Catalog for AutoCAD Files
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: Catalog for AutoCAD Files
: Catalog for AutoCAD Files -- josephjones	Post Reply	Top of thread	Computer Aided Design CAD Forum

Posted by: jboggs ® 10/02/2010, 11:09:01 Author Profile eMail author Edit

The only way would be if you got lucky and all that information is contained within blocks of the same name within each drawing. AutoCAD has entities called "blocks" that designers use to enter information that appears often in several drawings, like a bolt head for example. Sometimes these "block" type entities are used as borders, and sometimes those border blocks contain another type of AutoCAD entitity called attributes, which allow a designer to enter variable text within those blocks, like one would see in the title and drawing number of a drawing border. AutoCAD also has a command that can extract information from those attributes and use it to populate Excel spreadsheets. So, if you have had a HIGHLY disciplined and consistent drafting and engineering staff for years and everyone has been using the same AutoCAD block (usually as a border or title block) in the same way, then you could write a script routine that would sequentially open each drawing, extract the relevant attributes from the specified block within that drawing, and add that data to an excel spreadsheet. I've done it so I know it can be done. But unfortunately if your staff is like most, each individual has his own ways of doing things. Some use blocks, some don't. Some purge their drawing files of extraneous stuff, some don't. Some use layers correctly, some don't. Management rarely understands or cares about any of this as long as the plotted results of the drawings look right. That means that consistency of drawing methods is rarely ever enforced at all. I know it can be done, but only if your database is built in such a way that automated routines would know where to look for the information you need. So, good luck!

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: Catalog for AutoCAD Files
: Catalog for AutoCAD Files -- josephjones	Post Reply	Top of thread	Computer Aided Design CAD Forum

Posted by: jbeckproe ® 09/22/2010, 10:15:53 Author Profile eMail author Edit

You don't have a drawing log (with descriptions, dates,rev) or revision list? I really don't think there is such a program for autocad.

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