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How to quickly view folders full of drawings without having to open each one?


buildman

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Hey Folks;

 

I have AutoCad LT and I can't find a way to scroll through folders full of drawings without opening each one. I have the Autocad Viewer but I can't find a way to make it do this, what are you pros doing, I know there has to be something out there. The rest of the world has way to view file i.e. Photoshop has Bridge, Nikon Has View NX, I do photography and there's a ton of ways to view images even at full res, I'm sure there's a way.

 

Thanks a bunch

 

James

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The thumbnails will only be there for autocad drawings if the drawings are new enough to have been created with a version that had that capability AND someone didn't turn it off to save file space.

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Have you tried the Thumbnail View style in Windows Explorer?

 

Otherwise you might have a look at my DwgGrid program: http://www.engds.com/Products/DwgGrid/DwgGrid.html

 

Hey Patrick;

 

Thanks for your time, I've tried Explorer and that works with some of the drawing and not with others. The files that want display may be the files I've downloaded from other sites. i.e. blocks and other drawing that have not been made into blocks yet. Could that be the problem.

 

Thanks

 

James

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The thumbnails will only be there for autocad drawings if the drawings are new enough to have been created with a version that had that capability AND someone didn't turn it off to save file space.

 

Jack;

 

I think you are right here, as I said to Patrick above the drawing I've downloaded are the ones that seem to be the problem. Does that seem about right to you?

 

Many thanks.

 

James

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In AutoCAD > OPEN > Select Files Box > Views Button > Thumbnails. There is a preview window there on the right too.

 

Thanks for responding Dana, I've tried the above and I still can't get the downloaded files to display.

 

Jamed

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Have you tried the Thumbnail View style in Windows Explorer?

 

Otherwise you might have a look at my DwgGrid program: http://www.engds.com/Products/DwgGrid/DwgGrid.html

 

Patrick;

 

I've downloaded you application and installed it. I like where you're going, the only thing I see at the moment is that the preview images are of very poor quality, since I do a lot in Photoshop I have a calibrated monitor and the images are still poor, are you having the same problem? I'm using Windows 7.

 

Thanks for posting.

 

James

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Jack;

 

I think you are right here, as I said to Patrick above the drawing I've downloaded are the ones that seem to be the problem. Does that seem about right to you?

 

Many thanks.

 

James

 

Yes, the preview are really just little bmp files that are just a few pixels wide. They are not much to look at and will only give you an idea of whats in the file. If it's a complicated drawing, it's not going to show you much anyway.

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I should add that all you'd have to do is write a script to open, save and close them and you'd have the previews. I'd probably add a zoom extents and a couple of passes of the purge command to the script. Depending on your processor speed, file size and harddrive, you could process several hundred an hour that way.

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I should add that all you'd have to do is write a script to open' date=' save and close them and you'd have the previews. I'd probably add a zoom extents and a couple of passes of the purge command to the script. Depending on your processor speed, file size and harddrive, you could process several hundred an hour that way.[/quote']

 

Jack, you're sure getting a workout today, we really do appreciate your prompt response, you seem to be a fine gentleman. Having said that, I don't have a clue how to write scripts in Autocad, I do write some JavaScript and I have written some scripts for Photoshop, but I've only had Autocad a week now.

 

So here it is, if you have the time and are really wanting to pass along your scripts I'm sure I and others will sure appreciate it. I can't believe that I'm the only one looking for a way to view our drawings.

 

Thanks a bunch Jack;

 

James

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Scripts are fairly easy to write. Really nothing to it once you get the hang of it. They are great for repetitive tasks. The help files will talk you through creating one. Just search for "SCR files". No programming skills required. Just notepad and text entry. You'll see when you get in there.

 

And go easy on the gentleman stuff...you'll ruin my reputation!

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Thanks for responding Dana, I've tried the above and I still can't get the downloaded files to display.

 

Jamed

 

Yeah, I had forgotten the preview and thumbnails were newborns. Anyhow the resolution stinks, and as Jack mentioned, without the zoom extents you still won't have any idea what is in there.

 

I make full and heavy use of the long file names capabilities to save myself. "Full Client Name House Type Style Location.dwg". But I only have a couple hundred drawings, not thousands, and I have had only two returning clients to require searching out the old stuff. Must be the economy.:unsure::roll:

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Getting back to the party a little late I see.

 

As Jack pointed out on several issues the thumbnails are simply bitmaps and therefore do not provide any high resolution. Also depending upon the preview save variable in AutoCAD you may not even have the thumbnail available and that is perhaps why the files you download do not have them. AutoCAD as far back as r13 can save the preview image but the thumbanil themselves do not appear in Windows Explorer unless drawing is at least R2000. That is when the image was made available to the operating system. That is another reason the thumbnail will not be visible, it's an r14 or less drawing.

 

Another thing that will actually cause the loss of the thumbnail is if the drawing is converted to a different file version via the TrueConvert Autodesk utility.

 

And as mentioned previously the preview can be improved (slightly) by zooming "All" before a save.

