User’s Guide – FileFixer for V8
Chapter 17 — Choose Files to Process
Using Axiom’s “Choose Files to Process” box
Use Axiom’s “Choose Files to Process” box to create a list of files to process. Here is an empty list (no files chosen yet):
The first button shown in this picture — — will only display if you have MicroStation connected to ProjectWise. When this is not the case, this button will not display.
Tip: You can find balloon help for almost any dialog item by holding your mouse over it.
Adding files to the list
There are up to five ways to add files to the list:
By browsing for them in a ProjectWise datasource with the “Browse ProjectWise” button . This button is only displayed when MicroStation is connected to ProjectWise.
By browsing for them with the “Browse for files” button .
- By searching for them with the “Search for files” button , which brings up the “Search for Files” box.
- By dragging and dropping them from Windows Explorer into the “Files to Process”
list. You can open a Windows Explorer window using the button.
- By importing an existing ASCII text file with files listed in it using “File | Import File List…”
File and Edit menus
Most of the options in the “File” and “Edit” menus are duplicated along the button bar or on the right-click menu in the “Files to Process” list.
Browse ProjectWise
Click on this button or press {Ctrl-P} to open the “Axiom ProjectWise Navigator” box.
You will be prompted to log into a ProjectWise datasource.
Browse your ProjectWise datasource, select the files you want and press {Add to List}. No files are shown in the above picture but you’ll see files once you log into a datasource.
Here you simply select the files you want to process and press {Add to List} to add them to your list of files to process. You can also right-click and choose “Add Files to List” to get the same result.
When you are done adding files to your list of files to process, press {Close}.
Browse for files
Click on this button or press {Ctrl+O} to open the “Browse for Files” box:
Select one or more files and press {Open} to add them to your list of files to process.
Search for files
Click on this button or press {Ctrl+F} to open the “Search for Files” box (with its “Basic” tab activated):
Search in:
Choose the folder you want to search for files in. Click the “Choose a folder to search” button to browse to the folder you want to search.
Include subfolders.
Enable this if you want to search for files in subfolders too.
Search for files using:
Use this to restrict your search to files with certain names or extensions. Most users search by file extension, such as “*.dgn”.
Search for files by date:
Choose files to process based on their modification date. You can choose to search for files that were last changed before or after a specific date and time.
{Search Now}
Once you have made your file search choices, click {Search Now} to perform the search.
When the search is done, you will see a count of the number of files found. Press {Add
Files} to add the files to your list of files to process.
{Add Files}
After searching for files, press this button to add the found files to your list of files to process.
{Close}
Press this button to close the “Search for Files” box.
Search for Files: Advanced tab
If you want to search for files in more than one folder at a time, click on the “Advanced” tab of the “Search for Files” box.
Here you can choose any number of folders to search by checking them on in the folder tree.
Drag-and-drop files from Windows Explorer
Click this button or press {Ctrl+E} to open a Windows Explorer window from which you can drag and drop files or entire folders into your “Files to Process” list.
Dragging a folder into the list adds the files in that folder to the list, not the folders themselves.
Tip: You can drag files into your list from any Windows Explorer window, not just a Windows Explorer window opened by this button.
Dragging folders (not files) into the list
Dragging folders into the list is different than dragging files. Dragging files is direct — the files go right into your list. But since folders could include files you don’t want to process, dragging folders initiates a search of those folders. You can then fine-tune the search by adding or removing folders, choosing which types of files to include and limiting the search by file modification dates.
Once you’ve made your search choices, click {Search Now} to begin the search. When that’s done, click {Add Files} to add the found files to the list of files to process.
Tip: When dragging both files and folders into your list simultaneously, the files still get added to your list immediately and a search is initiated for the folders, as usual.
Remove selected files
Press this button to remove the selected files from the list.
Remove all files
Press this button to remove every file from your list.
Warning: This will clear your entire list of files. Use it with care.
Remove Missing Files
This removes any files from the list that cannot be found. This is available only from the Edit menu, there is no dedicated button for it.
ProjectWise Tip: You may be prompted to log into ProjectWise so this operation can determine if any files are missing. If you cancel the ProjectWise login, all ProjectWise files in the list are assumed to be not missing.
Save list to file
Press this button or {Ctrl+S} if you want to save the currently displayed list of files to a text file that you can reuse in the future.
Tip: Import a previously saved file list using the “Import File List...” choice on the File menu or by simply dragging one or more of these .LST files into the list of files to process from Windows Explorer.
Files to Process
The object of this entire box is to put files in the “Files to Process” list.
Right-clicking on the list
Right-click anywhere in the list to see this context-sensitive menu of available actions:
Selecting files in the list
You might want to select one or more files in the list so you can remove them. There are multiple ways to select multiple files in the list.
Using {Shift-left-click}
You can select multiple adjacent files in the list by first left-clicking on the first file then holding down the {Shift} key while left-clicking on the last file in the series.
Using {Ctrl-left-click}
You can select multiple files arbitrarily by holding down the {Ctrl} while left-clicking on each one.
Removing files from the list
There are several ways to remove files from the list:
- Select one or more files and click the {Remove selected files} button.
- Select one or more files and right-click on one of them, then choose a removal option from the menu which appears.
- Select one or more files and press the {Delete} key on your keyboard.
- Click the {Remove all files} button.
Version
Right-click on the title bar and choose “About Axiom File List Processor” to bring up a box containing version information which is useful if you are calling Axiom for support.
{OK}
Once you have chosen all the files you want to process, press {OK} to close the “Choose Files to Process” box.
{Cancel}
If you change your mind, press {Cancel} and any changes you made to your list of files to process will be discarded.
Advanced Commands
The “Choose Files to Process” box is extremely powerful and easy to use. However, for those users who want more raw power, it is possible to create a list of files to process without even picking up your mouse.
Instead of opening the “Choose Files to Process” box, you can type wildcards and other special commands directly in the file specification field in the main dialog box of the host program (for example, FileFixer’s “Which Files:” field.)
Using these commands, your list of files to process will be created automatically when you start processing. Or you can open the “Choose Files to Process” box to view and edit your list of files before you begin processing them.
This table describes the most popular of these advanced commands.
Command | Examples | Description |
* | c:\work\*.dgn | This wildcard will match |
c:\work\*.* | zero or more characters | |
c:\work\project1.* | anywhere in the file name | |
and extension. It does not | ||
work on the path. | ||
? | c:\work\project1.dg? | This wildcard will match |
c:\work\project?.d?? | exactly one character | |
c:\work\?project?.dgn | anywhere in the file name | |
and extension. It does not | ||
work on the path. | ||
/S | c:\work\*.dgn /S | This command causes |
c:\work\border*.dgn /S | subfolders to be searched for | |
c:\work\project?.dgn /S | matching files. It is usually | |
used with a wildcard. | ||
/L | /L c:\work\list.lst | Follow this command with |
the name of a list of file to | ||
process, including its full | ||
path. The list file is a text | ||
file with one file per line, | ||
including full path on each | ||
line, usually with the | ||
extension “.LST”. |