More than 8 drawings open at one time

[WhoCanDo]

I would like to see VW catch up with AutoCad, Adobe and other software that opens many more files at any one time.

I often want to print 50 to 60 drawings at one time and at the moment I have to count in eights to acheive this.

If it's a difficult thing for VW to do then opening 10 at a time would be easier to count than eight.

[bcd]

Wow, why so many?

Are you using a one symbol per drawing?

You can edit a symbol that is referenced into the working drawing and it will be saved back to the source drawing without ever opening the source.

[WhoCanDo]

I draw flooring tiles (to put it simply) that fit around machinery and structural steel. Each tile is dimensioned individually on a separate sheet and needs to be printed.

[Ray Libby]

What structure do your drawings have? Do you control visibility with classes at all?

[Kool Aid]

I would like to see VW catch up with AutoCad,

Curious. When I had my short and miserable period of AutoCAD-use, it was only able to have one drawing open at one time.

Surely, if you invoked several copies of AutoCAD, there was no apparent limit.

Just make the necessary number of copies of the VW application (only that, within the Applications/VW folder) and each can open 8 files.

[Kool Aid]

I often want to print 50 to 60 drawings at one time and

I can batch-print 50 to 60 drawings from a single VW file?

[WhoCanDo]

Kool Aid,

I have AutoCad 2006 and it opens as many files as I have tried with only one instance of the program running.

You can batch print because you have something other than the Fundementals version that I have. I cannot justify a version change at this time.

Ray,

Each tile has a class number. Each tile that is similar has the same class number and each tile that is different has an individual number.

I draw on layers so class visablity is not currently in use.

I have tried Viewports but the only reasonable way of detailing the tiles is to copy and past them to another drawing.

Duplicating any tile in the same drawing will double the data (ie weight, qty, etc) attached to the panel so detailing the panel in the same drawing does not seem feasible.

I would normally only have two drawings open at a time during this process since I will save the detail sheet as another drawing name before pasting another tile for dimensioning.

Only after all the tiles a detailled will I open the detail sheets to print them all.

Do you have a different method in mind?

[Ray Libby]

I have multiple pages in one file using classes for visibility and saved views to toggle them. I'm sure there are ways to control your data. PM me with your email address and I'll send you my template.

[Kool Aid]

Each tile has a class number. Each tile that is similar has the same class number and each tile that is different has an individual number.

A good starting point! Do you use data records?

I have tried Viewports but the only reasonable way of detailing the tiles is to copy and past them to another drawing.

Maybe, maybe not. There may be an extra selection and the process may not seem to be quite as straightforward, but??

Do you have a different method in mind?

I have!

If my various assumptions are correct, I believe the process of creating a single-file structure with viewports could be automated reasonably easily as a menu command.

So, if you have the overall layout on a single layer (as I would), the command could at the same time break the layout to individual design layers by tile class and create a sheet layer and a viewport for each. (There are considerations here.) Of course a title block, with automatically generated sheet-specific data (including Part# & quantity), would be placed, too.

Outside the automation you might need to have one or more Saved Sheets for reviewing purposes and the like, but hopefully not. (They're not easy to manage unless the layer/class structure is fixed and that would not be the case in your situation.)

Still no batch printing with Fundamentals, but another menu command could at least walk through each sheet layer and invoke the print dialog. (At least on the Macintosh platform, pressing OK could be automated, too.)

Your tiles, by the way: they are manufactured pieces of? metal?

[ccroft]

I would copy/paste or duplicate and move (via OIP) the tiles to a new design layer for detailing. (Actually I'd be more likely to use sheet-layer viewports and detail thru annotations but that's not working out for you)

I would restrict the database reporting to the main layout layer or layers.

Or change the class of the detailed copy if the database criteria was by class.

Or delete the record if the criteria was by 'record attached'.

One way or another I'd find a way to structure the drawing and the database criteria so that it could all be in one file.

Not saying that wanting to have more drawings open isn't a reasonable wish.

It's just that I'd rather manage one file per job than 50 or 60. Not to mention being able to arrow thru the layer list hitting a couple key commands as you go. That happens to be something I have some experience with.

It took us about 7 years to upgrade to an Industry version and batch print was one of the primary reasons. I believe you'd be well served to be working towards a unified file and an upgrade. Hopefully you won't have to wait as long as I did for batch print.

[bcd]

The answer is much simpler:

File>Page Setup> (Horizontal x Vertical) to give the desired number of pages

Be sure to Click >View Page Boundary

For each tile create a symbol.

Drop one tile into each page.

File>Print (all)