I remember LAYTRANS.ARX when it first came out around Acad2000 (maybe 2000i)? It used to save layer translations in a simple ASCII text file that you could edit and add to in Notepad if you wanted, instead of the cumbersome .DWS format they came up with around Acad2004. I remember that for about a year, I was able to rename the old LAYTRANS to TRANSLAY and still use it... but then I think something changed in ARX format and it crapped out.
What I need is a -LAYTRANS (command line version) of LAYTRANS. Then I could use SCRIPTPRO to run hundreds of old drawings "through the mill" to update old layer systems to current ones. The real beauty of the old LAYTRANS was that because it saved the translations as a list in an ASCII text file, you could keep growing that translation list into a huge "Rosetta Stone" file that translated anything it found from layer systems created 5 Cad Managers back.
If anyone knows of the guy who resurrected LAYTRANS (I think it went away for a while when Autodesk no longer wanted to be involved), let me know if a command line version exists. If I could write a script that opens a drawing, initiates LAYTRANS, picks a DWS to load, runs the translation, saves the drawing, and then closes it... that would be Cad Manager Nirvana (as if Cad Managers existed anymore!)
Thanks
I suggest you write a script comprising a series of LAYER, RENAME and/or LAYMRG commands to convert each of your drawing's layer names and properties to match your Customer's preferred standards. You can then run this script in each drawing before issuing them.
Yeah... but it sure seems silly that Autodesk would provide a GREAT bonus tool (the original LAYTRANS from around Acad2000), and then screw it up (by linking it up with DWS files, and making it a "push twenty buttons in a cumbersome dialog box version so you can't run it from a command line script anymore). Classic AutoCAD "Progress"!
I've been looking at the whole Cad Standards stuff they have in there (since about Acad2004?... whenever they introduced the DWS file type). Is there a way to run any of that stuff automatically without having to sit there and say OK to every layer translation? I can see the value of creating a button on a toolbar that compares the current drawing to a DWS file and automatically updates all the layers it can find.
Wojo