Auto text - Current Issue

[davidstonearchicad21]

Hi all

I'd like to show the current issue on our cover sheet as part of the "ISSUED FOR [CURRENT ISSUE AUTOTEXT]" tag.

The only option that comes close is 'Current Revision's Issue Name', but this shows the Issue Name of the latest revision, which never progresses past the first issue because the cover sheet never needs change clouds, and so never joins subsequent issues as far as the system sees.

The reason for wanting this is essentially so i never have to look at the cover sheet after placing the images. It would be one less thing to manage.

What I'm looking for the current issue as a global string, rather than one tied to the current revision. Perhaps I'm missing something?

I have basic GDL / coding skills if its something i need to add to my version of AC myself, 21 4022. If it's included natively in a later update we'll make the push to get all our machines updated, but so far haven't had the time with a small team working on big projects. Thanks

[Lingwisyer]

So, whenever you close an issue containing other drawings, the date on your cover page will change to match?

[davidstonearchicad21]

Sorry my screenshot was not all that helpful.

The date autotext is the system date, which is always correct at time of publishing so is hands-off at every release, and from project to project (which is the dream!).

You'll notice in the new screenshot the string given by Current Revisions Issue Name is 'Tender / Fitout Consent', which is not the name of the current issue as you can see from the book settings. I have tried closing the issue but that does not change it.

The problem is that the current revision of the coversheet is tied to the issue it was created in (which is the first issue) and wont display an issue name later than that as it has not received any change clouds which would yank it into a later (but potentially not latest) issue. And so doesnt display the actual current issue.

Any suggestions on how to get the current issue as an autotext? Can we the user create/code this type of thing?

[Erwin Edel]

We had a similar issue with wanting to show a particular date format and we ended up adding our own custom fields in the issue scheme, which you can also add as autotext.

Eventually we moved some fields to the layout info instead so we could also show them more easily on project indexes.

It is a bit of double data entry, which is not ideal, obviously.

[davidstonearchicad21]

Thanks Erwin.

The system date format can be altered in windows and is picked up by the autotext entries in Archicad if that helps prevent any manual data entry in your documentation.

[Erwin Edel]

The problem is we don't always want to use the system date

But thanks for the tip!

[runxel]

davidstonearchicad21 wrote:
The system date format can be altered in windows and is picked up by the autotext entries in Archicad if that helps prevent any manual data entry in your documentation.

This is one of the biggest design flaws I've ever witnessed in any program.
Like for real! Who thought that would be a good idea?
What if not every user in your office has the same settings?
This is not something that should come from the local settings of the user.

It would make things so much easier if there was a special "date" field. Right now they are treated as strings most of the time. I often enough want "nice dates" (dd.mm.yyyy) on a plan, because still a lot of people are accustomed to this, but I need the same date as an ISO one (yymmdd) somewhere else.
And double entry is horrible too.