CAD Standards
Updated: 6 June 2008United States Coast Guard requires delivery of CAD data to be in compliance with the National CAD Standard (NCS) published by the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS). The current version of the published standard can be obtained from the following web site: National CAD Standard.
U. S. Coast Guard implementation Guide for the National CAD Standard (NCS) Specification.
U.S. Coast Guard supports the use of the National Cad Standard. The U.S. Coast Guard will provide implementation guidelines for deliverables. Guidelines will address implementing the NCS in what is considered critical areas.
File naming format: CAD files will be named and delivered using U.S. Coast Guard serial numbers provided by the contracting engineering office.
Template files: Template files will be provided by the U.S. Coast Guard and contracted delivered CAD files will use only title blocks that are included in the USCG CAD template files. The USCG Civil Engineering Technology Center website will provide the current U.S. Coast Guard approved template files for download.
General text shall be set to plot “0.1” inch text height when plotted at contract document intended scale.
Line-weights shall be stored in the entity (line, point, arc etc.) and not require the use of external files to achieve desired results. (Example AutoCAD drawings cannot use PLT or Plot style references on delivered sheet CAD files.)
Building model files shall comply with the NCS at export level. This includes output to plotted files and to vector based CAD files. Model standards shall comply with current Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) published by the International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI). An application that provides this format is ArchiCAD by GraphiSoft. Other applications can be found on the IAI or BLIS web-sites.
International Alliance for Interoperability
Building Lifecycle Interoperable Software
AutoCAD Plotter Configuration Guide
Download Plug-Ins
Download Plug-Ins: Some of the links on this page require a plug-in to view them. Links to the plug-ins are available below.
Adobe Acrobat Reader (PDF)
Adobe Acrobat Reader (PDF)
Last Modified 1/26/2012