topic Re: Job Time Tracking in AutoCAD Forum

Job Time Tracking

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Nov 2018 20:12:10 GMT

I strive to keep my department competitive in its use of the latest tools in Autocad 2018. I am currently trying to find a way to record how much time is spent on each project. There was a command called job-time that is in older versions of Autocad but I cant seem to find it in my current LT version. do you know how I could track and put the information in a field so I can print that out on my drawings. Maybe using a diesel expression or some kind of system variable?

Re: Job Time Tracking

beyoungjr — Thu, 29 Nov 2018 21:16:19 GMT

The TIME command is still in AutoCAD (never was called job-time. There are likely LISP or add-ons that could pull the drawing time using that command but I never needed to do so. It was always a coold tool to show students in the classroom.

This tool can show several bits of info and can be reset if needed. The trick is to ensure that users close the drawing when not working on it.

Cheers,

Blaine

Re: Job Time Tracking

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Nov 2018 21:22:11 GMT

Yes I know how to use the time command it is useful when checking on save time and such. However what I am looking for is a printable feature that I can put on my drawings to keep the hard copy file up to date for those not in the cad use of the project. In essence I want to keep track of how much time is spent editing the project and be able to some how show it on the printed document for the rest of the team to see.

Re: Job Time Tracking

pendean — Thu, 29 Nov 2018 21:51:18 GMT

There is no built-in ability to do any of that, and TIME command can be so easily reset it is for the most part a useless tool for true time tracking. It is not useful he first time someone messes with it.

For AutoCAD, not LT, this add-on as well as a few others out there do the job way better https://apps.autodesk.com/en/Detail/Index?id=3064225260712015196&appLang=en&os=Win32_64

Explore this third party product that seems to be LT friendly http://www.cadtempo.com/

Re: Job Time Tracking

Anonymous — Fri, 30 Nov 2018 23:26:00 GMT

Thanks for the mention pendean.

I would like to say that CadTempo does not have a means to add the time to a drawing (AutoCAD, nor LT) as the OP desires. However it does have many features that might be found useful including individually tracking multiple users that access the same drawings.

Re: Job Time Tracking

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Dec 2018 11:16:27 GMT

I have looked into this add on tool. I think it tracks what want for the department but ultimately what I need is a way to populate that info into a field some how so I can print it out on the drawings. Something like the time stamp I implemented recently to keep track of the latest drawings (it has really helped). I'm guessing this isn't possible...

Thank you all for your feed back though.

Re: Job Time Tracking

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Dec 2018 11:33:07 GMT

How does that work?

Re: Job Time Tracking

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Dec 2018 16:41:16 GMT

Briefly, CadTempo has a logging component that resides on the network and starts when each user logs on, and a viewer component (shown) that the CAD Manager or supervisor accesses. All users are logged individually as you can see in the top center grid. Because CadTempo does not rely upon
Autodesk APIs the program is CAD agnostic and in most cases can be set up to track AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT, Inventor, Revit, and other CAD software along with non-CAD software such as Excel, Word, etc. Please give it a try for a full featured 30 day free trial. No nag screens or other intrusiveness.

Re: Job Time Tracking

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Dec 2018 19:05:06 GMT

thank you I will look into this...

Re: Job Time Tracking

sthompson1021 — Wed, 05 Dec 2018 19:13:57 GMT

Have you checked the sys var TDINDWG. That is where the total edit time from the DWGPROPS command is stored.

Re: Job Time Tracking

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Dec 2018 21:40:07 GMT

It currently displays days do you know how to make it show hours?

Re: Job Time Tracking

sthompson1021 — Wed, 05 Dec 2018 22:35:41 GMT

If you want to display it in a field,

Start the field command, select formula.

In the formula box, right click and select insert field.

In the new field box, select SystemVariable and then TDINDWG. You can set the percision to 0

Back in the formula box, the formula should read (tdindwg*86400)/3600. Set the percision to 0 and in additional format you can put in Hrs as the suffix.

Re: Job Time Tracking

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Dec 2018 23:07:07 GMT

This is what I see...
[cid:image001.jpg@01D48CBC.EFA31650] [cid:image002.jpg@01D48CBC.EFA31650]

Re: Job Time Tracking

sthompson1021 — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 21:47:31 GMT

Your picture didn't come thru. This is what the formula is to show the 51 Hrs in a field for this dwg.

Re: Job Time Tracking

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 22:11:40 GMT

See the pic I get 51hrs when I did the way you showed in your last pic this way I get ###

Re: Job Time Tracking

sthompson1021 — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 22:37:02 GMT

I guess I didn't explain it very well. When you start the field command and select formula, you are going to insert another field into the box where you type the formula in. That field will be the TDINDWG System Variable. Where it shows 2.1451 in the formula in my picture, that is the value that the sysvar is reading. So you right click in the formula box and pick insert field, then choose System Variable - TDINDWG. The value should appear in your box. Add a ( in front of it and then finish the rest of the formula as shown. Hopefully I explained it a little better this time.

Re: Job Time Tracking

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 22:54:58 GMT

I've never played with fields so I thought I'd give it a try - thanks for introducing them to me. One thing I noted is to get the original formula to work you can just surround tdindwg with getvar(tdindwg). I ended up with the formula 24/(getvar(tdindwg)) to arrive at the hours.

It may be that I'm on 2015 and I believe since then AutCAD might have had a change to its time format.

Re: Job Time Tracking

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 22:58:26 GMT

I feel like we are getting close I thank you for your patience but I think I am still missing something please see the two pics below..

Re: Job Time Tracking

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 22:59:32 GMT

ooohhh you might be right about that

Re: Job Time Tracking

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 23:14:51 GMT

ok so if I understand you correctly instead of the earlier suggestion I should type in the formula field 24/(getvar(tdindwg)) and that should be it.

well I did and now I have a more idealistic number (1.2hrs.) but now can I just regen and it updates?