Title Block Exchange Application

Title Block Exchange Application

Win32 and 64, English

JWH Coding Solutions
Title Block Exchange Application is a feature-rich, easy-to-use tool to help users maintaining delivery information, updating whole project drawings' title blocks with Excel register by a few click.

General Usage Instructions

Quite easy to understand the logic and workflow of this application if you are familiar with how to update the title block values manually.

1. Type "TBEXCHANGE" command in the command line of Autodesk® AutoCAD® or Go to "Add-ins" tab and above the "JWH Coding Solutions" Panel, Click the "Tbexchange" button, then the application window will show up.

2. Go to the "Help" Menu->"About Title Block Exchange" submenu to read the terms and conditions before you use.

3. Go to the top ribbon and click butons to create, load, save, save as a project. You can access same functions in the "File" Menu ->Drop down menus.

4.  On the same row of ribbon, fill relevant text boxes to setup or modify the project settings like: project name, project ID, version attribute tag.

5. Check or uncheck the "Log File" checkbox to set up or cancel the log file. Check or uncheck the "Processing in background ..." checkbox to setup the processing mode. Check or uncheck the  "Rename drawing sheet layout Name to Version Tag Value"...

6. Go to the "Template" tab to produce the Register template. You select one template AutoCAD drawing with the right title block in paper space, then select the title block name in the combobox and then press "Create" button to produce the Template Excel file. Save your template to a place and then change the template register with the style of your need ( Be mindful that you can change the order of the template Columns, width, height, etc, But the first row values shall not be changed which is the header value of template and is the key link between the title block and the Register files).

You should keep the first header "Document Name" unchanged as well.

7. Use the "Export" tab to Export the drawings attribute values base on the format of template excel files. You can edit and update the attribute values on Excel quite easily based on exported values. Please be mindful to keep the first columns value and order unchanged and other values in the first header row unchanged (you can change header order of any other columns along with their values except the first column-"Document name" column).

8. Use the "Import" tab to import back the updated registration information to update the sheet drawings title block attributes, like the issuing date, designer names, drawing titles, approval signature, revison descriptions etc.

9. Once you setup your project well, you can save all these settings into an xml file and later on load back to this application again. You can easily share this xml file with your team in an email attachment as well.

10. Please practice a few times in a trial project folder before you apply this tool to the real project files. And always remember to backup your files in a safe place before you use this application.

11. Please be advised that the commercial standard version has a 100 drawings limit for each operation (app can be run any number of times without closing). If you want to have more drawing limits for each operation, Please contact the app developer via email: jwhcoding@gmail.com.

12. Please check the example drawings, register template and register Excel files under the "Example Drawings" folder (default path: C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\JWH Coding Solutions Title Block Exchange Application.bundle\Contents\Example Drawings).

Feel free to send us an email, our YouTube channel or visit our website if you have any further questions or suggestions.

JWH Coding Solutions:

https://jwhcoding.com/

jwhcoding@gmail.com.

Commands

Ribbon/Toolbar Icon Command Command Description

TBEXCHANGE

TBEXCHANGE is the command to start the TitleBlock Exchange Application

Installation/Uninstallation

The installer that ran when you downloaded this app/plug-in from Autodesk App Store will start installing the app/plug-in. OR, simply double-click the downloaded installer to install the app/plugin.

You may need to restart the Autodesk product to activate the app/plug-in.

To uninstall this plug-in, exit the Autodesk product if you are currently running it, simply rerun the installer, and select the "Uninstall" button. OR, click Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features (Windows 7/8.1/10) and uninstall as you would any other application from your system.

Additional Information

Known Issues

1. When you reading the excel register file and application may raise an error message like: "microsoft.ace.oledb.12.0 provider is not registered on the local machine".

Solutions: You need to install "2007 Office System Driver: Data Connectivity Components". File name is AccessDatabaseEngine_X64.exe or  AccessDatabaseEngine.exe, all based on your Version of Operation System. Please download from Microsoft website and reopen the application again should fix it well. Otherwise, try to install another version of "AccessDatabaseEngine".

2. After downloading this App and start installing in OS Windows 10, there is a window may pop up showing "Unknown Publisher", Please ignore this dialogue and click continue to install (Sometimes may need administrator right to override your system default setting).

Contact

Company Name: JWH Coding Solutions
Support Contact: jwhcoding@gmail.com

Author/Company Information

JWH Coding Solutions

Support Information

Please visit our website at jwhcoding.com.

or contact developer via email: jwhcoding@gmail.com.

Version History

Version Number Version Description

1.60

New Features: 1. Introduce new controls in template tab to show details of selected title block in loaded template file. 2. Add draggable functions to main three tabs. 3. Make latest project to the top of the "Recent Projects" submenu list. 4. Add project xml file to save "template file path" and "register file path". 5. Enable 1.60 project xml file format compatible with 1.54 version xml file format. 6. Add a "Sort" button in both "Export" tab and "Import" tab for the "Selected Drawings List box", which can facilitate user to sort drawings for processing. Bug fixed: 1. fix the bug that cannot update last attribute in a row of register file in version 1.54. 2. fix the drawings' display order when open a new project drawing folder. 3. Beautify buttons images.

1.54

1. Introduce project concept in this application, add all menus and ribbon tools for users to easily create, save, open project settings in xml format. 2. Add the function to rename the drawings' layout name to match the revision /version number for the convenience of trace the stage for which the drawing is produced for. 3. Beautify the interface and easy to resize the window. 4. Add Drawing list exchange menu in both exporting and importing list boxes. 5. Rewrite log file for easier access of log output data. 6. Upgrade excel register file reading speed, probably need user to install " The 2007 Office System Driver: Data Connectivity Components. AccessDatabaseEngine_X64.exe or AccessDatabaseEngine.exe". 7. Fix bug with drawing list sorted by name.

1.40

1. Update export and import tab user interface.

1.30

1. Added the support for multiple title blocks in one drawing with single layout. 2. Added access to this application by right click context menu in AutoCAD and its Verticals by clicking menu item of "JWH coding Solutions" => "Title Block Exchange". 3. Implemented "stop" importing and exporting process in the background mode. 4. Added "Help" menu. 5. Upgraded drawing processing number to 100 for one run in standard version and free version upgrade to 5 drawings in one run. 6. Fixed warning dialogue issue and added "Ready to processing drawings number " indicator in both exporting and importing tab.

1.21

1.21-Added right click menu to import and export listbox. 1.20-Exportation bugs fixed. 1.10-Retain Attribute justification settings when update the value. 1.09-Retain template file format in exporting register file. 1.07-Version with excel thread collection error fixed.

1.10

1.07-Version with excel thread collection error fixed. 1.09-Retain template file format in exporting register file. 1.10-Retain Attribute justification settings when update the value.

1.09

Version with excel thread collection error fixed. Retain template file format in exporting register file.

1.05

Robust version with changes to creat template, progress bar and log error fixed.
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