Here I go. I am jumping UP (very blindly might I add) to the next level of my programming, visual lisp. But first I have two questions.
One; I can not find a VL function to change folders. I assume there is on somewhere but I be dam if I can find either in the Swamp, ACAD’s help (which frustrates the hell out of my by the way) and Afrialisp.com. Is there such a function? How do I strip on level of the path?
Two, after reviewing some VBA threads in Swamp, it got me to thinking that maybe VBA is the way to go.
Unfortunately, I have very little programming experience with VLisp and none with VBA. I could use help in pointing me in the best direction.
Here is what I want to do.
We are constantly sending progress files to our engineering consultants as the project develops. I have a simple auto lisp that basically in a nutshell performs a save as and prefixes the file name with current date. It works great except for one inconvenience. It dumps the new files in the same folder as the orginal file. I need it to dump in another folder that is adjacent to the drawings folder. I currently manual move the new file using Windows Explorer. I would like to kick my simple routine up a notch by having it do this for me.
All these folders are in a root directory of the project folder and of course that changes with each project. Sample directory tree as follows.
M:\2006 Design Projects\project-abc\Drawings\**.dwgs
M:\2006 Design Projects\ project-abc\Transfer – Outgoing\ “currentdate_name.dwg”
This is were I would need VL function jump up and over into the transfer folder.
I would like to this routine to be even more useful by allowing the user to input the name of a sub-folder with the consultant’s name as follows
M:\2006 Design Projects\ project\Transfer – Outgoing\XYZ-mep\“currentdate_name.dwg”
M:\2006 Design Projects\ project\Transfer – Outgoing\acme-structural\“currentdate_name.dwg”
I would like kick thing up another notch. I want the routine to remember consultant’s names because we typical use the same consultants 90% of the time. However I would need an “input other” consultant for example when we have an out of state project. So therefore (correct me if I am wrong) I will need a dialogue box and list file that can be updated in the future as new consultants come on board.
So do I attack this with VBA that I know nothing about? Or do I use visual lisp that never really had a call to us before now? Oh by the way I know nothing about DCL files either though i am reading up on. My routine already saves a bunch of time and I would like to save even more. I know I am bitting off more that I can chew but what the hell, I have gotten this far without knowing anything. But any improvement would be great.
Any ideals?