Giving you gentlemen a brief story of what is going on .
Material for these shapes are Fiberglass and being used around openings ,Like windows and doors, to attach precast concrete (those fancy shapes ) to main structure elements, in high rise buildings. They have a lot of shapes in their production units (Shop). S, T, U, Z, Box, Circle, Diamond, and so on. Almost 40 typical shapes. But sometimes they are untypical. Machines are limited to accept only 12 dimensions. Machines will import all information from Excel and will automatically make all those shapes.
What they are doing right now is, they copy architect drawing and start to put some label or Tags around openings. These labels are unique. Let’s say designer will put a MK001 for top of a window,MK002 for left side , MK003 for right side and MK004 for bottom side of window. Designers have their own rules to pick the right shape and diameter and color and length. No clue how.
Then all data would be inputted in Excel manually. Tags(Mark or Label ), Number of items for that label, Color, Diameter, 12 dimensions, shape code , main contractor, strength, density, and so on. Total number of these files is 80. Some of data in that excel sheet would be used for billing and some of them to be used in fabrication and some of them for management. But all data are initiated by designer in Excel sheet.
The shop will create those shapes and a tag would be attached to bundle and will be sent to Job site. Foreman open drawings, read the Tags, will find the bundle with right tag and start installing.
Since they are doing this manually they have no control over Tags. They start from 1 and going up.
Sometimes in 2 different windows they use the same shape and number and dimensions and they can’t combine this. The consequence of this manual operation is, they have a lot of extra labels (Tags) which really are the same. It will cause extra work for shop and extra work in job site to find those tags and lots of confusion.
Giving you an idea, for a project it could be a big truck with 1000 labels (Tags).
My plan is, making 40 different dynamic blocks and using those in program.
I will simplify the situation in just one shape which is U shape. I need your help just for one shape, then I will expand it for other shapes.
=================================================
Regard to your Questions and comments.
A-Regard the lie. I didn’t know they will give me a short time. If I had more time I could’ve educated myself. I can do this if I had more time. Jeff and Tony helped me a lot before on Autodesk discussion. This is not my attitude. I struggle then ask for help.
B-To date , I linked AutoCAD to external database. Right now if I draw an object in AutoCAD all the properties could be exported to Access(MDB file) like color ,layer,length,Object name and . All user forms are designed. All reports query is done.
C-AutoCAD is 2010 and 2011. Not LT.
D-I don’t need any bonus.
E-What I need is really beyond my knowledge at this short time. I can’t even start it. How to link objects together and those events. I definitely need:
=====================================================
1- Need 3 commands. Let’s call them AAA and BBB and CCC.
2- By Entering AAA a form pops up, 3 text boxes and a OK button on it. Asking for 3 legs of U bar. If 3 text boxes left blank, after pressing OK , user prompt to pick start point of leg 1 and direction ,and then asking for leg 2 length and direction ( user are not allowed for any other angle other than 90, since this is supposed to be U shape , and finally the last leg, 3 dummy lines would be drawn on screen to allow user to see what the shape looks like, by picking 3rd point all those 3 dummy lines would be replaced by actual dynamic block. If user fills the lengths in textboxes on form then after pressing ok program will prompt just for insertion point and angle of block and block would be place with right leg lengths. If user left any leg length blank in text boxes program should ask for that leg on drawing. If in the middle of this step user press cancel then program will carry to next step
3- User is prompted to pick a point and an angle on screen for putting text. Let’s put Object ID in that text and call It JJTEXT. Something unique which would be a Unique ID in the external Access Database? This JJTEXT would be a record in external Database. I have a question here. Is it true after any drawing closing and opening Object ID’s would be changed? If that is a case I need a unique number for JJTEXT,to be able to be connected to external Database.
4- By executing BBB command, user are able to attach more objects to JJTEXT. It could be any objects and it could be 20 of them tops.
5- If user trying to copy any of these linked objects, then a message box needed. The whole idea is user should be aware they are not regular AutoCAD objects. And if user confirms the copy, then again a message box needed showing Object ID. So this will trigger another subroutine for another export to external Database.
6- By executing command CCC, user prompted to pick any of linked objects and then prompted to pick a point and angle and then the block would be placed, using the dimensions of original JJTEXT,nothing will be exported.
7- If user double click on JJTEXT or Block or those additional linked objects, Then main forms pops up and if user change dimension then legs would be changed on drawing accordingly, Even for those block which were inserted by command CCC.
8- If user trying to delete any of these linked objects then all of them should be deleted from drawing and then need a message box for JJTEXT object ID, So I can find it in external Database and delete it.
9- If user trying to change the legs either by using grips or stretch, then need a message box again showing the JJtext Object ID, So I can check the external Database and update the record there.
10- Blocks could not be exploded or renamed.
.