Renaming Network Drive

Hello All,

We have a separate drive set aside for "archived" projects - i.e. - projects that no longer need to be on the current project server but that do need to be immediately accessible for reference and occasionally to (re)plot. This leads to problems – particularly drawings with xrefs that have an absolute path and for users who have set their profiles to link CTB/PC3s by project. We are currently working in a manner that will resolve most of these issues in the future – but for now, we have to deal with thousands of archived drawings that will not display and/or plot correctly.

One way to deal with this would be to run a lisp when necessary to search for + repath xrefs (and images) as required when a file is opened (though this won’t solve the CTB/PC3 issue).

Before I do this, though, I thought that I would look into the option of temporarily resetting the archive drive letter to the project drive letter when a user wishes to open an archived file. Assuming that our project drive is “O†and the archive drive is “L†– is it somehow possible to “swap†the drive letters? I have looked into the DOS subst function – but this, as far as I can tell, will only allow a new letter/name for a virtual drive. The FileSystemObject Drive object’s DriveLetter property is read only.

Do I need to disconnect and reconnect both network drives? If so – what would be the best means to do this? Also – any comments on potential pitfalls to this method would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Peter

 

Hi Peter

Try this:

Code:

(defun MeRemapNetworkDrive (Old New / DrvCol ItmCnt OldUnc RetVal WsnObj)
(setq WsnObj (vlax-create-object "WScript.Network")
DrvCol (vlax-invoke WsnObj 'EnumNetworkDrives)
ItmCnt 0
)
(repeat (vlax-invoke DrvCol 'Count)
(if (eq (strcase Old) (strcase (vla-Item DrvCol ItmCnt)))
(setq OldUnc (vla-Item DrvCol (1+ ItmCnt)))
)
(setq ItmCnt (1+ ItmCnt))
)
(cond
((vl-catch-all-apply 'vlax-invoke (list WsnObj 'RemoveNetworkDrive Old)))
((vl-catch-all-apply 'vlax-invoke (list WsnObj 'MapNetworkDrive New OldUnc)))
((setq RetVal T))
)
(vlax-release-object WsnObj)
RetVal
)

Use:
(MeRemapNetworkDrive "L:" "O:")

Cheers

 

Oops... forgot something:

Add :vlax-true here:
....'RemoveNetworkDrive Old :vlax-true :vlax-true)))
....'MapNetworkDrive New OldUnc :vlax-true)))
otherwise changes are not saved in current user profile.

Cheers

 

Merci vielmal,

s'hät super g'klappet.

Es grüssli us Münche,

Peter

 

Salü Peter

S'freut mi das i ha chönnä hälfä...¦-)

Cheers us Oberegg

 

You can use the DOS "net" command and make two batch files, one to swap O: and L: and one to swap them back. The user could run the one to swap mapped drive letters before accessing the archived files. I would create two shortcuts to the batch files and place on the users' desktops or some easy to access location.

Use_Archive_Drive.bat
-------------------------
rem remove current mappings
net use O: / delete
net use L: /delete

rem create mapped drives
net use O: \\servername\archive_sharename
net use L: \\servername\currentprojects_sharename

Use_Default_Drive.bat
-------------------------
rem remove current mappings
net use O: / delete
net use L: /delete

rem create mapped drives
net use L: \\servername\archive_sharename
net use O: \\servername\currentprojects_sharename

I am not sure if the syntax is exactly correct. Go to the command prompt and enter net use /? for the syntax help.

 

Thanks - now that I have the function "inside" AutoCAD (with lisp) maybe it will make sense to have a back up batch / exe setup.

Peter