Thank you for trying PurgeIDs!

CAREFUL ABOUT USING THIS TOOL ON VERSION R14 FILES!
If you run this on whole projects, you better have backups available as I have seen it mess up certain R14 version files.
It seems to be those with architectural desktop custom objects but I am not sure.
If in doubt, open all files and save in current acad version, then run the purgeIDS.

Back to the real readme now...

There has been a need for tools that can purge Layer Filters and Application ID's quickly.
This tool will only purge out unneccesary information, it will not remove anything that the drawing needs.

Note that the tool saves the drawings in the same format as the AutoCad you are running.
It will skip files whose format is above the file version you are running the tool from.

Consider this first release as a beta.  I am sure there will be some fixes needed to the interface.
I can say that this tool is many times faster and more reliable than anything else out there.
This is due to some top quality programming on Autodesk's part.
Thanks to all at Autodesk that made this happen.

------------------------------ To Install and Use -----------------------------------------

Unzip the zip file to a folder in your support paths.  If you want to keep the files separate from other things, make a new folder just for this tool and add that to your support paths.

To run in AutoCad 2000 to 2002, load the PurgeIDs.VLX file with appload, or by typing:
(load "PurgeIDs.VLX")

To run in AutoCad 2004 to 2006, load the PurgeIDsR16.VLX file with appload, or by typing:
(load "PurgeIDsR16.VLX")

To run in AutoCad 2007 to 2008, load the PurgeIDsR17.VLX file with appload, or by typing:
(load "PurgeIDsR17.VLX")

then type PURGEIDS to run.

------------------------------ Patterns of Usage ------------------------------------------

You will get the dialog box.

There are a couple patterns of use for this tool:

1) I want to get rid of App ID's and Filters for the current drawing and its xrefs.

To do this, pick the Add Current Drawing button, then pick the Get Xrefs for Files button.
It will find the xrefs for the files listed similar to how Etransmit does it.
Then pick the Run Purge button.

2) I want to clean a whole project.

To do this, pick the Select Folders button, and say yes to the subfolders question.
Then pick the Run Purge button.

3) I want to clean out a list of files that exist in a text file.

You might save the list of files in the dialog (a very useful tool in of itself) to a text file, then run it later.  You might have forgotten to remove a read-only attribute the first time you ran the purge, and the log file shows which files did not run.  You can edit the log file to remove the files that did run.  Then rerun the ones that were not sucessful the first time.
There are lots of other reasons why you would want to run a list of files in a text file.

To do this, pick the Select Text File button, and pick your text file.
Then pick the Run Purge button.

----------------------------- Disclaimer -------------------------------------------------

Disclaimer:
While this tool has been tested on many files, make backup copies of yours before runnning it at first until you are comfortable with it.  Even after being comfortable with it, be sure you have backups available.
The tool does create backups of the drawings in the folders where the drawings are because that would bog down most companies backup systems.  It does make copies of the files in your profile folder though.  Use caution while using this tool.
Neither Autodesk or I make any guarantees whatsoever of this tool being useful for any purpose. Use this tool at your own risk.
 

Support:
email James Maeding support issues at
jmaeding@hunsaker.com

If anyone runs into problems with the tool, please take it out on me, not anyone at Autodesk.
I am the one that requested to make this public.

Thank You,
James Maeding

