Tracking AutoCAD Drawings

[woodman78]

I need to keep track of drawings that i issue. my problem is that the guys print drawings that are sent out but then they keep working on them without saving a copy somewhere. I have a way of doing it myself but it is a manual process.

 

Does anyone have any kind of automated way of doing this? Maybe saving the drawing to a folder and export some information to a text file like the filename, date, issuer, and a dialog box with a field for the person the drawing was sent to??

 

If there is an alternative way of doing this and I'm wide of the mark please let me know.

[Freerefill]

Investigate using a reactor to log username and date/time whenever a drawing is opened or saved. You can send all that data to a text file (or text files).

 

I myself haven't dabbled with reactors enough to cobble together a working code in 5 minutes, but I'm sure there are a few on here who can.

[Glen Smith]

Look into Autodesk Vault. Depending on what version you are using and if you are subscription, you may already have access to it.

 

Vault is a management tool that keeps track of files in a multi-user situation.

 

At my place of employment, the drawings exist only on the server. Changes are made to the server copy and saved back to the server. AutoCAD is smart enough to not let 2 people open the same drawing, if you try, it gives you a warning that the drawing is locked and allows you to open as a read only.

 

Putting the hammer down on the people who make changes on back level drawings sucks, espescially if you are the "lowly drafter" and they are the engineer. But until they are the ones that feel the pain of doing it wrong, they will continue to violate the process.

 

Good luck

 

Glen