AutoCAD Electrical Forum
Welcome to Autodesk’s AutoCAD Electrical Forums. Share your knowledge, ask questions, and explore popular AutoCAD Electrical topics.
cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Rename dwg with Autocad Electrical Project Manager Sheet Number

15 REPLIES 15
Reply
Message 1 of 16
jonathanburke6933
2716 Views, 15 Replies

Rename dwg with Autocad Electrical Project Manager Sheet Number

I have to issue drawings to our clients in dwg format. When copying them out of the ACE project folder they are meaningless to a client unless we manually rename each file in the project manager beforehand to include the sheet number and/or drawing number of the completed and correctly ordered project as a prefix/suffix. The customer has no way of looking at the sheets correctly ordered using the WDP project file/Autocad Electrical Project Manager.

 

So our options are:

1) to initially add the required prefix/suffix as you are building the project, but you risk having to manually rename each sheet if you have to insert one whilst the design progresses.

 

2) use a bit of external software like bulkrename utility. This is ok for a few files as you can look at the contents sheet and move them around into the correct order before adding the prefix (can only drag a single sheet aound at a time), but if you have hundreds of files this is impossible and extremely time consuming.

 

I believe this issue should be quite common and am hoping that someone out there has an answer . Our subscription provider CADLine has advise that there is nothing they can do to help out short of quoting us to write a bit of software to acheive. To me it seems a simple thing to add to Autocad Electrical, but since I believe we requested it in 2009/2010 through their wish list system, I can only assume there are not many who have this issue. It would be great to hear your thoughts.

 

Regards

 

Jonathan

15 REPLIES 15
Message 2 of 16

Hi I have been told that CADline have opened a support case on the subject - Case 08548620 - Drawing Filename Rename

Message 3 of 16

Hi Jonathan

 

One option that you might consider is creating and sending the drawings as an AutoCAD Sheet Set.  This would give your customers a similar experience to what you have within Project Manager but by using a feature that is part of core AutoCAD.  I didn't know if you had considered this, but thought I would share as it could be a possible solutions.



Jared Bunch
Principal Experience Designer
Message 4 of 16

I see several options.....

 

1 - request a set of dwg Nos from the client beforehand as part of the contract negotiations.

2 - Seperate the filename from the client drawing number.

3 - Provide a Drawing List Report along with the dwgs. This gives information from within the dwgs in a list.

4 - Break up the dwgs into groups

 

We have our own dwg number system for our projects and ties into our quality control system but occasionally clients request we use their numbers. In this case, we have a seperate field to fill in on the title block that shows the client dwg number.

 

Dwg List reports can show various attributes from the title block including the dwg descriptions.

 

We also break our dwgs into groups as we do multiple panels for HV switchboards. Each panel has a dwg number assigned and then sheet numbers for each page within the dwg set. Our file name and dwg number then looks like this - 'PROJECT-DWG-SHT' with a seperate area on the title block showing 'Sheet of Max Sheets' . The Sheet in the second area is actually a field that picks the data up from the SHT in the dwg number. If I have to add a sheet to a dwg set, it is usually only about 4 or 5 sheets that need to be adjusted.

 

Regards Brad



Icemanau (NNTP handle: Brad Coleman
AutoCAD Electrical User and IT Hardware Support

Message 5 of 16

Hi thanks for the advice. I believe the command SHEETSET is used for
Layouts though. Doesn't ACE use model space. Have you used it before, if
so how did you implement it?
Message 6 of 16

I'm using ACE 2012. I draw all Electrical content in model space and place my border in paper space. Works great.

 

I use Project Manager and Sheet Set Manager (SSM) at the same time, for the same project, and same drawings. SSM allows for subsets within a project.

 

I will continue to use SSM until we upgrade to ACE 2014. In ACE 2014, Project Manager has subset functionality.

Regards,

Rick Yoerger

AutoCAD Electrical 2016
Message 7 of 16

Thanks will give it a go. All the best.

Message 8 of 16

Hi thanks for your in depth response. Sorry for the delay in my reponse wanted to go through your post and see the best options for us.

 

We build single form 4 control panels with multiple seperate compartments, and the project can sometimes be up to 500-900 sheets. The drawings are numerical with no possibility of breaking into seperate sets without making updating/renumbering and issue.

 

At present until ACE gets the functionality to rename the dwg files based on the atribute sheet values, I believe the best method would be as you suggest to seperate descriptions and drawing numbers from the filename and use the ACE project manager drawing list display configuration to show the details of the drawings whilst working in the project.

