CustomTools Batch Operation

You can select the different files to batch print or batch conversion by selecting the check boxes of those files in the Select documents to process list.

You can also select the desired components for a batch operation from an assembly structure shown in the SOLIDWORKS Design Tree. You can also select multiple components from the SOLIDWORKS Design Tree by using the normal way to select multiple documents by holding down the Ctrl key while clicking the desired components. When you have selected the desired documents, click the CustomTools PrintAndConvert command to open the selected documents in the Batch Operation dialog box for a batch operation.

When you start the CustomTools batch operation, the selected files are going to be processed through the batch operation profiles that they are selected to be processed with. Files can be processed with multiple batch operation profiles on one batch operation if necessary.

The Batch Operation dialog box disappear when you start the batch operation. If the batch process completes successfully, the Batch Operation dialog box does not appear again after the process. If the batch process fails for some reason, the Batch Operation dialog box appear again to let you to check what caused the failure.

NOTE: If you are using 64-bit operating system and you have the HP Universal Printer driver in use, the HP Universal Printing dialog box appear for each file separately.

CustomTools Command bar:

Export	Export the structure information of the selected document into another information system. (Not available in CustomTools Viewer)
WhereUsed	Shows where the selected document is used.
File Operations	Operations for adding files to the batch operation and for maintaining documents already included in it:

	Add Files	Add files to the printing queue. You can select one or more files simultaneously. With the PrintAndConvert feature you can print any type of files supported by your workstation like Adobe PDF documents (.pdf), Microsoft Office documents (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx...) and so on. Files which are not SOLIDWORKS documents are always printed to the default printer of your workstation.
		TIP: To add more than one file simultaneously, hold down CTRL and select the desired files.
	Add Folder	Use the Add Folder command to open SOLIDWORKS documents from the desired folder for a batch operation. You can also include sub folders to a batch operation by selecting the Include subfolders option in the Browse for Folder dialog box.
	Add Assembly	Adds all the documents related to the opened file to the printing queue. If you have selected an assembly to be added with a structure, please ensure that you have rebuilt and saved the assembly before performing the CustomTools batch operation.
	Delete File	Removes the selected documents. NOTE: Specific permission is required on the database level to delete the design data. Because of that, the Delete command is enabled only when the user has the necessary database level permissions. The reference data is deleted only from the database by default, but the user is able to delete the file completely also from the hard disk by selecting the Delete associated files from hard drive as well option in the Delete Files dialog box, that appears once the Delete command has been performed.
	Open File in SW	Opens the selected document with SOLIDWORKS and closes the Search Results dialog box.
	Open in Explorer	Opens the file location of the selected document in the Windows Explorer window.

NOTE: Commands in the File Operations menu are not enabled when using CustomTools Lite or Basic edition. CustomTools Express edition is required in order to enable the commands in File Operations menu.

Print Order

Options to setup the printing order.

	View Order	Views the current printing order of the selected documents.
	Manage Order	Opens the Printing Order dialog box used to set the printing order.

Process Drawings

Options related to the processing of the drawing documents.

	First instance by level	Processes the first instances of the drawings level by level. See image.
	First instance recursive	Processes only the first instance of the drawing recursively. The batch operation processes the sub-assemblies first. See image.

Clear selection of both options available in the Process Drawings menu to process all drawings wihtout processing order rules. See image.

TIP: Click the See image link associated to the Process Drawings option description to open a figure which describe the way the drawings are processed. The figure associated to the option description appear as an own window.

Preview	Opens a preview of the selected document. You can switch the document shown in the Preview window on the fly by clicking the desired document in the Selected Documents To Process list.
	TIP: You can also select the desired sheet of the drawing to be shown in the Preview.
Close Preview	Closes the Preview window.

Defining the batch operation

Batch operation profiles:

Print Profile	Batch print your documents. You can select the desired printing profiles from the Print Profile list. If you do not see this node, you may not have any print profiles defined in the CustomOptions.
Batch Conversion	Batch convert your SOLIDWORKS documents into another formats. You can select the desired conversion rules from the Batch Conversion list to convert selected files with.

NOTE: With the CustomTools Lite Edition, you can select only one batch print or batch conversion rule per batch operation.

Documents that match with the selected batch operation profile are selected automatically in the Documents to process list when you select the desired batch operation profile from the profile list.

When you select a batch printing profile, the automatic selection also apply the sheet naming based processing rules defined in the selected batch printing profile.

On batch file conversion, the automatic selection notices the document types the selected file conversion rule is scoped to. Also the possible limitations on model configuration processing rules and/or on the drawing sheet naming rules are applied on automatic selection of the documents.

When you have manually changed quantities of the components for the batch operation rule and then you clear selection of the batch operation profile of which the quantities were manually set for, the manually set quantities are reset. The user gets prompted in this case for whether or not to continue clearing selection of the batch operation rule.

Answer Yes to a prompt to reset the manually set quantities and clear selection of the selected batch operation rule.

