Drawing properties disappear when add to project

[Thomasbatson]

It looks like there is a known issue but when I add drawings to a project the drawing descriptions disappear (not other fields though as shown in screen shot).  I found this explained on a few different forum posts but the most recent I found was 2013.  Regardless, I can remove a drawing from a project, then add the same drawing and the descriptions will be gone.  I don't move the drawing or anything.  Is there not a fix for this?  I am using 2018.1 so figured it would be good if there was a fix. 

The reason this is a larger issue for us is we are adding a Master project with all drawings in multiple different panels (each panel has it's own project) but when we add them to any project the disappear.  Is that still just an issue we have to know about?  I know we can use Export/Import but I am searching for more of an explanation as well as a fix if there is one.

Thank you.

[TRLitsey]

Hi there,

May I ask a few questions?

1.  How are you creating the individual Projects from the Master Project?

2.  What is the work flow for adding drawings to the individual project?

3.  When you add the drawing and the properties disappear, have you tried using the Title Block Update tool?

Just a thought.

Good luck

[Thomasbatson]

Our normal process is to complete all the individual panels first.  The projects are in their own folder.  We also have a Main project in a different folder, just an example if we are working on Line 1 for a project that has multiple panels.  We would have L1 in this case for all the drawings that references line 1.  All we do is select Add drawings to the main and then navigate to the folder and add.  

What caused me to ask is I had a drawing in project CP-L1 (for the control panel for line 1).  My drawing name is CP-L1-4.  I removed that drawing from project CP-L1 by using the Remove Drawing function after right-clicking project in project manager (this was an accident initially).  Then immediately selected add drawing from the project manager for the same project (CP-L1) and the descriptions were gone.  I have done this multiple times (remove from and add to the same project) a nd it does the same thing.  I have also left them in the sub-projects and added to a new project (main L1) and they are gone when I view the descriptions from the main (so I have to re-add them) but are still there on the sub-project.  So this only happens when they are added. 

Does this not happen to yours?  I think I stated but I'm using 2018 with the most recent update.

Also, if I can use the title block update tool but the descriptions are being removed when viewing Drawing Properties.  I hope that makes sense.  I guess I could try to use the screen case if it doesn't.  Let me know if that would help and I will try to use that (haven't used it before).

Thank you.

[jseefdrumr · Accepted solution]

This is essentially expected behavior. ACADE has always done this AFAIK. I'm thinking that there's no way around this.

Any time you add a drawing to a project, regardless of where it came from, the drawing descriptions get blanked out. Even if you just remove a drawing from the project and add it back in later.

I believe this is because the drawing descriptions are stored in the scratch project database, which is built from the drawing data. Once you remove the drawing from the project, the scratch database will 'forget' its info because only the drawings that are in a project have their data included in the scratch database.

Conversely, when you add a drawing from another project, there's no way for the destination project to know what its descriptions are because the descriptions for those drawings reside in another project's database.

Pretty sure there's no way to get the descriptions to get pushed through.

Jim

[Thomasbatson]

Well, that would explain it.  I didn't realize this was how it worked but will make sure to pass this information along to the rest of our group to know as well and use Export/Import more often.  I was thinking they saved them on the drawing somehow (like the other invisible blocks that are added)  Thank you for the explanation.

[jseefdrumr]

You're welcome...although it could very well be that some way exists to pass on those drawing descriptions. I'm just unaware of one.

Perhaps it's worth adding to the IdeaStation. It may even be suggested already, it would be a good functionality to have.

Jim

[TRLitsey]

Hi again,

I find some of the title block info in the [project_name].wdp Projcect Manager file also.  So I am wondering if you could use the Copy Project tool, copy the Master Project to individual projects and go from there.   That would bring in all the info just like updating a revision.  Then you would remove what you don't leaving everything else just like the Master Project.

Good luck

[Thomasbatson]

I tried the copy function but that wants me to copy the drawings as well, we only want the 1 drawing for the 2 different projects.  Thanks for the suggestion.  I will keep that tool in mind for other uses in the future. 

[Icemanau]

I've found that the descriptions only get removed from the dwg when I select the Descriptions in a Title Block Update while the dwg properties don't have anything in those Dwg Description lines...

If your default is to have these lines selected for the update then yes the descriptions will be removed.

You can either remove the Drawing Description lines from the saved Title Block Update settings or not run the Title Block Update straight away.

What you can do is first open the DWG PROPERTIES and use the PICK method to grab the title block descriptions from the dwg itself.

This then saves those descriptions into the prject WDP file in the correct place.

Then when you run the Title Block Update, those descriptions are not wiped out.

I use this method frequently as I often add existing dwgs to new projects.

Regards Brad

[ccad2509]

Pat murren wrote a lisp routine to get the descriptions into the target project years ago I know I was the one that flagged this issue
Just another one of those things that's ignored even though one of their own solved this issue