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How to create a File-List using the Windows command prompt.

There may come a time when you need to generate a file list (or more) and want these file-lists to be up-to date, all the time.

You can easily generate Hurricane LST files at the Windows command prompt, rather than setting up a filter, navigating to a root directory, and using the "+" button to generate a new Queue list, then saving it off to a FileList (.LST file) into the Hurricane /DATA/ directory.

First launch the Windows command line by clicking the START button, then click RUN, then type CMD in the prompt (This may vary depending on your version of windows... you might have to type COMMAND)

Navigate to your "root" directory, from where you would like to scan for the files to include in your FileList. Lets say that your top directory is "F:\DWG\DWGTest\", and you'd like to scan for *.DWG and add all filenames to the LST file.

You'd type at the windows command prompt:

DIR *.DWG /s /b > "C:/Program Files/Hurricane/DATA/DWGTest.LST"
(You can use the usual wildcards (* & ?), or specify file attributes using the /A switch, to specify which files to add to your list)

The /s tells the DIR command to include all subdirectories
The /b tells the DIR command to use bare format (no heading info, or summary)
The > character tells the results of the DIR command to be directed to a textfile called DWGTest.LST.
(If your destination path has spaces, then you must put the path in quotes (like above))

(There are a whole bunch of other switches, but /s /b are a safe choice)

Here is the complete list of switches for DIR
DIR [drive:][path][filename] [/A[[:]attributes]] [/B] [/C] [/D] [/L] [/N]
[/O[[:]sortorder]] [/P] [/Q] [/S] [/T[[:]timefield]] [/W] [/X] [/4]

[drive:][path][filename]
Specifies drive, directory, and/or files to list.

/A Displays files with specified attributes.
attributes D Directories R Read-only files
H Hidden files A Files ready for archiving
S System files - Prefix meaning not
/B Uses bare format (no heading information or summary).
/C Display the thousand separator in file sizes. This is the
default. Use /-C to disable display of separator.
/D Same as wide but files are list sorted by column.
/L Uses lowercase.
/N New long list format where filenames are on the far right.
/O List by files in sorted order.
sortorder N By name (alphabetic) S By size (smallest first)
E By extension (alphabetic) D By date/time (oldest first)
G Group directories first - Prefix to reverse order
/P Pauses after each screenful of information.
/Q Display the owner of the file.
/S Displays files in specified directory and all subdirectories.
/T Controls which time field displayed or used for sorting
timefield C Creation
A Last Access
W Last Written
/W Uses wide list format.
/X This displays the short names generated for non-8dot3 file
names. The format is that of /N with the short name inserted
before the long name. If no short name is present, blanks are
displayed in its place.
/4 Displays four-digit years

Switches may be preset in the DIRCMD environment variable. Override
preset switches by prefixing any switch with - (hyphen)--for example, /-W.

Now, when you go into Hurricane, and press the "FileLists" button, you will see that there will be a file by the name of DWGTest.LST listed. (See FileLists)

Click on this file and then click VIEW below. You should see the contents of the file appear in notepad (or whatever text editor you have specified)

You can also DRAG and DROP the file into the Queue (but the file must have the TXT extension)
(See How to Drag and Drop TXT files that contain lists of files into Queue)

The beauty of this method is that you can put several of these commands together in a .BAT file and have your filelists generate at a regular interval (using Windows Scheduler, or even in your StartUp folder).

You could put these .BAT files in your project directories and just double-click them to regenerate the .LST file.