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Hurricane is always being modified and adjusted based on your needs.
If you have a suggestion, please feel free to to make a recommendation.

Hurricane v6.8.26

Updated - Small cosmetic changes, nothing functionally different (update file posted to forum).

Hurricane v6.8.14

Updated - Internal links to SWReg online order system.

Hurricane v6.8.12

Updated - Drawing preview window now properly displays AutoCAD 2007+ files.

Hurricane v6.8.10

Bug Fix - DGOpen setting (for DWGGateway) was being set when pressing the "X" button to close the Tools->Options screen.

Fix - When in Simple Mode, the script is now reloaded immediately after the "CREATE" button is pressed.

Hurricane v6.8.4

Includes "Enterprise" functionality.

"Combine Text Files" feature.

Added option to "pad" $COUNTER$ TAG to a number of digits..

Updated "Find DWG's by revision" feature

Hurricane v6.7.5

Added a "Search and Replace" function to the Script Editor.

Fixed screen resize issue on Script Editor window.

Hurricane v6.7.0

Added $FILENAME-NEXT$, $FILENAME-PREV$, $SHEET-NEXT$ and $SHEET-PREV$ UserTags. These tags allow you to put the "next" filename or sheet number (in the queue) onto the current drawing, or the "previous filename/sheet number onto the current drawing. Useful for titleblocks that indicate what the next or previous sheet in the project should be.

Unlocked "Multi-File Renamer". It is no longer disabled in the demo.

Unlocked "Find DWG Files by Version". It is no longer disabled in the demo.

Increased the "User Set" (lower right hand corner) to five positions. The "User Set" is a quick way to 'switch' between project directories and file-lists. It makes working with a number of different projects at the same time much easier.

Removed the enable/disable selector for ProjectTags. ProjectTags are now enabled all the time.

Rearranged the Tools menu.

 

Hurricane v6.5.18

BugFix - Hurricane exited with unexpectedly if you provided a folder name, without an AutoCAD executable. This is now corrected.
(If Hurricaen EVER exits for an unknown reason, PLEASE let me know!)

Adjusted the "Serial Number & Unlock Code" screen (order of operations) based on feedback.

Rearranged the About screen.

Hurricane v6.5.17

A new option to license Hurricane to a USB Flash Drive ("Thumb Drive"). This has been dubbed "portable" Hurricane, as it allows you to install Hurricane on the USB drive, and license it to the drive. Hurricane is tied to the USB drive, so you can use it on ANY PC with a USB Port. This is extremely convenient for people who use other peoples computers... please see...

Also added is a feature for people who work on several projects at the same time. At the lower right corner, are 3 radio buttons, clicking on any of these will save the current "faceplate" (i.e. path, script, and files in queue), and load the next. When you want to save your current "setup", just click on a different button, and you can work on a new project. Once you are done, simply click the previous button, and everything will be loaded in like it was previously. Difficult to explain, but easy to understand, once you see it in action.

Bug fixed in the alternate scripts, drive/path selector.

Hurricane v6.5.13

AutoCAD R14 support has been removed, and the code cleaned up a bit.

The SAVEAS tab now ALWAYS outputs DWG files in the SAVEAS output. i.e., previously, if you added DXF files to the QUEUE and tried to output them as DWG by performing a QSAVE, or SAVEAS you were stuck, as the output filename would default to the same name as your input file. A new script called "DXF to DWG" is added.

Various other code optimizations made.

Hurricane v6.5.3

Spent much time rebuilding the core routines, with lots of code cleanup, trimming things, and adding lots of error trapping, just in case. You'll notice Hurricane is a little more peppy than previous revisions.

Fix - Refresh in FileLists automatically when clicking the "Filelists" button.

Change - Renamed "Abort" to "Test Run". Maybe this will make the mode a little clearer.

Hurricane v6.4.11

Fix - List FileList window refreshes.

New/Fix Feature - New Meta Commands - SAVEAS.PREFIX, SAVEAS.SUFFIX, SAVEAS.THISLOCATION.

New Feature - Copy to Clipboard, Comma Delimited. This feature will help you generate transmittal forms. Just highlight the files in the Queue, and right-click to select the option, then paste into your transmittal document.

