Mgmt Tool Profile settings inquiry - can we flatten all project subfolders to just one project root folder?

[matthew.waychoff]

There are several file location paths exposed to users in the robust Advance Steel Mgmt Tool. With a bit of sluething I see several of these paths in the resulting exported profile XML file. Through a bit of trial & error, I am able to move some files that Advance Steel creates during mgmt of a project to another subfolder name. What I am trying to discover, however, is can I move all files that Advance Steel needs to create & manage to a single project root folder? This is desired for one particular engineering document management solution but should prove useful for several others as well. Any guidance towards documentation of Advance Steel file support paths or shared experience of pros & cons regarding this specific topic would be greatly appreciated.

[Sebastian_Eiche]

As I know the subfolders are hard coded and needed for Advance Steel.

[bigcarl5000kg]

Hi @matthew.waychoff,

I would be very interested to know what impulse you are trying to do, what structure you will achieve with this, what benefits it will bring you.

Even if theoretically possible, I do not recommend it at all:
- if someone else receives your data and your directory structure (if you send all the data = including the model, then the directory structure is necessary), they will not be able to easily replicate your settings and thus possibly see / use the data for further processing. I dare say that your customers will not be willing to take over your settings.

- you will definitely find out that a directory structure is necessary for certain operations - for example, the same drawing data can exist in Details and DetailsExploded - how would you solve such a problem?

If you like to share your results - we would like to hear them 😎

[bigcarl5000kg]

For base project structure, look in Management Tools at AstorAddIn ->ReportCategories

All changes make you at own risk!

[matthew.waychoff]

Please allow me to explain with some additional details...

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Here are two examples of advance steel mgmt tool profile XML strings that enable changing folder paths: <Default_STR>

<Key>C0_NSAModuleFilesOutput</Key>

<Value>Calculation\%NSAModule\%Norm\%JointName%JointNr</Value>

<Short>Path for the design module report files</Short>

<Long>Path for design module report files. It is relative to model path.</Long>

<TypeValue>0</TypeValue> <ActiveIf>OK</ActiveIf> <KeyGroupAssignment>1</KeyGroupAssignment> <UnitValueType>0</UnitValueType> <OwnerText>DSC</OwnerText>

</Default_STR>

<Default_STR>

<Key>C0_PSSIOPath</Key>

<Value>%WorkDir\%FileName\Data Exchange</Value>

<Short>Default export / import directory for PSS files</Short>

<Long>Default export / import directory for PSS files; the optional tokens %WorkDir and %FileName are interpreted as the AS installation directory\Work and a subdirectory named after the exported file, respectively</Long>

<TypeValue>0</TypeValue> <ActiveIf>Transfer center</ActiveIf>

<KeyGroupAssignment>1</KeyGroupAssignment>

<UnitValueType>0</UnitValueType>

<OwnerText>DSC</OwnerText>

</Default_STR>

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Here are two examples of advance steel mgmt tool profile XML strings that enable changing file names: <Default_STR>

<Key>C0_RCDocFilename</Key>

<Value>%Filename-%RevisionIndex</Value>

<Short>Filename of drawing with a new revision index</Short>

<Long>The filename of the drawing with a new revision index (%Filename = detail filename without revisions ; %RevisionIndex = last rev index).</Long>

<TypeValue>0</TypeValue> <ActiveIf>OK</ActiveIf>

<KeyGroupAssignment>25</KeyGroupAssignment>

<UnitValueType>0</UnitValueType>

<OwnerText>DSC</OwnerText>

</Default_STR>

<Default_STR>

<Key>C0_RCDocFilenameBackup</Key>

<Value>%Filename-%RevisionIndex</Value>

<Short>Filename of backup drawing</Short>

<Long>The filename of the replaced backup drawing (%Filename = detail filename without revisions ; %RevisionIndex =previous rev index).</Long>

<TypeValue>0</TypeValue> <ActiveIf>OK</ActiveIf>

<KeyGroupAssignment>25</KeyGroupAssignment>

<UnitValueType>0</UnitValueType> <OwnerText>DSC</OwnerText>

</Default_STR>

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What I am hoping is that there is something equivalent to change subfolder paths for calculations, databases, details, & anything else that a project needs to create. I want to know if advanced steel can be configured by power user without special programming to change these:

\\[company storage path]\[project root folder]\Calculation\EC3 Design\Standard\[some project files here]

\\[company storage path]\[project root folder]\Calculation\NA Design\Standard\[some project files here]

\\[company storage path]\[project root folder]\Databases\[some project files here]

\\[company storage path]\[project root folder]\Details\[some project files here]

To simply this:

\\[company storage path]\[project root folder]\[all project files here]

[matthew.waychoff]

Does anyone have a second opinion on this inquiry? Was hoping someone from Autodesk was watching this forum.