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AutoCAD Tools
 Replace
Text DWG
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About
Quickly replacing text and attributes in batches of AutoCAD documents has never been easier. Replace Text
DWG
- a robust and user friendly application - features several modes to select files to be
processed, notably: drag and drop,
specifying Excel lists, or specifying folders. An indispensable
application to every CAD manager and AutoCAD user, Replace Text
DWG is designed to save time and money, it is easy to use and
preserves user's options for the next time it runs.
Features
and Benefits
- 3 modes to select files for text
replacing:
drag and drop files from Windows Explorer,
use files from an Excel document list,
process all documents from specified folders,
- All settings are saved between sessions
- Allows replacing text in large as well
as small batches of documents. It can find
and replace one or more pairs of text items
in the same batch. Find and replace
information can be provided in an Excel file
or directly on the application's interface.
-The user can selectively search and replace
in the following areas:
Text and Mtext in Model Space
Text and
Mtext in Paper Space
Text and
Mtext in Block Definitions
Attributes
in Model Space
Attributes in Paper Space
-Case Sensitive Comparison
-Whole Word searching option
-The replacement results are clearly
displayed while the batch is processing
selected drawings. There are two operating
modes: Preview and Replace. Preview mode
searches for text and displays the found
text and the new text after modification but
does not save any modification to dwg files.
Replace mode also shows the old text and the
new text but saves the modified drawings.
-After a preview, each matching text item is listed and selected for
replacement, but user is given the option to
unselect some of the text items before the
batch replacement starts.
-Search and replace text can be applied to AutoCAD Drawing (dwg)
and AutoCAD Drawing Template (dwt) files.
Usage
-Start the application by browsing the
menu: All Programs, Office Optimum, Replace
Text DWG.
Then, please
follow these simple instructions describing
each item on Replace Text DWG interface:
-DWG Files
Selection; there are 3 modes
to select files. Select the
tab corresponding to your needs:
1.Drag and Drop files from Windows Explorer to
the program interface.
If you change your mind, you can double click to remove
some of the files from the list.
Note that if you drag and drop files of
incompatible format they will be skipped
when the batch process starts.
2.Load Drawing List from an Excel file. To
use this mode you first need to have a list
of DWG documents open in Excel, then to click
Select Excel File button; a window will
pop-up showing all open Excel files. Select
the appropriate Excel file. Next, enter the sheet
number where the list is located in the
Excel file (ex.: enter 1 if the list is in
the first sheet). Specify the column
to read from in the From Column field
by entering the column letter or column
number.
If the paths of the DWG documents are included in the
list, select Document locations are specified
in the selected Excel file option. This
is an example of such list:
If the paths of the documents are not included in the list,
select Use folder option and click
Select folder button to browse to the
folder where DWG documents are located.
This is an example of such list:
At the end of the batch process, the cells
in the Excel file will be marked in green
and red; files successfully opened will be
marked in green, files not found in red and
duplicates will be left unchanged. 3.Search Folder mode. To use this
mode, first decide if you need to check the
Include SubFolders or not. Then,
click Select folder button and browse
to the folder where DWG documents are located.
All documents found will be listed in the
lower window. You can click Select folder
button again and add other files from a
different folder to the
list. If you wish, you can double click to remove
some of the files from the list. Note that you cannot use Specify Folder mode to change AutoCAD Drawing Template (dwt) files.
-Provide find and replace text information.
There are two modes available. You can provide
a list of multiple pairs of find and replace text in an Excel file.
The Excel list needs two columns, one with
find text and another with replace text.
Click on Select Excel File (the Excel
file must be already opened) and select the
file from the list. The
second method is by entering one pair of find and replace text on the application's interface.
-Click
Preview button to start
the batch replace text. Preview mode
searches for text and displays the found
text and the new text after modification but
does not save any modification to DWG files.
This mode allows to see how and what text
will be modified without actually modifying
anything. The Replace mode also shows the old text and the
new text but saves the modified DWG drawings.
You can skip the preview mode and click
directly on the Replace button if you
are certain that you made the appropriate
options for the modifications. You can also click the Exit/Cancel button to stop a running batch process.
-As soon as the batch starts the
application switches itself to Results
tab to show the progress. The results tab
gives a detail report of the changes to each
document and text item. Each text item is
listed on a separate line which shows the
file name and its path, the old text and the
new text. The File Name column provides a
link to open the documents.
You can select and copy any data from the
results table to an Excel sheet or to other
type of document for future reference. The results tab also shows
what file is processed during the batch, the
total processed files and the time taken to
finish the batch. Occasionally you will
notice formatting characters within the text
(Ex. \P). They can be ignored as they are
only displayed in the Results tab; AutoCAD
uses them to format the text.
Screenshots
Drag and Drop mode
Specify Document List mode
Specify Folder mode
Results tab
-Note that if the changed text inside of a block is either center or right
aligned, you may have to enter the block editor and press Ctrl + S to save the block definition (even if you don't modify anything).
This is because AutoCAD needs to readjust the position of the text in
case it has a different length than before the replacement.
- Pad file location:
http://www.officeoptimum.com/AutoCAD/ReplaceTextDWG/pad_file.xml
System requirements
AutoCAD 2006 or later
Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 (provided with the application)
Operating System Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows XP
Microsoft Excel 2000, XP or later
Estimating Return on Investment (ROI) for
Replace Text DWG software
A simple example illustrates the process of
estimating savings provided by this
software. In this example we took 20 DWG documents with
a total of 1000 text items. As the above
screenshot shows, it took the application 1
minute and 4 seconds to open each
document, search and replace a total of 1000 text
items and save the files. We then tried to
search and replace the 1000 text items
directly in AutoCAD. Well, since this would
be an enormously boring and prone to errors
task we searched and replaced 1 text item
instead; it took us about 5 seconds. That
means 5 x 1000 =
5000 seconds in total.
If you do a similar task only once a week by
using Replace Text DWG you save
(5000-64)/3600=1.37hours/week. Note that we
did not take into account the time it takes
for the user to locate each file. The second step in this ROI example is
to apply the standard ROI equations:
|
Investment |
$40 |
$ |
|
Productivity improvement |
1.37 |
hours/week |
|
Design engineering cost |
$60 |
$/hour |
|
Productivity enhancement |
1.37*60=82.20 |
$/week |
|
Time to ROI |
40/82.20=0.49 |
weeks |
The result speaks for itself. You can
practice this estimation with your own data.
The results may be different depending on
the files size and text and replace
patterns. The benefits, however, will always
be obvious, the productivity gains will
easily justify the small investment for
purchasing the Replace Text DWG
application.
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