True View and fields

[tim.turner]

One step forwardand two back. We set up title blocks with fields to make them smarter. Most pull from Custom Drawing Properties but one field uses Diesel to pull the page number from the ctab. The expression is: $(substr,$(getvar,ctab), 4,2) but all it returns is "GE". All of the fields work in True View except the Diesel which you think would work since it has been around a long time.

So Autodesk puts out a drawing viewer that doesn't support all of the new whiz-bang features that they are packing into AutoCAD in order to sell more of it and the viewer is free so you say great until you find out that free actually means unsupported so there is no way to ask for a fix, make a compliant, or expect that any time in your future career it will be corrected.

[mdurst]

Imagine mine and the customer's frustration after telling them they could generate a CADD # based off their file name in which we knew how to remove the extension and a prefix.

We then get into Vault workflow and the published DWF (By Update or Job Processor Uses TrueView) doesn't display their CADD # for any of the prints or Web Client unless it was checked in using AutoCAD which won't be the case for the latest released copy, because the transition to Released in the lifecycle Sync's Properties and Updates the View using Job Processor.

Ridiculous!!!

[pendean · Accepted solution]

DIESEL is an external 'tool' that reads then writes to the file: not supported in the free no-writing viewer much like Lisp and VBA tools from AutoCAD.

You might consider seeking out the Vault forum and asking your peers what do they do in situations like yours (if there is an option).

[mdurst]

I can understand the fact that the free viewer TrueView does not support this, but Autodesk uses this FREE viewer in their PAID for product like Vault Professional.  Instead of using DWG TrueView to create their DWF previews in Vault, Autodesk should use AutoCAD.

[pendean]

you'll have to post and seek guidance from other vault users in the Vault forum: I'm just stating a fact abiut the viewer.