Topic: *blockname Entity List ?

[snownut2]

By inserting a block with the name preceded by *, the block is exploded upon insertion.  Is there a method to capture a list of the entities within the block prior to exploding, the entities must already be located in the drawing however so that the DXF values are correct.  (the entities in this case are attributes)

This list could be either a Selection Set List or Entity List.

I would like to use this list of entities to subsequently create a new block with additional entities in it. 

I have no problems converting this entity list into a selection set for the subsequent block command. 

Thanks,

Bruce

[Kerry]

One algorithm involves identifying the current last entity in the database, exploding the block, then collecting entities from the previous last to the current last.

SuperFlatten by Joe Burke would be a good place to start looking. http://www.theswamp.org/index.php?topic=18153.0
look for a CommandExplode() function.

[snownut2]

Thanks Kerry, I was drawing a blank, here's what I came up with..

Code - Auto/Visual Lisp: [Select]

1.    (setq blk (strcat "*" blk)
2.          ent (entlast)
3.          )
4.    (command "_.insert" blk pt1 "" "" )
5.    (while (/= nil (setq ent (entnext ent)))
6.      (setq lent-lst(cons ent lent-lst)
7.            )
8.      )  
9.  

Seems to work fine.

[roy_043]

You should take this into account:

Code: [Select]

: (entget (entlast))
((-1 . <Entity name: 156513e0>) (0 . "POLYLINE") (5 . "1AD7") (330 . <Entity name: 0ca92c80>) (100 . "AcDbEntity") (67 . 0) (410 . "Model") (8 . "0") (100 . "AcDb2dPolyline") (66 . 1) (10 0.0 0.0 0.0) (70 . 1) (40 . 0.0) (41 . 0.0) (71 . 0) (72 . 0) (73 . 0) (74 . 0) (210 0.0 0.0 1.0) (75 . 0))
: (entget (entnext (entlast)))
((-1 . <Entity name: 1564e4d0>) (0 . "VERTEX") (5 . "1AD8") (330 . <Entity name: 156513e0>) (100 . "AcDbEntity") (67 . 0) (410 . "Model") (8 . "0") (100 . "AcDbVertex") (100 . "AcDb2dVertex") (10 6.49894e+009 5.88777e+009 0.0) (40 . 0.0) (41 . 0.0) (42 . 0.0) (70 . 0) (50 . 0.0))
The same problem occurs if an insert with attributes is the last entity.

To avoid this:

Code: [Select]

(setq ent (entlast))
(while (setq tmp (entnext ent)) (setq ent tmp))
Or insert the block without exploding and use the (vla-expode) function.

[roy_043]

Note:

Code: [Select]

(while (/= nil (setq ent (entnext ent)))


Is equivalent to:

Code: [Select]

(while (setq ent (entnext ent))

[snownut2]

Thanks Roy

[Kerry]

< .. >

Or insert the block without exploding and use the (vla-expode) function.

That is the road I'd take.

[Lee Mac]

I would like to use this list of entities to subsequently create a new block with additional entities in it.

For this I would personally use the ActiveX copyobjects method to copy the required objects from the block definition of the block in question directly to the block definition of the new block - this way, you also don't need to worry about transformations between block reference geometry and block definition geometry.