AutoCAD Electrical

[#1]

Sometimes when i edit the wdp file (and its active) it does not show the changes i made after Refresh ?

Sometimes when i delete a project in the project manager, close AcadE and open it again later, the project is back ?

And this was not a problem with AcadE 2010 !

[#2]

Hi Wheelie.

Not a solution, but why are you editing the WDP-file directly?

THL

[#3]

We have projects with over 100 drawings and if the drawing description changes it is a lot of clicking in acad E, so to edit the wdp file is faster.

Im even working on a wdp editor in excel !

[#4]

Are you aware of the new function in AcadE 2012, where you can export/edit/import Project data via Excel?

THL

[#5]

That is a nice feature! I am looking forward to gettting 2012 one of these days.

Like Wheelie, I also find myself editing the .wdp with a text editor when I have many drawings that need description editing. I find it to be much faster. I also create new projects (from existinng projects) using this method.

[#6]

Yes, and i used it for the other category’s to, works fine, but for every project we have 5 separate directory's with their own wdp file. So i included these and now i can make changes like the format and pull down menus for standard drawing descriptions and a revision part with the right texts and engineer names. This means less mistakes and a better overview.

[#7]

You take a risk when you edit the WDP file directly.  One misplaced space and you may experience strange results.  This file is managed by the software and the software knows how to manage it without corruption.  I few releases back (I believe it was 2007-2008 era), editing the file with Wordpad or Notepad could damage it.  I was working with a customer at their location and found that they were editing the file directly, which was causing problems.  Nate advised against editing the file directly. I have since avoided edits to the WDP file directly.

The more familiar we become with the infrastructure of the software the more clever ideas we come up with for tweaking.  And quite often these ideas work just as expected.  But sometimes they throw the software a curve ball.  Many problems I see reported are issues of operator error, either from a lack of proper training or people trying "backdoor" tricks to take the software beyond its capabilities. It is already best in class software, and thus we are tempted to take it even farther.  I encourage experimentation. That is why the first day of the admin class I teach is devoted to the program's infrastructure and how knowing this allows us to tweak safely.  But sometimes we find that a tweak causes problems.  This is part of the learning experience and can be helpful information as well.  Even though we may cause an occasional problem by experimenting we also find successful solutions.  But with that said, editing the WDP file can be risky business.