<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Navigation:  Drawing Manager > Technical details > Preset Aliases compatibility feature

Previously used variables for default values in the Drawing Manager which referred to drawing classes and drawing types have been fixed. The drawing class has had its set of variables, the drawing type its set, the first project related drawing class its set and finally the second project related drawing type its set.  This has been true regardless of where in the file names the respective class/type has been used.

 

In the new world that the current Drawing Manager has opened, the relationships are more complex. The variables that are described above are entirely general and refer to the segments that the file names are made up of. Those segments are – in their turn – connected through the project parameters to a specific tree and a specific level of that tree.

 

Old style variables will in different projects correspond to different new variables, since the composition of file names may vary from project to project. The first part of a file name may for example correspond to what was earlier a drawing class or in another project to what was earlier a first project related drawing type. In the same way, other parts of a file name can be used in different ways in different projects.

 

For compatibility reasons, an “alias” has therefore been introduced. This means that arbitrary aliases for default values can be defined in the project parameters. This makes it possible to continue using the old variables as aliases with a, for each project adapted, new counterpart.

 

In the automatic update procedure that each project undergoes when the Drawing Manager is started for the first time, these aliases are automatically set up in such a way that the same functionality as in the previous version is kept.

 

The aliases are defined in a section of PROJECTS.INI called [PresetAlias]. An example is shown below. The example in question comes from the demonstration project 0DMDIN (older German DIN standard).

 

[PresetAlias]
!TEXT1BESCH=!LONGDESC:DFNSEG=3
!TEXT1KURZ=!SHORTDESC:DFNSEG=3
!TEXT1DXF=!DXFCHARS:DFNSEG=3
!TEXT2BESCH=!LONGDESC:DFNSEG=4
!TEXT2KURZ=!SHORTDESC:DFNSEG=4
!TEXT2DXF=!DXFCHARS:DFNSEG=4

 

The composition of file names in this project has previously been in the following way:

 

•Drawing class (always 1 character)

•Drawing type (always 1 character)

•First project related drawing type (1 character), here used for the term “plant”

•Second project related drawing type (1 character), here used for the term “location”

•Sheet number (2 digits)

 

Example of a typical file name:

 

ESHB__10

 

Two underline characters have been automatically inserted to reach the old standard length of file names, 8 characters.

 

Typically the variables !TEXT1KURZ and !TEXT2KURZ have been used as default values for plant and location respectively, which has meant that the short text for the first project related drawing type has been used to define plant and the second project related drawing type to define location.

 

The automatic conversion process for this project will give the following new file name composition:

 

[FileNameComposition_General]
FileNameTotalLength=8
SheetNumberDigits=2
NumberOfSegments=5
SheetNumberStart=1
SheetNumberStep=1
LeadingZeroes=0

 

[FileNameComposition_Segment1]
Type=Tree
Length=1
Tree="Class/type *LEGACY*"
Level=1

 

[FileNameComposition_Segment2]
Type=Tree
Length=1
Tree="Class/type *LEGACY*"
Level=2

 

[FileNameComposition_Segment3]
Type=Tree
Length=1
Tree="Prj.bound types *LEGACY*"
Level=1

 

[FileNameComposition_Segment4]
Type=Tree
Length=1
Tree="Prj.bound types *LEGACY*"
Level=2

 

[FileNameComposition_Segment5]
Type=Constant
Length=2
Value="__"

 

Two trees are used. It is the old drawing classes/types and the old project related drawing types which have now been converted into LEGACY trees.

 

The file name is made up of 5 segments plus a sheet number:

 

•Segment 1 is the first level of the class/type tree (the old drawing class).

•Segment 2 is the second level of the class/type tree (the old drawing type).

•Segment 3 is the first level of the tree for project related types (the old first project related drawing type).

•Segment 4 is the second level of the tree for project related types (the old second project related drawing type).

•Segment 5 is a constant containing the underline characters that precede the sheet number.

•Finally comes the sheet number which is constituted of two digits.

 

The old first project related drawing type, which corresponds to plant, is in this example related to segment 3, while the second project related drawing type, which corresponds to location, is related to segment 4. In other projects, however, these relationships may be completely different. Therefore aliases are used:

 

!TEXT1KURZ=!SHORTDESC:DFNSEG=3

!TEXT2KURZ=!SHORTDESC:DFNSEG=4

 

The old variables in the mask file can therefore be used unchanged since they are translated to the new segment based system by an alias defined in the project parameters.

 

 

Aliases are defined in the following way:

 

!VariableDefinedWithAlias=!InformationType:DFNSEG=SegmentNumber

 

Example:

 

!TEXT1KURZ=!SHORTDESC:DFNSEG=3

 

 

The possibility to define aliases is general and can be used for arbitrary variables, not only the old variables that are described here. This means that it is perfectly possible for you to invent new variables of your own in this way that can work differently in different projects.

 

Please note that manual configuration of aliases is considered an advanced feature. The only way to make such a manual configuration, is to manually add the definition to PROJECTS.INI as described above. When aliases are used as a compatibility feature for old projects, the configuration is however made automatically.