JTB SSMPropEditor documentation

1. Run installer .exe to install SSMPropEditor and follow the instructions. Default installation folder is C:\Program Files\JTB World\SSMPropEditor and for AutoCAD app it is
   %programdata%\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\JTBW-SSMPropEditor.bundle.
   It is not advised to install on a network location or USB stick.
2. License Activation
   1. For version 6.5 or newer: To activate the license run SSMPropEditor click on File followed by License Activation and send us the computer number showing in the dialog box. Normally we will send the activation key within 24 hours. After entering the license key, restart the app. See also activation instructions here: JTB World Apps Licensing. 
      
   2. For version 6.4 or older: Place the license file SSMPropEditor_license.txt in the same folder as where the software is installed. (The license file is sent by email from JTB World when purchased from this site or if a trial is requested. When purchased from Autodesk the license is included.) For the AutoCAD app the location is %appdata%\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\
      JTBW-SSMPropEditor.bundle\Contents\Windows.
      If you install both variants of SSMPropEditor the license file needs to be in both locations.
3. To run the program you find it on the Windows Start menu>All Programs>SSMPropEditor alternatively for AutoCAD app on the Plug-ins/Add-ins tab.

For deployment on multiple machines silent/automated installation can be done, /server and /port is used to specify the network license server and port, change as needed:

SSMPropEditor <version> installer.exe /server="myservernamehere" /port=56712 /VERYSILENT /NORESTART /SUPRESSMSGBOXES /LOG=”%TEMP%\SSMPropEditor.LOG”

Use this in a BAT, CMD, VBS or by other means.

If the installer hangs at start and does not show up any dialog to proceed with the installation. Open Windows Task Manager and on Details tab locate SSMPropEditor <version> installer.exe and end the task. After that open Windows uninstall a program window and uninstall manually any existing installations of SSMPropEditor. Then run the installer again.

Run SSMPropEditor.exe from the installation folder or start SSMPropEditor from the Windows Start menu.

"Edit With SSMPropEditor" in Windows Explorer context menu for DST files can be used. "Add Edit With SSMPropEditor to Explorer.reg" and "Remove Edit With SSMPropEditor to Explorer.reg" are added to installation folder and can be used manually.

If SSMPropEditor as AutoCAD app has been used for installation the application will automatically load in AutoCAD and also add the SSMPropEditor panel to the Ribbon tab Plug-ins/Add-ins. In AutoCAD 2013 and newer if a drawing has an associated sheet set it will be opened in SSMPropEditor and if pressing F1 while hovering over the icon on the Ribbon the help file is opened. Commands defined for AutoCAD are SSMPropEditor (starts the application), SSMPropEditorAppShortcuts (will create shortcut to the program in the Windows Start menu or on the desktop) and SSMPropEditorHelp (opens the local help file).

If the trial has expired or you don't have the license file SSMPropEditor or if the Sheet Set is locked SSMPropEditor will run in a read-only mode.

With a time limited license the software works without limitation except for the time period limitation.

Here are a few steps to use the program.

Click on the open button or the application menu or FILE menu followed by open or select from recent sheet sets to Open a DST file.

Select one or many sheets in the tree or click on the top node to access the Sheet Set Properties.

Old feature no longer needed in newer versions. Click on Show Properties button if "Use Show Properties" is checked. If selecting many sheets it can speed up if "Use Show Properties" is checked but it is a bit less convenient because the button needs to be pressed for the properties to update.

Make the changes to the properties.

If the values of a property is different on at least two of the selected sheets you will see *VARIES* as value.

Click on Apply before selecting other sheets in the tree on the left side. Apply is only a way to accept the changes but they are not saved to the DST file until Save is pressed.

When opening another Sheet Set (DST file) or exiting the application you will be asked to save the changes permanently to the Sheet Set.

Note that changing the Layout property does not change the layout name in the actual DWG file unless Option setting "Rename Layout in drawing" is checked, if unchecked it should only be used if the layout previously has been or will be changed separately in the DWG file. Renaming layouts requires AutoCAD to open each drawing and will take some time during the saving depending on the amount of drawings.

See this YouTube video for example of usage. 

Or if you cannot access YouTube use here is an alternative.

Make the changes on the selected sheets.

Make changes and click on Apply. 

When opening another Sheet Set (DST file) or exiting the application you will be asked to save the changes permanently to the Sheet Set.

Properties

Old feature no longer needed in newer versions.

Use Show Properties

Select this checkbox if you don't want to click on Show Properties when you click in the tree view. This can be good when you select a few sheets but it can be slow if you have many sheets.

Show Properties

Click on this button to show the properties of the Sheet Set or the Sheet.

Cancel

Cancel any changes.

Apply

Click on Apply before selecting other sheets in the tree on the left side. Apply is only a way to accept the changes but they are not saved until Save is pressed.

Increment the value in the active property cell. One or more sheets can be selected. Even if the values are varying each value will be incremented individually. If the existing value is a number it will be incremented to the next number and if a letter to the next letter.

If there is a need for a custom incremental series a file named increment_value.txt can be placed in the same folder as the DST file and it will be used to control the increment functionality.

