Customization of Fields - It is Possible!

[stilesj]

Some of you may know that I submitted a question a while ago about custom formatting of fields. I know a number of other people have asked similar questions, so I hope this information will be most useful to everyone:
Thanks to Rob Fjerstad at Autodesk for providing me with a document regarding control codes and information on customization of the fields dialog box (the customization follows; I'll try to post the document as a reply, as it's not large, but makes this message too long.
I found out that you can directly edit the field format controls by opening for edit the XML file AcFields.fdc located in your C:\Document and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2005\R16.1\enu\Support

I suggest you make a backup copy of this file just in case you need to restore it for some reason.

In your sample, if you search for Area down at line 698 you’ll see various formatting styles for the Object Area field strings. What I did as a sample was added the following in this section, at line 701:

<Format>

<DisplayName>My Area Format</DisplayName>

<FormatString>%lu2%ct4%qf1%PR0 S.F.</FormatString>

</Format>

When I then created a Object field with property Area I then had in the Format list my new entry called My Area Format at the top of the list. You could then deploy this updated AcFields.fdc file to the others AutoCAD seats in your company.

[stilesj]

Sorry, didn't realize I could attach...here it is!

Thanks!

[Mike.Perry]

Hi Jenna

Could you please attach the document directly to a post here within this thread....

Mike

[mjfarrell]

Yes, please do post it as an attachment Jenna.
I just knew that there had to be a better way than
we came up with.

[roelie]

Thanks for the list, it helps a lot, however I am a little irritated at the lack of tools for metric users. I can't see a way of converting from mm's to m's, but maybe I'm blind.

[cadpoobah]

Is it possible to locate the acfields.fdc file on a server? I tried moving it to a folder on our shared server (which is in the ACAD search path), but it didn't like it. Is there a way to tell AutoCAD where to look for this file?

This sure would be convenient!

[thomas-p]

Does anyone know of a way to have it convert the field area to acres, with in the field.

[stilesj]

This didn't work for me, either...I have a file saved on the server that is pushed out to each person's local support path via their login script.

[rgq]

This information is all good. But how does one create a new field or reference a field in a formula? Sometimes we have projects where the sheets are referenced by a dwg number instead of the actual sheet number. And both the sheet number and dwg number are displayed on the sheet. I am looking for a way to do this by use of fields instead of typing in each dwg number.

[Opie]

This information is all good. But how does one create a new field or reference a field in a formula? Sometimes we have projects where the sheets are referenced by a dwg number instead of the actual sheet number. And both the sheet number and dwg number are displayed on the sheet. I am looking for a way to do this by use of fields instead of typing in each dwg number.

You can insert additional fields within the formula box. Try the right-click within that box to insert an adittional field.

I believe this is only for 2006.