I have written an addin program that works with NanoCAD (a free
compatible program with full AutoCAD-- at least for two dimensions) that
can be set to open and extract text, mtext, attribute and embedded text
from all dwg files that match a given pattern or pattern, and are
located below a root folder on your computer. The extracted texts go
into a database that can be searched. All found instances of a word or
words are listed. You can click on an item to open the drawing and zoom
to the text.What is this good for? It is great when you have
hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands, or even hundreds of
thousands of drawings, and you want to cut and paste details that you
drew earlier, or that any of your colleagues have drawn. Who can
remember where all those details are when you want to use them again?
You may not even know that there are details your colleagues have drawn
that you would want to use.Why NanoCAD? It is free, so I figured that more people would have access to it. You can download NanoCAD 5.0 from nanocad.com.Why
not AutoCAD? It is not free, but if someone is really interested, I can
recompile the program to use with AutoCAD-- for a fee.Where can it be downloaded from? ncadaddons.tumpliner.comWhat
is the catch? I have a little spiel about the ethics of group
interaction that I would like you to read and click to accept before
using the program. I do not think it should be objectionable, but I
think the data should be better known.

Yes, I forgot to add-- this is freeware. There is no charge. I am actually a little amazed that noone has made this type of addon available before- there must be a great need for it by now with so many thousands of legacy drawings that must have been generated by now. It was also not that difficult to write. It was an intermediate level of programming, but not advanced.Actually, I am not convinced that there are not other addons like this out there somewhere-- but I could not find one available to the public. I did run across one company that had written one for their own use.I would be happy to hear your feedback.

The copy I had up on the website for download was not working. I have it fixed as of 6/22/15, Monday. If you have downloaded it before, I apologize. Please try downloading it again.

I'm not sure you'll find any nanoCAD users active in this forum.

One can basically search AutoCAD drawings using name, location, date filters, keywords, etc. using the methods described in the link below that references AutoCAD 2010...http://docs.autodesk.com/ACD/2010/ENU/AutoCAD%202010%20User%20Documentation/index.html?url=WS1a9193826455f5ffa23ce210c4a30acaf-7865.htm,topicNumber=d0e19554So as to your offer to recompile your nanoCAD lisp specific program to work in AutoCAD, for a fee, I say "Thanks, but no thanks."

John Connor2015-06-24 18:34:28

John Connor,     thanks for the reply. I did check the link you posted. I did not realize that AutoCAD has this capability. Do you know if it works? If I remember right, I tried a Microsoft Search tool a few years ago that was supposed to find text within a drawing. I could not get it to work. That was about 3 or 4 years ago. I might have been using AutoCAD2009 then.

Also, I would guess that the Microsoft Search would be EXTREMELY slow for searching tens of thousands of drawings. DwgCrawler is indexed, so the results are almost instantaneous once you have crawled the data. Also, like I suggested, you can use it as freeware if you download and install a free copy of NanoCAD. Then just use NanoCAD when you need to search on something.

Now I get the impression you are just here to push nanoCAD.Windows search indexing is enabled when the program is installed.  Most users don't know about it and even if they did many wouldn't even know how to disable the feature unless they went looking for a solution online (ex. - Microsoft or PCWorld website).

Of course both Windows Search and AutoCAD Content Center use indexed data to find the searched DWG faster. Plus, neither NanoCAD nor other AutoCAD clone (fake) fully understands the DWG format and all its objects so your drawing entities could be misinterpreted.

Actually, NanoCAD exposes the same API that AutoCAD does for use with VB.NET or C#.NET, so it must be able to understand the dwg database architecture just fine. Also, I have used it for years, importing and exporting to dwg. I have never had a problem opening any of those files with AutoCAD, or any AutoCAD dwg with NanoCAD. I don't think any other clone can say that. There is nothing fake about it.I have never heard of AutoCAD Content Center. Are you referring to the one used with Inventor? I would not know anything about that. I have only used AutoCAD and NanoCAD for 2D work. This is not aimed at 3D work.Speaking of not understanding the structure of AutoCAD's database-- I doubt if Windows does a great job of that. Will it find text embedded in block refs, attribute text, mtext and regular text? I doubt it. I have seen several comments of it not working fully. I have not seen any comment that it does work fully. I think I read somewhere that it does not pick up everything in formats after 2010.You know, it sounds like you have some other prejudice against NanoCAD, and I am curious what that may be.

OK, I have it compiled and available for use with AutoCAD2009, 64bit (which should work for 2010 also) at ncadaddons.tumpliner.com.If I remember right, there was a change in the API with ACAD2012, so that I am unable to compile it for that use with my own copy of 2009. If anyone can lend me their a copy of the acmgd.dll and acdbmgd.dll 64 bit files for Acad2012. I can also compile for use with that.

After interest has been shown, I recompiled the dwgCrawler so that it will work for AutoCAD2009 and also AutoCAD2012, 64bit. They are available at ncadaddons.tumpliner.com.I checked into further versions of AutoCAD and decided not to go that route because I am essentially a 2D user of AutoCAD, and I can see no further value for 2D use in later revisions beyond 2012. Also, the API changed after 2012. Changing the API, so that programs compiled for earlier revisions will need to be recompiled, gets a little annoying, especially when there is no real value gained for 2D work. So that is another thing I like about NanoCAD. I compiled it once, and I do not have to recompile it each year or every other year. They are not coming out with changes to the API, and I think they value the customization programmers enough that they will not break the API to require recompilation for little or no reason. They do not have the motivation to get people to upgrade every year-- they are not charging for the software. They only take a cut from the action if a developer is selling an add-on for use with NanoCAD.

I get the sense there is no interest in your program here.  Maybe you'll have better luck at another forum.  Good luck.