Archive Layout

[DGCSCAD]

Hello all,

I'm looking for ideas on how to archive layouts within a DWG. Basically, it's saving the current state of a given layout, which can be recalled for reference at a later time. Also, the saved layout has to be contained within the DWG.

My current thought is to create a BLOCK of everything, make it unpurge-able, and then use BEDIT to call it up for reviewing when needed.

This seems to be the way to go, but I'd like to see if there are any other solutions before venturing down that highway.

Any thoughts?

[pendean]

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@DGCSCAD wrote:

Hello all,

I'm looking for ideas on how to archive layouts within a DWG. Basically, it's saving the current state of a given layout, which can be recalled for reference at a later time. Also, the saved layout has to be contained within the DWG.

My current thought is to create a BLOCK of everything, make it unpurge-able, and then use BEDIT to call it up for reviewing when needed.

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Archive the actual DWG file(s) (give it a phase name or whatever it is you all prefer, a different "archive" folder too to avoid mix-ups) is the most common approach.

[DGCSCAD]

Thanks pendean, I appreciate the response.

It needs to be all contained within the dwg. A lot of what I'm dealing with is quite unorthodox as far as common ways of doing things, and the old/legacy way these are being handled is no exception, which is as follows:

• Sheets/Titleblocks are all randomly placed in Modelspace.
• Revisions are currently archived by copying the tb/entities below the existing ones and then placing a large X over the old tb/entities. This way the users have instant access to the history of each sheet.

This is counterproductive in terms of programming/automating things, but I have a few things in place to help pull it all into a more manageable format. Archiving old revisions is one of the last pieces of the puzzle.

But... and it's a big one...

The most important aspect of all of this is that this is in a live production environment. I need to be mindful of disrupting anything, and I'm attempting to keep the CAD portion of it as familiar as possible. Creating a new directory structure for archived revisions would send a small shockwave through the system. I'm trying to avoid that.

So, creating a non-purge-able block of old rev's seems like the best way to go. I'm thinking the process would go like this:

Create archive sheet:

• Toolbar custom command to archive sheet.
• Create block from entities with sheet name and -XREV(revision) appended.
• Create custom object with hard pointer to block (keep it from being purged).

View archived sheets:

• Toolbar custom command to view archived sheets.
• Get names of all blocks matching current sheet name and -XREV.
• Show dialog with list of matching blocks for user to select.
• Open selected block in BEDIT.

Still looking for a better way.

[paullimapa]

In addition to the challenges you’ve already brought up with block creation if you use paper space vports to control layers you will lose all vplayer settings. In addition you cannot insert a block that contains paper space and model space. The only objects that come in are what’s in model space. This is why @pendean proposed the separate folder structure as the archival solution. I would go a step further just to capture everything by doing an etransmit for each drawing and each drawing then can have its own folder with all the xref dwgs packaged in the same location. Then at any time you can open up an archived dwg and all the xrefs archived at the same time is what gets loaded in the current archive folder location. Now you’ve captured the exact image of the time of the archive. Most important of all always include a pdf digital copy within the archive folder. This way you can print a hard copy as well as be able to pdfattach this into the current dwg for comparison. 

[DGCSCAD]

Thanks Paul.

I am aware of AutoCad's structuring with paper and model space. Been using AutoCad since R10/R11 DOS in the early 90's after a year or 2 of board drafting and have dealt with every release since. I'm old.  🙂

There are no viewports. Through the entire history of this company, no one has ever used paperspace.

[paullimapa]

I've been using AutoCAD since R9 so a bit ahead of you there. I'm so surpised your company's not using Paperspace.

But how about xrefs? Xrefs will constantly be changing. If you bind them that changes the layer structure again impacting your layer on/off frz/thw status.

[DGCSCAD]

Ha! Nice.

No Xrefs, and no blocks either. It's all lines/plines, text, dims,  and some more recent dwgs using non-linked tables. No references at all. These are very simple drawings with consistent layers.

[paullimapa]

That seems really straightforward. 
Now are there layers involved which also would be impacted if users were to change the color or on/off fry/thw lock/unl plot/unplot or even plotstyle if stb is used would impact how objects would look even when placed inside a block?

[pendean]

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@DGCSCAD wrote:

...I am aware of AutoCad's structuring with paper and model space. Been using AutoCad since R10/R11 DOS in the early 90's after a year or 2 of board drafting and have dealt with every release since. I'm old.  ...

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Welcome welcome: experience counts for a lot. You'll find most of us replying around here are of the R1.x/R9 era too, most are CAD Managers that have many good ideas for archiving that have stood the test of time.

Give them all a shot. None have failed anyone.

[DGCSCAD]

@paullimapa  - Nothing will be impacted. I guess I should have made that clear in the first post.

@pendean - Thank you! Thats why I'm here. 🙂 It seems like yesterday we were all programming tablets and 16 button pucks on our 286's. lol 

This is a company that has been around for a while (1950's) and have never really used AutoCad to it's fullest capabilities, not even a little bit. I've been a CAD manager for years, but I have never been in a situation like this, so I'm trying to flush out some ideas that relate to this very unique, albeit low-end system they have in place. If I could simply save the dwgs with a rev and date stamp in an 'Archive' directory I would, but this solution requires the archives to reside within the dwg.

[DGCSCAD]

Those are great solutions for archiving, btw.

My apologies for not clarifying the simplicity of the drawing elements right away.