ABS Consultants, Inc.
Email CAD Files
February 23, 2008 | Copyright © 1997—2008 ABS Consultants, Inc.
 

abscad(AT)absconsultants.com
When sending CAD files, please use the CAD e-mail address identified above. This will expedite reaction to the transfer by allowing anyone in the CAD group to obtain your drawing files. If you send drawing files directly to an individual, they may not be processed as quickly as we or you would like us to.

Attachment Size Limit:
10MB (megabyte) is the maximum file size we are allowing into our system as of August 22, 2003. This means that a 7500KB file is a likely probable limit before it's translated for transfer across the Internet. The conversion factor will vary depending upon the content of the source file. The reason for the attachment size limitation arose due to someone's attempt at sending us an 800MB project directory of CAD files. This was very badly handled by our email server; can't image how it was handled by the sender's server.
If your email was rejected, please attempt to send the attachment as a multi-part message. We are anticipating the addition of a FTP site by have not yet completed those plans.

EXE/COM Attachment Prohibition:
Due to the propensity for virus activity via executable files, all EXE and COM files are prohibited by our network system. When sending compressed drawing files, please send ZIP files in lieu of EXE files. They won't be removed by our network system.

The following steps will help us to accommodate your needs more effectively:
  • Let your primary contact at our office know of the file transfer whenever possible. We check for CAD e-mail several times a day but it doesn't hurt to have advance notice.
  • "Attach" compressed files to your e-mail rather than inserting them.
  • Use file compression with drawing files, using one or several attachments. ZIP files are ideal.
  • Set your e-mail software to use MIME encoding if possible. Our e-mail software can handle uuencoded files but historically this encoding method has been a source of problems, especially with AOL accounts.

Conditions Influencing a Successful Transfer
We have a file size limitation for incoming messages and their attachments. It is not uncommon for problems to occur during a transfer, especially with large attachments. If your drawing files are quite large (a multi-megabyte monster), it could arrive incomplete due to file size transfer limitations induced by the servers along the email route. Should we encounter a problem, we'll contact you about splitting the transfer into more than one file transfer session.