Project Database and Drawing Data

[Eric Milberger]

I am trying to use the project info and find it quite limited.
It has only a little bit of the project information
I have mny contacts per project
city Planner
fire Marshall
Zoning Director
Utility Department Contact, etc

For ithe informaiton to be usable it needs to be a database that keeps up with project data
AND all projects.
This should be viewable outside the product

Otherwise I question it's use and want to know how to use this better.

Right now I can fill the data once by text on the cover and sheet borders more quickly than filling in the Info area.

Am I missing something here as I really want it to be more.

[Karl Ottenstein]

Hi,

Maybe you could clarify what is not working for you. You can add as many fields as you want to your Project Info database... via the Add button (see screenshot)... so, you can add your city planner, fire marshall etc. Click inside the info group that you want the field added to and then click Add. You cannot create new groups though (long-time, existing wish)...

To view outside the project, you can click the Export button (screenshot). But, being an XML file, it is only sort of viewable without a decent XML viewer. For example, TextEdit or Notepad can open/edit it as XML. Excel can open it and spread all of the fields across columns ... but you cannot save back to XML for import.

If you just want the Info from one project to go into another... then export from Project 1 and import into Project 2.

To merge only some fields into another project is tedious without a smart XML editor as you have to keep all of the tags and fieldcounts balanced and renumbered in sequence. But, it works.

BTW: the 3 XML subfields for each line in the Project Info table are the text description for the field, the internal database name for the field (used by autotext), and the value.

[Eric Milberger]

My first flaw is it is 5 times faster just to place this data in the drawing.
If it had a database where it could load the data faster or be used as a database for other things, then more useful.

That would be a more complete BIM as BIM should include all your work

What is working. It is very 2 dimensional in its use. the only place i see using this is the Title Sheet - It could do more, much more.

[Karl Ottenstein]

Eric wrote:
the only place i see using this is the Title Sheet - It could do more, much more.

You can use the autotext fields anywhere. For example, years ago, someone (can't remember - Link maybe?) gave a tip for using Project Info fields to store common annotations which could then be autotexted as needed... and then edited in just the one place: Project Info.

[Eric Milberger]

I am looking for an actual database that would be used outside and beyond a single project.

I currently have one in dbase but it is getting old and needs to go to something better.

IT would be what helps us win projects as where we keeps all the details of a client for future use.