Accessing Project Info Values

[derekjackson]

Hi,
I'm sure there must be a simple command that accesses the Project Info variables (Client, Project Name, Project Number, etc.) in GDL - can anyone please tell me how to do this?

Thanks,

Derek

[Karl Ottenstein]

I do not believe that there is an interface to Project Info. All of those fields are autotext, so you can generate text that picks up the values, but you cannot directly read the values.

On the other hand, from the Project Info dialog, you can export that information as an XML file. You could then read the XML file in a GDL object. But, the export to XML would be a manual process...

Karl

[Anonymous]

Autotext does work in the 2D symbol. When you place an autotext in the 2D symbol and use the FRAGMENT2 command you will be able display that text. It will be less flexible though, in terms of font type and size (I guess).

[Anonymous]

You can access them for display only. I tried earlier to use them to populate a Title Block. However I found that you can only display them. IE I was able to populate the title block with information From the Project Info, but I was unable to copy the text to another variable, and I was unable to force the text to Capitals. What are you trying to do with the Project Info?

[derekjackson]

We're using the Virtual Building Explorer quite a lot to show designs to clients. Our thinking is to create a 'site board' object for each VBE file that the user will start standing next to. It'll have our logo on it, and info about the project. They'll then be free to wander off around the model.

I was hoping that, rather than getting people to re-enter the project info for the site board, I could just read whatever has been entered into the Project Info dialogue.

So how would I do this? Haven't used autotext or FRAGMENT2 before...

[Erwin Edel]

You can save the project info to .XML file, which in turn you can read out in GDL. Don't ask me how the latter part works though

[derekjackson]

If I'm getting people to manually export an XML file, I may as well just get them to manually re-enter the info for the site board, in that case. That'll save messing around with XML.

Thanks anyway!

[David Larrew]

You can pull each field out of the Project Info using the autotext feature as previously described. But you don't need to mess with the Fragment2 command.

In your Object, just type-in the autotext call of the desired PI field ("<PROJECTNAME>", "<CLIENT>", etc.) for the scripted text string. So you are basically hard-coding the text field to be the autotext value.

[Karl Ottenstein]

Glad you posted what you wanted to do ... the first post was a little vague, so I gave two answers. (The XML stuff is for someone who wants their GDL object to behave differently based on the Project Info content.)

David's autotext illustration is the idea for what you need. It cannot be a FRAGMENT2 thing - which is part of a 2D symbolic representation, because you want your information displayed in VBE and VBE only displays 3D elements. Hmmm... I'm not sure if you can get autotext text to display directly by a GDL object in 3D? Never tried. Somebody?

Karl

[David Larrew]

Karl,

I don't know why it wouldn't work with the "Text 3D" object. It should work with any string parameter field in any object (2D or 3D).

I currently use this technique with an architectural seal object that I created some years back. Since the Project Info and autotext abilities were added to AC, I plugged-in a bunch of linked PI fields for different text parameters in my object. Works like a charm.