Open Drawing read-only from Explorer

[rkmcswain]

For those of you who like to open drawings directly from Windows Explorer, here is a method of opening those drawings in a "read-only" state.

1. Create a file containing only the following three lines
   attrib +r %1
   %1
   attrib -r %1
2. Save it as "c:\acadro.bat"
3. In Windows Explorer, go into Tools, Folder Options, File Types, scroll down to DWG.
4. Click Advanced.
5. Click New.
6. Under Action, put "Open Read-Only"
7. Under "Application...", put "C:\acadro.bat" "%1" (with the quotes)
8. Click OK twice, then Close.
9. Now when you right click on a DWG file, choose Open Read-only.

Tested with WinXP, Win2K, AutoCAD 2006, and Civil3D 2006

[Buffeldrek]

Oooooh - good one

10 point from the belgian jury

[Buffeldrek]

1) I wonder to which thread Buffeldrek's comment applied?

I applied to the content of the post of the opening thread - of the batch file. It is a good tip

[Robert.Hall]

Great tip.....this should come in handy.

[chicboi_214]

This is a great tip!tried it already,very useful....tnx for the tip!

[danalcantara_jov]

Just got your post and it is very good one. It is my problem when opening so many files and I dont want to lost my current folder location in opening files directly from CAD but need to open as read-only other files from differet location. Your tip was very helpful, thank you very, very much!!

[m_el_mansy2003]

i trayed it but the drawing open with auto cad 2009 not from Explorer

sorry for bad english

[jaberwok]

i trayed it but the drawing open with auto cad 2009 not from Explorer.

opening a dwg file FROM explorer will always open it WITH autocad.

[d_m_hopper]

This is a handy little tip

[RobertB]

For those of you who like to open drawings directly from Windows Explorer, here is a method of opening those drawings in a "read-only" state.

1. Create a file containing only the following three lines
   attrib +r %1
   %1
   attrib -r %1
2. ...

Tested with WinXP, Win2K, AutoCAD 2006, and Civil3D 2006

R.K. I think this is a great tip too. However, I've seen the need to delay the resetting of the attribute.

Advise the following:

@echo off
attrib +r %1
%1
ping -n 5 127.0.0.1>nul
attrib -r %1