New Feature - Added "filter" to QuickPick button.

Change - Wizards moved to own menu item.

Fix - Bug in the Queue when creating a batch when the "Warn when file in Queue is Read only or does not exist" is UNChecked.

Change - Tab order in the Title-block update Wizard... you can now press TAB to go through the fields in the correct order...

Bug in the Queue when creating a batch when the "Warn when file in Queue is Read only or does not exist" is UNChecked.

Hurricane v6.3.9

New Feature: Added ability to adjust the height of the drawing selector area.

New Feature: Report DWG Versions in Queue.

New Feature: Ability to remove unselected files from the list.

New Feature: Save and list"Personal" FileLists.

Change: Height adjustment logic of Queue was changed.

Change: MTEXT search and replace option added to the "regular" Search and Replace Wizard.

BugFix: Clicking"Create and Run" while AutoCAD is already running a script, will no longer cause Hurricane to launch another AutoCAD session.

Hurricane v6.3.0

New Feature: Added ability for user to define the "_OPEN" command. This allows users to run with "SDI 0" if they are so inclined.

New Feature: "Personal" settings can be saved for the "Script Filter", and "Drawing Filter". By clicking the checkbox, only "personal" settings are shown/edited.

New Feature: When you SAVE your user script, it is also saved into your AutoCAD/SUPPORT/ directory with the name "hurricane-[username].scr". This way you can create another toolbar button that can run the script (as it appears in Hurricane, on a single file... useful for testing scripts as you develop them.

Fix: When using night run, Hurricane would stop and prompt the user if there were errors in the script (i.e. blank line etc...), this has been disabled in night run mode, it is assumed that the script selected has been tested.

Hurricane v6.2.12

New Feature: "Smart-Sort" added to the drawing Queue. Smart-Sort allows you to sort drawings in a more "human" order. It takes into account the actual values of the filenames. For more information on Smart-Sort, click here.

New META "Sorting" commands added., click here.

Bug Fix: When attempting to load a META sort command while the queue was empty, an error appeared. This has been corrected.

Bug Fix: When opening the "User Tag Manager" through the "Title-Block Update Wizard", and then closing the Wizard using the close (X) button, the preferences for the User Tag Manager was incorrectly written to the registry. To fix this, download the newest version, install, then goto the Tools Menu -> Options, the "Reset" tab, and click on the "Reset Entire Hurricane Registry" button. When Hurricane restarts, you will need to set your acad executable path, and your support path, and confirm the other preferences.

Bug Fix: When performing a file verification and encountering a file path that does not exist, an error appeared. This is now corrected.

Hurricane v6.2.0

Change: When in LT or R14 modes, Read-Only files will no longer be attempted to be processed. Hurricane will present a warning, and it will then remove the read-only or locked files from the queue before processing. (This is NOT the case when using the FULL AutoCAD 2000 (or above) settings)

Addition: Logging feature. When enabled, and depending on the options selected, it will record many aspects of your script generation.

Fix: A strange exception error that occured when in LT mode, after generating the second script in a session.

Fix: Read-only and "locked" files were not being handled correctly by Windows 98. This seems to be corrected now. (Please note: Microsoft no longer supports Windows 98)

 

Hurricane v6.1.41

Altered the core script generation routine to become smarter. Files that have attributes marked as "Read-Only", are allowed to run through the batch (but of course, are not saved) (the appropriate script lines are adjusted automatically).

The "File Access Error" box appears after the files are verified (only if there are errors discovered), it now gives the option to remove the various types of files from the queue (my error type), i.e. nonexistant files, separate from read-only files. (BUG FIX: Some files that were opened by other users would show up as NON-EXISTANT files, this problem has been corrected)

New Feature: "Project TAGS" (found under the Tools Menu).
-This feature is very similar to the usual UserTags and Dynamic Tags, however the defined tags are grouped and saved by a defined "project", based on the project files defined file-path.
- When the batch file is created, these tags are then loaded DYNAMICALLY based on the files (in the queues) directory. In other words, you can create and run a script with $PROJECTTAGx$, and run it on multiple "projects", and the text substitutions will be different, based on the input file.
-With this feature you can make a single user script that can be run across many different projects.
-The user can associate the Tags to a "path" to the projects files. Wildcards such as * and ? can be specified in the "associated path", hence users with different drive mappings can still run the same script by having a wildcard as the drive letter i.e. "?:\PROJECT1\" (Please see FAQ for more information)

Added the ability to disable the above feature.

