Revision number in PDF file name

Re: Revision number in PDF file name

Lorys — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 10:49:22 GMT

ok but since we dont hae that feature in utn natively how about a differnt work flow?

What about when you start every file it has the format name_<rev letter>.dgn ie 12345_caltex_A.dgn?

Then when you batch print you can allow the fullname to be the pdf name..

Now i assum you have many files already that dont have this but if you have paper copies or lists you can use a great little free ware tool called bulk rename utility it will alow you to append the _REV name file letter to each file name with a drag fill series to a list of files it has a sort of windows explorer gui to it but lets you do bulk rename not just one at a time it also can ,append ,pre append , inserts and renumber .. if your not sure what every file should be renamed you can just open the pdfs by swaping out to open the pdfs to check..and return toggle to the utility..

I renamed/renumbered several hundred files this way in less than 15 min and my pc is very slow..

I like the preview feature of current name of file beside end result of file name before you say ok go and rename the lot..

as you can tell I like this tool a lot..

take a look at it at

http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Main_Intro.php

there are lots of pics about what it can do one you have it you'll rave on too and its totally free even for commercial use..

Re: Tool for naming CAD files

Thomas Voghera — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:01:30 GMT

Design History is very interesting indeed.

Especially as it can be shown as "text fields". And reference attach can be per DHevent.

Problem is that DH is per file, you can´t get DHevent for a reference into a text field, and, as drawings often have many references, no tools to manage DHevent-tags outside of the file.

--
regards / Thomas V

<Phil Chouinard> wrote in message news:91060@communities.bentley.com...

What you speak of is all true -- having been involved with developing, implementing, and "enforcing" standards, it sounds a lot easier than it is. I once heard a statement about standards, they are like toothbrushes... everyone has one, but most do not want to use anyone else's :) Seriously, we are all about standards -- we are involved with a number of them and encourage their use. We have even implemented tools in MicroStation to help in that cause (see this blog post for more regarding that).

Another "twist" in all this is the revision "format" itself. If you go to Help > Contents and search for MS_DESIGN_HISTORY_REVISION_NUMBER_FORMAT, I believe you will see what I mean.

PS - there are other ways to "track" revisions, too, that I did not specify previously. The V8 DGN file has a revision file property and ProjectWise is quite customizable in that aspect.

http://communities.bentley.com/Products/MicroStation/MicroStation_-_all_pre-V8_versions/MicroStation_-_all_pre-V8_versions_Printing/f/165/t/41063.aspx#91060

Re: Tool for naming CAD files

cad.station9 — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:24:22 GMT

Thank you all for your kind help.

Phil, you mentioned that "Tags" can be used...Could you please provide extra details on how we can use tags and tags sets in this mathod?

We use tags in our DGN's for other purposes, but how can we use it (As a revision number) in the PDF file name?

What code (if this is how to implement this idea) can be used?

TIA

Re: Tool for naming CAD files

Phil Chouinard — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:29:16 GMT

What you speak of is all true -- having been involved with developing, implementing, and "enforcing" standards, it sounds a lot easier than it is. I once heard a statement about standards, they are like toothbrushes... everyone has one, but most do not want to use anyone else's :) Seriously, we are all about standards -- we are involved with a number of them and encourage their use. We have even implemented tools in MicroStation to help in that cause (see this blog post for more regarding that).

Another "twist" in all this is the revision "format" itself. If you go to Help > Contents and search for MS_DESIGN_HISTORY_REVISION_NUMBER_FORMAT, I believe you will see what I mean.

PS - there are other ways to "track" revisions, too, that I did not specify previously. The V8 DGN file has a revision file property and ProjectWise is quite customizable in that aspect.

Tool for naming CAD files

Gunnar Gantzhorn — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:14:14 GMT

Phil,

I agree that in detail all standards vary. This is why I referred to ISO 13567. Most CAD standards I know rely on this world wide standard, so this is a good starting point. The point is, that ISO 13567 describes a faceted classification. The variation in the CAD standards is 1. which facets are used 2. which notation is derived from the choosen facets.

Therefore a tool relying on the facets of ISO 13567 could easily manage inumerable different file naming standards when the tables for each facet are configurable by the user (administrator). This is what ISO 13567 for good or for bad allows.

I agree that there are various ways to implement such functionality. However IMHO the range of obvious solutions is not as broad as you indicated.

Obiviously tags and fields have a great potentential to represent the input, because they have a history of serving such purposes.

Not to create metadata for the designfile for document management purposes out of the necessary user input would waste a great chance. A filename has to be specified, but most users miss the opportunity to facilitate document retrieval by creating a set of metadata. This could be done on the fly by a tool like that.

