Sierra Hermitage has yet another (of many) AutoCAD utilities that will lend itself to placing drawings on the Internet and passing along vital information regarding the drawing and its contents from the author, or authors. As you will remember, I reviewed a shareware program from Sierra Hermitage for the month of February that could generate bitmap images of AutoCAD drawings. This is just one of many programs that has come from Rod Young at Sierra Hermitage.

DWGDOC attaches and maintains an unlimited, if you have the registered version, number of fully editable text files from within AutoCAD. While giving you the ability to edit the text documents with any text editor, the text files are attached to each drawing that they are created in thus lessening the possibilities of loosing or misplacing them on that 4gb hard drive. The text files can be as long as you wish and you can have as many of them as you require.

I feel that possibly the best usage of this application is that WHEN the day comes that data, and not paper, is used to relay drawing information, a need to convey special information, clarify details or have the author of the .dwg explain why some part of the design has changed, because this hypothetical drawing was downloaded from the Internet at 10:00 PM, Colorado time, by someone involved in the design in Tokyo, will not be able to call the author for answers.

Some other good uses of dwgdoc.lsp would be:

• Drawing cost tracking.
• To do list.
• Conveying layer schemes to people out of your office.
• Keep a transmittal log.
• Written acknowledgements of approval, or approver comments.

From within AutoCAD, DWGDOC.lsp has routines that will allow you to create as many text files as you will need and a utility that will display the name of the current text file in use. One draw back is that the text files could be deleted from the drawing file if the "hidden" entities are erased. What this means is, that, the text files are attached to entities in your drawing editor that should remain frozen. If these entities are deleted, well you get what I mean. Another slight but manageable drawback is that the users in your office must all agree on a naming convention for the text files, since the files are hidden, you must know their names. I have asked Sierra Hermitage if there is anyway to make the files permanent, as soon as I here from Rod, I will post his answer in the PAUG discussion page .

Although the Shareware version only allows the user to enter six lines of text into each file created, the fully functional registered version can be purchased via mail for $25.00 US plus $5.00 shipping and handling. Send inquiries to:
Sierra Hermitage
140 Mesa Vista Drive
Bishop, CA 93514
Internet: http://www.sierrahermitage.com

December 1996