Added the ability to scan the output script for any "Rogue Tags", which may not have been substituted. (You might have attempted to create a batch script using the $PROJECTTAGx$ tag, but didn't define the corresponding "Associated Path", hence the tags won't be replaced in the batch.

Ability to make the defined projects Inactive (prevent them from being scanned)

Enhanced the "Editor" by separating the different TAGS into different groups for easier insertion into script.

Added "User Tag Manager" to the Tools menu.

Added option to disable the "DELAY [time in ms]" command which was auto-inserted when using the "Abort" feature. The DELAY Command was originally installed to assist the user in debugging (by slowing the script down upon execution), however the option to disable it (as when plotting) has shown to be usefull.

BUG FIX: Fixed when typing "con" as a script name into the "User Script Name" field caused an exception.

BUG FIX: Compatibility issues with using Lisp and AutoCAD LT has been fixed. When LT is selected in the options, Hurricane does not use Lisp in it's automatic code generation, as well, the effected Wizards are disabled.

Added a few more default scripts to the library.

Fixed a typo in the startup tips which pointed to the wrong menu.

Added R2004 scan ability in the "Vintage Drawing Scan" feature (under the Tools menu). Also added a "Clear" button to the results list.

Added the ability (as an option) to lock the license to the workstation, rather than a floating license. (Floating is the default). The user must manually run the "RegConfig.exe" program to enable this option, before providing us the serial number. If you would rather have your Hurricane seat tied to your workstation, please write us for further instructions.

Added a counter to indicate the quantity of files currently in the Queue.

Various cosmetic changes to menus.

Added a checkbox on the SETTINGS tab called "Include Status", this will automatically add scripting to the PREUSERBATCH portion to indicate which file is being opened (like a progress meter in your AutoCAD status bar (lower left))

SIMPLE mode now HIDES the features rather than greying them out.

Hurricane v6.1.10

Renamed the "Harvester" utility to "Admin Tool" because of the addition of the "Simple Mode" feature.

Added a "Larger Editor" feature in the "Settings" Tab. This should make it easier to edit the small fields in the Settings Tab.

Hurricane v6.1.5

Changed the keys to re-order files in the Queue, because the horizontal scroll bars were responding to the left/right arrow keys. To move a file in the list, select it then, press CTRL+UP/DOWN ARROW KEYS.

A new TAG has been added... "$FILECOUNTINQUEUE$". This will return the number of files in the file queue. This is handy if you want to insert a line in your script to display the progress of your script, add a line like below to your script:

(setvar "modemacro" "Drawing $COUNTER$ of $FILECOUNTINQUEUE$")

New META Commands include:

SAVEAS=FALSE
SAVEAS=TRUE
ABORT=FALSE
ABORT=TRUE
NOSAVE=FALSE
NOSAVE=TRUE

SAVEAS.PREFIX=""
SAVEAS.SUFFIX=""
SAVEAS.SAMELOCATION=TRUE
SAVEAS.THISLOCATION=""
SAVEAS.OVERWRITE=TRUE
SAVEAS.OVERWRITE=FALSE

The "Editor" is resizable (and saves last position)

The "Editor" has been updated to include a pulldown to list these, and when clicked, they get inserted with a ";" in front, and carriage return.

A tab added to the OPTIONS screen for GUI control (just to keep everything from being cluttered) On this new tab, META Command Enable/Disable as well as "Live META", which makes the interface changes, AS SOON AS THE META COMMANDS ARE TYPED in. (This makes for easy debug, but can bring up an error prompt if you format incorrectly)

Added a few more TAGS:

TAG	DESCRIPTION	EXAMPLE OUTPUT
$FILECOUNTINQUEUE$	Return the number of files in the file queue	1452
$YYYY$	Returns the full year	2003
$YY$	Returns the two digit year	03
$MM$	Returns the two digit month	07
$DD$	Returns the two digit day	31

Added the ability to place TAGS into the "PREBATCH, PREUSERSCRIPT, POSTUSERSCRIPT & POSTBATCH command areas in the SETTINGS Tab. This will allow you to put:

(setvar "modemacro" "Drawing $COUNTER$ of $FILECOUNTINQUEUE$")

in the PreUserScript area, and have an indication in AutoCAD as to your progress.

