I want to add an annotation note to templates that shows the name of the SW file used. Linking it works fine if just one file is used, but when more than one file is used in the same drawing file or even on the same sheet, what can I do? Is there a property I can link to that lists all these names, or a macro that can be run? Or should I just instruct people how to do this for every drawing, and just give them an empty field to fill?
Are you looking for a BOM, or list of components, or model names used to generate the views?
You mentioned, multiple SW Files, are you looking for just the "files" the views are created from. In some cases this could reflect different files. If this is the case you would need to access the feature tree in the drawing, and retrieve the name of the model used to generate each of the views, Manipulate it and write it out to a table to insert into the drawing.
From my understanding, he is working with a drawing that has multiple parts/assemblies inside it and he would like to be able to do a BOM/note that reflects all the parts/assemblies from the drawing.
Actually yes, the SW files used in the drawing view or views. Either by the drawing file as a whole, or sheet by sheet.
What I would do is set up a note that has all of that information in and just drag the note into the drawing view, in fact after the first one is there just click on the note, then CTRL C select the next view CTRL V...
If you could upload a picture of what you want then I show you what you need, include all the information..
Just to sum up what I think you're saying:
You have a drawing. It has lots of views. These views reference various components (parts assemblies, etc). You want a single note that tells every file that is referenced by a view contained in the drawing.
There is no built-in, linkable property or text that you could include in the template that lists up all of the files referenced by all views in the drawing. However, as you asked, a macro that traverses the document and gets a list of all the files is pretty easy.
The macro could write that list to a custom property of the drawing file, and a note could be placed in the template that references that custom property.
The only question is.... For a multiple-sheet drawing, do you want every sheet to contain the list for the entire document, or do you want the note on each sheet to only specify files that are shown on that sheet?
Close. There may only be one file used in the drawing, or it may be as you described. Preferably sorted by drawing sheet, though I'll take the list of the entire drawing file if that's easier.
Close. There may only be one file used in the drawing, or it may be as you described. Preferably sorted by drawing sheet, though I'll take the list of the entire drawing file if that's easier.
Probably not what you're looking for, but taking a shot - here I use multiple sheets in my drawing file, but only one part/assembly per page and I have a list that like this...... (compiled with a macro)
That drawing must be rather intensive to work in with 82 pages, no? I have some weldments with about 20 pages and I hate working in them, takes forever to save or to rebuild
Alex Lachance - As shown above that drawing only has 45 Pages, the most I've had here was like 110 sheets per file. I'd much rather work that way then open 110 drawing files, to make sure all my changes have populated throughout the project components etc..
A follow-up question to that, how do you deal with load times on such a big drawing file. I've once made a 30 page one, and had to divide it up into 5 sets because load times were taking to long, and it had graphic problems as well.
I use A Size drawings, simple parts etc... The 110 page on opens in like 10 seconds or less, is my guess, sometimes it depends on our system load here, because they're not smart enough to go with a pdm system and I need to work on files in the server, there are times it might be a little slow, but not near as slow as needing to open 110 pages, check and close etc...
No, not quite what I am looking for. I'm thinking I'm just going to have to provide a field to the information on the drawing template, and tell the drafters to manually link it when they make a drawing. Or run a macro after they set up all the drawing views.
Would File References > Copy List > paste into Excel, save > insert xls file as table into drawing work for you? It could exist outside the page border.
While I agree that it is not a property, nor as flexible and directly useful, it is a comprehensive list of files within the whole drawing (all sheets, all views).
Not really, as that does more than just the file linked to a drawing view.
I use file find references to get a list of all the parts ect in a file.
And then how do I tell which ones the drawing is using in it's views? This is information that is going to be on the drawing itself to help others find the source drawing and SW parts from hard copies and PDFs of the drawing.
You can link a note in each view to the file name of the model in the view:
If you copy/paste from one view to another, it will update. You can drop a note outside the drawing border in your templates that is set up with the right text and then copy/paste into the views:
That is one way, though I was hoping to just have some note in the sheet format, not something that will have to compete with dimensions and drawing notes for space. Thanks.
The only other way I can think of getting what you need, (this may be way out of the park from what you want), that would be to add all the components into an Sample assembly (no mates required), and drop the assembly into the drawing, off page, and then create a Custom BOM. Depending on what your doing that could be a lot of work, but it would be as accurate as the information you put in..
No, not quite what I am looking for. I'm thinking I'm just going to have to provide a field to the information on the drawing template, and tell the drafters to manually link it when they make a drawing. Or run a macro after they set up all the drawing views.