Automatic Drawing Naming Standard

Hi ayhoom,

I have done something similar with what we refer to as "Bucket Documents". They are basically pools of documents that sit under one class and are sub-categorised by document type. This would be similar to what you are trying to achieve.

I was going down the path of using the project # in the title of a document and it soon developed in to a problem with the lenght of the file names becoming too long and then the issue of 256 character limitation within Windows causes and issue and files seem to disappear, even though they are there. I found it best to set up common views that group the files by properties such as project. If you are trying to use the M-files properties as fields in your documents for titles or something similar, it's easy enough to just place two fields instead of one in the document.

Anyway, this is the code that I have managed to get working the way I want with the help of some of the great people on this forum. I too am a relative beginner when it comes to VBS, but I have managed to get this working, I'm sure some of the experts on here could simplify my code down if necessary :)

Enjoy your M-Files journey!

Option Explicit
Dim dtBucketTitle 'get the current title of the document if it exists.
dtBucketTitle = PropertyValues.SearchForProperty ( 1043 ).TypedValue.GetValueAsLocalizedText ()
Dim index
index = InStr(dtBucketTitle,"-") 'find the position of the leading characters of the file 
If index > 0 then
 Dim szTest
 szTest = Left(dtBucketTitle,3) 'check to see if it is a valid "Bucket document" currently by the prefix
 If szTest = "DRW" or szTest = "DXO" or szTest = "EBT" or szTest = "FRM" or szTest = "HAZ" or szTest= "TMP" or szTest = "TRG" or szTest = "WI " then
 Dim dtDocName1
 dtDocName1 = PropertyValues.SearchForProperty ( 1038 ).TypedValue.GetValueAsLocalizedText ()
 Dim dtDocNum
 dtDocNum = PropertyValues.SearchForProperty ( 1037 ).TypedValue.GetValueAsLocalizedText ()
 Output = dtDocNum & ": " & dtDocName1 're-concatenate the current document # and name to give the full file name.
 Else
 Call GenerateNo 'create a new document number and name if above conditions are not met
 End If
Else
 Call GenerateNo 'create a new document number and name if nothing exists
End If
'-----------------------------------------------------------------
Sub GenerateNo
 
 Dim dtDocName 'get the document name
 dtDocName = PropertyValues.SearchForProperty ( 1038 ).TypedValue.GetValueAsLocalizedText ()
 Dim dtDocType 'get the document type
 dtDocType = PropertyValues.SearchForProperty ( 1034 ).TypedValue.GetValueAsLocalizedText ()
 Dim dtCount 'the following 3 steps sets up parts of the name for the vaultsharedvariable by finding the leading characters, and section#
 dtCount = InStr(dtDocType,"-")
 Dim dtAbbrDocType
 dtAbbrDocType = Left(dtDocType,dtCount-2)
 Dim dtSectNo
 dtSectNo = "S" & Left(PropertyValues.SearchForProperty ( 1028 ). TypedValue.GetValueAsLocalizedText,2)
 Dim Counter 'set the full vaultsharedvariable name
 Counter = dtAbbrDocType & dtSectNo
 Dim nnn,SectCounter 'set the counter to the current vaultsharedvariable value
 SectCounter = VaultSharedVariables(Counter)
 'the counter sets to 1 if this is the first time this vaultshared variable is used (3 digits set below in output)
 IF IsNull(SectCounter) or IsEmpty(SectCounter) or SectCounter = "" Then
  nnn=1
 Else
  nnn = CInt(Right(SectCounter,3)) + 1 'increment counter by 1 for a new document
 End IF
 VaultSharedVariables (Counter) = nnn 'store the current count in the vault shared variable
'concatenate the document type, the document section #, and the 3 digits for the # count followed by the document name i.e. FRM-S01-001: Test Form
Output = dtAbbrDocType & "-" & dtSectNo & "-" & Right ("000" & nnn,3) & ": " & dtDocName 
End Sub

Hi ayhoom,

I have done something similar with what we refer to as "Bucket Documents". They are basically pools of documents that sit under one class and are sub-categorised by document type. This would be similar to what you are trying to achieve.