 

Hurricane v6.1.0 - I upped the minor revision number because this seems to have all your concerns covered (for the time being). Any further tweaks will be given a "build" revision number. (i.e. - major.minor.build)

Added horizontal scroll bars to many of the file list windows (the file queue especially). For those of you who have your drawings buried many many directories deep, this will allow you to see the filename (as it used to become hidden on the far right). This depends on the users screen resolution. The higher the rez, the longer a filepath you could fit.

The entire interface has been given a scaling feature, which keeps the user script list pinned to the right hand side, and the script editor window is now resizable using a dragging bar (just below the window). The screen settings are saved on exit.

Hurricane v6.0.19

Added User Script Filter button (just like the Drawing Filter button). The user can now save the filter patterns for recall.

Double-clicking the User Script Filter text box now clears the filter box (resetting the current filter) (This was previously done by clicking the word "Filter")

Created a new standard directory called KEYS, this is where the DMO, SN, and KEY files will be stored.. the root directory was cluttered for some users, with many KEY files). This way all the registration information files are stored in their own directory.

Moved both the Drawing Filter file, and the new SCR Filter file into the DATA directory. These too should have been accessed from the DATA directory in the first place. BTW - The files have been renamed. The Drawing File Selector Filter text file has been renamed to FilterDWG.DAT, and the User Script Filter text file has been renamed to FilterSCR.DAT.
So if you want to upgrade just by replacing the EXE file, and have valuable data in the old filter.dat file, you can rename it to FilderDWG.DAT and move it into the DATA directory and all should function as before.

Added a horizontal scroll-bar to the "Favorites" selector. Some user directories are VERY long, and the option to scroll to the end seemed necessary.

Added the ability to control the "Abort" checkbox from the user script. I will be adding many more "MetaCommands" to control the Hurricane interface from within the user script. This one is particularly helpful, as in a plot script, the user may need this checkbox to be "automatically" selected each time the user script is selected. Just add the remark to your script
;abort=true if you want the Abort Checkbox to be forced checked and
;abort=false if you want the Abort Checkbox to be forced UNchecked
This is especially handy for sysadmins that want to make sure that the ABORT checkbox is checked by default for a particular script (i.e. plotting)

Hurricane v6.0.16

Added many "progress" indicators to help indicate the status of any lengthy processes that Hurricane can perform. These include when Hurricane, CREATEs a script, SORTS a queue, performs a file verification, removes duplicates from the queue etc..

Improved the "Command Capture" feature. Now blank lines are automatically stripped, and comments are added in the output script.

Added "Open" option to the right context menu in queue. Clicking on this will open all selected files (or you can just hit <Enter>). (Depending on your AutoCAD's SDI variable setting, these may load into a single instance of AutoCAD (SDI = 1), or open a separate AutoCAD session, SDI = 0)). Either way a warning message is displayed if you are attempting to open more than 5 files at a time for editing.

Added the option to either use the _OPEN command, or the _RECOVER command to open files.

Added an option to "save" the user tags to a file, and ability to "import" them. This way many users can "share" tag files.

Each TAG template file can be set to read-only by clicking on the new checkbox. This is just a simple method of indicating which TAG files are "finished" and aren't to be edited. To allow edits, just deselect the checkbox.

Much like User TAGS, a "read-only" checkbox has been added to the user scripts. Again, this is just a simple way to ensure that scripts that are "complete", are not accidentally edited, adjusted or overwritten.

"QuickQueue" button functions similar to "QuickPick", however files in Queue are added instead. Just hold your mouse over an item in the list to see the full path of that item.

Changed the Save Option "Trial Run" to "Abort". The "Trial Run" was being confusing people into thinking it has something to do with Hurricane in "demo" mode.

Adjusted some internal code in the "SAVEAS" tab, to make code generation smarter.

