Easy way to get drawing numbers into the file name?

[luke_cope]

trying to create a system where machine builders can acess DWG on an ipad. However it uses drawing names. 

Now when I add a drawing between 2 other drawings I have to Manually change the following drawings. any way to do this automatically. I can resequence the drawing numbers to show in title block but want this to go into the filename aswell. also the desc 1,2 and 3 identifies would be helpful.

[rhesusminus]

There's no standard functionality to do this. It would be a really helpful tool, but...  Maybe @arshdeepsingh404 can program something 😄

[arshdeepsingh404]

This could be most likely done with the AutoLISP program, I have done some resequencing with custom lisp programming before.
Let me know If that is something would be interested in and I can look into it.

[luke_cope]

@arshdeepsingh404 that would certainly be helpful. my experience with lisp is very limited i must admit. I assumed it could probably be done this way but wouldn't have a clue where to start. (only done list programming of tables generated from reports)

[arshdeepsingh404]

I can write something for you, can you give me more information on the breakdown of the sequence you are trying to achieve.

Can you post screenshots of before and after of the drawings name.

[rhesusminus]

If you decide to do this, why not support %I %L %P %1 %2 etc. ? And even create some new ones like %PROJECTNAME %PAGEDESC1 %PAGEDESC2 etc . ?

Then, you configure in a dialog that you want your file names be like

"%PROJECTNAME - %S.DWG"

[arshdeepsingh404]

Thanks for the suggestion Trond, This could be a good tool for many users.

Did you had something like this dialog box in mind?

@luke_cope Would this concept work for you?

[luke_cope]

Something like that would be brilliant I basically want it to go Drawing Number_Desc1_Desc2_Desc3. That way when I do a contents page they only have to look at the drawing number on the contents page and open that drawing and the ipad autocad will pull the drawings in order.

[rhesusminus]

That would be over engineering in my opinion. Just go for a textbox, like the rest of AcadE, where you can type %-variables.

[rhesusminus]

And to be even MORE flexible, maybe have placeholders for the project descriptions also... *[number] in the WDP file 😄

[arshdeepsingh404]

Hi @luke_cope 

The program is not 100% complete, but it's in a working enough state for what you need it to do.

Make sure you create a backup of your project first before trying out this code!

When you load the program, you will get two commands:
RenameDrawings (with Dialog Box)

_RenameDrawings (without Dialog Box)

Here is a snippet of the dialog

All the drawing and project properties are available with the %codes. Thanks @rhesusminus for the concept.

Add your name config under the Configure Filename Edit box and click on the Update Button.

The Updated Filename will show the new drawing name.

When happy with he name, click on the Rename Button.

The video below demonstrates the lisp in action (both with and without dialog versions).

Now the limitations of v1 of the lisp.

The project descriptions (LINEXX elements) are also not available yet, I don't think you need these anyway.

The lisp currently only supports one drawing at a time. I need to find some more time test and add batch processing functionality.

I realize that's not very helpful since you want to batch process these drawings. That's why I included the dialog-less version of the command which could be used by calling something like (_renamedrawings "%S-%1")

The benefit of the dialog-less command is that it could be added to a simple one-line script file (.scr) and there is a utility in AutoCAD Electrical which allows you to run scripts on multiple drawings (Batch Processing).

The attached PDF exactly explains how to run a Lisp file across multiple drawings.

Let me know if you run into any issues.

[ccad2509]

f you want a simpler way use the data extraction tool in plain autocad

here a tutorial

https://www.scan2cad.com/blog/cad/autocad-data-extraction/

once you have configured your block data extraction

just use the free software lupas rename

https://rename.lupasfreeware.org/

where you can cofiguer a complex renaming routine for files

use the extracted data to cut and paste into lupus rename

[luke_cope]

That runs amazingly thank you. Only thing is can you change the project descriptions to drawing descriptions if possible. Also any way of running this one whole project?

[rhesusminus]

The drawing descriptions is %1 to %3

Use the lisp version with the project wide tools to rename multiple files in the project. 

I hope @arshdeepsingh404 is also updating the project with the new file name. 

[luke_cope]

Sorry yep didnt see the %1 etc. How do I run it project wide? do I need to create a .scr file?

[rhesusminus]

Yes. Create a script with the lisp-command in it, and use it with the project wide utilities:

[arshdeepsingh404]

@rhesusminus Yes, I’m updating the project wdp file with the new name.

@luke_cope To run this project-wide, Create a .scr file and put the dialog-less version of the command in it like Trond said.

The PDF I attached with lisp explains how to do that.

[arshdeepsingh404]

Hi @luke_cope 

Were you able to run the command project-wide to get the desired naming format you wanted? Any issues?

[luke_cope]

This worked very well. Only issue was it displayed the screen for every drawing. Also any way to change from default %F so I can make it default to what I want?

[arshdeepsingh404]

Yes, change Line 160 for setting the default configuration field value.

"Only issue was it displayed the screen for every drawing."

This is because the sheet and drawing numbers are stored in the "WD_M" block on existing drawings, so I do have to open every drawing to read its local attributes.