 

You may note that the DwgGrid program I mentioned allows you to size the previews, just grab and drag the sidebar window - it can help somewhat to get a better view.

 

Regarding the batch processing of your drawings, I've got a file on my download page http://www.engds.com/FreeDownloads/Downloads.html that can create a batch file with a little bit of AutoLISP knowledge. It is a subroutine called BatchScr.lsp contained in the LispUtil.lsp file. It's a little cumbersome to use but it works.

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I did find a way to get files to display the thumbnails in Windows Explore. If I don't see the file thumbnail in Explorer I just open the file in Autocad LT 2012, rename it, then the thumbnails will display, I'm assuming these files were created using an earlier version of Autocad.

 

Now as to .lsp files; I'm understanding that I can't use those in Autocad LT, bummer. Right now thing seem to be workable using Design Center and Explorer, it's not perfect but it will get me through this project.

 

Thanks for all the help, you folks are just great.

 

James

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Try CADieu+ Viewer not sure if it works on LT but worth a shot I guess.

 

Provides an Explorer-like interface to preview AutoCAD and standard graphics format files, create slides, build slide libraries, extract slides, open and insert drawing files, attach XRefs and image files. Features a convenient roll-up button to hide its window in its title bar and can be added to the Windows right-click context menu.
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I did find a way to get files to display the thumbnails in Windows Explore. If I don't see the file thumbnail in Explorer I just open the file in Autocad LT 2012, rename it, then the thumbnails will display, I'm assuming these files were created using an earlier version of Autocad.

 

Now as to .lsp files; I'm understanding that I can't use those in Autocad LT, bummer. Right now thing seem to be workable using Design Center and Explorer, it's not perfect but it will get me through this project.

 

Thanks for all the help, you folks are just great.

 

James

 

How can I automate this process? I'm double clicking a .dwg file in Windows Explorer that want displat the image, the file opens in Autocad LT 2012, I click File>Save as> then I click Yes to this file already exist and do I want to replace the file, I click Yes and then the last step is close the file. After all this the file will display in Explorer.

 

This was OK until I started on a whole folder full of electrical block drawings, how can I speed this up. I read some about the scripts and I can't find exactly how to do this, if I ever do one then I'll have it, some help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

James

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Check the help files James. I don't use LT and may have steered you wrong on that. There's another thread going where someone else said LT didn't have that capability. I know you can't use lisp but I thought it would do scripts. Could be wrong about that though.

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Check the help files James. I don't use LT and may have steered you wrong on that. There's another thread going where someone else said LT didn't have that capability. I know you can't use lisp but I thought it would do scripts. Could be wrong about that though.

 

That was me that said that, and I was wrong. I went back and posted my Mia Culpa in there, too. My Help file in 2009 LT says it can be done, but adds nothing about whether I in particular can do it, so maybe I was partially correct.:lol:

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That was me that said that, and I was wrong. I went back and posted my Mia Culpa in there, too. My Help file in 2009 LT says it can be done, but adds nothing about whether I in particular can do it, so maybe I was partially correct.:lol:

 

In that case, then a script file to simply open, zoom and close is easy. You'll have to do some prep work first however. First of all, COPY all the files you want to process into a folder with no spaces in it's name, something like "C:\foldername". Never run a batch process like this on the only copy of the files! You'll have to look and make sure the file names don't have spaces in them either. A script file is very literal, and it interprets spaces as hitting the enter key. if you have a space it will screw up. Rename any files with spaces to names without spaces. Once you've got them all in the same folder, use the following sequence to get all the file names:

 

1. Open up your WINDOWS (not autocad) command prompt by typing cmd in the run dialog box and hitting Enter (or start it from the start menu).

2. Navigate to the directory which has the files and type the following command -

DIR /B /O:N > filename.txt

This will save all the filenames in the current directory to a text file. The text file will be saved in the same directory, and there will be one filename per line.

 

Use that text file for the basis of your script. There are lots of ways to do what needs to happen next. It all depends on your skill level with word processors and/or spreadsheets to manipulate text, but in the end you need to wind up with it looking something like this in Notepad:

_open
c:\test\manifold.dwg
zoom
all
qsave
close
_open
c:\test\mug.dwg

and so forth

 

Make sure there are no blank spaces at the ends of the lines, or it will screw up.

 

When you finish, save the file with the extension .scr. and be sure to change the file type to "all files" instead of "text documents". If you forget this step, your file will end up as filename.scr.txt and won't work. Not a big deal, simply rename it if you forget.

 

To get the hang of script writing, I'd start out with a small number of files (like 5 or 6) till you figure out all the things that can go wrong. 99 times out of 100, a stray space or blank line will be the reason a script fails. You'll want to turn off the bak files if you use that feature before you start. If you have 1500 files to process, you'll create 1500 baks.

 

Once you get it figured out, you can process several hundred drawings per hour. It's a really easy way to do repetitive things to large numbers of drawings. You could add a purge to reduce file sizes, replace or update titleblocks, all sorts of stuff. You just have to enter the commands in the same sequence you would if you didn't have a mouse or dialog boxes and were doing it all from the keyboard.

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