Notes Database Printing

[Dick Jenkins]

Is there a way to create a printed version of the notes database? I have developed a fairly extensive but organized database divided into drawing type sections as well as keynotes and general notes. The architect I work with says it would be much easier for him when creating redlines if I could print a hardcopy of all of the notes in a section. That way he could just mark out the notes we don't need, edit the notes that need various edits, and write in the notes we need to add. I agree with him because it is way easier for me when adding general notes or keynotes to a drawing if I have a list of what he wants shown.

 

If a particular section is short I can go in and create a list using the general notes tool, but if it is long this becomes really time consuming.

[Pat Stanford]

The Notes Database actually consists of a couple of text files depending on how you have it set up.

 

The files that come with VW are stored in:

 

Applications:Vectorworks XXXX:Libraries:Defaults:Notes.

 

The same path but to your User folder and/or Workgroup folder may also have files in them.

 

The default is two text filed.  Callouts.txt and General Notes.txt.  If you have created your own database they may be called something else.

 

In these files each note is on a separate line as one long text string proceeded by a Note ID number.

 

If you import a copy of those files into a word processor, with a little judicious Find and Replace and formatting you should be able to make a printable version fairly easily.  

 

I recommend that you don't try and edit the text files directly, but rather use the Notes Manager to actually make the changes.

 

HTH

 

[Dick Jenkins]

Thanks Pat. I will try the export idea. We were not going to edit the actual notes from a word processor file, but just wanted something we could make a hard copy from so he could easily tell me which notes he wants to be sure are included for each drawing type for each particular project. He wants to us it as a checklist.

[Dick Jenkins]

15 hours ago, Pat Stanford said:

The Notes Database actually consists of a couple of text files depending on how you have it set up.

 

The files that come with VW are stored in:

 

Applications:Vectorworks XXXX:Libraries:Defaults:Notes.

 

The same path but to your User folder and/or Workgroup folder may also have files in them.

 

The default is two text filed.  Callouts.txt and General Notes.txt.  If you have created your own database they may be called something else.

 

In these files each note is on a separate line as one long text string proceeded by a Note ID number.

 

If you import a copy of those files into a word processor, with a little judicious Find and Replace and formatting you should be able to make a printable version fairly easily.  

 

I recommend that you don't try and edit the text files directly, but rather use the Notes Manager to actually make the changes.

 

HTH

 

"Find and Replace Formatting" is much harder than I thought.

 

😉

[Pat Stanford]

Need help?

[Dick Jenkins]

I guess I do. I can only open the files in "Preview" and evenn if I could cut and paste into "Pages" I have no clue where to go from there. I only know "Pages" well enough to write letters, etc.

 

 

Thanks Pat. I will try the export idea. We were not going to edit the actual notes from a word processor file, but just wanted something we could make a hard copy from so he could easily tell me which notes he wants to be sure are included for each drawing type for each particular project. He wants to us it as a checklist.

[Jeff Prince]

@Dick Jenkinsif you have numbers or excel, you can make quick work of this task.  The file is tab deliminated, meaning you can open it directly in numbers and a nice ordered list will appear.  Simply change the width of last column to something desired and activate “word wrap” for the column.

you then have a quickly and easily formatted checklist of your notes database 🙂

[Dick Jenkins]

I can't gt it to open in Numbers. It says it is an xml document so I don't have the option to open it in Numbers as far as I know, unless there is some trick to it that I don't know about.

[Pat Stanford]

What XML file are you looking at?  

 

The files I mentioned above are .txt files and will open in almost anything.

[Dick Jenkins]

My Notes Database files seem to be xml files. Got them here (see below). I have also attached a copy. I would love for them to be in the format as the ones that came with VW.

JENKINS:DIEBEL 2020 Database copy.xml

[rDesign]

30 minutes ago, Pat Stanford said:

What XML file are you looking at?  

 

The files I mentioned above are .txt files and will open in almost anything.

 

I'm not sure why, but you can have Note databases as either .XML files or .TXT files. All of my Note Database files are also .XML files. (Maybe the .XML files were migrated from an old VW installation?)

 

(EDIT: It looks like the Callouts and General Notes in the VW Application Defaults folder are .TXT files.)

 

Not sure why VW uses both file types for the same functionality...

 

On MacOS you can open .XML files with Apple's TextEdit app. Just right click on the file and choose to Open With TextEdit. (Using TextEdit is MUCH safer than opening it in MS Word or Apple Pages, as both of those could add formatting to the .XML file that could break its functionality).

Edited October 11, 2022 by rDesign
added notes about application files

[Dick Jenkins]

I had opened it in TextEdit, but I now I am back to how to get it in a useful format.

[twk]

We don't generally print out our notes db, but this gave me an idea to use Excel's PowerQuery editor.

So this for users who have access to Microsoft Excel.

Using Excel, you can import data from an XML file, (and other formats, have not tested the Vectorworks txt format, should work as well, as its tab-delimited)

 

Also, as this is referenced into Excel, any updates to the notes xml file through vectorworks will be updated in Excel without having to setup data connections, removing/reordering columns, etc

 

ScreenRecording below. (I kept the NoteUUID etc, but that can be removed if you need to).

 

 

 

Edited October 12, 2022 by twk

[rDesign]

If you want to convert your .XML Notes file to a .TXT format version, using the VW Notes Manager open your .XML version and do a Save As to a .TXT file type.

 

I'd love it if someone from VW weighed in to say if we should be using .XML or .TXT for our Notes Databases - whether one format is more future-proof than the other. Maybe this is a question for @Matt Panzer

 

 

 

Edited October 12, 2022 by rDesign

[rDesign]

13 minutes ago, twk said:

We don't generally print out our notes db, but this gave me an idea to use Excel's PowerQuery editor.

So this for users who have access to Microsoft Excel.

Using Excel, you can import data from an XML file, (and other formats, have not tested the Vectorworks txt format, should work as well, as its tab-delimited)

 

ScreenRecording below. (I kept the NoteUUID etc, but that can be removed if you need to).

 

 

 

 

 

@twk Thanks for the video. If you wanted to edit any of the Notes, all of that should still be done in VW, not in Excel, correct?

[twk]

Yes, that would be correct @rDesign. I don't know of anyway to write data back to xml through excel at the moment

[Dick Jenkins]

11 hours ago, rDesign said:

If you want to convert your .XML Notes file to a .TXT format version, using the VW Notes Manager open your .XML version and do a Save As to a .TXT file type.

 

I'd love it if someone from VW weighed in to say if we should be using .XML or .TXT for our Notes Databases - whether one format is more future-proof than the other. Maybe this is a question for @Matt Panzer

 

 

 

So this looks promising. Have you tried it to make sure notes in your projects still link to the file? I am in the middle of finishing CDs.

[rDesign]

@Dick Jenkins I have been using an .XML version of my Notes database (which I had Saved As from the VW default .TXT version), so I cannot say definitively that the .TXT version will work the same.

 

I know that the VW-provided generic Callouts Notes file inside the VW application folder are .TXT file format, so I would think it *should* work the same as the .XML version.

 

I’m very wary of changing anything VW-related in the middle of CDs… maybe do a quick test on a copy of your working CD file to see if it will work for you.

[Jeff Prince]

Just copy the txt or xml to your desktop.  There are online converters for removing xml tags and converting to txt if saving a version out of VWX is not working for you.  Import into Numbers will then be clean.

[Dick Jenkins]

1 hour ago, jeff prince said:

Just copy the txt or xml to your desktop.  There are online converters for removing xml tags and converting to txt if saving a version out of VWX is not working for you.  Import into Numbers will then be clean.

This works perfect! Thanks!