text or attribute that has been set to the default justification,
it will go to the 0,0 coordinates. This is such a pain to deal with. If you defi
ne the justification instead of accepting the default, then it stays within the
area of the original text/attribute and thus makes it much easier to locate and
deal with.
Feel free to modify the blocks any way you feel you need to. The general idea of
these blocks is to show the NFPA defined symbols for Fire Alarms, Detection and
Related Equipment. Hopefully more Architects and Engineers will start using the
se and there will be a Standard that us Cadsters can easily decipher what the Ar
chitect or Engineer wants.
Timothy Jaronik
"CAD Dude"