AutoCAD Certified Professional Sam Lucido shares a tip that will save you time in AutoCAD by pre-setting your printer settings and easily importing them into any file.

"Do you use page setups? Do you set up your printers each time you publish or plot? One of my favorite commands (aside from Match Properties) is the PageSetup command. What you can do is create a template file with all of your page setups, PDF, DWF, and even printers across your company’s network. Place that file in a location where it can be easily accessed by all CAD operators. It does not even have to be a template file; you could use a drawing file instead. You might receive a drawing from a client that has specific settings in one of the many files — import those settings and save some time.

"When you start a new drawing, type PageSetup, then use the Import button. Select your template file (or DWG file) and import the settings you need. It sure does save a great deal of time when printing and plotting, and it also works great with the Sheet Set Manager."

Notes from Cadalyst Tip Patrol: Preparing page setups ahead of time is one of the biggest time-savers AutoCAD users can take advantage of. Put them in your template file. You can import the page setups from any DWG or DWT file at any time. Save them in the DWT file associated with your sheet set, so you won't have to set up the DWG file at all; just print from the Print Override Options. It will use the page setup in the DWT file associated with the sheet set.