Re: Revision number in PDF file name

Phil Chouinard — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:29:15 GMT

I should have provided more reason for my reply, so my apologies for that. That is useful information (FWIW, I am aware of the standards you refer to), but with all due respect, my reply did not say that there were no "standards" or that this was not a "usual task". It was simply in how such information could exist and how any organization might implement it and expect it to be passed through on output. You bring up one a couple of ways that it could be implemented, but that could also be done through any number of other very varying things (e.g. tags, XML fragments, database, plain text, design history, "other" applications, configuration variables, etc.) Also, how that information gets through (e.g. filenames, "stamps" on output, archives, etc.) could also vary. That is all where the "pretty specific to your processes and workflows" comes in. Some of this is possible today, but trying to account for all the different ways that it could be done is something that probably requires the customization that I inferred.

But, this is not to stifle ideas or discussions on the topic. What do others think about this? What do you do to "track" revisions?

Re: Revision number in PDF file name

Gunnar Gantzhorn — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:05:16 GMT

cad.station9:

Hi,

In our plot sheets, we have a line of text for the revision number, i.e. 'B'

Waht I'd like to do is to have this revision letter added to the PDF file names, i.e File_name_B.PDF

How can this be done? using V8 2004 and we use PDF.plt driver

Many thanks in advance!

As you can see from my post to Phil, we need a new tool to achieve this more easily.

As a workaround you can use the following workflow we have established in our office for a long time. This workflow uses the name of the sheet model to produce a pdf file name.

1. Rename your sheet model according your file naming specification.

2. In your Bentley plot driver (*.plt ) or (*.pltcfg) add the following line to specify your PDF file name.

default_outFile = "$(MS_PLTFILES)$(MS_PLTMODELNAME).plt"

Be aware that there are much more options to automatically specify the PDF file name when creating a PDF.

HTH

Gunnar

Re: Revision number in PDF file name

Gunnar Gantzhorn — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:46:35 GMT

Phil Chouinard:
it appears that you are looking for is something that seems pretty specific to your processes and workflows

Phil,

I can´t see anything specific in this issue. This is a very usual task we all have to do everytime we issue a new revision.

Thinking about something that is general enough to be implemented by Bentley, IMO a tool for creating file names and/or model names according to ISO 13567 Technical Product Documentation - Organizing and naming of layers for CAD would be of great help.

For those not familiar with ISO 13567, the name of the ISO is somehow misleading. The ISO declares various facets of information which can be incorporated in a combination of file names and layer names. The AEC (UK) CAD Standard is an exemplary implementiation of ISO 13567. You can download the AEC (UK) Advanced Layer Naming Handbook v2.4 and the AEC (UK) Model File Naming Handbook v2.4 from the documents section of the AEC (UK) CAD & BIM Standards Site.

http://www.aec-uk.org/

Especially if the information needed to create the filenames would automatically be written to the document information of the DGN file. Thus we would create not only the desired filenames easily but moreover create valuable Metadata to for use in document management. Moreover this information can be queried by MicroStation fields, so that it can be used in title blocks too. Apparently such a tool thus would create lots of value.

As you know, especially Bentley´s beloved owner operator clients use to enforce standards in this respect. Most of these standards are variations of ISO 13567. Enabling us to comply with these standards easily, would certainly help to reduce the need for tedious work and unnecessary unproductive cost.

HTH

Gunnar

Re: Revision number in PDF file name

Thomas Voghera — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:12:53 GMT

Yes that would be a very usefull thing to have for a lot of people: text elements > part of plotfile name.

Kind of pentable for filenames.

Could be used to drawing number (in cases where filename isn't drawing number) + date + revision+ revdate.

The closest I know of is if you go to batchplot and rightclick the printer properties and have a look at the "output and post processing" part.

--
regards / Thomas V

<cad.station9> wrote in message news:90783@communities.bentley.com...

Hi,

In our plot sheets, we have a line of text for the revision number, i.e. 'B'

Waht I'd like to do is to have this revision letter added to the PDF file names, i.e File_name_B.PDF

How can this be done? using V8 2004 and we use PDF.plt driver

Many thanks in advance!

http://communities.bentley.com/Products/MicroStation/MicroStation_-_all_pre-V8_versions/MicroStation_-_all_pre-V8_versions_Printing/f/165/t/41063.aspx

Re: Revision number in PDF file name

cad.station9 — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:21:13 GMT

Thank you Phil for the candid reply.

The revision number is a simple line of text (i.e. not data field, tag or cell).

Is there anything other than VBA that you can suggest? I don't have any VBA experience!.

TIA

Re: Revision number in PDF file name

Phil Chouinard — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:01:01 GMT

What it appears that you are looking for is something that seems pretty specific to your processes and workflows. As such, there may not be anything delivered "out of the box" that will do that. You may be able to customize your site specific needs with MicroStation VBA, but some of that depends a bit on how you have implemented "a line of text for the revision number" in your designs.

Re: Revision number in PDF file name

cad.station9 — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 03:28:46 GMT

Hi,

Would appreciate some help on this please...

Bentley, please help.

TIA