An example of the content of the increment_value.txt file is:

"1"
"2"
"3"
"0"
"A"
"B"

In the above example if the existing value is 0 it will be changed to A. If the existing value is B there is no value after so it will not be changed.

Notice that each value is enclosed by double quotes. The file can easily be created using Notepad or another basic text editor.

Use the unlock/lock button to unlock or lock the sheet set. This makes it possible to save changes and see them updated in AutoCAD without having to close and open the Sheet Set.

When the button says Unlock, clicking on it will make SSMPropEditor unlock the DST file and make it possible to edit it in AutoCAD and make it read-only in SSMPropEditor.

When the button says Lock, clicking on it will make SSMPropEditor lock the DST file so it is possible to edit properties. If the DST file is locked by AutoCAD for example when you have the sheet properties dialog box open, SSMPropEditor cannot lock it.

Click on the Find & Replace button.

Find and replace text in properties on the current selected sheet, all sheets and more.

What is the difference of Cancel and Hide?
When Cancel is pressed, all search related data will be cleared. So, for the next 'Find button Click', It will start as a new one. When Hide is pressed, all selections will be maintained even with the next line number to be searched. So, for the next 'Find button Click', all previous data will be resumed.

Some Find and Replace can also be achieved in Excel after exporting.

Copy Properties

Show Copy Checkboxes checkbox can be checked for easy selection of properties. The Sheet Set (top level in the tree view) or one or multiple sheets can be selected. Select what properties should be copied and press Copy Properties.

Paste Properties

A Sheet Set or one or many sheets can be selected to paste the properties to. It is possible to copy properties from one sheet set and then open another sheet set and paste the properties to.

Pasting can be done to the same Sheet Set as copied from or to another Sheet Set.

If copying to another Sheet Set and if the custom property definition is not existing it will be created and added.

Before Paste Properties

After Paste Properties

Paste Sheet count

The number of sheets is pasted to the currently selected property cell. This is useful if you have a property holding the total number of sheets either as a Sheet Set Custom Property or a Sheet Custom Property.

Paste Selected Sheet count

The number of selected sheets is pasted to the currently selected property cell.

Makes it possible to renumber multiple sheets.

If a selection of sheets should be indexed, select them in the tree view. Select a subset to have all sheets in it indexed. 

Select one Sheet Property or Sheet Custom Property. If not selected Sheet Number is default. 

Click on Sheet Indexing button.

The dialog box that makes it possible to specify how the indexing should work opens up.

Note in this case how the Sheet Property Sheet number have been changed on all sheets and with the prefix specified.

Show Selection Checkboxes

Check this checkbox to be able to select the properties to copy.

Include sheets with 'No Publish'

This applies to the buttons for Paste Sheet count and Paste Selected Sheet count.

Check All

Check all checkboxes in the current property area. For example all Sheet Custom Properties.

Uncheck All

Uncheck all checkboxes in the current property area. For example all Sheet Custom Properties.

Here you have access to Open, Apply, Save and Recent Sheet Sets.

To check if there is a new version available click on "Check for update"

Click on the Application menu and Options.

• Show ToolTips - decide if you want ToolTips to show when holding the mouse over buttons.
• Show found path - similar to how it works in SSM in AutoCAD. When checked it may affect performance as it might take time to verify if the file is found, especially when there are paths that does not exist.
• Grid TAB movement - allow you to use TAB to move between properties in the grid. Otherwise up and down arrows can also be used.
• Apply changes automatically - if you don't want to click on Apply all the time.
• Rename actual .dwg file - used together with renaming of "File Name" Sheet Property. Read more about renaming Sheets/Drawings here.
• Rename Layout in drawing - use this if you want to change the actual layout in the drawing. This requires AutoCAD 2013 or newer  to be installed and saving the Sheet Set will take a while depending on the number of drawings to process as AutoCAD needs to be opening each drawing using accoreConsole.exe. When accoreConsole.exe is not found this checkbox will be disabled.
• Advanced: Show internal paths - see below under subject "Editing of internal paths".
• Ribbon button outline - show outline around buttons.
• Enable Vault Settings - for usage with Autodesk Vault
• Language dropdown - select language and then restart the application. Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Polish and Spanish are available. 

  Other languages can be made available upon request and with some help with the translation.

• Backup
  • Ask about creation of backup file
  • Always create a backup file
  • Never create a backup file
• Default Settings - restore settings to the default.

For some properties dialog box will help to edit the properties.

Label block for views

Callout blocks

Sheet creation template

Update and correct non-existing paths to improve performance of SSM within AutoCAD. As default "Advanced: Show internal paths" is unchecked in File > Options.

When activated in File > Options reopen the sheet set to see the new properties: Relative Path, Full Path, UNC Path, Local Path, Special Path and Environment Path.

AutoCAD's Sheet Set Manager and SSMPropEditor will try find the sheet/drawing/"File Name" by first looking at the "Relative Path". This is relative to the DST file location and is empty if a relative path cannot be created like when the DST and DWG are on different drives. If the sheet is found using the "Relative Path" the complete path will show in "Found Path". "Expected Path" will be based on the "Relative Path" if it is available.

