Include PDF or excel in OutJob

[t_pattinson]

Hi all,

My workplace uses an external document to track revision control, which we would like to include in the PDF document pack we export from Altium (which includes schematics, assembly drawing, etc)

Is there a way to configure the OutJob file to include an external PDF or excel file? Or to include an external PDF/excel file in a schematic, which is automatically updated when the external document changes?

Thanks
Tim

[ajb]

No, I'm pretty sure there isn't.  There have been feature requests for the ability to trigger scripted actions, or to do basic things like zip up the products of an outjob after generation, but those have not gone anywhere AFAIK. 

Of course you could run an external script manually after running the outjob that could do whatever.  The only realistic way to automate it would probably be to have some process monitoring the output directory and dunning your script when it sees the files generated.  Or I suppose you could have a version control check in trigger something.  Or maybe you could create an altium user script that runs the outjob and then triggers an external script to do the rest of it--I don't know if Altium user scripts can trigger outside scripts or not.

[PlainName]

In the outjob, right at the bottom, is 'PostPorcess Outputs'. Add a new Post Process Output and the configure options lets you add files. The dialog help says:

Add files from project, project directory or output folder which have to be copied. You can use masks to include an
appropriate type of files. Please notice that non existent files will be ignored while releasing. Here are some examples:
[Project]\*.txt

[Project Dir]\Documents\*.pdf

[Release Managed]\AutoCAD SCH\*.dwg

Hmm. 'Project folder'. Not sure if there's a way to get around that.

[ajb]

Oh damn I never noticed that option!  Only being able to pull from the project dir is kinda dumb though, at that point you could just put the file directly into the output folder.  I just played around with it, and the behavior is also pretty dumb, it seems to include the folder path for the referenced file in the output even when 'Preserve folder structure' is unchecked.  Browsing to a parent folder throws an error, so I tried manually entering an upwards path to a parent folder, but that just fails silently. Typical half-assed Altium bullshit.

Maybe you could kludge around it with a symlink or something, but given all of the stupid limitations an external packaging script seems like a better bet.