Issue Manager - Issue Data

[RickS - Lab 8]

We often do projects that we make a copy of any other VW File and modify it for the new project.

Basically, we use the issue manager and seems to work well, but the "Issue Data" is problematic. For the new project, we need to remove all of the old Issue Data information. To do this, we go through the "Edit Issue Data" in the object info dialog.

Once we delete the old Issue Data, we go into the Issue Manager and add the new Issue Date, Letter, & Description. But once the Issue Manager closes, usually one of the old set of data remains.

We then have to go back into the "Edit Issue Data" through the Object Info dialog and delete the old issue data again.

Is there anyway to clear out the old issue data through the Issue Manager or some other function so we dont have to keep going through every sheet twice to delete the old issue data?

[billtheia]

I would love to know the answer to this also. I, too, use a template set and am always struggling with issue data when issuing a new set of drawings - old issue information seems to show up no matter what I do.

[Joe-SA]

Last year I wrote a script to get me past a similar issue I was having with the Issue Manager. Inevitably, shortly after sending date and description to 20 title blocks of a project the issue date would change or a typo would be noticed. The only way to fix each of these sheets was to edit each sheet individually. The Issue Manager is not capable in its current state of manipulating a set of sheets a second time even though it assigns common letter or number value to each sheet set.

My script allows you to input the designation of one of these sets and then input revised date and description data...(or just spaces) It then searches all your title blocks for dates and descriptions that fall under that set designation and updates them accordingly.

You could use this to modify each of your existing entries instead of deleting the previous ones and adding new. The script could likely be modified to do what you are asking all in one click.

I posted this to the Vectorscript section of this board but I'm not sure if it is there anymore. This seemed like such a easily corrected deficiency that I half expected this feature to be added in an upcoming service pack. In a much more elegant fashion then I can do, I'm sure.

Here is my script. I created a menu command plug-in out of it and keep it right next to the Issue Manager.

Joe

(Start of script)

Procedure ReviseTitleBlockIssueData;

{

This procedure searches all instances of the 'Issue Data' record created by the Issue Manager

and takes a user input previously issued set letter and revises the associated date and note to a user input values.

}

Var

Request1, Request2, Request3, Default1, Default2, Default3, IssueLetter, RevDate, RevNote, FName, DName, NName, FValue, FinalCheck : String;

Record : Handle;

NoOfFields, X : LongInt;

Answer : Boolean;

PROCEDURE ReviseData(ObjHdl : HANDLE);

BEGIN

X:=1;

REPEAT

FName:= Concat('Number-', X);

DName:= Concat('Date-', X);

Nname:= Concat('Note-', X);

FValue:= GetRField(ObjHdl, 'Issue Data', FName);

IF (FValue = IssueLetter) THEN BEGIN

SetRField(ObjHdl, 'Issue Data', DName, RevDate);

SetRField(ObjHdl, 'Issue Data', NName, RevNote);

END;

X:=X+1;

UNTIL(X>50);

ResetObject(ObjHdl);

END;

BEGIN

BEGIN

Request1:=('What is the letter of the Issue Set you wish to revise?');

Default1:='A';

IssueLetter:= StrDialog(Request1, Default1);

END;

BEGIN

Request2:=('What is the revised date you wish this issue set to display?');

Default2:='mm/dd/yy';

RevDate:= StrDialog(Request2, Default2);

END;

BEGIN

Request3:=('What is the revised note you wish this issue set to display?');

Default3:='Issue Note';

RevNote:= StrDialog(Request3, Default3);

END;

BEGIN

FinalCheck:= Concat('Are you sure you want to change issue set ', IssueLetter, ' to the new date ', RevDate, ' and the new note - ', RevNote, ' ?');

Answer := YNDialog(FinalCheck);

IF Answer THEN BEGIN

ForEachObject(ReviseData, (R IN ['Issue Data']));

END;

END;

END;

RUN ( ReviseTitleBlockIssueData );

(End of Script)

[michaelk]

Joe

Amazingly useful.

Thanks for sharing this.

mk

[RickS - Lab 8]

Sorry, forgot to add this to my watched topics...

Made the script from the code Joe-SA provided. Unfortunately, when I ran the Script, the old "Issue Manager" items reappeared even after i had deleted them multiple times. It seems that VW is holding that information somewhere in the file and keeps bringing it back. I now have 3 "A" issues, then "B" through "F".

I've tried purging the document, Deleting the old issues notes from each sheet. Short of creating a new project and coping everything into the new file...

Shouldn't there be something in the Issue Manager that allows you to clear out the old data?

[Joe-SA]

Rick,

My script was written for the purpose of changing existing data sets. Not purging the file of the data sets so when you enter the Issue Manager it thinks its the first time.

The Issue Data Record Format doesn't show in the OIP until you run the Issue Manager. The weird part, however, is if you select a titleblock and run the Edit Issue Data and then click OK without making any changes...the Issue Date Record is no longer visible in the OIP. But it then comes back with the same info the next time you run the Issue Manager.

I'd have to do a lot more research in order to re-write the script for your purpose. Not sure I know enough to do it considering the odd behavior which I would suspect is designed and not a bug to limit tampering.

One work around might be to edit individual sheets until you have only one instance of each letter. Then use my script to input spaces into each letter in order to achieve a clean text free title block. Then with each new issue date use my script to assign new info to each of your existing data sets.

Not what you are looking for, I know, but the best I got right now.

Joe

[Joe-SA]

Just went to the Resource sharing - Vectorscript section of the forum and set it to display ALL DATES.

Lo and behold...Pat Stanford posted a script that does what you are asking back in 2009.

Haven't tried it but it may be just what you need.

Joe

[Joe-SA]

Just tried Pat's script. It wouldn't run from a menu command PIO but run as expected from a Vectorscript in the Resource Browser.

Read Pat's disclaimers. After running the script the OIP was grayed out when highlighting a title block but ran the Issue Manager once and input set 'A' and the file was reset to just the A set and the second run defaulted to 'B'.

Very cool.

Thanks Pat.

Joe

[RickS - Lab 8]

Thanks, i didn't even really know that portion of the Forum existed.

I took the code from Pat's post and ran it from a text file. Seemed to work perfectly for me. Cleared out all the issue data and was able to start over with a clean issue notes section.

Going to run a couple more test files to make sure it works ok, but from the first try it seems to be exactly what i was looking for!

Thanks Joe & Pat

[RickS - Lab 8]

Just an FYI, ran a bunch of test files. seems to work perfectly.

so for anyone who is interested here is the link to the post from Pat

http://techboard.vectorworks.net/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=126725#Post126725

 

Thanks again Joe