Simple Data Shortcuts (like Design Center)

[troma]

Why all the messing around creating directories and subdirectories and .xml files?

Why can't I just be working away in my drawing, and say to myself: "I'd like to bring in that surface from Topographical.dwg" ... and just do it?

Here's how I'd like it.

1. I click on my "Bring in data shortcut" button.
2. Browse and select a drawing (browse should default to the folder where the current drawing is saved).
3. All available data in that drawing shows up (Surfaces, Pipe Networks, Alignments, Profiles etc., similar to blocks, layouts etc. in Design Center).
4. I select one or many of the available objects, and click OK.

And boom! the object is referenced in and sitting in my drawing. 

[Neilw_05]

This would be a nice enhancement to the shortcut system. It is frustrating to know the data you need is in a file right before you but you can't get at it due to the "one direction" workflow we have now. We would still need the shortcut tree for cases where we don't want to go looking for a file or we don't know which files has the data we need. This enhancement would be a convenient way to add data to the shortcut tree.

[troma]

Personally, I don't think I'd miss the shortcut tree and project setup if it was gone, and I was able to simply shortcut in any data I wanted. But I'm not advocating taking it away; I'm sure many do like it. This idea could complement the existing methods.

[tcorey]

I hate to bring up Land Desktop, but I would like to see Civil 3D adopt a system like what Land Desktop had, where each drawing must be attached to a project and when you create any object (surface, alignment, etc.), the dialog would have a checkmark for Share with Project.

[Joe-Bouza]

Ya gonna put Vault out of business. 

[Anonymous]

Voted. Data shortcutting in and out from projects is just as unecessary complicated as 90% of all other civil 3d functions

[peterfunkautodesk]

This is a great idea, but the timing isn’t quite right for development consideration in the near term. As such, it is being put on the back burner to be re-visited at a later date. Please continue to comment and add your support.

Regards,

Peter Funk

Sr. Product Manager

Autodesk, Inc.

[rkmcswain]

Thanks @peterfunkautodesk - Just like @troma was saying, it could work like DesignCenter. Drives>Folders>Files>Components and Drag+Drop. 

The whole concept of user "A" having to make available a component for sharing before user "B" can import it as a reference, just seems like extra work that is not needed. I can XREF any drawing in and any time, let DREF work the same way.

[troma]

@rkmcswain thanks for your comment.

The really intriguing thing for me is the possibility that even now the xml files are not required to maintain the link. I think I accidentally deleted them one time, and everything still worked. And I've a vague recollection of reading someone recommending doing it that way for some specific reason. I'm not brave enough to try it again. But it's possible that they are not used in any way for maintaining the link, only for creating it.

In that case, it should be a relatively easy thing to find a better way of creating the link within C3D.

The way I see it, the xml file serves as a bookmark or shortcut to tell C3D where to look to find the data. So all we need is a different UI to dig for the available data. If C3D doesn't need the xml file on an ongoing basis now, then it should be able to operate fine without having it at all.

(I'm not a programmer, so I'm making some assumptions when I say it should be "relatively easy".)

[rkmcswain]

I'm probably not thinking this through all the way either, but in the case of an Xref, the path is stored in the drawing, so I don't see why that wouldn't work for a Dref. You would only need to store one more piece of information, the name (or other unique ID) of the component being referenced. Obviously it gets a bit more complex when you consider that objects get renamed, deleted, etc. but I don't see how the result could be any worse than the solution in place today. 

[Anonymous]

If we are on the topic of fixing data shortcuts, can we also get the following?

- Option disable synchronization of D-ref'd objects when they are part of another drawing being Xref'd

(See this post)

- Ability to data reference pipe labels, or copy+paste entire pipe network labels from one drawing to another.

It so funny how the dialogue box when you import a D-ref'd networks asks for "label style" on structures. I can't think of a single case where all structures in a real network should have the same type of label. And breakpoints shouldn't even have labels...

- Pipe networks labels on a D-ref'd pipe network do not get updated with material type (probably also other variables) when synchronized. Opening and closing the label manually will update it - so it is more of a bug than missing feature. But still.

- Pipe networks labels placement in different annotation scales: Give us the ability to place Pipe labels text independant of annotative scale (as with MLEADER's). Labels that look good in 1-200 scale genereally look like crap in 1000-scale. If we cant get the "smart" civil3d-object labels to work with Dref'd pipe networks, then we can't fully make the switch from xref to dref. 

[troma]

@Anonymous Can you post these as 4 separate ideas and give us all the chance to vote on them please?

[Anonymous]

@troma

Yes, I have now done 3 separate idea suggestions:

Fixing Data shortcut for drawing production

Ability to data reference or Copy+Paste Pipe Labels

Pipe network labels annotative placement

Please take your time and vote for these if you like them.

[troma]

Nice work @Anonymous. Voted! 

[troma]

@tcorey I just came back and re-read your comment above, and realised that it's almost identical to my new idea on data shortcuts. Like to know what you think of that one!

[Anonymous]

How about we start by asking Autodesk for better terminology? Why do the experts keep saying to set the Working Folder to your "project folder" and the Data Shortcuts Project Folder to the folder you are currently working in? That is confusing enough.  Then another expert said to create the project folder first, then set the working folder, then set the shortcuts folder.  But there was already a _Shortcuts folder created (by someone else) in each of the two projects I recently worked on, and I was unable to simply point to that folder by browse and select, like all other rational methods.

In each case I had to create a simple data shortcut to an existing surface in an Xref'd dwg.  It took me about two hours in each of those projects to just to get that data shortcut set up.  Most of that time was spent trying to make sense of the comments in these forums and Autodesk Civil 3D documentation. I finally got it to work by trial and error - mostly error! How did Autodesk take such a simple concept and make it so complicated?

[rkmcswain]

@Anonymous - there are basically two ways to do this. Either you define a single location for all of your projects, or you set up a different "project" (data shortcuts location) for each actual project.  IMO - the former works better with smaller operations, and the latter better in larger operations (more projects, more people). The latter also allows you to archive a complete projects all from one  top level folder.

Which way did you go? Perhaps the "someone else" you mention is doing it differently?

[Anonymous]

Almost every project I've worked on so far has the _Shortcuts folder already set up, sometimes in the root directory of the Project folder, sometimes in its own Data folder in the Project folder. So not a single folder.