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Tasks from excel list of files

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Message 1 of 5
andrewiv
623 Views, 4 Replies

Tasks from excel list of files

andrewiv
Advisor
Advisor

Does anyone know of a way, through task scheduler or some other program, to use a list of files from excel and automate saving pdf's, step files, dxf's, etc..?  We have an excel file with 500+part numbers and want to generate files to send to outside companies for quoting purposes.  The part numbers are the file names so I think it should be possible, but I don't have any experience with a piece of software that can read the list and perform the tasks.

Andrew In’t Veld
Designer

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Tasks from excel list of files

Does anyone know of a way, through task scheduler or some other program, to use a list of files from excel and automate saving pdf's, step files, dxf's, etc..?  We have an excel file with 500+part numbers and want to generate files to send to outside companies for quoting purposes.  The part numbers are the file names so I think it should be possible, but I don't have any experience with a piece of software that can read the list and perform the tasks.

Andrew In’t Veld
Designer

4 REPLIES 4
Message 2 of 5
arron.craig
in reply to: andrewiv

arron.craig
Collaborator
Collaborator
Accepted solution

All I can think off is a multi step and fairly messy process but it's certainly possible. 

I would use powershell to create a shortcut of each file, using your excel file as an input for the shortcut source (if the full file path is included). Have it save all shortcuts into a single folder. Since Task Scheduler allows you to Ctrl+A to select all files in a folder (including shortcuts) you can then just select them all at once. 


Making a script that does the above with a couple user inputs would be the better long term solution.

 

If it's a one off then you can skip the powershell script and use "Search Everything". With some excel magic and "find & replace" you can turn your list of 500+ file names into a search string. Select all search results>Ctrl+C and then paste the shortcuts into a new folder.

 

(note I am getting duplicate search results, I think its an issue with my folder indexing on my machine, you shouldn't have to worry about this)

 

Everything_s8ZVTudPWV.png

 

You can then just select all the shortcuts in Task Schuduler when creating your task.

mAn5iT03dv.gif

 

All I can think off is a multi step and fairly messy process but it's certainly possible. 

I would use powershell to create a shortcut of each file, using your excel file as an input for the shortcut source (if the full file path is included). Have it save all shortcuts into a single folder. Since Task Scheduler allows you to Ctrl+A to select all files in a folder (including shortcuts) you can then just select them all at once. 


Making a script that does the above with a couple user inputs would be the better long term solution.

 

If it's a one off then you can skip the powershell script and use "Search Everything". With some excel magic and "find & replace" you can turn your list of 500+ file names into a search string. Select all search results>Ctrl+C and then paste the shortcuts into a new folder.

 

(note I am getting duplicate search results, I think its an issue with my folder indexing on my machine, you shouldn't have to worry about this)

 

Everything_s8ZVTudPWV.png

 

You can then just select all the shortcuts in Task Schuduler when creating your task.

mAn5iT03dv.gif

 

Message 3 of 5
andrewiv
in reply to: arron.craig

andrewiv
Advisor
Advisor

Thanks for the info, I will look into the search everything app.  Do you have any suggestions to get the files from vault?  I would need to make sure that the files are on my hard drive before performing the search, so I need a way of getting the files in the list out of Vault.

Andrew In’t Veld
Designer

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Thanks for the info, I will look into the search everything app.  Do you have any suggestions to get the files from vault?  I would need to make sure that the files are on my hard drive before performing the search, so I need a way of getting the files in the list out of Vault.

Andrew In’t Veld
Designer

Message 4 of 5
arron.craig
in reply to: andrewiv

arron.craig
Collaborator
Collaborator

@andrewiv wrote:

Do you have any suggestions to get the files from vault?  


I would head over to the Vault forum as you are probably going to need to use the Vault API.

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@andrewiv wrote:

Do you have any suggestions to get the files from vault?  


I would head over to the Vault forum as you are probably going to need to use the Vault API.

Message 5 of 5
andrewiv
in reply to: arron.craig

andrewiv
Advisor
Advisor

I found this topic that explains how to use the standard vault search and get all files from a list.

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/vault-forum/get-files-from-vault-based-on-list-of-file-names/td-p/841...

 

Andrew In’t Veld
Designer

I found this topic that explains how to use the standard vault search and get all files from a list.

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/vault-forum/get-files-from-vault-based-on-list-of-file-names/td-p/841...

 

Andrew In’t Veld
Designer

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