Help with numbering a 56 Sheet Set of drawings, Sheet 1 of 56, Sheet 2 of 56...

[ryager]

I currently have a C3D 2015 drawing set. They are all individual drawings stored in one file on our network, therefore I cant use the "count tab" function. I have created a drawing list using the Sheet Set Manager. This list appears on my Cover Sheet. My drawing are numbered as per our Civil Department Standards, ex: C-101, C-102, C-103, and so on... As per the township SALDO, I need to number each drawing 1 Of 56, 2 OF 56... Is there a lisp or shortcut or some type of edit to the Sheet Set Manager to accomplish this task?

[BlackBox]

I currently have a C3D 2015 drawing set. They are all individual drawings stored in one file on our network, therefore I cant use the "count tab" function. I have created a drawing list using the Sheet Set Manager. This list appears on my Cover Sheet. My drawing are numbered as per our Civil Department Standards, ex: C-101, C-102, C-103, and so on... As per the township SALDO, I need to number each drawing 1 Of 56, 2 OF 56... Is there a lisp or shortcut or some type of edit to the Sheet Set Manager to accomplish this task?

IDSP 2015 here too.

I populate our title block's attributes with Fields that point to SSM Properties - in this instance, you'd use the CurrentSheetNumber, and either the number of the last sheet in your plan set, or a custom property for your 'total'.

If you're not already setup this way (and I presume you're not), you will have to edit each sheet accordingly for this first time through, but thereafter it's really easy.

[cadtag]

I would treat that as three fields in SSM, the NCS standard of C-101 etc that you're doing as the SSM drawing number, an IndexNumber for the # Of as a custom field, and a TotalSheetCount as a custom field.

Set it once, and it works.

<rant> one has to wonder, how something as common and basic as Index and Sheet count, has been neglected in SSM from Day 1. Not to mention the near total if not total, lack of improvements to SSM since its initial release. We get black themes that make Acad 2016 look like a decade old version of Paintshop Pro, but SSM improvements that would improve the _management_ of projects on a daily basis don't make it on the todo list</rant>

[ryager]

Okay, this sound easy, how and where do I set this up?

[BlackBox]

I would treat that as three fields in SSM, the NCS standard of C-101 etc that you're doing as the SSM drawing number, an IndexNumber for the # Of as a custom field, and a TotalSheetCount as a custom field.

Set it once, and it works.

Agreed; only I use the SSM Sheet's Number as the "N of... ", the NCS No. as Index is a Sheet Custom Property, and will either use a "Total Sheets" Sheet Set Custom Property, or instead populate the Field with SheetSet\SheetSet\<SsmSubset>\<SsmSheetObject>\SheetNumber if doing a sub-component plan set.

<rant> one has to wonder, how something as common and basic as Index and Sheet count, has been neglected in SSM from Day 1. Not to mention the near total if not total, lack of improvements to SSM since its initial release. We get black themes that make Acad 2016 look like a decade old version of Paintshop Pro, but SSM improvements that would improve the _management_ of projects on a daily basis don't make it on the todo list</rant>

The per-Sheet Set, and\or per-Subset total sheet counter thing (or lack thereof) really irk me.

The index too, based on Subsets, SheetNumbers, perhaps an Index Style (like table styles), that can be pre-associated with even Sheet Set, and Sheet Custom Properties would be amazing, but I just map a given Sheet Set's Subset names, and contained SheetNumbers into cover's MText index.

[BlackBox]

Okay, this sound easy, how and where do I set this up?

Right click your Sheet Set in SSM, choose Properties menu, then select Custom Properties button... Note the way these Custom Properties are sorted by naming convention, that %% as default value will plot with no value, and the difference between Sheet Set Custom Properties, and Sheet Custom Properties, where the latter are Properties of the Sheets you've associated with your Sheet Set, and can be modified independently for each-and-every-single Sheet.

