Creating a custom directory in project administrator

[dave]

project administrator = PA
data manager = DM
document manager = DocMan

Create your project
1. Open up PA and select file/add ROOT to add the project to PA
2. Expand "Project" by clicking the + sign next to the Project icon
3. Highlight the "Project" name under the Project icon
4. Click preferences on the right
5. Click the Paths tab
6. Browse to your destination folder in the dialog box with the ... (browse) button
6a. TYPE THE NAME OF THE FOLDER YOU WANT TO BE CREATED. THIS FOLDER WILL NOT EXIST TILL YOU OPEN THE FIRST P&ID AND THE PROGRAM CREATES IT. Ex:

C:\PROJECTS\CustDirTest\test\apcustdir\ - is my path but the folder "apcustdir" will not be created until you open the P&ID. Do not MANUALLY create the apcustdir (or whatever you want) folder.

7. In the dialog box above that, type the name of your custom directory. Ours is called "apcustdir"
8. Click add
9. Open up DocMan, create a new PID
when prompted, click yes to create the custom directory. This will create the folder set in the "apcustdir" (or whatever you called yours) custom directory.
close the drawing
10. Copy/Paste the pid-sup.lsp file along with the sym folder containing all your customization into the "p&id" folder under your new custom folder.

11. Delete the old PID you created and create a new one and your there. Kind of the long winded version but it works for me.

[tw_echo]

Dave,
You stated in your post that 'This will create the folder set in the "apcustdir" (or whatever you called yours) custom directory' Are you saying it should create the 'P&ID' folder and the 'sym' folders automatically or do you have to add them manually?
I was also wondering what happens if I add the APCUSTDIR path to a project that already has existing P&ID's? Will the old drawing inherit the setting from the APCUSTDIR?

Thanks,
Tim

[dave]

Hi Tim, welcome to the site and thanks for posting.


You stated in your post that 'This will create the folder set in the "apcustdir" (or whatever you called yours) custom directory' Are you saying it should create the 'P&ID' folder and the 'sym' folders automatically or do you have to add them manually?

Yes it will create the folders. You have to move your customized blocks to it OR copy the dwg. files from the program files/bentley/P&ID/sym folder then customize the blocks as you see fit.


I was also wondering what happens if I add the APCUSTDIR path to a project that already has existing P&ID's? Will the old drawing inherit the setting from the APCUSTDIR?

New drawings will use the new custom directory symbols. I believe there is an Update > block refresh > global in the P&ID you can do to update your blocks (with the same name as the old ones)

If you could post your real world results here that would be terrific.

[tw_echo]

Dave,
Thanks for the quick response. I have tried the posted method for creating a custom directory and it sort of worked. The issue that I had was it did not automically set up my folder structure for the custom directory, and I created it manually. I am not sure why this did not happen but I am guessing that it could be a result of that we are currenlty using a network install rather than a local install. Just a wild guess....I will try with a local install when time permits sometime this week as we are planning on moving away from the network install as it can be a real pain.
With regards to changing the custom path for existing P&ID's, the only method that I could see at this time was to open P&ID --> Preference --> Custom Directory. I tried the step you provided and I could not get it to work, I will test again.
Another question: A client of ours does not want to see " for sizes on their process lines and the current setup in our office is to copy the nsize.txt file to users local machine. One with the " sign and one without the " sign, depending on client. My thoughts, is that this may not be necessary as it could either be adjusted in the PID-SUP or can you add the mmetric folder to the custom folder. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Tim

[dave]

DOH! Sorry Tim, I left out a critical step. When pathing to your custom directory. The folder you call it CANNOT already exist. So when I pathed my custom directory here "C:\PROJECTS\CustDirTest\test\apcustdir\" the folder "apcustdir" did not exist. When I opened the first PID, it got created with the P&ID, pid-sup.lsp, and sym folders. Basically, the custom folder cannot already exist. Sorry for the confusion

[tw_echo]

HA, that worked! Thanks...

[PlantWorker]

The Bentley guys have created a separate exe that allows to modify the custom directory outside the drawings and for all or a selection of drawings. since the custom directory is stored in each drawing (only a new drawing takes the value from the apcustdir variable)
Drop me a mailif you want this (pas_moi_ni_toi@hotmail.com), it's only 60kB

[dave]

Here is the custom directory link from Plantworker.
DOWNLOAD HERE (http://www.davetyner.com/downloads/UpdateCustomDir86.zip)

[tw_echo]

Dave,
I could not get to download the file...page not found. Can anyone else download it????

Tim

[dave]

Sorry about that, try again.

[tw_echo]

That worked..thanks a million

[CADDman]

Hi Dave

This is my first post to this site. So far any of my questions have already been answered within the posts.

Absolutely brilliant resource. Thanks B)

We are having a similar problem where I'm working. A whole project was packarged up and copied to a new network location. No problem. New apcustdir was created - again no problem. Every exisitng P&ID dwg has the old custom directory attached to it.

Is this Bentley exe still available, if so can you please provide a link to it, thanks.

We are still using Acad2005 & Autoplant 2004.

Cheers

Rod

[dave]

Thanks CADDman!

I fixed the link on the previous page. Download away!

[PeterJ]

that tool also works for XM

[CADDman]

Thanks Dave

Worked a treat. B)

Thanks also Peter, we are about to upgrade to XM and that was going to be my next question. B)

Cheers

Rod