Can I use PROJECTNAME variable to do this?

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I hope I can explain my question without going on too long...
I have a couple people who will be creating new drawings. They will need to attach reference drawings which are stored on a server in a very long path. I'm trying to help make it easy for them to attach reference drawings.

I go to the Options dialog box and under Files I create a project under the Project Files Search Path.
I call the project S282 and set the path to \\server\real\long\path.
Now I create a new drawing. I'm in my new drawing and want to attach a reference drawing.
When I go to attach the new reference I get a dialog box to Select Reference File.
On the Look in: pulldown I see all my mapped drives and things like My Computer and My Network Places but I see nothing relating to the project path I defined. Is it just wishful thinking on my part but shouldn't I be able to select a refence from the place I set my project path to? I was hoping to somehow click or select my "S282" and be taken to where S282 is defined in my Options.

I understand that once a reference file is attached the project setting will find the drawing the 2nd time the file is opened. Why doesn't the project setting help me attach the file in the 1st place? I hope this makes sense.

Thank you,
Steve

[Anonymous]

On Tue, 10 May 2005 15:38:06 +0000, Steven Chestnut <> wrote:

>When I go to attach the new reference I get a dialog box to Select Reference File.
>On the Look in: pulldown I see all my mapped drives and things like My Computer and My Network Places but I see nothing relating to the project path I defined. Is it just wishful thinking on my part but shouldn't I be able to select a refence from the place I set my project path to? I was hoping to somehow click or select my "S282" and be taken to where S282 is defined in my Options.

Nope, that's not how PROJECTNAME works. It doesn't affect how the XREF
command/UI works, only how AutoCAD looks for Xrefs to resolve them.

IMHO I've found PROJECTNAME to be fairly worthless, but what it does is assign
one or more search paths to a Project Name, and assigns that Project Name to the
drawing file itself.

When your drawing goes looking for an Xref, it will add the paths referenced by
the Project Name to the search path, so you can resolve an Xref without hard
coded paths or having the drawing in your current drawing's directory.

> Why doesn't the project setting help me attach the file in the 1st place? I hope this makes sense.

Yep, which is why it's kind of bewildering that such functionality hasn't been
included in AutoCAD to date. Being that the nature of the work we all do in
AutoCAD is purely project based, it would only make sense that the core
referencing component of AutoCAD properly take this into account.

Matt
mstachoni@comcast.net
mstachoni@bhhtait.com

[Anonymous]

Interesting. The help files say that the Projectname string will take effect
when the X-refs or Images are not found. Then AutoCAD will look in the list
of folders specified in Projectname. The feature is not intended to work as
a shortcut in the Xref dialog box. But you have a valid point. It seems
logical that one the Projectname is set, it should be somewhere handy in the
Xref dialog box.
As an alternative, I use the "Favorites" feature of the dialog box. Once I
know that I am going to work on a project for a long time, I set up its path
as a favorite item, and then I just click on it and it takes me directly to
the folder.

Alfredo Medina
alfmedina@hotmail.com


wrote in message news:4839983@discussion.autodesk.com...
Hello,

(...)
I understand that once a reference file is attached the project setting will
find the drawing the 2nd time the file is opened. Why doesn't the project
setting help me attach the file in the 1st place? I hope this makes sense.

Thank you,
Steve

[Anonymous]

Hello Matt,
Thank you for helping me figure out that I'm not crazy. I think you're right. When I assigned a path value to S282 I thought that I'd be able to use that S282 to assist me in attaching files. I looked and read the help files over and over. All I did is get confused. Thanks for your honest answer.

Hello Alfredo,
Thank you too for your respoonse. Your sugestion is a good work-around.

[Anonymous]

And its the same work around you received in another NG. 🙂

[Anonymous]

could you not map a drive to the head directory of the server just above the point you want to access the reference paths
(of course you would have to map the same drive for all users or have problems with the reference files.

[Anonymous]

I use Projectname around here. Although, as you found, it's actual usefulness is somewhat limited.
I basically use it only for CAD to be able find xrefs across different projects from the same client. That way I can set up a profile to use that client's CAD standards on all their projects, while still maintaining each project's specific network locations.
It's definitely not really how I would prefer to do things, but I am limited by some other things that my company does (in the name of supporting Microstation, as we are supposedly a Microstation house...).

I have found the one thing about projectname that tends to trip people up around here is this: They will copy dwgs from one project to another, open up the "new" dwg, detach the "old" xrefs, attach the correct xrefs, make their changes, etc, and save/close.
But then the next time they open the dwg (or batch plot/publish it), the xrefs don't load in, because they forgot to change the projectname variable when they copied the sheet to the new project...

[Anonymous]

Thanks to all for the info.
Take care,
Steve

[drscheller]

Steven,

Try this on for size.

Although PROJECTNAME is an attempt to resolve xrefs, it takes some time by the user to set up their system, and their drawings to use it. The idea is to make things easier and faster for them. In my office I have 100 users and over 350 projects, I don't want to have to set up each system for this method.

If you are simply looking for a way to resolve xrefs faster, including speeding up the xref attach dialog box, here are two possible solutions that have worked great for me, However a limitation that was not to hard to overcome is that you have store all the xrefs for a Project in the same folder.

Note there are two standard search paths that are not listed in the options dialog box, the first one is the folder that contains the current drawing, the second is the folder from which AutoCAD was started, these are searched before the listed search paths in the Options dialog box.

1. Create you a new Shortcut Icon that runs the acad.exe file and Name it your Project Name
Right Click on the new Icon choose properties and set the "Start In" line equal to the location of the xrefs.
When you use this icon to start AutoCAD the "xref" folder is now included in AutoCAD's standard search paths. Now this will do two things for you. Resolve Xrefs stored in that folder without the need for a path, and also, when you use the Open File dialog, or others such as XREF attach, you will automatically be in that folder.

2. Create a bat file that you will use to start AutoCAD, inside this bat file set to the drive that the project is stored on, then use the cd command to change directory to the "xref" folder. Then run the acad.exe This gives you the exact same result as in step one, starting AutoCAD from the "xref" folder. The Syntax would be like this.

P: (change to Project drive)
cd\Project\XrefFolder (change to Xref folder)
C:\2005\acad.exe (Run acad.exe from install path)

Note - If you use spaces in any folder names you must "quote" the entire path. I.E. "C:\Program Files\Acad 2005\acad.exe"

Now that you have created this bat file create a shortcut that runs it, instead of acad.exe.

What I do in my office is, I have a network folder full of bat files, then I have another folder full of shortcut's to each bat file. At the users desk I created a Program group on their Start menu that gets them to the shortcuts to launch AutoCAD for any given Project. If I need to move a project or rework it some how I only have to make one edit, and all the users see the change.

Now this seems like a lot of work, especially if you have a lot of existing projects, however once you get the system down and start making these shortcuts when you create a new project, you will have a well oiled machine. This works well in our office because we store all "model" (xrefs) in single folder for each project, then all "sheet" files are stored in discipline folders directly under the xref folder.

Another note to consider, AutoCAD ships with a variable called REMEMBERFOLDERS set to ON, in order for the "Start In" folder to take over you must Turn this OFF.

I hope this helps you out, It may seem like a lot, but I can't live without it, now.

Darren S