Layer Definition	Sets the layer definitions used while printing the drawings. You can setup the necessary layer definitions in CustomTools Options. Layer definitions that have the Selected by default option selected in the Layer Definitions options are selected automatically but those selections could be cleared if necessary. Empty language layers are ignored on the batch operation.
Overwrite Property Values	Setup values for the CustomProperties to be written to drawings on batch operation. Properties that have the Enable changing of value in printing option selected in the property's additional options are shown in the pane and their values could be changed on batch operation. Any property values in SOLIDWORKS document properties does not get overwritten on batch operations, just the value written to the drawings could be customized in here. The property specific additional options are set in the Addtional Options page of the CustomProperty Wizard. NOTE: The CustomProperty values are not overwritten if the Save files option is selected in the Additional Options.
Additional Options	Advanced options for batch process:

	Add quantity	Writes the quantity value into the custom property for printing time.
	Save files	Save the changed sheet formats to the source files after the CustomTools batch operation. NOTE: Changes made to the source document properties on the CustomTools batch operation, are not stored to the source files so the property value changes are not present in the source files after the CustomTools batch operation.
	Select translation language	Specifies the language of the drawing layer to be used to translate the drawing template. Multilingual model properties in the drawing are also translated into the selected language if the selected translation exist in the dictionary.
	Sheet Format action	Sets the action to do for the sheet format. Use the sheet format action options to manage your sheet format actions.

NOTE: CustomTools Lite and Express editions does not support Advanced Options for the batch operation.

Select documents to process:

The Select documents to process list shows the structure of the document to be processed by the batch operation. By default, the Select documents to process list is filled based on the bill of materials order of the document which you execute the Print and Convert command against.

For example: When you execute the Print and Convert command against an assembly that you have open while clicking the command, the assembly structure gets automatically loaded into the Select documents to process list based on the assembly's bill of materials order.

NOTE: Recently created documents which are not yet saved at all, does not appear in the Select documents to process list.

Unsaved changes in the documents are not included into the output files either so, please ensure that all files to be processed by the batch operation are saved and rebuilt before performing the PrintAndConvert command.

As you can also execute the Print and Convert command also without having documents open in SOLIDWORKS, you can then add documents to the CustomTools batch operation using the following methods:

Click File Operations, Add Files to add the desired files to the batch operation using a file browser.
Click File Operations, Add Folder to add all supported files from a specific folder to the batch operation using a folder browser.
Click File Operations, Add Assembly to add hte desired assembly to the batch operation using a file browser.
Drag and drop the desired files from e.g. Windows Explorer window into the Select documents to process list.

Inserting documents into a batch operation using the Add Files or Add Folder command in the File Operations menu or by using the drag and drop method, the files' bill of materials order is not read. For that reason, the files inserted to the batch operation mentioned above in this paragraph, appear in the Select documents to process list in an order the files were inserted in.

Name	Name of the document. SOLIDWORKS drawings with their sheets are shown as tree structures in under the Name column in the Select documents to process list. When you open any drawing in CustomTools Batch Operation, the last active sheet is always included in the Select documents to process list in association to the selected drawing.
Configuration	Name of the referenced SOLIDWORKS model configuration or, in association to the SOLIDWORKS drawing documents the Configuration column shows the model configuration referenced in the specific drawing. If your assembly uses several configurations of the same part, all instances of the part and referenced configurations in association to the specific part instances are listed in the CustomTools batch operation's list of the documents to be processed.
Copies	Shows the currently set number of copies to be printed. You can change the value of copies by clicking the current value and then you can type or select the desired number of copies.
Qty	Shows the quantity of the component. The quantity value edited by the user is shown in the list as Blue colored. The quantity shows how many times the specific part is needed for the assembly it refers to. Changing the quantity of an assembly multiplies its children documents quantity automatically as well.

Drawing sheets handled by the selected batch operation profile gets automatically selected on selection of the desired batch operation profile.

Changing between the selected batch operation profiles updates also the Select documents to process list to show the selected documents by the selected batch operation profile.

Component quantities are also calculated based on the selected batch Print Profile/Batch Conversion rule. For that reason, the component quantities shown in the Select documents to process list may also change when you change the batch operation rule selection.

TIP: Hold down the Ctrl or Shift key to select multiple documents simultaneously, then select the check box of one of the selected documents to select the check boxes of all the selected documents.

Virtual Components in Batch Operations:

SOLIDWORKS virtual components could be physically located in the local temp folder. For that reason CustomTools determines the source path of the virtual components based on their physical parent documents. Because of that, the virtual components' output path on the CustomTools file conversion points to the same folder where the virtual component's physical parent document is located at.

Parent document of the virtual component does not have to be open while processing the virtual components with the PrintAndConvert feature. While processing the virtual components, the parent documents are opened for the batch process time. After the documents are processed, the parent documents are automatically closed.

Documents Search Feature:

A documents searching feature is located under the Select documents to process list in association to it. The search feature allows you to search for the specific documents from the list of the files you have added to a batch operation to be processed.

Search string	A keyword to be looked for, from the document list. Keyword typed in the Search string box is searched from the document names and also from the values of the CustomProperties that have the Display in Print and Convert option selected in the property settings. The Display in Print and Convert option of the CustomProperties is located in the Additional Options page of the CustomProperty Wizard.
Search	Click the Search button to execute the search using the search string specified in the Search string box.
<	Jump to the previous matching row in the document list.
>	Jump to the next matching row in the document list.

Removing files from the list:

Right-click the desired filename and select Remove to delete file from the list of files to be processed in batch operation.

Other commands in the right-click menu:

Select all	Selects all documents from the list.
Clear selection	Clears the current selection.
Reset quantities	Resets all the quatitiy values to defaults, which the user has been modified.

Right-click the parent level document to open a context menu having the following options in addition for the options mentioned above:

Select all children	Selects all children level documents.
Clear children selection	Clears all selections from the child level documents.