Added more syntax checking before a script is compiled. You can turn off all the warning messages with an option in the "Tools->Options->Prefs" tab.

Hurricane v6.0.8

Previous to this release, the filenames in the queue were automatically changed to UPPER CASE. This release doesn't play with the case of the filenames. It leaves them as they exist on your hard-drive. If you want to change the case, just right click on the file-queue, and the option to "Change Case" is there. This applies for all files that are dragged-dropped in, as well as those dragged-in from a file-list.

When a txt file containing a list of drawings is dragged into the queue, only those files in the txt file that MATCH the drawing filter in the file selector will be added. (If you want to add all files then *.dwg is a good default to use)

When file-lists (in a TXT file) are dragged/dropped from explorer into the file-queue, the format of the TXT file list has been expanded. The files listed can be contained within quotes, or not, or both (all within the same file). Hurricane will parse each line of the text file and decipher any lines that are paths to DWG files.

Fixed a typo in the SETTINGS tab, the button that read "AutoCAD LT" is changed to "AutoCAD r14".

Added a button to CLEAR all PRE/POST commands from the SETTINGS tab. It seems that sometimes user accidentally put spaces and CR's where they shouldn't belong. This is a quick way to make sure those boxes are blank.

Fixed a bug with the introduction of the "Verify" tool. The tool now properly responds, if a file that doesn't exist is scanned.

Added a few more script syntax checkers. Will now verify the contents of the SETTINGS tab for any lines that either end in a space, or have an extra carriage return.

Added a "Rename" function to the FileLists feature.

Added a "View" function to the FileLists feature.

Hurricane v6.0.3

The number of User Tags has been increased from 10 to 40.

The number of Tags available to edit in the Title-Block Update Wizard has been increased from 10 to 40.

A "Night Run" feature (or "countdown" timer) has been added to allow you to set a particular time of day/night for your script to run. Whatever files are in the queue, and the script displayed will be compiled and run when the timer reaches zero.

Verify Drawing files Exist in Queue - Will check to make sure the drawings actually exist on the HDD and present the user with a warning. (This is usefull if the user has imported an "old" filelist).

Verify Drawing files are EDITABLE in Queue - Will check to make sure the drawings are not "locked" by another user.

Remove Duplicates in Queue - In case filelists are being imported that contain the same files, you can select this to remove duplicate entries.

Drag and drop filelists from a TXT file into the file Queue. Only files listed in the text file that match the "filter" will be added. Click here for more information and an example TXT file.

The "Scan for DWG files by Version" feature has been adjusted with more error-checking, and will present an error on DWG's that it can't read.

An option for LT users has been added to the Options screen. If the user is running AutoCAD LT, they can select to have the "lisp" enabled functions of Hurricane disabled. Also, with this option enabled the user will be presented with a warning each time they attempt to run a script attempting to load a "lisp" routine.

The "Display Script Syntax Warnings" option has been made more intelligent. Automatically scanning for double-spaces, lines with empty spaces etc. will present a warning.

The user is able to individually enable/disable each of the different "Script Syntax Warning" messages.

The up/down arrow keys scroll through the files in the queue. The left/right arrow keys move the files up/down the list. (This was the opposite on previous releases)

The keyboard "insert" key inserts files from the file selector (as an alternate to pressing the "ADD" button), and the keyboard "delete" key removes files from the queue. (But doesn't delete them from the HDD of course)

A link to the Hurricane forum has been added to the "Help" menu. Hopefully more people will use the forum to help each other out with Hurricane and general automation issues.

 

Hurricane v5.9.8

Updated Harvester with some new features. Hurricane executable adjusted so DMO files are more intelligent, and are compatible with the better Harvester.

Added two (2) more Wizards: 1) Text Search and LOG Wizard, which can search through all text entities and write a report for files that the text exists in. 2) Report Limits Wizard, which creates a CSV file of each of the DWG filenames scanned, and their respective limits. Also, reorganized the Wizards into a sub-menu. This list will be growing, as more Lisp programs are written, and user suggestions are turned into reality.

Altered all the automatically generated commands (OPEN, QSAVE etc), Making Hurricane compatible with International versions of AutoCAD.

