Topic: AutoCAD LT area calcs

[DanB]

One of our engineers was asking if there is a faster way to run area calculations in AutoCAD LT. Currently she is creating closed polylines and running LIST, then doing S.F. conversions to Acres. I have never had to work on AutoCAD LT but I know you cannot run LISP routines. Without stirring up too much conflict (I see some discussions further down the forum) any ideas?

[Dent Cermak]

Nope. In LT, what you see is what you get. Without lisp abilities there is no speeding up. That was the sole purpose of the lisp routines.
Therein lies the fallicy of the economics used to justify LT. You save BIG bucks when you buy LT. You then lose those BIG bucks while those high paid guys sit there doing their job in the slowest possible way because that is all that is available to them.
So how long is it until you've burned up those "savings"? 30 days? 60?

[SPDCad]

If you are using AutoCAD LT 2005, check to see if it has the fields feature or not. If it does look into object fields. This feature allows for area calculations based on enclosed shapes (ie. plines, circle etc...).  You just pick the shape to associate the field too and vola you have the area of the shape. If you change the shapes dimension, it will automatically update accordingly.
The only bad thing is the metric areas. It does quite allow for decimal place changes when drawing in millimeters.

[David Hall]

can they use BPOLY to speed up the process?

[jwisherd]

don't know if lt has the area command, but that is what I use for area calculations, with a closed polyline.