PUBLISH - Page Setups List Preserved & Used in a New Session

Clint2U
Clint2U
edited January 29 in Printing and Plotting
Strategies are appreciated per the subject line and as follows:

GOAL
Have PUBLISH to store page setups from a template file without the user having to browse for this template file.

ISSUE
The CAD files will differ in number and filename. :#

QUESTIONS

A. Is a DSD file a best option considering the issue above? If so, read on...

B. The CAD files published will differ. This point appears to be a big issue using a DSD.
How do I set up this DSD file?

C. If not, what do you suggest in place of a DSD file?

Comments

  • ALANH
    ALANH
    If you google there is some examples of making DSD files without using publish, me personally use lisps not publish.
  • Virgil
    Virgil
    Hello.

    The dsd files work only with a predefined set of files.
    As Alan suggested, an approach would be to search or create a solution that creates the dsd file before using PUBLISH.

    Regarding the page setup, only its name is specified in the dsd file.
    To work correctly, the page setup must be defined in the file where publish is run from.

    A possible approach here could be to have a drawing file containing the page setups.
    Then, when publishing, a page setup can be imported from that drawing file.

    In summary:

    A.
    Depending on the workflow, the dsd might not be the best solution.

    B.
    The DSD works with a predefined files list, which is stored inside the dsd file.

    C.
    If using dsd files is the chosen solution, you should find or create a way to generate dsd files as required.
  • Clint2U
    Clint2U
    Alan and Virgil: I appreciate your valued input. I will explore DSD creation without PUBLISH. However, this appears to be a good LISP candidate as well.

    Alan,

    The LISP alternative is appealing.
    Does your LISP run inside the CAD session or otherwise independently (I believe these are the only alternatives)?

    P.S.: My colleague requesting this output automation created all needed page setups inside a drawing template.
  • ALANH
    ALANH
    edited February 3
    We only worked on single dwg's, so had multiple lisps for plotting, hit a button on a menu and watch the plot appear hard copy or pdf. They work every time as don't use page setups. We had Pdf mono/color, A1 plots, Jpg and a couple more. The lisps had plot range so could do 1 sheet or all in one go. With multiple pdfs we used Ghostscript to join pdfs back into 1 big pdf, 88 layouts in one pdf.

    You could do scripts to do multiple dwg's with an edited version of the code.