Monday, March 2, 2015

Tweaking AutoCAD, BricsCAD, Inventor, and Windows to Improve CadTempo's CAD Time Keeping


There are a few things that can be tweaked so CadTempo can do its best in keeping track of your CAD file time.

Windows hides file name extensions, but making them visible helps CadTempo in file name discovery.

To show file name extensions in Windows Explorer

  1. Open Folder Options by clicking the Start button , click Control Panel, then click Folder Options.
  2. Click the View tab, and then, under Advanced settings:
    • To show file name extensions, clear the Hide extensions for known file types check box, and then click OK.



AutoCAD too can be optimized for CAD file name detection by displaying the full path in the AutoCAD window title bar like this:





To show the full path in AutoCAD's title bar


  1. Open AutoCAD Options by right clicking in the AutoCAD command line or typing Options.
  2. Click the Open and Save tab, and then, under File Open settings, check the Display full path in title and then click OK or Apply.


To show the full path in BricsCAD's title bar


  1. BricsCAD uses the system variable ShowFullPathInTitle. Type that in the command line and set the value to 1.



Autodesk's Inventor does not have a convenient option to set as does AutoCAD, but thanks to a tip discovered on the CADforum by CAD Studio cadforum - how to display full document path in inventor title bar it is possible to do so.

To show the full path in Inventor's title bar

iLogic code is no longer required for CadTempo to function properly with Inventor. (Updated 05/04/2020)

To display a full document path (subfolders) in the Inventor window titlebar, you can use a simple iLogic macro.

  1. Use iLogic to define a new rule (name it e.g. "LongCap") containing a single line: ThisApplication.Caption = ThisDoc.Path
  2. Then let the rule "LongCap" run/invoke (see Event triggers) automatically on each event of the type "Document open".
Since I do not have a copy of Inventor I asked a favorite blogging friend Paul Munford to confirm this works and indeed it does. Thanks Paul and of course CADforum.