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Updating All Callouts From Updated Database


Tom Klaber

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I'd like this confirmed too.  We use Keynotes from a database, and unless we're using them wrong, once the keynote is placed, it is no longer linked to the database. If the keynote description changes, we have to update the database to match.  We think it should work so that the keynotes are always linked to the database.

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18 minutes ago, BG said:

I'd like this confirmed too.  We use Keynotes from a database, and unless we're using them wrong, once the keynote is placed, it is no longer linked to the database. If the keynote description changes, we have to update the database to match.  We think it should work so that the keynotes are always linked to the database.

 

Yes - or at least you would have the option to "Link Note To Database" or not - so that some notes could be customized per instance, while others stay linked.

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Have you tried the reconcile notes tool? Not quite what you are after but might help. I've just started playing with it recently and haven't quite got the hang of it yet but it will pick up unlinked callouts which you can then update to or from a database.

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On 12/7/2016 at 6:45 PM, BG said:

I'd like this confirmed too.  We use Keynotes from a database, and unless we're using them wrong, once the keynote is placed, it is no longer linked to the database. If the keynote description changes, we have to update the database to match.  We think it should work so that the keynotes are always linked to the database.

 

@BG

 

Could I ask what data base editor you use for this? I'm trying notepad xml 2007. Its ok, but it seems if you change the section or note titles in the XML editor, they are lost the next time you edit/save the notes from VW?

 

Thanks

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Hi

We don't open the database directly, but edit it using the Notes Manager within the callout tool.  From what I understand, the database is formatted very specifically and you would have to be very careful not to mess up the specific formatting to ensure it still works correctly.

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Hello @BG 

 

You are right about the formating, so I thought I would post an update on progress regarding notes, data bases and work flows. Anyone who finds this helpful, you have my brother to thank for this. Sadly I'm not a VB coder. 

 

Attached is a text file with a script written in Visual basic for excel. It allows you to use excel to drive your Vectorworks notes database, where by it runs an export from an excel file, creating:


-    The A column becomes the description, 
-    The B column becomes the notes (main text content).


Tabs become different sections, but as yet it just names them -1, -2,-3 etc, and these need to be changed within VW. But we are looking to resolve this.

This means as a team you can use excel to edit, and input into a central data set (and use all the notes and track changes included in this). 

 

For those of you using NBS, its possible to export into excel using a few methods, then with some simple editing you can have your NBS references etc as notes (NBS used to make a tool to do this, but it stopped working with VW 2016 I think. There was little uptake on it, so NBS stopped supporting it) 

 

How to use.
You need excel. Maybe it works in google sheets, I’ve not tried it yet but I will. 


-    First turn on the developer tab. Do this via File>options>customise ribbon, and tick the developer tab.
-    Then open the visual basic editor (far left on my version)
-    Then click inset > module 
-    Copy and paste the contents of the text file into here. 
-    goto tools >> references and scroll down and tick "Microsoft scripting runtime" to include the libraries that you need
-    No need to save anything. Just close the VB editor.

 

Every time you want to run the macro, go to the developer tab, click on macros (second left on my version), then run the macro called export. This will save a .xml file where you choose. From VW, go to database controls > choose > click the exported xml, and… all your data is now in the VW database😀

 

Obviously, we are taking no responsibility for messing up excel files/data files. But all the above worked well for me. I’ll post up if we get the tab naming thing working. 

 

Here are some more detailed notes about the code and external data base control, if you are using them…

 

The long random strings in the example files are GUIDs which are unique identifiers that are used by databases to identify objects. 

Usually they are automatically created whenever you add a new entry to a database table.

If you are importing your xml to create new items in the CAD database it probably doesn’t expect to be given guids - it will create its own as it creates each object from the xml entries

However, reading the documentation it looks like they can be used by the CAD software to synchronise between its objects and those in an external database (or excel etc) and it’s own items. In which case they may be needed.
There is a flag at the top of the code to turn on and off the ability to generate guids in the xml when it creates the file depending on whether the cad software needs them or not. Change to true or false (with in the code in the module) to export with or without guids.

Also note that it will generate a new guid for each item every time you export the file. If you intend to use the xml to sync or update entries then you don’t want it to create new guids every time - it will likely create duplicate entries in the cad data - instead it will need to use existing guids and will need some slightly different code to this.
 

ExportToXML2.txt

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On 12/8/2016 at 6:21 AM, Tom Klaber said:

How do I update all notes with new wording from the database?

It is possible using a database worksheet to do global edits of callouts/keynotes. Not sure how reliable this method is however. Here is a new thread;

 

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On 12/7/2016 at 5:21 PM, Tom Klaber said:

How do I update all notes with new wording from the database?


I figured that if I use the database, then it would coordinate the notes - so if a specification or phrasing needed to change - I could make the change once - then all affected notes would be updated.  But it seems I still need to go around to each not individually and update it - which is hardly better than copying and pasting.


Am I missing something? 

 

I decided to spend this afternoon working out how to do notes 'properly' and got to the same point.

 

I assumed that the concept of callouts being related to info in a database would mean that editing the text in the database would mean all the instances would update automatically, thereby saving me the tedious process of going round every single drawing sheet.

 

Seems not though. All it is is a kind of semi-streamlined way of doing copy&paste.

 

Disappointing.

 

Ho hum.

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On 10/22/2018 at 7:14 PM, Boh said:

Have you tried the reconcile notes tool? Not quite what you are after but might help. I've just started playing with it recently and haven't quite got the hang of it yet but it will pick up unlinked callouts which you can then update to or from a database.

 

I've just been trying this out. It sort of helps, if in a rather clunky way.

 

By the way - this is a classic bit of VW UI:

 

434277404_ScreenShot2019-05-20at17_37_12.thumb.jpg.a26f97a855decff4b8c86d3cb1951d95.jpg

 

The options here are basically optimised to induce migraine.

 

Also... I'm not very clear what the difference is between (a) a callout "obtained from database" and (b) a callout that "used to get its text from a database.

If (b) once got its text from a database then why is it under the category "not obtained from a database"?

If (a) was obtained from the database, and hasn't been changed since (which seems to be the only thing that distinguishes it from (b)) then why would I need to reconcile it?

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