Topic: Disappointed in Autodesk . Hope here I get my answer.

[JanetDavidson]

Hello there. I posted this question in Autodesk and nobody so far answered me.
I repeat it exactly here.

Once I saw a  third party application . One of its feature was very interesting ,which I want to simulate it . But don't know how to start.
They  had  these  commands  like  sc100 , sc50 , sc25 and so forth....
In modal space,
We enter sc100  command and  then draw a line in 1000 units  length.
Then if we enter sc50 command  and draw a line in 1000 units , the line lenght  is doubled .
How is it possible ? What is the approach to have this. Could somebody give me  an idea what the program is doing?
Even at bottom left hand side of screen during drawing line ( the coordinate display ) in both cases shows  1000 . But on screen the length is different.
Thanks in advance for looking and thinking about me.
Regards,
Janet.

[Matt__W]

I was about to reply with "It's not too difficult to do" until I realized you posted in the .NET forum.   

"It's not too difficult to do... with Autolisp." 

How does the program work?  Do you pick a starting point and then another for the angle of the line or does it just automatically draw it horizontally or vertically?

[Jeff H]

The sc50 command makes it double or 50 times the length of previous line?
 
 

[Jeff_M]

My thoughts....although it's bass-ackwards of what Janet described. SC100 would be a line 100% the length drawn, SC50 would be created at 50% the length, SC25 would be 25%, SC200 would be 200% (or doubled). Even in .NET this would be relatively simple. One method to ask for the 2 pick points for the line, add the line, then each commandmethod would multiply the length by the Command's scale factor, change the endpoint accordingly, then add it to modelspace.

But, based on Janet's description, I'm not sure this is really what she's wanting to do.

[dgorsman]

I think the "SCnnn" may be referring to a drawing scale e.g. "SC100" = 1:100, "SC50" = 1:50.  But again thats bass-ackward for conventional drawing procedures, and may be the result of a (set of) commands being used other than as they were originally intended.

[BlackBox]

I was just about to post, when Dgorsman beat me to it.

[kdub_nz]

Janet may be back to qualify her question ..

meanwhile dgorsman, I like your current sig

try {GreatPower;}
   catch (notResponsible)
      {NextTime(PlanAhead);}
   finally
      {MasterBasics;}

[JanetDavidson]

Wow !!!!
Seems we have more caring people here than Autodesk.Honestly I didn't expect this.
Thank you all gentlemen :
Jeff_M / dgorsman / Jeff H/ RenderMan / kdub_bne /Matt

Well your guess is right. The program does a traditional scaling on model space. and basically is  an old program(2000) . But the part which I need to understand  from this program is how on earth they managed to change the coordinate display on left bottom hand side of screen ?

Maybe it was my fault to try to explain the program functions, by a Line example in my post. But the thing is it applies to all drawing commands in autocad(Cicely , Rec, Ellipse , ...so forth . So don't think about writing a  custom line / circle / or .... any other command.

I used Line just to be able to explain the program function . You know when we draw a line ,after picking the first point it ask for second point. and we are able to  see the length and angle of second point on coordination display(left bottom). That length is what they change by  sc??? command . and that is what I want.
 
Thanks for Looking and Caring. Hope somebody will solve this Enigma.
Janet.

[kdub_nz]

Hi Janet, Welcome to theSwamp.

At first thought

The MODEMACRO system variable can be used to write to the Status Line.
I imagine your old routine used ARX to do it's magic.

I am visualising a complicate usage of reactors to catch the native AutoCAD commands.

I took your post to read that you are drawing the entities at the points selected and reporting the scaled length/properties after the entity is drawn.

Regards
Kerry (the ogre to some)

[JanetDavidson]

Hi Janet, Welcome to theSwamp.

At first thought

The MODEMACRO system variable can be used to write to the Status Line.
I imagine your old routine used ARX to do it's magic.

I am visualising a complicate usage of reactors to catch the native AutoCAD commands.

I took your post to read that you are drawing the entities at the points selected and reporting the scaled length/properties after the entity is drawn.

Regards
Kerry (the ogre to some)

Thanks Kerry and Yes  the program is in ARX.
And yes again I draw entities at the points selected and reporting the scaled length/properties after the entity is drawn.
scaled length is not big deal I can manage to get the right dimension using the DIMSCALE and DIMLFACT. My only problem is the display coordination during inputing data and when user want to put the lenght at command prompt.
Attached Please find a demo of what it does. Hope somebody could give me a hand .
Again just reminding, I tried to use line command as a sample to show what program does. In reality it will scale any object .
Even linetypes scale , inserting blocks and xrefs. I am amazed how somebody 11 years ago come up with this idea and now with all these tools and new command in .net can't manage this.
Regards,
Janet.

