Just a small collection of AutoLisp routines which might be of interest to someone learning to customise Autocad. I used them in an architectural environment but they could be used in most situations - or you could just adapt them for your own purposes.
Nick's AutoLisp Tools - Brief Description The following is just a small collection of some of the Autolisp utilities I used in various drawing offices over the years. Some of the functions may well be built into the latest versions of AutoCAD but it's sometimes easier to just use a couple of keyboard clicks. Anyway, have fun and perhaps you could update some of the routines to do something more relevant to your particular field. sbe set by entity obe off by entity lbe lock by entity ce draws cross section arcs through circle pdxf returns a list of values (object name, type, starting point etc.) ftm converts length in feet to metres mtf converts mm to feet par `print area' - useful for floor areas, draw a closed polyline around the room, select it and the areas will be printed in both metric & imperial units. Note: I haven't used this for a while but I seem to remember it would throw a wobbly if your text style had a fixed height - meant to update the code but never got around to it. Otherwise it should work fine. so Setting out utility. Using Autocad `points' to indicate known positions on a site, pick and the position will be printed as NSEW coordinates. (Millimetres) som Same as above but units in Metres ls Swaps all entities on selected layer to a newly selected layer. mt `move to' move single entity to selected target layer. el `erase layer' delete all entities on selected layer. (Note: layer is not deleted, only entities on layer) ins Draw insulation - enter thickness, start point, end point and will automatically draw roof or wall insulation. Requires block nbins.dwg to be present in your support directory (see image below for details of block required)
Transcript
Nick's AutoLisp Tools - Brief Description
The following is just a small collection of some of the Autolisp utilities I used in various drawing offices over the
years. Some of the functions may well be built into the latest versions of AutoCAD but it's sometimes easier to just
use a couple of keyboard clicks. Anyway, have fun and perhaps you could update some of the routines to do
something more relevant to your particular field.
sbe set by entity
obe off by entity
lbe lock by entity
ce draws cross section arcs through circle
pdxf returns a list of values (object name, type, starting point etc.)
ftm converts length in feet to metres
mtf converts mm to feet
par `print area' - useful for floor areas, draw a closed polyline around the room, select it and the areas will be
printed in both metric & imperial units. Note: I haven't used this for a while but I seem to remember it would
throw a wobbly if your text style had a fixed height - meant to update the code but never got around to it.
Otherwise it should work fine.
so Setting out utility. Using Autocad `points' to indicate known positions on a site, pick and the position will be
printed as NSEW coordinates. (Millimetres)
som Same as above but units in Metres
ls Swaps all entities on selected layer to a newly selected layer.
mt `move to' move single entity to selected target layer.
el `erase layer' delete all entities on selected layer. (Note: layer is not deleted, only entities on layer)
ins Draw insulation - enter thickness, start point, end point and will automatically draw roof or wall insulation.
Requires block nbins.dwg to be present in your support directory (see image below for details of block
required)
eb `Erase block' select a block to erase ALL insertions of this block
ssl To select all entities on selected layer. Use `Previous' to reselect objects (or save the selection for use later)
ssll Similar to above but first you select an entity to set a layer filter then any selection you make will only accept
elements on that layer. Good for filtering out lots of stuff in a busy drawing.
sa Select a line to use as reference for snap angle. To return to normal, either select a horizontal line or type in
sa0
pt polyline tool. Checks to see if polyline is open or closed. Just had to change the code to LWPOLYLINE as I did
this many years ago on R12 when it was still POLYLINE - hope it works okay.
lct Tells you how many elements there are in the drawing on a selected layer
cc Car park bay counting. You will need to create a block called CP - the routine simply counts up how many car
park bays are in the drawing. Could of course be adapted to count up anything in your drawing - either
modify the code or make sure you rename the block to be counted to CP. (Will still say how many car parking
spaces there are unless you modify the code)
aa draws connected arcs - I did this to help me when I was producing a 2d database of a company's carved
products - lots of gargoyles and similar weird shapes.
ss Select text to make style current.
The following pages contain the Autolisp code - simply cut the text and paste into a text file then rename the file
with a .lsp extension - eg. myutilities.lsp
Then either drag and drop the file into an open Autocad drawing or, if you want to use the utilities in every drawing
session, go to `Load Application' on the Tools menu and add the file to the `Startup Suite'
Once loaded, simply type the command name (as listed in the left margin) and follow the on screen instructions if
necessary.
;Nick's Autolisp tools - have fun!
(defun c:sbe(/ a l msg)
(setq cl(getvar "clayer"))
(setq a(car(entsel)))
(setq a(entget a))
(setq l(cdr(assoc 8 a)))
(if(= cl l)(progn(alert "That layer is current already")(quit)))
