Job Time Tracking

[Anonymous]

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?

[Anonymous]

Well I wasn't quite right because as I continued to evaluate the expression with a higher precision the result decremented rather than incremented. According to the help file TDINDWG format is <number of days>.<decimal fraction of a day> so to arrive at hours you will need to extract the integer * 24 then multiply the fractional part 86400 (again, this is 2015)

[Anonymous]

wow I am new to this, I typically just use CAD to draft and Solid works to Design, I must say this is fun. 

[Anonymous]

You might want to be judicious in your use of TDINDWG. When you create a new drawing from a template the variable will return a value starting from 0.0 but what you will notice is if a drawing is started from an existing drawing (whether you start from an existing drawing - new, or if you do a SaveAs from a currently open drawing) the TDINDWG carries over from the existing value.

Before I had created my CadTempo program I had utilized the various time values in a lisp routine and attempted to account for these scenarios with limited success. Due to that I ended up evolving CadTempo to account for the multiple ways in which a drawing can be created. Also, since AutoCAD's timer continues to accumulate time while the drawing is open (even when not in focus) the result is nowhere near the actual time that is spent editing the drawing.

CadTempo will give you the true amount of time a user is working in a drawing. If a user moves to a different drawing the first drawing's timer is disabled and restarted upon return. Also, there is an adjustable idle timer that deactivates the edit time when a user is no longer editing the drawing. This is based on mouse movement and keyboard entry. Ultimately what you end up with is a total time that shows how much time a drawing was open and in focus, and an edit time that shows the time a user was actively editing (including the adjusted idle time)

[sthompson1021]

OK, Patrick's suggestion to use the getvar does make it cleaner in the formula. I don't do much with programing so I never think to do things that way. Anyway the formula using that should be (getvar(tdindwg)*86400)/3600

Set the precision to 0 to just show the hrs. If you want to get into hrs and minutes, the formula gets more complicated.

[Anonymous]

And will this auto update or do I need to do something like "regen"

[sthompson1021]

It will update based on the setting of your FIELDEVAL system variable. If that has not been changed, it will update on open, save, plot, etransmit, and regen.

[Anonymous]

OK so I've try'd the formula in a couple different ways and it is still not giving me the correct answer. Can you just spell it out for me I don't know why this is so hard me to grasp...

[sthompson1021]

(getvar(tdindwg)*86400)/3600

This is copied right out of the formula box in my field. Try to copy paste into a new field.

[Anonymous]

yup that's what I have been using and it isn't giving me what I expect. below are two pics one of what my "Elapsed Time" value and one with the result of the formula.

Elapsed Time Values HereFormula Compilation Here

[sthompson1021]

Ok, explain what you are looking for. You asked how to show the results in hours and that is what the formula does. Are you wanting to show days and hours or what?

[Anonymous]

I don't understand how any of the times shown equates to 470.4393hrs. I guess that is where the confusion is. Wha I want is the Elapsed time or the total time to show from the formula.

[sthompson1021 · Accepted solution]

OK, your elapsed editing time is 19 days 14 hrs 24 minutes and 58 seconds.

19*24=456hrs + 14hrs=470 hrs

The .4393 is the minutes and seconds

.4393/.01666 =26min and some odd seconds

That's why I said the formula would get more complicated if you wanted to show the minutes.

Do you see how its broke down now?

[pendean]

470.4393hrs is how long that DWG file sat open in AutoCAD: your formula and the results are correct here as well.

Reread post #23 above on why this method and built-in methods have flaws https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-forum/job-time-tracking/m-p/8451544#M960012

[Anonymous]

Looking into that a little further, it gets worse even. when you create a drawing from WBlocking the TDINDWG values carries over to the new drawing.

[Anonymous]

OK So when I start my fresh template and put this field in, it will reflect the true time of that file, I was thinking it was showing the elapsed time wow I feel so dumb.

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much, I just continued the formula to break it down to Minutes and seconds I find it to be more accurate. Thank you again

[vladimir_michl · Accepted solution]

The add-on app stores the time-tracking info inside the drawing - in the drawing properties - so you can easily add this dynamic information in your title blocks and drawing texts (see text fields).

Vladimir Michl, www.cadstudio.cz  www.cadforum.cz