The Drawing Explorer command presents a list of all Carlson data files that are made in association with a drawing and are tracked in DrawingName.ini. If a drawing was not made in Carlson or does not have a companion .INI file, then Drawing Explorer will not display any files. The Drawing Explorer will also not show any data files if the drawing is not saved. Once data files are created such as a coordinate (.CRD) file, then Drawing Explorer will track these files. Drawing Explorer helps manage drawing-related data.
The Drawing Explorer is shown as a docked dialog on CAD window with files shown as "tree view under different categories. These file categories are fully customizable and can contain multiple file types. The drawing name is shown as root of the tree view with file categories as its children. The file types associated with a category are listed as children of that category. The data files used with the drawing are listed under respective file type or in subfolders of the project folder specified using the Set Project/Data Folders command. The data files used as current files are shown with bold font.
The Drawing Explorer allows user to view/manage data files associated with the currently opened drawing by allowing him to add, remove, report, and change directory of these files. A mouse right-click can also be used to add and remove any data file/file type/file category from the Explorer.
The Add button allows adding a file under the
category or file type that is currently selected in the tree view.
If the drawing file name is selected, the user is allowed to add
any type of file to the Explorer and file will be added to the
corresponding category. 
Removes the
selected file(s) along with any "child" (subordinate) files from
the drawing. The underlying file(s) are not physically deleted or
removed from the hard-drive, they are merely removed from the
Drawing Explorer. 
Creates a report
through the Report Formatter Options dialog box. The Report
Formatter can be used to move to the Available entries on
the left to the Used area on the right. When coupled with
the Up/Down options to control the order, highly customized reports
can be generated and saved for subsequent use. Click the
Display to obtain the report.
The Change Directory option allows you to
instruct Carlson Software to re-direct the location for files from
an old folder location to a new folder location. This option is
helpful if project data files are manually moved to a new folder
location. 
The Settings button
allows you to create Categories of file types and assign data files
to a particular Category and assign how project data files are
presented in the Project Explorer. 
The Refresh button re-reads the current Project file along
with the various Drawing file settings and updates the Project
listing appropriately. 
Exits from the Project
Explorer command. 
Displays the on-line
help.
The option to show preview allows user to see the preview of currently selected data file in a small preview window at the bottom of the Explorer dialog.
The List Data Files settings are used in Project Explorer to list files according to drawing files in the project of by project.
Right-Click Command Execution: The Drawing Explorer also allows execution of functions associated with a file type. Right-clicking on any file type or data file brings up menu for the commands associated with that file. If the command requires the file during execution, the selected data file will be used to run that command. For example, in the figure below, Example1.grd will be used to run the Draw 3D Grid File command and the program will not prompt for the grid file to be drawn.
Pulldown Menu Location(s):
File > Project
Keyboard Command: dwgxplore
Prerequisite: None