[JanetDavidson]

Hi Janet, Welcome to theSwamp.

At first thought

The MODEMACRO system variable can be used to write to the Status Line.
I imagine your old routine used ARX to do it's magic.

I am visualising a complicate usage of reactors to catch the native AutoCAD commands.

I took your post to read that you are drawing the entities at the points selected and reporting the scaled length/properties after the entity is drawn.

Regards
Kerry (the ogre to some)

Hello again everybody.
I  made a clip to show the funtion of their program. Please don't let me down here.
Just reminding. Video show just line. But in reality everything would be scaled accordingly. So don't assume I need a custom line command.

Janet.

[Jeff_M]

So in essence it is mimicking working through Paperspace Viewports in Modelspace. Which makes me wonder why not use the built in tools?

BTW, not sure why you are disappointed in Autodesk due to no responses on their forum. It is a peer to peer forum just like this one (well, not EXACTLY like this one) with many of us contributing there as well, but rarely will you see someone who works for Autodesk post there.

[kaefer]

So in essence it is mimicking working through Paperspace Viewports in Modelspace. Which makes me wonder why not use the built in tools?

Because that's the way certain structural engineers have always been plying their trade? The original application seem to have something to do with CADS, which has a whiff of out-of-dateness about it. Besides, there's at least one other structural application doing the same, SOFiCAD.

I for one wouldn't want to replicate those modelspace scaling tools, but then I work for Building Services...

[JanetDavidson]

So in essence it is mimicking working through Paperspace Viewports in Modelspace. Which makes me wonder why not use the built in tools?

When users dealing with lots of text in drawing working with annotation scale  is not that fast. Time consuming. Annotation scale is good for Architects and some other trades . But for steel strcutures shop drawings , it is a pain.
Well. I guess I have to wait maybe somebody come up with a solution.
Anyways Thanks for trying Gentlemen.

Janet.

[rkmcswain]

I posted this question in Autodesk and nobody so far answered me.

Seems we have more caring people here than Autodesk

Back in the day when NNTP was the only choice, the Autodesk newsgroups were basically the only place to go and it was an excellent resource for information. A lot of what you might call old timers (people that had been using AutoCAD from its start) were around and of course you have to consider that AutoCAD itself didn't have near the features it has today...

When they started migrating to HTTP and killed off "Take 5", I think a lot of those people moved on, whether for those reasons or others. Fast forward to today, and my impression is that there are a lot more novices asking questions than there are knowledgeable people answering them.  I think this is especially true for the vanilla forums, maybe not so much for the forums dedicated to the vertical products.

Just my 2 ₵

[LE3]

Or hire a professional developer that can write the software as required to suit your company needs.

My 0.2 cts.

[vnsharifi]

Hello there. I posted this question in Autodesk and nobody so far answered me.
I repeat it exactly here.

< ... >

Post edited due to it's argumentitive and antagonistic nature ...
kwb

[Jeff H]

Maybe this is a start and might help but is for just an example and would need updating for application use
 
All I did was take the code I posted here
http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/NET/What-event-I-should-use-to-read-left-click-mouse-location-all/m-p/3145656/highlight/true
and updated a little
 
Look in the docs for various definitions for PointHistoryBits
Steal Kerry ideas and use MODEMACRO variable
 
You can watch the link and watch how the length will be 100 * more than what the dynamic window reports
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DfDk7s3_PQ

Code: [Select]

  <CommandMethod("LastPoint")> _
        Public Sub LastPoint()
            AddHandler Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument.Editor.PointMonitor, New PointMonitorEventHandler(AddressOf Editor_PointMonitor)
            Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument.Editor.TurnForcedPickOn()
        End Sub

        Dim firstPick As Boolean = False
        Dim firstPoint As Point3d = Nothing

        Private Sub Editor_PointMonitor(sender As Object, e As PointMonitorEventArgs)
            Dim doc As Document = Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument
            Dim db As Database = doc.Database
            Dim ed As Editor = doc.Editor

            If (e.Context.History And PointHistoryBits.NotDigitizer) Then
                firstPick = Not firstPick
                firstPoint = e.Context.RawPoint
            End If