I was going down the path of using the project # in the title of a document and it soon developed in to a problem with the lenght of the file names becoming too long and then the issue of 256 character limitation within Windows causes and issue and files seem to disappear, even though they are there. I found it best to set up common views that group the files by properties such as project. If you are trying to use the M-files properties as fields in your documents for titles or something similar, it's easy enough to just place two fields instead of one in the document.

Anyway, this is the code that I have managed to get working the way I want with the help of some of the great people on this forum. I too am a relative beginner when it comes to VBS, but I have managed to get this working, I'm sure some of the experts on here could simplify my code down if necessary :)

Enjoy your M-Files journey!

Option Explicit
Dim dtBucketTitle 'get the current title of the document if it exists.
dtBucketTitle = PropertyValues.SearchForProperty ( 1043 ).TypedValue.GetValueAsLocalizedText ()
Dim index
index = InStr(dtBucketTitle,"-") 'find the position of the leading characters of the file 
If index > 0 then
 Dim szTest
 szTest = Left(dtBucketTitle,3) 'check to see if it is a valid "Bucket document" currently by the prefix
 If szTest = "DRW" or szTest = "DXO" or szTest = "EBT" or szTest = "FRM" or szTest = "HAZ" or szTest= "TMP" or szTest = "TRG" or szTest = "WI " then
 Dim dtDocName1
 dtDocName1 = PropertyValues.SearchForProperty ( 1038 ).TypedValue.GetValueAsLocalizedText ()
 Dim dtDocNum
 dtDocNum = PropertyValues.SearchForProperty ( 1037 ).TypedValue.GetValueAsLocalizedText ()
 Output = dtDocNum & ": " & dtDocName1 're-concatenate the current document # and name to give the full file name.
 Else
 Call GenerateNo 'create a new document number and name if above conditions are not met
 End If
Else
 Call GenerateNo 'create a new document number and name if nothing exists
End If
'-----------------------------------------------------------------
Sub GenerateNo
 
 Dim dtDocName 'get the document name
 dtDocName = PropertyValues.SearchForProperty ( 1038 ).TypedValue.GetValueAsLocalizedText ()
 Dim dtDocType 'get the document type
 dtDocType = PropertyValues.SearchForProperty ( 1034 ).TypedValue.GetValueAsLocalizedText ()
 Dim dtCount 'the following 3 steps sets up parts of the name for the vaultsharedvariable by finding the leading characters, and section#
 dtCount = InStr(dtDocType,"-")
 Dim dtAbbrDocType
 dtAbbrDocType = Left(dtDocType,dtCount-2)
 Dim dtSectNo
 dtSectNo = "S" & Left(PropertyValues.SearchForProperty ( 1028 ). TypedValue.GetValueAsLocalizedText,2)
 Dim Counter 'set the full vaultsharedvariable name
 Counter = dtAbbrDocType & dtSectNo
 Dim nnn,SectCounter 'set the counter to the current vaultsharedvariable value
 SectCounter = VaultSharedVariables(Counter)
 'the counter sets to 1 if this is the first time this vaultshared variable is used (3 digits set below in output)
 IF IsNull(SectCounter) or IsEmpty(SectCounter) or SectCounter = "" Then
  nnn=1
 Else
  nnn = CInt(Right(SectCounter,3)) + 1 'increment counter by 1 for a new document
 End IF
 VaultSharedVariables (Counter) = nnn 'store the current count in the vault shared variable
'concatenate the document type, the document section #, and the 3 digits for the # count followed by the document name i.e. FRM-S01-001: Test Form
Output = dtAbbrDocType & "-" & dtSectNo & "-" & Right ("000" & nnn,3) & ": " & dtDocName 
End Sub