Topic: line with attribute tool

[Keith™]

dubb, it is good coding practice to localize vars that don't need to be global in context.

[dubb]

so my defun should look like this right?

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(defun c:bm (/ pt1 pt2 pt3 newpt1 newpt2)


[Keith™]

yeppers

[dubb]

yayy!!

so what about setting pt3 as the midpoint of pt1 and pt2?

[Keith™]

Do you not have PT# already set, or is set incorrectly

[dubb]

i beleive its set incorrectly

Code: [Select]


(setq pt3 (polar pt1 (angle pt1 pt2) 5))


i know this is not the way, theres gotta be some other function

[Keith™]

Ok, to get the midpoint of PT1 and PT2, you can use the polar command and the distance command to get the value such as:

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(setq pt3 (polar pt1 (angle pt1 pt2) (/ (distance pt1 pt2) 2)))


Or you can use the algebraic formula

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(setq pt3 (list (/(+ (car pt1)(car pt2))2)(/(+(cadr pt1)(cadr pt2))2)))


[CAB]

dubb
So this line (setq pt3 (polar pt1 (angle pt1 pt2) 5))
Becomes this (setq pt3 (polar pt1 (angle pt1 pt2) (/ (distance pt1 pt2) 2)))
And reads like this: pt3 equals a point starting from pt1 at an angle of (angle pt1 pt2)
for a distance of half the distance of pt1 lt2  (/ (distance pt1 pt2) 2)))

Clayer is also a system variable and can be set with the setvar function like this
(setvar "clayer" "s-beam")

I noticed you did not set the angle in the insert command. To make it the same angle
as the line use (angle pt1 pt2)

So the changes look like this, so far

Code: [Select]

(defun c:bm (/ pt1 pt2 pt3 newpt1 newpt2)
(setq pt1 (getpoint "\nPick First Beam Point:")
        pt2 (getpoint pt1 "\nPick Second Beam Point:"))
   ;comment here
(setvar "clayer" "s-beam")
(setq newpt1 (polar pt1 (angle pt1 pt2) 3))
(setq newpt2 (polar pt2 (angle pt2 pt1) 3))
(setq pt3 (polar pt1 (angle pt1 pt2) (/ (distance pt1 pt2) 2)))
(entmake (list '(0 . "LINE")
          (cons 10 newpt1)
          (cons 11 newpt2)
 
          )
    )
(setvar "clayer" "s-bm-text")
(COMMAND "-insert" "BM-TEXT" pt3 "" "" (angle pt1 pt2))
(princ)
)   ;end defun

Now using -layer with the M option how would you deal with the layers you have chosen?

[CADaver]

nevermind, my bad.

[whdjr]

Here's a little thought:

Instead of using

Code: [Select]

(setvar "clayer" "s-beam")
why not just add this

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'(2 . "s-beam") to the entmake command.

However; regardless of which way you choose you should definitely check to see if the layer is already there.  I'm sure this process will get to error checking eventually.

Good Luck and Happy Coding.

[Fuccaro]

However; regardless of which way you choose you should definitely check to see if the layer is already there.

ENTMAKE will create a new layer if it doesn't exists. So if you use the '(8 . "s-beam") expression as Whdjr suggested the line will be placed on the layer s-beam. If that layer doesn't exists, it will be firstly created.

[dubb]

thank you very much for the code suggestions.

i have tried to use

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(command "layer" "make" "S-BEAM" "color" 5 "" "")^c
(command "clayer" "s-beam")


to add my layer if it wasnt there but

Code: [Select]


'(8 . "s-beam")

 is wayt much simpler. what does the

8

represent?

[whdjr]

It is the DXF reference tag for Layer Name.

Look up DXF Reference in the autolisp help file.

[Mark]

The '8' represents the DXF code for the layer of all entites. Take a look around here for one of the layer app's, you'll see how it was used.

[Mark]

dang!! beat by one minute.