We're using AutoCAD 2002, but some of our consultants are using R14. Therefore, when we issue DWG files that they have to use, we have to save them as R14 format. Typically, the drawings we need to issue have lots of xrefs, so we are using the PackNGo express tool from R2000. (We find that the ETRANSMIT command built in to R2002 is ridiculously slow and crash-prone.) Although there is a "save as R14" option in the PackNGo utility, we've found that this invariably produces one or more files (out of a total of, say, 50 or 100) that R14 cannot open.
Usually, as noted above, there are at least 50 to 100 files - sometimes as many as 400 - that have to be converted from R2000 format to R14 format, once PackNGo has been run on all the DWG files involved in a given issuance. I've been using a script file to convert them, something like
OPEN
C:\FOLDER\DRAWING1.DWG
SAVEAS
R14
Y
CLOSE
OPEN
C:\FOLDER\DRAWING2.DWG
SAVEAS
R14
Y
CLOSE
OPEN
...
and so on. (I create this with DIR C:\FOLDER\*.DWG > SCRIPT.TXT, and then adding the commands in MS Word using its Edit > Replace and SaveAs Text Only features.)
Unlike the PackNGo tool, SAVEAS in R2002, using the R14 option, always produces files that R14 can open. However, a script like the one shown typically will run for about 20 or 30 files, and then AutoCAD will crash. The file that was being opened when AutoCAD crashes has no errors, and AutoCAD will open it outside the script with no difficulty. In fact, I can even delete the portion of the script above the offending file, restart AutoCAD, and then run the script again, and it will run fine - for another 20 or 30 files, when it crashes again.
Can anything be done to prevent AutoCAD from choking on a script like this?
Thanks
Michael Evans