Advanced Script Editor window - Removed all the clutter of buttons, and neatly listed all the TAGS in a combo-box, just select the tag you want to add to your code from the drop-down list and it gets inserted.

The files that exist in the queue when shutdown, are restored when Hurricane is restarted.

Added $MM/DD/YY$ tag, and removed the settings in the "Configure Tags" screen

Added $DD/MM/YY$ tag

Added $YY/MM/DD$ tag

Added $FILENAME$ tag, which will return the current filename (without extension) ($FILENAME$.DWG will do the trick)

Added $FILEPATH$ tag, which will return the path of the current file, ie. C:\DRAWINGS\

Added a $HUR_PATH$ function to identify the APPLICATION PATH, thus scripts that refer to lisp routines in the Hurricane directory are easily created. "(LOAD "$HUR_PATH$LISP/LISPFILE.LSP") will work.

Added a $USER$ function to return the currently logged in username. Usefull if you want a script which can update title-block info with the last user to edit/plot the drawing.

Added a $COMPUTER$ function to return the current computername. Same idea as $USER$ tag.

Add a $FIRSTFILECHARS$ function to return the first x characters of the currently open file. To be used in case a companies naming convention of files is such that the first few characters indicate the "Project Number", hence this can be extracted and used in a script to update title-block info. See "Configure Tags" screen to setup "x" characters.

Added a "Copy Selected files to Clipboard" feature when you right-click the files in the file-queue.

The File Queue is saved on shutdown and restored on boot-up

The UserScript displayed is saved on shutdown and restored on boot-up

In the file queue, user can move one file at a time up and down the list with the UP/DOWN Arrow keys (keyboard)

Bug Fix - FileList screen had some display issues, this is now fixed. All list (LST) files will be stored in the DATA directory to make things "cleaner".

Bug Fix - It seems that when the user script was being compiled, all commands were being forced into UPPER CASE. This was a "feature" to make the code look more readable, but in the case of PC2 files, they are case sensitive. Also, when users wanting to search and replace text in a case sensitive manner, this was not a good idea. The case is now exactly what the user types into the user-script box.

Added ability to copy filenames in Queue to the clipboard. Options to allow copy of on the filename, filename and path, and filename with extension.

Added the ability for the user to "reset" the registration information for that user. IF the user has a KEY file present, then Hurricane will auto-activate the next time it is started by that user.

Tip of the Day Added. This feature can be disabled.

Hurricane v5.8.10

Added a "Reset Hurricane Registry Entries" button to the VIEW->OPTIONS->RESET tab. There seemed to be a couple of users (particularly in Windows 98) who's registry entries (where things like last directory, and all options are saved) had become corrupted. In a attempt to get those effected up and running again, this button allows you to wipe the Hurricane registry entries clean. Note: this feature does not wipe user registration information. Basically it sets Hurricane back to factory defaults in all the options.

Hurricane v5.8.9

Changed the concept of the distributed "KEY" file for the registration process. Previously the KEY file was deleted during the registration process if it was used. Now the key file will remain in the Hurricane directory in anticipation of being used again. This is a plus for users of Hurricane who run it from a network. This will allow you to change computers and not have to keep your serial numbers handy when activating the software. The key file will keep registration information on the network drive and auto-activate Hurricane whenever you change computers.

Added a "Clear" button to the "Title-Block Update Wizard". This button will clear all the fields rather than having to clear them one at a time.

Added more error-checking, as well as error-handling routines inside the functions (sort etc.) for dealing with extremely large-lists of files (5000+ files).

Fixed a (probably unnoticed by most) screen redraw issue that occured when going from maximized back to regular.

 

Hurricane v5.8.4

Ability to save "templates" in "TitleBlock-Wizard" added. (Templates are stored in the new "/DATA/" directory (This feature is found in the "TOOLS->Title-Block Update Wizard" menu)

Ability to specify a command-line switch (such as /p) to load AutoCAD parameter file when "CREATE and RUN" is pressed. (This feature is found in the "View->OPTIONS" menu)

Hurricane v5.8.0

This update has some major additions. These changes are usefull to everyone, from beginner to advanced.

