Autodesk FMDesktop

[#1]

I'm using ACA 2008 with FMD 7.1

I created all of my spaces (all in one go, so they shouldn't have
duplicate 'number's, as I've experienced in the past and I know will
cause problems). Then, I made sure all of the space 'Name's were unique
(using our standard space tag of CC-##-###).

Now I'm ready to use this existing space plan with FMD. I log the
drawing, apply FMSpaces Property Set Definition (PSD) and sundry.

Now, my problem comes with the Extended Data Tab in ACA.

There are two fields, 'Name' and 'Number' that I'm concerned with. I'd
like to copy the field 'name' into the field 'number' so that it's
unique, and I can more easily identify the space once it's imported into
FMD, without the meaningless 'number' field to throw me off and take up
space.

I'd like to know how to batch change that, if it's possible?

I could go into FMD and copy over the column from the backend, but,
while that seems to work for my database, it's going to break my
connection with the original drawing, making future updates a nightmare
and require a huge amount of rework.

I'd love some advice/insight on how I should be going about this.

Thanks for your time,

Melanie Perry
***not all who wander are lost***
http://Tech-Tea.com
http://AUGI.com/AutoCAD
http://mistressofthedorkness.blogspot.com

[#2]

Okay, I know this technically won't work in ACA, since the 'number'
field in ACA will not accept letter characters.

Dagnabbit. ~grumble~

Wanderer wrote:
> I'm using ACA 2008 with FMD 7.1
>
> I created all of my spaces (all in one go, so they shouldn't have
> duplicate 'number's, as I've experienced in the past and I know will
> cause problems). Then, I made sure all of the space 'Name's were unique
> (using our standard space tag of CC-##-###).
>
> Now I'm ready to use this existing space plan with FMD. I log the
> drawing, apply FMSpaces Property Set Definition (PSD) and sundry.
>
> Now, my problem comes with the Extended Data Tab in ACA.
>
> There are
> two fields, 'Name' and 'Number' that I'm concerned with. I'd
> like to copy the field 'name' into the field 'number' so that it's
> unique, and I can more easily identify the space once it's imported into
> FMD, without the meaningless 'number' field to throw me off and take up
> space.
>
> I'd like to know how to batch change that, if it's possible?
>
> I could go into FMD and copy over the column from the backend, but,
> while that seems to work for my database, it's going to break my
> conne
> ction with the original drawing, making future updates a nightmare
> and require a huge amount of rework.
>
> I'd love some advice/insight on how I should be going about this.
>
> Thanks for your time,
>
> Melanie Perry
> ***not all who wander are lost***
> http://Tech-Tea.com
> http://AUGI.com/AutoCAD
> http://mistressofthedorkness.blogspot.com
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>

[#3]

I'm not sure I am following you completely since I am sleep deprived and not an ACAD (any flavor) expert. But I might trigger a different way of thinking about it.

Do you really need to move this field in ACA? What if you included that field in the DWF that you export and then apply that field mapping when you import the DWF in Facility Manager? Would that give you the result you seek?

Mark Evans

[#4]

Well, I can't really move the field in ACA since it has non-numeric
characters, but, since I have unique space designations, I'm being
irritated by these random numbers, I'd rather not see them (and have
them confuse the end users).

I'm not sure what you're getting at with Field Mapping? Are you talking
about the actual 'field' feature within AutoCAD, or are you referring to
the fields in the space properties?

Thanks!

Melanie Perry
***not all who wander are lost***
http://Tech-Tea.com
http://AUGI.com/AutoCAD
http://mistressofthedorkness.blogspot.com

Mark Evans wrote:
> I'm not sure I am following you completely since I am sleep deprived and not an ACAD (any flavor) expert. But I might trigger a different way of thinking about it.
>
> Do you really need to move this field in ACA? What if you included that field in the DWF that you export and then apply that field mapping when you import the DWF in Facility Manager? Would that give you the result you seek?
>
> Mark Evans

[#5]

I mean, when you use the DWF Import command in Facility Manager, on the dialog that comes up after you select the DWF file, you can hit the "Map Properties" button. That will open a dialog that lets you map any properties attached to the spaces in the DWF to space attributes in the FMDesktop database. That would allow you to move your "unique space designations" into the "Common Name" field in FMDesktop, for example.

Of course, I am assuming you are worried about confusing users of FMDesktop reports. If you mean confusing users of ACA drawings, then I've missed the point entirely.

Mark Evans

[#6]

Hmm, okay, I think I've got it now! I'll have to give that a try.

Yes, you've read my point correctly. I don't want to confuse my end
users (I'm the only ACA user, I just assumed I'd have to make any
changes within ACA so that the next time I exported/imported my
documents, that they wouldn't have a disconnect with my FMD database).

Thanks!


Melanie Perry
***not all who wander are lost***
http://Tech-Tea.com
http://AUGI.com/AutoCAD
http://mistressofthedorkness.blogspot.com

Mark Evans wrote:
> I mean, when you use the DWF Import command in Facility Manager, on the dialog that comes up after you select the DWF file, you can hit the "Map Properties" button. That will open a dialog that lets you map any properties attached to the spaces in the DWF to space attributes in the FMDesktop database. That would allow you to move your "unique space designations" into the "Common Name" field in FMDesktop, for example.
>
> Of course, I am assuming you are worried about confusing users of FMDesktop reports. If you mean confusing users of ACA drawings, then I've missed the point entirely.
>
> Mark Evans