            If firstPick Then
                Dim distance As Double = firstPoint.DistanceTo(e.Context.RawPoint)
                Dim str As String = (distance * 100).ToString()
                Application.SetSystemVariable("MODEMACRO", str)
            End If
        End Sub

 
 
 http://www.theswamp.org/index.php?topic=36400.msg414329#msg414329
 
C#

Code: [Select]

[CommandMethod("LastPointCsrp")]
 public void LastPointCsrp()
 {
     Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument.Editor.PointMonitor += new PointMonitorEventHandler(Editor_PointMonitor);
     Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument.Editor.TurnForcedPickOn();
 }

 bool firstPick = false;
 Point3d firstPoint = Point3d.Origin;

 private void Editor_PointMonitor(object sender, PointMonitorEventArgs e)
 {
     Document doc = Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument;
     Database db = doc.Database;
     Editor ed = doc.Editor;

     if ((e.Context.History & PointHistoryBits.NotDigitizer) > PointHistoryBits.DidNotPick)
     {
         firstPick = !firstPick;
         firstPoint = e.Context.RawPoint;
     }

     if (firstPick)
     {
         double distance = firstPoint.DistanceTo(e.Context.RawPoint);
         string str = (distance * 100).ToString();
         Application.SetSystemVariable("MODEMACRO", str);
     }
 }

 
 

[kaefer]

Ok, back to the technical side of the original question, if only to evaluate eventual business proposals of professional developers...

How would one go ahead implementing alternative scales for model space?

There's no single hook-up for inputting and reporting distances in .NET. Therefore the effort would involve monitoring all user input and object creation in respect to defined areas of alternative scale, as well as monitoring of object modification. In addition all standard commands that report lengths would need to be wrapped or completely redefined.

While I wouldn't say that it's impossible, it looks like pretty much work. I cannot say if there's something in ObjectARX that makes this task easier, but since commercial applications doing this seem to use custom objects it's likely. Why not buy one of those apps instead of starting from scratch?

PS Thanks, Jeff H, for showing a way for handling the user input. That's but a tiny part of it all.

[Jeff H]

PS Thanks, Jeff H, for showing a way for handling the user input. That's but a tiny part of it all.

Hey kaefer,
I will leave the other part up to you smart guys.

 
I thought she posted she had it figured out except the status bar??

But the part which I need to understand  from this program is how on earth they managed to change the coordinate display on left bottom hand side of screen ?

 

[JanetDavidson]

Ok, back to the technical side of the original question, if only to evaluate eventual business proposals of professional developers...

How would one go ahead implementing alternative scales for model space?

There's no single hook-up for inputting and reporting distances in .NET. Therefore the effort would involve monitoring all user input and object creation in respect to defined areas of alternative scale, as well as monitoring of object modification. In addition all standard commands that report lengths would need to be wrapped or completely redefined.

While I wouldn't say that it's impossible, it looks like pretty much work. I cannot say if there's something in ObjectARX that makes this task easier, but since commercial applications doing this seem to use custom objects it's likely. Why not buy one of those apps instead of starting from scratch?

PS Thanks, Jeff H, for showing a way for handling the user input. That's but a tiny part of it all.

What I did so far is : I defined scale region in modal space and attached xdata to it (I mean desired scale ). Then by using point monitor I know always which region user is clicking. Then by using dimscale and dimlfac I can manage to report right lenght according to scale.Please  see attached swf which show how manually we can report differently. The Probem is for inputting Data I want to be able to report to user differently.
Besides those programs you are talking about are for different purposes . They have this feature on, Because in some industries , that is a must.

[JanetDavidson]

Thanks Jeff, At work they blocked us from UTube. So I can't watch it here. I will try it at home.
But I don't realise what would be the usage of this code ? Maybe too soon to judge let me watch it at home and get back to you. But Honestly I apprecaite your help.
Janet .

[Jeff H]

I thought that was what you were asking was to print a different value at the status bar
 
Just hard-coded for *100
 

[JanetDavidson]

Yes Jeff that is part of what I want.
But the part I want is user input at cross hair should show 1825 as well but in the background .
Basically I want to draw a in 1:1 but  input data for 1:100 and show it 1:100

I repost the demo clip I had posted earlier.
Please  Pay attention to 90000 user input at cross hair prompt, in both scales , 1:50 and 1:100 .

Cheers,
Janet.
And again Thanks for look after me.