Convert Old Drawing Creation Settings To New Drawing Creation Settings

This article expects that users have a functional knowledge of how drawings work in Tekla Structures. Please review the Product guides:

• Drawings in Tekla Structures
• Different levels of setting up and modifying drawing properties
• Define automatic drawing settings
• Drawing settings reference
• Model folder files and file name extensions

XS_​USE_​OLD_​DRAWING_​CREATION_​SETTINGS is set to FALSE, no value is set (blank/empty), or does not exist in the Typical initialization files (.ini files) and their reading order.

Old drawing creation settings are present in the Folder search order. These old setting predefined drawing settings (attribute sets) have file extensions of:

• .ad — Assembly Drawing
• .ad.copt — Assembly Drawing Object Level Settings
• .ad.more — Assembly Drawing User-defined attributes
• .wd — Single Part Drawing
• .wd.copt — Single Part Drawing Object Level Settings
• .wd.more — Single Part Drawing User-defined attributes

Tekla Structures will automatically convert old Drawing Attributes to new settings when they are loaded (selected) and save them to the current model's attributes folder.

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The converter will search the XS_SYSTEM, XS_FIRM, XS_PROJECT, and the model folder for all referenced files. If one is not found, it will be reported in a DrawingAttributesConverter_ErrorLog.txt file.

To initiate the Drawing Attributes Converter:

1. Go to the Drawings & reports tab on the ribbon, and select Drawing properties > Assembly drawing.
2. Open the drawing settings list, and select the old drawing settings file to convert. When the old drawing settings are loaded (upon selection), the DrawingAttributesConverter.exe will automatically be run in the background. There will be no user interface shown or user interaction necessary.
3. Repeat step #2 for each old setting to convert.
4. If present, review the DrawingAttributesConverter_ErrorLog.txt inside the attributes subfolder inside model folder for the model. Typically if a file is not able to be found, it was not being implemented and can be ignored. Users should review and if necessary, locate or recreate missing files.

When the old drawing settings (.ad or .wd) are not present inside the current model's attributes folder (located in FRIM or PROJECT folder), the converter will create new files. If the old drawing settings are present inside the current model folder are modified. All other new files will have the drawing setting name and prefixed with new_.

Typical new predefined drawing settings (attribute sets) have file extensions of:

• .ad — Assembly Drawing
• .ad.copt — Assembly Drawing Object Level Settings
• .ad.more — Assembly Drawing User-defined attributes
• .adcd — Assembly drawing dimensioning properties
• .dim — Object level dimension properties
• .vf — View level filter properties
• .vi — View level view properties
• .vi.copt — View level view Object Level Settings
• .wd — Single Part Drawing
• .wd.copt — Single Part Drawing Object Level Settings
• .wd.more — Single Part Drawing User-defined attributes
• .wdcd — Single-part drawing dimensioning properties

The above list is just typical files, others may be generated as well. If file extensions other than those listed above are present, Model folder files and file name extensions Product guide can identify the file's use.

The Drawing Attributes Converter generates one set of files every time a different old drawing setting (.ad or .wd) is loaded. There is no comparisons to previously generated files, so there may be duplicate files with the different root names.

Generally there are two view level properties (.vi) generated for each converted drawing setting. The one without a _2 post fix is for the face (Front/Top/Bottom/Back) view and the postfixed one with _2 is for the Section/End views. These are separate files as each view has its own label attributes and cut distance. Aside from the view attributes, these converted view level settings are essentially the same.

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Many times view settings (one face and one section) can be shared between multiple faces and drawing settings. It is recommended to review the attributes set in each view setting, identifying redundancies and removing duplicates. See the default drawing settings for an example.

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If desired, you can Customize Master drawing catalog according to your needs. If any drawing property files are renamed, the master drawing will need to be updated in any applicable Rule sets.

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Review all updated settings prior to implementing them in all models. Once the new, drawing settings are reviewed and ready to be implemented, copy or move all the files to the  XS_FIRM, XS_PROJECT, or other model\attributes folders.