Routine to Restore Acad14 Xref Names

In 14, you were only allowed 8 characters in an xref name, so people would
rename longer xref filenames to stuff like XREF1. (I seem to remember that
Acad would actually provide such a name if you didn't provide one yourself.)
I was thinking of rearchiving some old Acad14 projects in Acad2000 format.
I ws thinking I'd first resave all the drawings in 2000 format, and then run
a script to clean things up a little. If I had a routine to add to that
script that would get rid of the XREF1's and restore the actual xref file
names, I'd be able to clean up a lot of mystery for folks who unarchive this
stuff in a couple of years. Anybody tried this?

 

I don't know what kind of design discipline you are in, nor how well this
could be applied to your workflow, but we use a fairly standardized xref
aliasing system on our projects (A/E/C: Structural). Granted that those
XREF1s in your dwgs may indeed prove 'mysterious' down the road, but rather
than just hard-coding the file names back in, perhaps you should consider
creating a more helpful and appropriate *aliasing system*? You may find
that doing so would actually be more understandable and useful in the long
term.

PS Sane aliasing *really helps* in swapping-out files from one project to
another *AND* can be automated in a more consistent fashion, thus leading to
fewer mistakes overall...

Regards,
David Kozina

 

I hear you... but the problem I'm fighting is that for years before I got
here, people saved hard-paths to xrefs in remote folders. Usually, these
places no longer exist because the projects are removed from the server at
the end of the project. When I reopen drawings from these older projects, I
usually find items missing. Part of the archiving process I do for our
Acad2002 drawings is to isolate the drawing set from the server. and strip
out the xref and image hardpaths to be sure that "all the pieces" reside in
the same branch of the project folder where they can always be found. That
way, an older archived version of a Floor Plan sheet doesn't accidentally
show the "current" state of the floor plan xref instead of the version that
should have been archived along with the sheet that's looking for it.

I use Script Pro to run a clean-up script through a set of drawings. I can
then take the log file that Script Pro creates and look for all instances of
the word "cannot". After each instance of this word, you find an xref or
image file that that particular drawing is looking for but cannot find. I
make a list of missing items and go looking in other project folders for the
missing items. Sometimes I'm successful, sometimes not. If not, I call in
the people who created the drawings if they're still around to help sort out
the mess.

I'd like to be able to do this for our older projects that were saved in
Acad14, but can't get to a missing xref list because the actual missing xref
names have aliases. If I could restore the hard-pathed real names of the
missing files, I'd be able to hunt for them.

 

Would a script making use of some or all of the following commands be of any
help in tracking down the missing files?
LOGFILEPATH
LOGFILEON
-XREF _? _*
LOGFILEOFF

hth,
David Kozina

 

I'll give it a try and post the results if any. Thanks