Furix

Temporary Files

This section of the Preferences determines where temporary files and reports will be stored. When CompareDWG creates a Detailed Compare Job it will create up to six temporary drawings and two reports. The sizes of the output files differ strongly from job to job, but you may for example find that the total output is 1.5 times the total input. In other words, if you compare two input files of 300 KB each, 600 KB together, the output files might total 900 KB. Please click here for more information about temporary files.

Location

Each compare job will store the temporary files in one separate subdirectory that will get the same name as the Old Drawing. In the preferences, you can indicate where this directory should be created.

Near Old Drawing

A subdirectory will be created in the directory where the Old Drawing is stored. Do not use this option if you want to compare (old) drawings that are stored on a read-only device, for example a CD-ROM.

Near New Drawing

A subdirectory will be created in the directory where the New Drawing is stored. The directory will still be named after the Old Drawing. Do not use this option if you want to compare (new) drawings that are stored on a read-only device, for example a CD-ROM.

AutoCAD's temp

In the preferences of AutoCAD a directory where temporary drawing files should be stored is also specified. If you select this option, a subdirectory will be created in AutoCAD's temp directory. This is the default setting.

Elsewhere

Type (or browse) the name of a directory where the output files are to be stored.

Cleanup

If you compare many files, the total size of the output files may quickly fill up your hard disk. You may therefore decide that the system should automatically remove the output files. The possible choices for automatic deletion are:

Never

CompareDWG will never delete temporary files automatically; the user will be responsible for doing this manually.

Delete when AutoCAD exits

If you select this option then temporary files will be kept until AutoCAD exits. At this time, all temporary files created in this AutoCAD session will be removed. Temporary files created in earlier AutoCAD sessions will not be removed. This is the default setting.

Delete as soon as possible

If you select this option then temporary drawing files will be removed immediately after the New command finishes. You will get only one chance to decide which result drawings (Old Drawing, New Drawing, Combined Drawing) you want to see. If you want to open additional result drawings you will have to rerun the comparison.
Reports, which take far less disk space, are kept until AutoCAD exits.

In each case a maximum of 10 compare jobs can be created for each input file (but you can compare more than 10 files with different names). If you try to compare more than 10 drawings with the same name, the command will be cancelled. First remove some output files and directories, then try again.

There can be many reasons why output files cannot be deleted automatically (more info). If this happens you will have to remove the output files manually.

Please note that if the original drawings that you are comparing are password protected you will be asked to provide the password before the files can be compared. However, the temporary files generated by CompareDWG will not be protected with passwords. In this case you may wish to check that all temporary files are deleted as expected.