Cool idea or rubbish? (Windows thumbnails and Solidworks)

Windows explorer >> PrintScrn >> paste into a word document

Not quite but good try! lol

This just gives the whole screen with everything on "that" view. Now add 1500 documents to that directory and it becomes a pain in the butt to keep in order!

I guess I'm not clear on what you're after then...

I would guess Pete is looking for a concept similar to a photographic "contact sheet".

Off hand, I don't know of any method to do that.

You can get directory ( folder) printing software that will print out the directory (folder)listing in order, but this is normally just plain text, I want the same thing but with using the thumbnail views.

This way I can have a quick pictorial reference at the front of a printed document binder. Anyone could then see, at a glance, the document file that they want.

For example:- You take your photos to be developed, and you get a thumbnail reference card so that you can order more, just by quoting the code under each thumbnail.

I hope this makes more sense :-)

Thank you Matt, Snagit is the perfect program for what I have in mind!

Also have a look at Picasa available for free from Google.com. It creates an index of all specified folders and reads jpeg, tiff, bmp, gif, png, as well as some others. It can also print a 'contact sheet'.

Apart from that it can not read soldworks thumbnails, so is completely crap for what I want and has wasted my time FOOL.

Hey, maybe a bit rough on the fellow? At least he took his time to make a suggestion, although not quite appropriate for what you wanted. Maybe there's more to this situation than I know, but my impression from this side suggests an apology might be in order.

WT

You are quite right Wayne, my most humble apology sent out.

Bad day at the office and directors wanting something for nothing, no excuse I know, but hey! we all have our off days :-)

I will count to ten next time and kick a cat or something, (ONLY kidding I love cats :-P ) HeHe!!!!!!

Now back to the directors, ding ding round two!

Well to complete rmont's idea, you can use SolidWorks task scheduler to save all your drawing as Jpeg's and then use Picasa to print the contact sheets. In fact with this combo you could even have pictures of every sheet in a drawing, not just the last active one when saved.

Definitely count to ten next time. The group works because everyone is willing to share their ideas. And for example, his start allowed me to complete the idea. I would not have thought of Picasa let alown known it can print contact sheets.

Hi Mr Who

Where in the task scheduler is the option to save as Jpegs?

Thanks Pete

You would have to write a macro to iterate through a directory and spit them out. It's not that hard. If I have some free time (if ever) I will see about making one. It would be a pretty cool thing to have for many people. I think...

I agree about it that being a cool macro.

Every part required for a sub-assembly could be kept in a pictorial form on a contact sheet, so that when documents are required you and the production team could see at a glance, which are required and which are only for reference.

Well I'm a sucker for helping people out so here you go. This doo-hickey will open any solidworks file type you specify and save it as any file type you want.

http://209.123.84.162/solidworks/ and download SaveAsTool.swb

To use:

1. Launch SW Task Scheduler
2. Run Custom Task from left sidebar
3. Under macro file path specify the file you just downloaded
4. Under parameter names enter c:\temp, .slddrw, .jpg for example.
5. Run it. I assume you have a c:\temp directory to which I can write a failure log to. Note that only solidworks documents are currently supported. slddrw, sldprt, sldasm, drw, prt, asm.