Thought I had my first big & cool proggy to write for C3D but after perusing the help, discussion groups, ADN, and just brute force entity searching, it appears that Adesk has not exposed the Grading Featurelines' API to us! Without access to the featureline's internal database there is no <good> way I can see to do what Sinc is requesting........<sigh>
Yep! I discovered that, too. I also ran into a LOT of other documentation that was missing, broken links everywhere, etc. But I know how to use an object browser, so I might be able to figure it out on my own. But often you can only see so much with those object browsers, and it isn't enough. It would be a helluva lot easier if Autodesk would publish some documentation...
Sinc, I know that you are way ahead of me programming wise. I was merely trying to steer you away from trying to convert your (quite useful) LDT customizations in LISP. Most, if not all, of them really do not even apply any longer since C3D goes about getting/using/outputting the data in ways previously unthougt of. While the same idea for a shortcut may be valid, how you impement it will be far different than what you previously used.
I'd already intended that. In the process of writing the routines I've already written (most of which I
made public), I discovered how painful it is to try to do anything large in Lisp. Lisp is a neat language, incredibly powerful considering its relative simplicity, but its weaknesses really show through when attempting any large project.
I was only hoping I could whip out a quick one in Lisp, since I've already written a bunch of stuff in Lisp for Autocad, and none in VBA. But I'm still thinking of trying C#, just so I can see what's up with that language... I still might end up deciding VBA is the way to go, but my dislike of VBA goes back over a decade, so I'm even willing to tackle Microsoft's new language if it shows promise of being "not VBA"...
Just keep voicing your concerns and if we can't find a workaround via Code we can try pestering the guys/gals in NH.
I've already submitted feature requests. Hopefully, others do too. We were really getting into this C3D thing, until we realized Autodesk has included almost no support for construction staking... It's a huge problem, and seems difficult to believe that Autodesk has gone this far into the product development without realizing it. So hopefully, they'll grasp the enormity of the gap very quickly. At least that "Edit Points - Elevations from Surface" command is flexible enough that it can be forced to work for a lot of tasks.
The problems would largely be fixed by a simple set of routines for creating offset points for feature lines, and ways to datum-adjust points using feature lines. Although I STILL really like the idea of a "self-calculating parking lot", where the user only has to specify something like "3' offsets spaced no more than 25' apart", and all the points are created automatically...