clowe-thcp Posted June 15, 2018 Share Posted June 15, 2018 I'm looking for a program that will search across multiple files and directories for particular words in our dwg files. I don't want to replace the words, just locate the files that contain them. We have a huge library of dwg files for repeat customers and engineers. We often waste time looking for details we used previously for a customer. If we could just do a search of the dwg files for say "Jones Contracting" or "formliner" or "Cumberland County" and get of listing of the dwg files that contain that text, what a wonderful world this would be! Help!?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maratovich Posted June 16, 2018 Share Posted June 16, 2018 You need to create text files. In these files write the words to search. Then the search will be fast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dana W Posted June 16, 2018 Share Posted June 16, 2018 You need to create text files. In these files write the words to search. Then the search will be fast.That is sort of what we do. Each dwg file gets published to a pdf for repetitive printing since we are fabricators. All the drawings use TT fonts, so we only need Windows Explorer to search the project files. When a pdf is located containing the right words, we simply open that folder (right click >> Open File Location) and open the drawing file. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGAL Posted June 17, 2018 Share Posted June 17, 2018 Pretty sure Lee-mac has a find replace that uses OBDX Maratovich as Autocad dwg is a compressed binary format not sure about using a Text compare ? Do you have something, I know you have some real good code. Just a side issue for text FINDSTR its a windows command. eg FINDSTR subst *.lsp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clowe-thcp Posted June 18, 2018 Author Share Posted June 18, 2018 Thanks everyone for the input. I checked with Lee-mac and he said that his find and replace program could do it but would be cumbersome and probably not the best option. We do export our drawings to pdf and it's been hit or miss doing a windows content search. After some more research I found that apparently we should be using TT fonts instead of shx if we want to use this option. Additionally, often the information we would search would be in our title block area so the text is placed as attributes of a block. On a whim, I wondered what would happen if I BURST the block and then created the pdf. Viola! Now when I do a content search of the pdf file, the search lists that pdf as a result. If anyone would like to elaborate on what I found, please feel free. Thanks again for the input Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dana W Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 Yup, that's why I mentioned TT fonts. SHX fonts are not searchable since they are basically a shape rather than text and then Adobe treats them like a raster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkmcswain Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 I'm looking for a program that will search across multiple files and directories for particular words in our dwg files. Toolpac will do this using the Drawing Search tool: More info: http://www.dotsoft.com/toolpac.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derek2032 Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 Additionally, often the information we would search would be in our title block area so the text is placed as attributes of a block. If you have them as Attributes - Why not extract your attributed data, make that your drawing register then search that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clowe-thcp Posted June 19, 2018 Author Share Posted June 19, 2018 Toolpac will do this using the Drawing Search tool: More info: http://www.dotsoft.com/toolpac.htm I've been tasked to find a low budget solution. With 7 seats that software is outside the budget. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clowe-thcp Posted June 19, 2018 Author Share Posted June 19, 2018 If you have them as Attributes - Why not extract your attributed data, make that your drawing register then search that? While the attributes of the title block are important, we need to search the entire drawing content for details as well. At this point the best option is to insure we use TT fonts and search the the pdf files. Thanks for the input! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tombu Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 Solution here: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-forum/way-to-search-a-text-string-within-a-folder-of-multiple-dwg/m-p/7980247#M931962 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkmcswain Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 I've been tasked to find a low budget solution. With 7 seats that software is outside the budget. Thanks Calculate how much time you and six others are spending on this task now, including the search for a solution, and you'll probably find the ROI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dipesh Kalasaria Posted August 27, 2021 Share Posted August 27, 2021 Check this post https://www.cadtutor.net/forum/topic/58807-search-in-attributes-in-multiple-drawings-using-objectdbx/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGAL Posted August 27, 2021 Share Posted August 27, 2021 I know this is 3 years old, but we could search back to like 1999 for dwg details as we have always kept a database of dwg details, takes like 1 minute to find something. Answer is start making a database MS-Access comes to mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryDotson Posted August 29, 2021 Share Posted August 29, 2021 On 8/27/2021 at 7:28 PM, BIGAL said: I know this is 3 years old, but we could search back to like 1999 for dwg details as we have always kept a database of dwg details, takes like 1 minute to find something. Answer is start making a database MS-Access comes to mind. The DwgSearch tool listed above is now freeware on the App Store. It searches the actual drawing file without opening it in the editor so the results are quite fast. The problem with 'a database' is that if everyone involved is not TOTALLY diligent about posting their changes and additions, the quality of the results begin to degrade on day one. The only way it would work well is if an app was running on drawing close, or perhaps scanning the drives looking for changed dates, scanned the DWG file and updated the records. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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