Consider what Title Block Attributes are Sheet Set-specific, and which are Sheet-specific, and map them to the appropriate SSM (Custom?) Properties via Field dialog... Also note the in-built SSM Properties, which can be useful, such as CurrentSheetNumber, or CurrentSheetSetProjectName, etc.

Cheers

[pgk920]

I would treat that as three fields in SSM, the NCS standard of C-101 etc that you're doing as the SSM drawing number, an IndexNumber for the # Of as a custom field, and a TotalSheetCount as a custom field.

Set it once, and it works.

Ok, I don't understand how this would work. Does this enable the numbering automatically thru SSM, including inserting or deleting sheets from the set?

For instance:
I have drawings C1, C2, C3, C4, and C5 as my set. I need to automatically have SSM count up the number of sheets and put "1 of 5" on sheet C1, "2 of 5" on sheet C2, etc. Then, when I insert a sheet "C2a" in the middle, I need it to renumber everything after that automatically.

Is the above possible?

Thanks

[joshc96]

"Automatically" and "SSM" do not go together. Sorry, the SSM will not automatically update the sheet numbers for your. It does very few things automatically. You have to manually input the numbers yourself. And I understand how frustrating of a time-suck inserting/deleting/renumbering sheet can be. However, there is a third-party tool (not-free) that I've used many times with great success: SSMPropEditor from JTBWorld (http://www.jtbworld.com/SSMPropEditor.htm).

SSMPropEditor will allow you to quickly renumber sheet numbers (including prefix and/or suffix) among many other things.

[MMccall.83699]

My implementation of SSM is very much like BlackBox describes and its been working well for me for the past 10 yrs.

The SSM will not automatically number sheets or count up the total. What it will do is give you a place where you can manage all the sheets in your set. Within the SSM you can assign a sheet number to a sheet and access that number with a 'field' in the drawing (drawing tab) to number that sheet. When you add a sheet to the SSM it has no sheet number, only a sheet name. It gets this sheet name from the sheet tab. You can number sheets as you please as well as rename a sheet. For the total number of sheets I use a custom sheet set property and enter the total number there.

[LoonyHat]

Ok, I don't understand how this would work. Does this enable the numbering automatically thru SSM, including inserting or deleting sheets from the set?

For instance:
I have drawings C1, C2, C3, C4, and C5 as my set. I need to automatically have SSM count up the number of sheets and put "1 of 5" on sheet C1, "2 of 5" on sheet C2, etc. Then, when I insert a sheet "C2a" in the middle, I need it to renumber everything after that automatically.

Is the above possible?

Thanks

Depending on your file naming this can be accomplished with relatively simple diesel expressions. I've used them quite successfully in sheet numbering as well as matchlines (iterating for previous and next sheets accordingly).
Diesel expressions won't supply the total sheet count of course, but they operate completely independent of SSM and are closer to "automatic".

Below are some sample expressions for matchline text (3 digit numbers, and 7 charachter file names [without extension]):

Decreasing number (previous sheet):

$(substr,$(getvar,DWGNAME),3,2)$(-,$(SUBSTR,$(GETVAR,"DWGNAME"),5,3),1)

Increasing number (next sheet):

$(substr,$(getvar,DWGNAME),3,2)$(+,$(SUBSTR,$(GETVAR,"DWGNAME"),5,3),1)

As for the original question, BlackBox pretty much nailed the answer and MMccall.83699's comment about adding a custom property to hold the total sheet count is something I do as well.
I'll second joshc96's praise for JTBWorld's SSMPropEditor; if you use it more than once, it's paid for itself.

For my rant, I'll simply wish to see SSM act more like a real database at some point in the future. Enough so that you can setup placeholders and call their values from within the sheet set rather than concatenate fields in the drawings. It could be akin to referencing cells within an Excel spreadsheet (I realize Excel is not a "real database" but the dynamic updating it offers would be welcome in my CAD files any day). Seems doable.