Adding a sheet will still be a bit of a problem, but I could use a project number_sheet value with a decimal such as a P6834_001.0 ,  P6834_002.0 ,  P6834_003.0 for the first three files (where P6824 is my project number), which leaves me the ability to add an additional drawing P6834_002.1 without renumbering all the dwg filenames in the ACE project. After the project is complete and when issuing the drawings to the client they will be in order in explorer or the seperate renaming utility such as bulk rename, and this will allow for ease of renaming to match the sheet number values which is what we want. Bit of a workaround but doable.

 

I do have one issue though whereby we sometime search & copy compartments in explorer/bulk rename (paticularily from our standard drawing set) when creating new projects to reduce design time. Without descriptions this would be a longer process as I would have to view the descriptions in the ACE project manager and then copy externally via explorer/bulk rename before adding to the project. As you know ACE does not support copying multiple sheets at a time from the project manager which is also a bit of a limitation.

 

Thanks a million for your input much appreciated.

 

Regards

Jonathan

Message 9 of 16

Hi Jonathan

 

Regarding the bulk copy/rename of a project, have you tried doing that through AutoCAD Electrical with the "Copy Project" command?  This command will allow you to choose the entire project to copy to a new one, or only certain drawings from the project if you wish...then during the copy process there is the ability to rename the drawings and even a find/replace text tool to help with some bulk rename options.  If your not familiar with this feature, you can find it in the "Project Tools" panel of the "Project" tab in the ribbon.  The actual command name is simply "Copy".  Additionally, here is a link to more information found in the help file if you would like to learn more about the feature.

 

http://docs.autodesk.com/ACAD_E/2014/ENU/filesAcadE_UsersGuide/GUID-8EDB1220-6DEB-465C-9885-21B56FBF...

 

I hope this information is useful and helps!



Jared Bunch
Principal Experience Designer
Message 10 of 16

Thanks Jared I am aware of the copy project command but it does not have the option to renumber all the sheets in numerically automatically. You have to edit each one with the new sheet number. It is however easier than renaming each in the project manager which is a bit finnicky and bounces around a bit, but I believe to acheive what I need it is easier to use bulk rename. Thanks a lot for your input though much appreciated.

Message 11 of 16
dshood
in reply to: jonathanburke6933

Use this utility "Lupus" it works ver well for us...

Dave Shood

 

Message 12 of 16
jonathanburke6933
in reply to: dshood

Sorry for late reply thanks mate

Message 13 of 16
sniktun
in reply to: jonathanburke6933

Did you guys ever find an answer for this? It looks like I am after almost the exact same thing for different reasons. When we create a project it goes through a number of scrutinies by different members of the company as every project is different with different calculations needed. This means that they will refer to a page number and I must be able to navigate to that page number without counting down the drawings.

 

I could number the drawings as I add them but just as is says in this thread I often have to insert drawings into the middle of a project and require an automated re-numbering In the drawing names

 

 

Message 14 of 16

 

Under Projects, there should be a 'Project Wide Update/Retag' icon. This will go through and update all the sheet numbers in a project. I believe that you would have to run the title block update to then transfer the new sheet number to the appropriate area.

 

You would still have to change the file name to reflect the change in sheet number, but is easier than having to also open each dwg to change the sheet number.

 

IF you use the Bulk Rename Utility ( http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Main_Intro.php ) just remember to close the project before you do the renaming.

Then before you open the project again, you have to remember to edit the wdp file and change the file names located at the end of the file. This is also where the drawing descriptions are kept.

 

The format is as follows

=Section

==Sub-Section

===Drawing Description 1

===Drawing Description 2

===Drawing Description 3

Relative path and filename

 

If there is no drawing description set, the line itself may not show in the wdp file.

The relative path is the path from where the wdp file is located to where the file is located. For example a dwg located in the same folder will just show as the file name where as a dwg in a sub directory will show as sub directory\filename.

 

Regards Brad

 

 



Icemanau (NNTP handle: Brad Coleman
AutoCAD Electrical User and IT Hardware Support

Message 15 of 16

Hi there I have since found a lisp that renumbers my filenames to an attibute value in the border. It was not written by me but as noted in the LISP by

Tony Tanzillo and modified by Tim Willey. The LISP is below. Copy into a notepad file and save as batchrename.txt , then change extension to lsp .

