Change drawing number in title block for issuing

Question:

We want to issue assembly drawings with a number setup like 1B1, 2B1, 3B1, etc... but we want the number of the drawing to be 1, 2, 3, etc... How do we accomplish this without using Multi Drawings?

Answer:

The easiest way to do this would be to use Multi Drawings to get the number setup but to not actually release the multi drawings. You would use them just to get the number schema you want (i.e. 1B1, 2B1, 3B1) but actually just issue assembly drawings. 

Let's get started

The first thing is you want to number your model just as you always would. Meaning leave the prefix's and start numbers as there normal values (i.e. B for a prefix for beams and 1 for the start number). 

Next, we will first want to edit the multi drawing settings so that the first drawing will start with 1 and that the layout size is small enough that only 1 drawing will be linked to each multi drawing

Go to your drawing properties drop down under the Drawings and Reports tab on the ribbon and click on Multi Drawings. 

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In the Multi Drawing properties make sure the Name is set to "1" so that the first drawing created will start with 1 and then go to the Layout button. In the Layout properties change the drawing size to be 1" X 1" as shown in the image below. We want this to be very small so that there is no chance the multi drawing will try and place 2 drawings on the same page since we want just 1 on each page. Apply these properties and do a Save as so you can place this setting in your firm folder for later use. 

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Now that we have the drawing properties setup correctly we can proceed to creating assembly drawings the normal way you would. Once you have all the assembly drawings created open the Document Manager and highlight all the assembly drawings and Right Click > Create Multi Drawings > Selected drawings. This will now create multi drawings and renumber your parts. See below:

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Next, go into one of your assembly drawings and double click on your titleblock and edit in the template editor. 

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Once in the template editor double click on the value field for the drawing number:

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This will bring up the value field properties where we will edit the formula. 

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In the Formula we will remove everything that is here and replace it with the formula shown below. Please note, below this image i will also paste in the formula for easy copying

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if(find(GetValue("CURRENT_DRAWING.NAME_BASE"), " - ") != -1) then
  GetValue("ASSEMBLY_POS")+"-"+setat(mid(GetValue("CURRENT_DRAWING.NAME_BASE"), find(GetValue("CURRENT_DRAWING.NAME_BASE"), " - ")+3), -1, "")
else
   if (length(GetValue("ASSEMBLY_POS")) == 3) then
mid(GetValue("ASSEMBLY_POS"), 0,1)
else
if (length(GetValue("ASSEMBLY_POS")) == 4) then
mid(GetValue("ASSEMBLY_POS"), 0,2)
else
if (length(GetValue("ASSEMBLY_POS")) == 5) then
mid(GetValue("ASSEMBLY_POS"), 0,3)
else
if (length(GetValue("ASSEMBLY_POS")) == 6) then
mid(GetValue("ASSEMBLY_POS"), 0,4)
else
GetValue("ASSEMBLY_POS")
endif
endif
endif
endif
endif

Now click Ok and Ok on the valuefield dialog and then save the template. From there, highlight the Titleblock and right-clic>Refresh template or reopen the drawing and you should then see the number only in the drawing number. 

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This formula works for up to 4 digits as the number for the drawing (i.e. it will max out at 9999B1). If you want to make the digits longer you would need to add more rules in the formula using the same logic I used.