Mapkey to Re-apply current drawing format (refresh drawing format)

[afraser-2]

I'm trying to figure out a way to quickly re-apply the current drawing format again to a drawing.

My current process is to open up the sheet setup, pick a (different) random drawing format, and then repick the original format again. Then I hit okay, remove all tables, and I have a nice up to date drawing format again. I know this isn't a huge amount of clicks, but I would ideally like to get it down to just a single command as I find myself doing this a hundred times a day.

I can record a mapkey to do this, but it is always specific to the current format I recorded it on; I'd have to make a new mapkey for every format we use this way and that would be cumbersome... Is there any way to generally just reset or re-load the current format on a drawing?

Thank you!!

-Andrew

[RandyJones · Accepted solution]

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I can record a mapkey to do this, but it is always specific to the current format I recorded it on; I'd have to make a new mapkey for every format we use this way and that would be cumbersome... Is there any way to generally just reset or re-load the current format on a drawing?

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Not with mapkeys. You can do this with jlink or weblink. With mapkeys (like you pointed out) you have to record a mapkey for each format. You could record a mapkey with a pause in which you have to select the format. This would only be one mapkey but depends on the user to select the correct format.

[afraser-2]

RandyJones wrote:

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Not with mapkeys. You can do this with jlink or weblink. With mapkeys (like you pointed out) you have to record a mapkey for each format. You could record a mapkey with a pause in which you have to select the format. This would only be one mapkey but depends on the user to select the correct format.

okay thank you. I was starting to think that might be the case after trolling around this site and a few others, but I had to ask.

Yeah the mapkey with pause is where I'm currently at; it's certainly better than nothing, but I was wondering if I could push it a little more.

Thanks!

[TomU]

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Not with mapkeys.

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This is not correct.  You can do this with a mapkey.  We do it all the time.  The trick is to simply reselect the same format again (the top one in the list.)  Here is the mapkey we have for this exact purpose:

mapkey frf @MAPKEY_NAMEReplace the drawing format;@MAPKEY_LABELChange Format;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Command `ProCmdDwgPageSetup` ;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Select `pagesetup` `TblFormats`2  `0` `fmt`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Select `pagesetup` `TblFormats_INPUT`1;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Activate `pagesetup` `OK`;~ Activate `keep_format_tables` `RemoveAll`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Activate `0_std_confirm` `OK`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Activate `main_dlg_cur` `page_Table_control_btn`1;

[RandyJones]

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@TomU wrote:

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Not with mapkeys.

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This is not correct.  You can do this with a mapkey.  We do it all the time.  The trick is to simply reselect the same format again (the top one in the list.)  Here is the mapkey we have for this exact purpose:

mapkey(continued) ~ Select `pagesetup` `TblFormats_INPUT`1;\

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Very nice! I see you are modifying a recorded mapkey and removing the format that is selected:

mapkey(continued) ~ Select `pagesetup` `TblFormats_INPUT` 1 `D`;  //as recorded with specific format at the top of the list - "D" in this mapkey line

mapkey(continued) ~ Select `pagesetup` `TblFormats_INPUT` 1 ;  //your modification

[TomU]

Yep.  Sometimes things like this work.  🙂

[afraser-2]

That's exactly what I was hoping for, thank you so much!!

[StephenW]

My first response is not an answer to your question but to ask you a question...Why are you refreshing your drawing format 100 dimes a day? Maybe your trying to solve the wrong problem??

My answer to your question would be to use a mapkey but use the pause functionality to allow a selection of the correct format.  Your mapkey would add a sheet size format to your drawing and then ask you for the format size you want for that drawing, they you would resume the mapkey to finish.

So your clicks would be to 1. run the mapkey...2. select the appropriate format...3. resume.

Not one click but better than the 20 or so manual clicks, not sure it's better than individual mapkeys for each format size tho...

[afraser-2]

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@StephenW wrote:

My first response is not an answer to your question but to ask you a question...Why are you refreshing your drawing format 100 dimes a day? Maybe your trying to solve the wrong problem??

That is a very fair point to try and get to the root cause of the issue; it is insane to be re-applying the format everytime I open a drawing.

The short answer is that I'm at a new organization and I don't have admin status anymore, and so right this second I'm just trying to band-aid something at a user level that really should be solved higher up.

The longer answer is that we often save-as from a massive 'master' set of models & drawings (~1000 objects) that are parametrically linked with relations & paramters to be used with pro/program to generate a drawing package. The standard workflow then is to spend some time upfront with the design (in excel), dump the output to a datafile, save-as the whole package, and then run in the data file to update the parameters. From there the models are essentially done and the drawings might just need some quick cleanup.

Part of that drawing cleanup of course is to add in some standard info like "drawn by" "drawn date" etc. These are linked in the format "&drawn_by" "&date" etc, but those parameters don't exist in the .drw files themselves. Now I can manually overwrite those values, but I've instead made a mapkey to quickly add the relevant parameters to the drawing. Then all I need to do is re-load the drawing format and then my title block is up to date.

Hopefully that all made sense, but if not please let me know...

I understand that a better solution to this particular problem would be to add in the relevant parameters to the 'master' .drw files. That way going forward I could update the title blocks just by updating the parameter list... Although the higher ups are very nervous about messing with their master file set.

[RandyJones]

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@afraser-2 wrote:

I'm trying to figure out a way to quickly re-apply the current drawing format again to a drawing.

My current process is to open up the sheet setup, pick a (different) random drawing format, and then repick the original format again.

You don't have to start by replacing with a different format. You can replace the existing format with itsself. This will simplify your mapkey.

[afraser-2]

RandyJones wrote:

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You don't have to start by replacing with a different format. You can replace the existing format with itsself. This will simplify your mapkey.

Very true! Sorry if I wasn't clear, I just mean that in the dialogue I would select another format, and then reselect the original format right away; I would only ever actually apply one format to the drawing.