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Create a List of Drawings
Tip# 4469 By Michael Partenheimer On 04-May-2015
5
 Rated By 1 users
Categories : Misc. User Tools
Software type : AutoCAD 2015
Rename File To : No Files to download.
Here's an easy way of creating a list of drawings.

Here's an easy way of creating a list of drawings. I've been using this method since the days of DOS.
 
Create a .txt file but change the extension to .bat
Place this text inside the file:
DIR *.DWG /b >zListOfDWGs.txt
 
Place the file inside the file folder containing your DWG files and double click it.
A TXT file named ListOfDWGs.txt is created that contains all of your DWG files that reside in that folder.
 
Want to include all files instead of just DWGs?
Change *.DWG to *.*
 
Want to create a list of all DWGs in a root folder and all subfolders?
Add the /s switch like this:
DIR *.DWG /b/s >zListOfDWGs.txt
 
Place the .BAT file into the root folder where you want the list to start.
 
Without the /s switch, your list contains the name of the file only.
With the /s switch, the pathway is prefixed to the file name.
 

Notes from Cadalyst tip review R.K. McSwain: An excellent tip that works for just about any situation that you might need. Be careful when saving the initial BAT file. If you're not careful you could end up with FILE.BAT.TXT. If you surround the file name with quotes, like this "FILE.BAT", when saving, Windows should not append the TXT extension. Here's even more options for file output.
 

Average Rating:
5


User comments
Comment by Smith,Susan
Posted on 2015-05-04 18:39:12
Where should this process save the txt file?
Comment by Stewart,Norman
Posted on 2015-05-04 19:37:59
Good tip - been using that also and others similar. I come from the power DOS days myself. Susan - it will save the text file in the current directory, same one where you saved the .bat file.
Comment by Pena,G
Posted on 2015-05-05 09:52:06
I used to do it that way, but now I'm using windows 8 and can open folder that current dwg is in thru AutoCAD. Then select all the dwgs or specific files to include in my *.txt file. Next select the 'Copy path' from the "Home" tab, as shown in picture, then create a new txt file and just paste in and save with any name you want. You can also paste the file names into any document or dwg and using search/replace to remove any info not needed (like the full path of files)
Copy File Names.jpg
Comment by White,David
Posted on 2015-05-26 17:28:05
I did something a bit different, of course. I wanted to record my drawings as I did them so I created some text files in a dedicated directories with specific names. Then I created this in my acad.pgp file so that with my cui I could create a command to bring up the text file for editing and recording my drawings. EDIT,NOTEPAD,100000,,4 MACHINE,NOTEPAD L:INDENGdwgnosMACHNO.TXT,100000,,4 DIE,NOTEPAD L:INDENGdwgnosDIENO.TXT,100000,,4 JIG,NOTEPAD L:INDENGdwgnosJIGNO.TXT,100000,,4 and others.