How do we get our company logo installed when a new sheet is created?
The documentation for the OHDOT Sheet Cell add in says the following:"The design agency cell is also placed if found. The design agency cell can be set via a variable named, DESIGN_AGENCY_CELL. If a cell exists with the name defined by this variable, then it will be used as the design agency cell and placed with the OHDOT sheet."
However, I have not found anything else in the documentation discussing this. Where should we put the cell, and how do we set the variable?
Peter,
first the document might be out of date because the variable should be DESIGN_AGENCY_CELLNAME
for where to put the cell, you have two choices.
1. put it in a cell library at the organization configuration level.
the organization level gets loaded no matter which workspace is loaded. so for example if you have OhioDOT workspace and say PennDOT workspace. putting your cell at the organization level means you get that cell available in both workspaces.
2. put it within a local folder within the OHDOT workspace level.
putting it here means it only gets loaded when the OHDOT workspace is loaded.
typically the organization level is a great spot to put a company logo cell because its something you want loaded across all workspaces.
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here are the steps for putting it at your organization level.
1. figure out where your organization level is. you do this by first finding the custom configuration location. open this file
"C:\ProgramData\Bentley\OpenRoads Designer CE\Configuration\ConfigurationSetup.cfg" the image below shows the line in blue that your looking for. the _USTN_CUSTOMCONFIGURATION variable is where you want to look for the organization level.
Now at the custom config level. you should see a workspaces folder. the Default location of the organization level would be within an Organization folder at this level as well.
you might not have the folder if an organization level was never set up. you can create the Organization folder now.
**SIDE NOTE** on the off chance your Organization level was redirected to another directory you will see a WorkSpaceSetup.cfg file at the custom config location and within that cfg file a _USTN_ORGANIZATION variable will be set to the location of the organization location, but rarely is this the case.
2. so now that you have your organization level location (in my example (C:\CONNECT\CustomConfig\Organization\). you can put the content within this folder however you like. maybe you create a cell folder then put your cel library containing your company logo cell inside the cell folder soo C:\CONNECT\CustomConfig\Organization\Cell\companycells.cel
3. now we need to add some configuration variables to include the cell library. to do this create a text file and name it whatever you want, but make sure to change the file extension to .cfg. a good name would be "C:\CONNECT\CustomConfig\Organization\Organization.cfg". all config files directly within the organization folder will automatically get loaded in.
now add the following variables in that new .cfg file.
MS_CELL > $(_USTN_ORGANIZATION)Cell/MS_CELLLIST > $(_USTN_ORGANIZATION)Cell/*.cel
make sure to update the path accordingly if you choose something different.
4. lastly you need to define the DESIGN_AGENCY_CELLNAME variable. now technically this is only being used within the OHDOT workspace so it should be defined within the workspace. but for simplicity you could just define it in the new config file you just made in the above step (3). (see next section for how to define it within the OHDOT workspace)
DESIGN_AGENCY_CELLNAME = CELLNAME
replace CELLNAME with the name of the cell
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The OHDOT workspace allows for local customizations. below lists the steps for setting this up and defining a cell to be used at the design agency cell. Note when setting up the workspace the default name is OHDOT but that could have been changed to a different name during the set up process, if that is the case, then update paths below accordingly.
1. navigate to OHDOT folder. You should see a Standards folder (..\OHDOT\Standards\). the standards folder should not be edited. that is what OhioDOT releases and should be left alone. instead all local customization should go inside a local folder. create one if its not there. (..\OHDOT\Local\).
2. now you can put the .cel file where ever you want within the Local folder, maybe (..\OHDOT\Local\Cell\)
3. now set up the configuration. the OHDOT workspace is set up to automatically include any .cfg files within the ..\OHDOT\Local\config\ folder. so create one if one does not already exist. now create a .cfg file (or use an existing one thats there already). and add the following variables to the file using a text editor.
MS_CELL > $(OHDOT_LOCAL)Cell/MS_CELLLIST > $(OHDOT_LOCAL)Cell/*.cel
4. lastly you need to define the DESIGN_AGENCY_CELLNAME variable. put the below line in the same file from step 3 above.
if you help with any of this, send me an email, john.drsek@dot.ohio.gov and I can help you.
Answer Verified By: Peter Narsavage
Thanks again JD. I got it to work.
One thing to note, the configuration variables for the organization set up have a typo in them. There should be an underscore in front of USTN.