If the "File Name" is not found in the "Relative Path" the "File Name" will be searched for in the "Full Path". If still not found "UNC Path", "Local Path", "Special Path" and "Environment Path" will be searched in the mentioned order. If "File Name" is not found in any of these folders "Found Path" will be empty.

Because of the above functionality in Sheet Set Manager the performance can be affected if AutoCAD has to try locating the drawing file in non-existing folders on the network and especially non-existing UNC path. To correct this either make sure all paths are existing or you can delete some of the path properties and just leave one so that the drawing files is found. Suggestion is to make sure the relative path is correct making it possible to relocate the sheet set and also make sure the full path is correct.

If "Rename actual .dwg file" is activated in Options changing the "File Name" property will result in the drawing file being renamed when saving the Sheet Set. If "Expected Path" is changed it will result in the drawing file being moved when saving the Sheet Set. Changing any of the other paths can depending on the circumstances also result in moving the drawing file.
If "Rename actual .dwg file" is not activated changing the "File Name" can result in that the sheet is not found in Sheet Set Manager (The name is greyed out and a question mark ? is seen on the icon). This setting is useful if you want to correct the path or file name of sheets that are not found in Sheet Set Manager because the files where previously moved manually or renamed manually.

Environment path is a path containing an environment variable.
It can look like this: %USERPROFILE%\Documents\AutoCAD Sheet Sets\1 sheet.dwg

Special path is a path containing a CSIDL value. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb762494(v=vs.85).aspx 
It can look like this: $(CSIDL_PERSONAL)\AutoCAD Sheet Sets\1 sheet.dwg

Right click on a sheet or subset in the tree view for more options.

• Hide all sheets
• Show all sheets
• Open drawing - The application you have associated with DWG files will be used to open the drawing.
• Open folder - Open the folder in Windows Explorer where the sheet DWG file is located in.
• Select all sheets in this subset (you need to right click on a subset)
• Sort sheets in Sheet number order.
• Close sheet set

Sheets as well as subsets can be manually reordered using drag and drop. 

Sheet data or Sheet Set data can be exported either to a text file (tab separated format) or to an Excel file. Normally it is preferred to export directly to Excel.

How can this be useful? Besides a more free way to edit the properties you can use Excel's functionality to find and replace text. Another thing is to switch properties on multiple sheets. Say you have entered text in the Revision number Sheet property and later found that due to a limitation this property cannot be used in a Sheet List Table, in Excel you can then copy the values from this Sheet property to a Custom Sheet property and thus work around the limitation.

 You cannot add or delete sheets or properties this way.

Only edit the property values, paths, sheet set names or numbers. Subset names can also be changed.

Import Sheet data or Sheet Set data. To avoid not expected ? characters when importing a text file to SSMPropEditor use save as in Excel as Unicode txt format instead. Or use import directly from an Excel file to avoid formatting issues.

The following is avoided by exporting/importing to Excel file. When opening a text file in Excel it sometimes automatically format cells so that for example a value 1:100 is showing as 0.1111111 and 1:50 as 01:50 or 0011 as 11 or having dates changing format. To avoid that make sure to use the Text Import Wizard within Excel. The data is delimited with Tabs. Specifically set the data format for all columns to "Text" to be sure the formatting stays as expected. Tip! In the "Data preview" highlight the first column. Then scroll to the last column on the right and while holding down shift, click the column with your mouse pointer. All columns will then be highlighted. Now set the column data format to Text.

Start SSMPropEditor.exe with the full path to a DST file as argument to open the sheet set.

Create Grid Report or Report Preview to print to a printer or export to PDF, HTML, JPEG or TIFF.

To clear the recent list merge the file SSMPropEditor Clear Recent List.reg to the registry by double clicking on it. The file is located in the installation folder.

If you make use of publishing in the background in AutoCAD you need to first run "Resave All Sheets" in SSM before starting to publish. Otherwise the updated properties by SSMPropEditor will not be used.

Click on Style and select any of the styles and optionally a custom color.

Drag and drop a DST file into SSMPropEditor to open the Sheet Set.

Q: Why is SSMPropEditor slow or hangs?

A: If the Show Properties checkbox is checked it can affect the performance if there are many sheets in the Sheet Set. if "Rename Layout in drawing" checkbox is checked in Options SSMPropEditor requires AutoCAD to open each drawing one by one and will take some time during the saving of the Sheet Set depending on the amount of drawings.

Q: My experience with sheet set manager has shown that in the absence of the .dst file the associated fields retain the last information they were populated with. After running SSMPropEditor and sending the files to a consultant, the consultant only sees # symbols where the fields are located. Any thoughts?

A: Your observation is correct and as expected. SSMPropEditor only touches the DST file and unless AutoCAD has been opened and having resaved the sheets the changes will not be seen in the drawings without the DST file available.

Q. I get this error when running the installer. "Runtime error (at 63:594): Internal Error: Unknown custom message name "lcid"." 

A. Install a newer .NET Framework version. See system requirements.