Change the A2 in  (setq BlkName "A2") to the block name that contains the attribute value you would like the sheet renamed to, and change the SHT in (setq TagName "SHT") to the attribute you would like to use for the renaming. Seems to work ok if there are no errors, but stops dead if there are errors without notification. You need to ensure there are no files with the same attibutes with the same values in them (ie trying to rename two files with same filename), and ensure the block you are asking it to look for are in the files you need to rename. I am no expert in lsp so if you are able to improve its error checking capability please advise as it is most useful. LISP is below:

 

(defun c:BatchRename (/ *error* Directory-Dia BlkName TagName Dir dbxApp FileName RenameList )

(vl-load-com)
(defun *error* (msg)

(if dbxApp (vlax-release-object dbxApp))
(setq dbxApp nil)
(vl-bt)
)
;---------------------------------------------------------
(defun Directory-Dia ( Message / sh folder folderobject result)
;; By Tony Tanzillo
;; Modified by Tim Willey
;; 16 Will let you type in the path
;; 64 Will let you create a new folder

(vl-load-com)
(setq sh
(vla-getInterfaceObject
(vlax-get-acad-object)
"Shell.Application"
)
)


(setq folder
(vlax-invoke-method
sh
'BrowseForFolder
(vla-get-HWND (vlax-get-Acad-Object))
Message
0 ; This is the bit number to change.
)
)
(vlax-release-object sh)


(if folder
(progn
(setq folderobject
(vlax-get-property folder 'Self)
)
(setq result
(vlax-get-property FolderObject 'Path)
)
(vlax-release-object folder)
(vlax-release-object FolderObject)
(if (/= (substr result (strlen result)) "\\")
(setq result (strcat result "\\"))
result
)
)
)
)
;--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(setq BlkName "A2") ; update to your block name
(setq TagName "SHT") ; update to your attribute's tag value

(if (setq Dir (Directory-Dia "Select directory to rename."))
(progn
(setq dbxApp
(if (< (atoi (setq oVer (substr (getvar "acadver") 1 2))) 16)
(vla-GetInterfaceObject (vlax-get-acad-object) "ObjectDBX.AxDbDocument")
(vla-GetInterfaceObject (vlax-get-acad-object) (strcat "ObjectDBX.AxDbDocument." oVer))
)
)
(foreach file (mapcar (function (lambda (x) (strcat Dir x))) (vl-directory-files Dir "*.dwg" 1))
(if (vl-catch-all-error-p (vl-catch-all-apply 'vla-Open (list dbxApp file)))
(prompt (strcat "\n *Error opening file: " file))
(vlax-for lo (vla-get-Layouts dbxApp)
(vlax-for obj (vla-get-Block lo)
(if
(and
(= (vla-get-ObjectName obj) "AcDbBlockReference")
(= (vla-get-Name obj) BlkName)
)
(foreach att (vlax-invoke obj 'GetAttributes)
(if (= (vla-get-TagString att) TagName)
(setq FileName (vla-get-TextString att))
)
)
)
)
)
)
(setq RenameList (cons (cons file FileName) RenameList))
(setq FileName nil)
)
)
)
(vlax-release-object dbxApp)
(setq dbxApp nil)
(foreach i RenameList
(if
(or
(null (cdr i))
(not (vl-file-rename (car i) (strcat Dir (cdr i) ".dwg")))
)
(prompt "\n *Was not able to rename: " (car i))
)
)
(princ)
)

Message 16 of 16

I have saved this as a README.txt to advise how to use it Hope it is useful.

 

THE BATCHRENAME.LSP CHANGES THE AUTOCAD FILENAME TO THE SHT ATTRIBUTE VALUE.

STEP1:
ZIP TARGET PROJECT THROUGH PRINT UTILITY EXCLUDING DATABASE (DURING NORMAL USE REMOVING FILES IN THE ACE PROJECT MANAGER LEAVES THE FILE BEHIND IN PROJECT FOLDER. USING THE ZIP UTILITY ENSURES ONLY PROJECT FILES ARE ZIPPED UP WHICH CAN BE EXTRACTED TO THE O&M FOLDER)

STEP2:
UNZIP ABOVE ZIP FILE PROJECT INTO THE CORRECT O&M DRAWING FOLDER

STEP3:
TYPE APPLOAD IN ACE
CLICK STARTUP SUITE CONTENTS
CLICK ADD AND BROWSE TO WHERE BATCHRENAME.LSP IS SAVED
SELECT AND CLICK OPEN
CLICK CLOSE
CLICK CLOSE
YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE TO DO STEP 3 AGAIN UNLESS YOUR SETTINGS BECOME CORRUPT

STEP4:
CALL LISP BY TYPING BATCHRENAME
POINT TO CORRECT O&M FOLDER CONTAINING THE DWG'S
HIT ENTER AND DRAWINGS SHOULD RENAME TO THE SHEET VALUES.

STEP5:
OPTIONAL: USE BULK RENAME SOFTWARE TO ADD THE DRAWING NUMBER PREFIX (STW REQUIRES THIS)

Can't find what you're looking for? Ask the community or share your knowledge.

Post to forums  

Autodesk Design & Make Report

”Boost