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Auto-create Project-specific Catalog Lookup Database - AutoCAD Electrical
December 6, 2008, 03:42 PM Nate HoltProject is finished but you need a parts catalog lookup database file that has just the parts used in the project. Maybe this needs to be part of the deliverables. But stripping out tens of thousands of records from a copy of the huge AutoCAD Electrical "default_cat.mdb" file is not an attractive activity.
No problem. Here's a tool to automatically create the file.
(This was to be the 5th example in the Autodesk University presentation I gave last Wednesday... a bit late, but here it is.)
Program flow is this:
1. Makes a project-specific named copy of the existing default_cat.mdb and puts it in the same folder as your project's ".wdp" file.
2. Blanks out all part tables
3. Opens your active project and queries the scratch database. Collects all used catalog part number assignments.
4. Now processes each one. Queries the default_cat.mdb and if a matching record found (plus any ASSYCODE records), copies them over into the empty, project-specific copy.
Seems to work. Download here:
files/22701_22800/22761/file_22761.lsp - (ACE2009 only!) rename as project_cat.lsp
UPDATE: this revised version should work for ACE2008 and ACE2009 (ACE2007 - did not test):
UPDATE#2 - found some issues. This one should work better, either 2008 or 2009:
files/24501_24600/24581/file_24581.lsp - (ACE2008 or ACE2009) rename as project_cat.lsp
To use:
1. Make the target project the "active" project.
2. APPLOAD above file
3. Type project_cat [Enter] at AutoCAD command line prompt.
File should be created in a minute or so.
It will still be "big". I think if you open it in Microsoft Access and hit the "compress" tool, it will purge out all of the deleted stuff and might slim down to a smaller file size.
UPDATE: original version only set up to work on ACE2009. Revised to work on ACE2008 and possibly earlier. See above.
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