IMPORTANT NOTE WHEN UPGRADING - THE DIRECTORY STRUCTURE HAS BEEN CHANGED TO MAKE THINGS MORE ORGANIZED... THE FOLLOWING DIRECTORIES NOW RESIDE IN THE HURRICANE DIRECTORY...

HELP - Contains general setup html docs
LISP - Contains lisp routines used by the Wizards
MENU - Contains mnu file, and Hurricane button
SCRIPTS - Contains all your scripts

Please BACKUP your scripts, uninstall your previous version, install the new version, then re-copy your saved scripts into the SCRIPTS directory.

"User Tags" are added. This allows you to include defined tags such as "$DATE$", $TIME$, $FILENAME$, $COUNTER$, $SHEET$ and "STATIC TAGS" 1-10, and the current data (along with the format you have selected) gets substituted into the compiled script. This allows you to have more "generic" scripts, as all TAG information is substituted at the point in time the script is compiled based on real-time/world data. All tags are definable (in terms of format (shown below)). More info can be found in the FAQ.

"Wizards" have been added which make creating scripts much easier (some of which call new lisp routines (included). So you don't have to know anything... Just fill in the blanks and the script is generated for you.

I hope each of these is self-explanatory... (that is the whole idea)

The floating editor is changed to the "Advanced Editor", and no longer floats... (I didn't see the point to this anymore, so simplify the code a bit) All the new user tags are there at your finger-tips. If you think of anything else to add, let me know. (Even included a key to "appload" a lisp routine... press the button and a file selector pops-up, select the lisp you want loaded in your script, and the appropriate code is added to your script)

 

Hurricane v5.7.4

Drag and Drop directories from Windows Explorer into Hurricanes File Queue, only files matching the file "filter" will be added. This automatically adds the contents of all sub-folders too.

Drag and Drop any folder to the "Drawing File Selector" (folders) area, and the folder displayed will change. This is especially usefull if you have navigated to your files using Explorer, and now want to quickly navigate there with Hurricane. Just drag the folder from Explorer to the Hurricane DWG Folder selector, and it will immediately change to the dragged directory.

Resize the preview window

Wide Directory listing

Right-Click menu in Queue added:

+ "Change to Uppercase/Lowercase". (moved from Menu's)

+ Reverse the sort order. (Moved from Menu's)

+ Sort Ascending and Descending

+ Modify the text size has been added to the same right-click menu.

+ The ability to "copy to clipboard" the contents of the file-queue. (This will copy the filenames and paths as text to the clipboard), ready to be pasted into whatever application you want.

+ Click on a single file in the queue, right click, and using the "<--Goto" option, change the DWG file selector to reflect the directory that the file is in.

+ Clicking on a single file in the queue, right click, and "Open Explorer" in the directory of the currently selected file.

A simple "Undo" button (1 edit) has been added to the User Script editor window. This should be good for people who want to "test" a slight modification, and quickly undo it.

When double-clicking on files listed in the user-script library, the file will be opened into the floating script editor.

In the "Script Browser" (under the Browse button), users can now point the file selector and "search" for all SCR files in sub-directories using the "+" key.

Automatically prompts for removal of "bad" directories in the "favorites" selector.

Mass File property/attribute changer (Read Only, Archive, System, Hidden) Can parse recursively through thousands of files (even on Network drives) and change their file attributes. Handy if you often copy a CD to your drive, and have to turn all the "Read/Only" bits off. Instead of starting up a DOS session and remembering how to use the attrib command, use this utility.

Hurricane v5.7.1

Hurricane now has the option (another button) to CREATE AND RUN a script with a single button. (You used to have to create, then Alt-tab into AutoCAD and press the Hurricane button), now you just press the "CREATE AND RUN" button, and a new session of AutoCAD is shelled passing the script to it to be run saving you EVEN MORE TIME. With this feature, you must specify the AutoCAD EXE files location found (in the Options) menu.

SETUP tab now has more options, put commands BEFORE your script, and AFTER your script, both at the the file level, and at the script as a whole. This makes it easy to set SDI system variables on then off, as well as put some emphasis on using "standard" commands, like ZOOM E, all this is of course user editable... etc...

When switching from AutoCAD R14 to 2000 compatibility modes, the default commands in the PREBATCH, PREUSERSCRIPT, POSTUSERSCRIPT and POSTBATCH areas are asked to be defaulted.

