turning on and off for reference only drawings

[ccad2509]

anybody know how to turn on and off a group of "for reference only drawings" in the project manager as i need to turn off and on large groups of drawings in a single project and doing it one at a time takes forever

have i missed the obvious somewhere ?

[rhesusminus · Accepted solution]

The only other way that i know of, is the "hacker way".

Open the WDP-file in a text-editor, and place "====REF" on the line above the DWG-files you want to set as "for reference only"

In this example, 9.dwg si for reference only.

=ELECTRICAL
===I/O-1 01 INPUTS
7.dwg
=ELECTRICAL
===I/O-1 02 INPUTS
8.dwg
=ELECTRICAL
===I/O-1 03 INPUTS
====REF
9.dwg

[ccad2509]

Thanks for the answer

It’s a possibility later on

FYI I wasted half a day switching on and off reference drawings which in all fairness should have been 5 minutes if a group feature was available

why did I do this the project I’m working on is 400+pages with approx 100 pages which are in subfolders some of these sub folders have up to 10 drawings each one a specific variant on a piece of circuit

The logic here is one large base project with multiple sub folders with different user options already designed (and it grows as client requirements multiply)

The workflow is copy master project delete irrelevant pages activate option pages flatten sub folders and now it’s a cross reference exercise to get a working project

Needless to say when a page is for reference only most of acade features are disabled so switching in and out is burning lots of time as I wait for each single page to update

So Pat Murren how hard would it be to add this feature as it’s a pain in my (*&*&% at the moment

[Icemanau]

Any idea that is not a hotfix or bug fix will take at least 2 years if Autodesk decides to implement it.

It won't go into the current release obviously, and by the time the new release comes out, the majority of developers are working on the next release.

Depending on how far they are along in the development process, it may be considered for the next release, but more likely it will be considered for the release after that.

Of course, that depends on them knowing about any items that are being wished for. Most of the developers don't have time to monitor the forums where most of these ideas come up.

Regards Brad

[ccad2509]

Interesting response

If you’re saying that the developers don’t check this forum for ideas who does and who decides what the developers need to work on next

Autodesk is generally slow to respond and it does seem to me that they don’t even bother or totally ignore what other electrical cad packages are doing case in point is the smart pdf thread other cad packages have had it for more than the 2 year lag from idea to release

And today we have an Allen Bradley package come available

When are they going to swap over to the server based parts / content like there opposition

Where theyhave  a link inside the cad package to a dedicated server which has content? (And this idea has been around for at least 6 years)

especially when autodesks next big idea they are pushing is cloud services !!!!

[mathalekar]

We note down this as a feature request enhancement to our existing features and register in our system.

[ccad2509]

i have seen this meesage quite a bit recetly

"We note down this as a feature request enhancement to our existing features and register in our system".

out of intrest whats the workflow fo this

how many requests are sitting in this system and who gets to prioritise and has any of these requests are being worked on if at all ?

[mathalekar]

Good Question !

We register all requests coming out of discussions, forums, emails, product feedback, product support in the system and triage it based on requirements and come to a meaningful common solution for mass users. Every single wishlist / requirement is considered and put up for discussion with Product Definitation & product management team to make it through to Main productline upon approval.

So to bottomline is every single request / wishlist is important & IS CONSIDERED, DISCUSSED.

So keep on giving us your valuable views and we will consider based on braoader level interest for the benefit of the users !!!

I hope i am giving you bit of insight the mechanism we have 

Regards,

Mayuresh Athalekar

Autodesk AutoCAD Electrical Team !

[JMARSHALL1249]

This may not be the correct solution, but it works for me:-

I've added a field to the TITLE_BLOCK template called 'DRAWING STATUS'. Then from the 'Descriptions' dialogue box, this field can read 'FOR INFORMATION ONLY', 'DRAFT', 'ENGINEERS COPY' etc.  It can of course be left blank.  This field can then be updated on a Project Wide basis, or individually to suit your needs.

I've generated the attribute using colour 253, so that it is subtle, and doesn't spoil the detail off the drawing.  Also, I have a project wide 'Send to Back' command script, so that the text sits behind the drawing rather than overlays it.

Hioe this helps.

[ccad2509]

just got round to trying this

i manged to turn off 100 drawings in less than 5 minutes

made my life just a little bit easier

cheers