Ideas
Option to save measurement report both in txt and pdf
When using the print command, I use PDF to display the results after each measurement to see if the part is oke and I use Excel to make statistics (with my own written software). I save each measurement in a new excel file so that if my colleague who measures makes a mistake he can delete the excel and measure again, maintaining the numbering (for people without computer experience this is easier than deleting an excel tab). For statistical analysis reading a lot of excel files goes very slow, so I'd like to generate txt files instead. However, saving both txt files and pdf files is not possible with PC-DMIS. Why?
I tried creating 2 print commands, one saving pdf and one saving txt. However, when I change one command, the other one changes as well. Pretty stupid.
Customer support service by UserEcho
Hexagon you really need to fix these print commands.
Ditto.
Seems as though this could be easily fixed without having to wait years for X-number of people to vote on it. Can somebody just please make the fix. It is a bug and there's no reason why you should not be able to use 2 print commands - one for PDF and then again for TXT. Thank you.
Well, if there developers can not correct this problem then they should have another company give it a shot.
To give the Hexagon software developers the benefit of a doubt, I'm sure they're swamped with bug fixes and other enhancements. However, it would seem to me that this is an easy fix and an item that could be quickly checked off on their "to-do" list. But they probably won't even look at this until it gets 10 votes. Which brings me to another thought - I would gather that there's a lot of users that don't even know about the "HexagonMI Idea Center" and therefore wouldn't know they could vote. 4 years and counting...
I am not even sure I follow this Idea/suggestion. Assuming we are talking about current versions of PCDMIS, you have the option to print to Printer, PDF, RTF (Rich Text Format), Excel and "CSV". CSV is a text format and follows the Excel output layout. It is comma delimited and opens right up in Excel, notepad, what have you.
You also have scripting tools and FIle/IO to do your own printing anyway you want and in addition to that you can do Custom Excel reports which is not part of the Print command, but a new reporting option.
When you say fix, fix what? I don't see anything broken and you get the option to print to three separate devices at once (Printer, PDF, Excel/CSV) which is not typical of most systems. If you want more custom TEXT stuff, use the FILE I/O or Basic scripting. The tools are there. You enable PDF and Excel/CSV and you get two files.
Folks, I don't disagree if what you are reporting are bugs or issues, but Idea Center is not for bugs. If you feel it is a bug, it should be posted through the tech support system and it must be for current released versions.
I have a program written in PCD 2021.2 that does save in both pdf and excel and works correctly.
PRINT/REPORT,EXEC MODE=END,$
TO_FILE=ON,APPEND=VAR_FILENAME.PDF,AUTO OPEN=OFF,$
TO_PRINTER=OFF,COPIES=1,$
TO_DMIS_REPORT=OFF,FILE_OPTION=INDEX,FILENAME=,$
REPORT_THEORETICALS=NONE,REPORT_FEATURE_WITH_DIMENSIONS=NO,$
TO_EXCEL=ON,PROMPT,AUTO OPEN=ON,$
PREVIOUS_RUNS=DELETE_INSTANCES
They may not be responding because the function already works.
Add two print commands in your program.
Set the first print command to PDF.
Set the second print command to RTF.
Notice that the first print command now changes to RTF?
This is what this suggestion is about, coding your own solution seems a bit drastic even if it is possible.
Reason for this is that the design in PC-DMIS only allows for one print command and that command is unique so even if you add a print command with different options, all your print commands will change to whatever your latest print command/change were.
I believe your issue is with the Report to File section of the print command and you should have been more specific because an RTF and TXT file are two different things. RTF is a Rich Text Format. It is a formatted format and not a plain text file. This is why most of the comments back are that we do not see what the problem is.
The topic should be changed to read "Option to save measurement report both in RTF and pdf"
There is always workaround and they do not have to be ugly ones.
You could set print to printer and make your default printer be a PDF writer and use the FILE option in the Report tab for the RTF. Printing to a printer for either one would then be just a print job you can call using basic scripting, external command, etc.
You could just print to RTF and generate an PDF from the RTF by calling a word macro.
Ditto Jorgen Andersson's response from 4 months ago. I have the same issue but with TXT not RTF:
Add two print commands in your program.
Set the first print command to PDF.
Set the second print command to TXT.
Notice that the first print command now changes to TXT?
The PC-DMIS print command window gives the programmer the false illusion of being able to SIMPLY click the radio button of your choice and easy-peezy, done deal. Such is not the case. All the suggested solutions are noble but are either unnecessarily complex or they divert to Excel formats that are not desired. I appreciate that Guillermo is at least making an attempt to help but is totally missing the point (i.e. searching for the forest through the trees). This is an obvious bug that should be easy to fix. For the record, before I submitted my issue here in the HexagonMI Idea Center, I submitted this issue with Hexagon Customer Support (12/7/2021 Case # 00512547) and got numerous similar "work around" suggestions instead of actually fixing the bug.
I will look into this example now that I am clear that we are reporting a bug and not a new Idea.
I received an update on the technical forum from prasannak.
Ability to use Multiple Print Commands with different formats. There is a Case Number 00244229 for this as well.
Link: https://ideacenter.hexagonmi.com/en/...ferent-formats
We are introducing a new attribute OUTPUT_FORMAT to the print command to support different format reports. Now, the print command supports PDF, RTF & TXT reports from the same PRG after the implementation of the functionality. Also, we have plans to introduce the reset option (REPORTRESET = YES / NO) to the print command, so the report will get generated from the starting of the MR.
From NeilRyan.
Ability to use Multiple Print Commands with different formats. There is a Case Number 00244229 for this as well.
Link: https://ideacenter.hexagonmi.com/en/...ferent-formats - This is currently planned for Pcdmis 2023.1. PC-DMIS will allow multiple print commands to output the report in different formats. The implementation to output the PDF, RTF & TXT reports within the same routine is in progress. I will ask the responsible PO to provide some more details for feedback.
Thank you davehocum! It is very good to know that this is being worked on and will be released in version 2023.1 Also thanks to Guillermo, NeilRyan, prasannak and all others working behind the scenes.