A checkbox has been added to the SETTINGS tab which when enabled will add standard comments to the script indicating where the beginning and ending of the PRE and POST commands are. This is strictly for debug purposes.

Removed the SAVEAS R12/R13 functionality, as people are no longer requiring these functions. Intead I have added a new SAVEAS option which also required a TAB to be added to the main interface. Now when SAVEAS checkbox is selected, you have the option to SAVEAS to other versions of AutoCAD (depending on the version you are using!), and also to save to a DIFFERENT DIRECTORY, and RENAME the files as you save them to a new directory, according to a PREFIX and a SUFFIX, that is user definable (as well, a box shows what an example file will be renamed to). All this while files are being processed... The current list is now R13, R14, and 2000.

Also located on the new tab is a checkbox for "AutoAdd code to overwrite existing files", when you go to use the SAVEAS command it invariably becomes a nuisance to go into the destination directory and ERASE the files that exist (as AutoCADs SAVEAS command always asks you to CONFIRM before you overwrite an existing file, just to confirm what you are doing. This checkbox will cause Hurricane to CHECK ahead, and if the file being written already exists, will add the appropriate code to the script to OVERWRITE IT.

Also, the ability to browse your HD for other scripts has been enhanced by the addition of a BROWSE button near the user-script window, and the addition of a checkbox above the same window to allow browsing of script in the currently selected project directory.

When the Browse button is selected, the Script Browser (which was previously only available from the Tools menu) is now activated, and when a script is selected and "Copy" is pressed, the contents of the script, AND the scripts name are now copied to the user-script window

When the checkbox is checked, the user-script list is switched to the currently active directory in the DWG file selector. This allows users to save specific scripts to specific directories. i.e. - a user may have a special batch plotting script which contains special setup, but is only valid for one project. Now the script can be stored in that projects directory, where it belongs. As you browse the project directory, the user-script window will follow suit.

An "Alternate" output path has been added - This allows the user to quickly select an alternate output hurricane.scr file location, in the event that the user must create scripts for others to use. This way the user can store a location locally (which they would use most of the time), and another location (probably on a network drive) where another user can access the compiled script, and run it.

Trial-Run checkbox now automatically envokes a DELAY command. The delay time is settable from the "Options" menu (as I couldn't find a better place to put it!) If you have a better place, let me know.

Check script for errors checkbox, now will parse the script and warn of double spaces, spaces at the end of a line, and lines starting with a space.

Fixed Bug (v5.7.1) with the "Create and Run Script" button was defaulted, if the user attempted to edit a script, and hit "Enter" then the button was defaulted and clicked

 

Hurricane v5.6

Added simple installer which will create all shortcuts (helpfile, harvester, uninstaller and shortcut on the desktop)

Added FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) to the website. This will always be a "work in progress".

Fixed the logic behind the "Compile Script" button. This would enable/disable sometimes at the wrong time. This is now fixed.

There was an erratic bug that only some systems experienced... just after installing you would have seen "Error #5", and the program would exit. This was very rare as it seemed to only effect "virgin" systems where there were no other applications installed. (I've been
trying to figure this one out for a week now, but the cause seems to be fixed)

Removed the TipOfTheDay feature. I think this component may have been the cause of a couple of installation issues, as this OCX had a bit of a time getting registered on some systems. One of my mandates was to "keep it simple", and by removing this unneeded item, which was mostly a frill, I think we're one step closer. (We have the FAQ, so tips will be listed there as well)

Added a menu item to link directly to the FAQ on the website (http://www.74mph.com/faq/faq.html)
(This is starting to get pretty big!)

Removed the "mail-in" order form... as nobody was using it...

Hurricane v5.4 Build 6

Added "Command Capture" utility under the new "Tools" menu. I'm still discovering commands that are a little "different" and the capture utility doesn't pick them up 100%, so please write me with your finds. However, it does work rather well in most cases. Give it a try!

Hurricane v5.3 Build 8

Added ability to include all subdirectories (from currently selected directory). All files matching the file filter are automatically added to the queue.

Still working on the "command capture" portion... to be released shortly! (Hence the menu item is greyed-out)