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Adding Current Date to a drawing

E

ERamsey

New member
We are in the process of updating our standard formats.


We currently have a "PRINTED ON" section that displays the current date.


Currently the parameter in this box is &todays_date. The issue we have with it is that it only fills the date the drawing was created and does not update. In fact after the parameter has activated the "&todays_date" part is wiped out and a numerical date is there instead.


Is there a way or parameter that will stay with the drawing/format that will continually update with the correct date so we do not have to mannually type in the date all the time?


Thanks in advance
 
I've beentrying to do the same for a couple of months and I've been uncapable of.


I opened an issue at PTC Support and they just told me it was not possible. :-( If you are registered at PTC support, open an issue. If a suggestion is supported by a sufficient amount of users, they may include it in next version of ProE (or Creo).


Since then, just keep trying, there must be a way.
 
Create a mapkey to select text and modify itto %todays_date


Not ideal but is quicker than manually modifying text
 
Wow, I actually forgot this post was out there... :p


Yes, I made a mapkey that replaces the date in the titleblock with the current date.


There really isn't any other way other than manually doing it. At which point the mapkey is faster.


Would be nice if it was automatic, but sadly it is not.
 
Yes you can, but is very difficult to make it fit the drawing box. It usually appears at the margin of the drawing.


Eventhough, that's better than nothing...
 
Hi there,
Here is what i do:
When i start a new DRW file i just start with a'n empty
template because most of the times i don
 
Maybe it's just twhat we were taught but dates in the title block shouldn't change from day to day. This in turn is why the todays_date parameter works the way it does.
 
For our company there is a difference on OriginalSigned By dates and Printed On dates.


Original Signed By dates should not change. The Printed On date came about for our revision process. Whenseveral prints (or pdfs)our made duringa revision to the drawing, itbecame helpful to the people reviewingthe drawing. This allowed them to know which was the most current (if they happen to have previous copies).


Hence, for our company, the Printed On date.


:)
 
I KDEM,
If you make a parameter in your format named "&todays_date"
when you call this format to your drawing it shows the
current date and it remain with that date forever unless
you change it manualy.

Regards.
 
ERamsey said:
For our company there is a difference on OriginalSigned By dates and Printed On dates.


Original Signed By dates should not change. The Printed On date came about for our revision process. Whenseveral prints (or pdfs)our made duringa revision to the drawing, itbecame helpful to the people reviewingthe drawing. This allowed them to know which was the most current (if they happen to have previous copies).


Hence, for our company, the Printed On date.


:)
Click to expand...


I would stillsay that while it may be helpful it shouldn't be part of the drawing format, as I understood it, from my opinion.But that's probably going back to the format we use. What's going to matter in the end is your drawing revision dateswhich shouldn't change either.
 
sjoaosilva said:
I KDEM,
If you make a parameter in your format named "&todays_date"
when you call this format to your drawing it shows the
current date and it remain with that date forever unless
you change it manualy.

Regards.
Click to expand...


I realize that. What I'm saying is dates on a drawing have a specific purpose and do not change day to day. For example the one date people always want to change on our formats is the date next to the draftsmans name in the signatures box even though the drawing hasen't been finished, signed, and released. The purpose of it though is to tell when the drawing was started so its a date that should not change. Samegoes for other dates that appear on a drawing. When you look at it like that it makes sense as to why the &todays_date parameter acts the way it does.
 
Is it not simpler to use the "label" function during printing? All that you have to do is to specify a scale factor of 95 instead of 100%. Unfortunately proe does not have AutoCAD type of "Date Stamp". I really miss it.
 
Hi all


Well, if you have Windchill, you can define some relations like these:



FECHA_MODIFICADO=EXTRACT (PTC_WM_MODIFIED_ON,1,10)
MODIFICADO_POR=EXTRACT(PTC_WM_MODIFIED_BY,1,10)


in prt or asm mode, and you can call them from the drawing.


Hope it helps you...
 
Xicander,


That's correct, is something similar to what we are currently doing. You just have to be careful about checking in, or loading, not sure right now, and redrawing prior to printing. If not, the date won't update when sending the drawing to the printer. Or are you doing it in some other way?


By the way, what do those numbers at the end of extrct mean? And why do you use extract? I think we are doing the same without the extract function and that may be what is making the difference...



Edited by: oscarp
 
Hi Oscar


Extract is a function used in Relations; you can find this example in the help files:
new = extract(param,2,3): new es bcd





extract(string, position, length)

Extrae partes de secuencias de caracteres


Beware, I
 
Assuming all other parameters in the format are constant,I "change" the format (in page setup) to the same page format, and remove all tables etc from the "old" format. In effect not really changing anything but the &todays_date parameter.


I have a similar need since we don't have official revision dates until everyone adjudicates drawings anda product isreleased. During concept development,everyone may have .pdfs from different days, and minute changes from one day to the next could be missed by some.
 
In toolkit I have a program that gets the current date and sets a parameter, I call mine TimeStamp. Then I have &timestamp in the format. The program refreshes the timestamp every time the drawing is made active. This way there is no manual intervention, and it works if you run batch routines. That being said, I can't give this away, its my company's intellectual property, not mine. I can't sell it, toolkit licensing forbids that, you have to be a partner and have special licenesing. However if you are daring enough to try j-link (its free) or know someone who can write it for you, give it a shot.
 
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