Topic: inserted block to vla object

[hmspe]

I've fought with this for several hours and I'm getting nowhere.  Not finding any examples or help entries that help.

I'm playing with a routine that will automatically align a block (which shows the number of wires in a conduit) when the block is inserted on top of a a line, arc, circle, etc.  The line option was easy, as was finding the arc's tangent angle at the block's insertion point, but for arcs, etc., I'm wanting to also automatically shift the block toward the center point of the arc to make the appearance more balanced.  To that end I'm trying to use Jurg Menzi's VxGetBlockInters function, available in the Free Stuff section at http://www.menziengineering.ch/, which returns all intersection points between a Block and an object.  The function expects a Block object and an Object, both being vla-objects.

I'm using the following to insert the block:

  (setq symbol (strcase "t3_2wn4w"))
  (setq ds (getvar "dimscale"))
  (prompt "\nSelect insertion point...  ")
  (command "_insert" symbol "PS" ds pause ds ds pause)
  (setq ent_ins (entget (entlast)))

What I'm not finding is a way to convert ent_ins to a block vla-object that VxGetBlockInters will accept.  If anyone can point me in the right direction I'd appreciate it.

Martin

[Chuck Gabriel]

(vlax-ename->vla-object (entlast))

[hmspe]

Thanks for the reply.  Between posts I did a bit more looking.  I didn't have much luck with

    (vlax-ename->vla-object (entlast))

but I do have things working with

    (setq block_ename (MakeX (ssname (ssget "_L") 0)))

[Kerry]

The code Chuck posted should work for you without making a selection set to manipulate.

What is  (MakeX ... ?

[MP]

Is it possible the entlast function name was used as a variable name somewhere in the code preceding? Also, if the attempt to make the block insert fails there is no telling what entlast returns.

[hmspe]

I did a search of local lisp files and found this in my utilities file:

  (defun MakeX (entname)
    (vlax-ename->vla-object entname)
  )

As should be obvious, I almost know enough about Visual Lisp to be dangerous.  It turns out the main problem was that I had a couple of variables out of order in one of the function calls. 

Thanks to all who posted.