In our office, we have trouble tracking plotting reimbursibles. We use PlotFlow, but some of the names in its log can't be attributed to projects. Unfortunately, we just can't get everyone to save layouts with identifiable names, so we'd like to identify them automatically.
My idea is to have a Mac OSX script which will look at the spooled .plt files for header information (i.e. find which .plp file generated it) and record it.
TWO QUESTIONS:
- Does ArchiCAD add such a header to .plt files? From what little I understand, adding headers is common but not universal. Looking at a file in TextEdit, I don't see one, but it's all in hexadecimal, and I didn't venture into that. (IF it doesn't add the header, could it be changed to do that?)
- If the answer is yes, can AppleScript record the header information, or do we need something else? We'd probably hire a consultant to write the script, but we'd like to start with as much information as possible.
AND A THIRD QUESTION:
- Is there a better way to keep an account of plots, one which doesn't rely on layout names? Or, is there a way for a script in ArchiCAD to add a job suffix to plot files when they are sent?
Thanks,
Matt
