Transmitting Drawings to Another SpoolFab User

To transfer fabrication drawings from one facility to another, go to Fabrication Status and select the spools you want to transfer. Then select Export/Transfer Out. SpoolFab creates a spool transfer folder in the current job, and copies the current selection of spools into it. It also copies into it the current SpoolData.dbf and .cdx, and the the drawing list. The new folder is called FKKK_JJJJ_YYYY-MM-DD_A where KKK is your key serial number and JJJJ is the job number. These are followed by the current date. The final letter is to distinguish multiple exports made on the same day. You can zip the spool transfer folder and send it to another facility.

Receiving Drawings from Another SpoolFab User

When you receive a spool transfer folder, unzip it and copy it into the appropriate job folder. The client name and job folder name at the source and destination facilities must match exactly. SpoolFab tests this by checking to see if the job folder name is contained within the transfer folder name. For example, if the transfer folder is called F99_15050_2012-01-25_A and the job folder is called 15060,the folder will not be recognized and you will get the message “Nothing to import”.

Similarly, since in a given job you might be both sending and receiving spools, you will not want to accidentally reimport your own spools. So, if your key number is 99, transfer folders namedF99_..... will not be recognized for import purposes.

After placing the transfer folder in the correct job folder, get into Fabrication Drawings. Select File, Import SpoolFab or AcornPipe Spools. With the desired folder highlighted, select Import. As part of the import process, the appropriate SpoolData.dbf records are copied from the transfer folder to the job, along with the spool drawings. Remember that you will still need to do a batch resave of the newly imported drawings in order to update the various database files. The import process sets up your current drawing list so you can proceed with the batch resave immediately.

Once the spools have been imported, you should see a dialog as follows:

You will then be asked if you want to run a batch resave:

The batch resave is needed in order to update the fabrication status table, item file, weld file, etc.

For a successful batch resave, you need to have all the required specs available. If a spec is found to be missing during a batch resave, the batch operation is terminated. You can supply the missing spec and then restart the batch resave.