Batch Plotting

If there is a requirement to batch plot a number of Draft drawing sheets, there are a couple of useful utilities supplied. The first will plot all of the drawing sheets in the current MDB. The second is an object that can be added to a batch script file, to also generate a hitfile for a plotfile.

Batch Plotting Function

The first utility is a function that will navigate to the world ( /* ) and plot off all the sheets under it along with the relevant hitfiles, using which ever defaults file is appropriately set up to be used.

1. To call the function, you must first be in a Draft database, then open a Marine command window, and in it type the following command:

   !!VNETExportAllSheets()

   This will then invoke the function VNETExportAllSheets.pmlfnc, and all of the sheets will be plotted.

2. To change the size of drawings, or any other of the plotting default setting modify the file.

Batch Plotting using a Script file

If you batch plots Draft drawings using a script file, you can add a call that will generate the hitfile for the sheet or view. The object will only plot if the current object that it is called from is either a Draft Sheet of View.

3. To call the hitfile generating object from a script file add the following line to the file, after a plot file has been plotted.

   !a = object VNETNETWriteHit('<Directory>', '<Filename>','BATCH')

Where:

For example a batch file that plotted a number of sheets may look like this:

/STAB00001/S1

PLOT SHEE FILE /%PDMSUSER%/STAB00001.S1.PLT OVER

/STAB00002/S1

PLOT SHEE FILE /%PDMSUSER%/STAB00002.S1.PLT OVER

/STAB00003/S1

PLOT SHEE FILE /%PDMSUSER%/STAB00003.S1.PLT OVER

/STAB00004/S1

PLOT SHEE FILE /%PDMSUSER%/STAB00004.S1.PLT OVER

This would generate four plot files in the directory pointed to by the environment variable PDMSUSER.

If you want to create a hitfile as well for each of the plotfiles, you need to modify the file with a call to the object, as shown below, the new lines are shown in italic:

/STAB00001/S1

PLOT SHEE FILE /%PDMSUSER%/STAB00001.S1.PLT OVER

!a = object VNETWriteHit('%PDMSUSER%', 'STAB00001.S1','BATCH')

/STAB00002/S1

PLOT SHEE FILE /%PDMSUSER%/STAB00002.S1.PLT OVER

!a = object VNETWriteHit('%PDMSUSER%', 'STAB00002.S1','BATCH')

/STAB00003/S1

PLOT SHEE FILE /%PDMSUSER%/STAB00003.S1.PLT OVER

!a = object VNETWriteHit('%PDMSUSER%', 'STAB00003.S1','BATCH')

/STAB00003/S1

PLOT SHEE FILE /%PDMSUSER%/STAB00004.S1.PLT OVER

!a = object VNETWriteHit('%PDMSUSER%', 'STAB00004.S1','BATCH')