here is a perfect example of how an extremely elaborate lisp routine (childs play to dome of you guys) could be used to good effect.
the lisp could be made to. identify all objects on various layers and sort them accordingly. (sounds simple)
if you adapt the attitude on how you'd make the layers it can be done. you wont get the drawing completly right but it will be in a dame sight better shape than before.
1. text.
select all text in model space. set the text colour to bylayer. get the routine to create text layers in accordance with standard text heights. get the routine to put text of various scales in to their relevent layer, and apply a "fuzz" size i.e. text that is near to the scale. or any "rogue" sizes on its own layer called "rogue_text" for example
2. Dimensions
a bit simpler. apply the same philosphy as above. You may want leaders to appear on their own layers. you could then, using layer merge merge those layers with their corresponding text layers.
3. Linetypes, select eveything that is not bylayer linetype. move them to their corresponding layer. when they're on the layers "hidden_lines" or what ever make them bylayer but change the layer's linetype to hidden or what ever. you could probably elaborate on those selection sets as well having them called "hidden_lines_nbyco" the nbyco would be the layers with the entities colour are not bylayer.
4. ploylines
5. viewports
6. titleblocks, north arrows
etc.
and so on.
there are about 30-40 different types of enities that can be placed bylayer. it would be a case of establisihing what sould be placed on what layers. the standard hatches could go all on one layer or one for each type...BUT you then have 20 layers for 20 hatch patterns, but you can still whittle that down even more. by "hand" at a later stage.
A poorly standardised or organzed drawing, is for the most part, poor layering. the lisp that would be composed would be a very large undertaking. but at the end of it all, it would be a cruise missile of a routine.
If your company uses standard blocks it could be made to select all the block names from a standard text file( which could be updated regularly, )search for them and move them to a layer for processing. by a junior technician. get them to do it. delegate, delegate
It can be Done. i'd have done it before but i'm no good a lisp routines etc. i understand whats involved in bringing a drawing up to scratch , lord knows i've spent time doing it. there is a lot of repetition involved in it.
the 2-3 weeks you take to put together a routine it will save you years in both your own manhours and or someone elses. it seems like a tall order but, it is a very sound proposal.
you will end up with a drawing, that will be in a hell of a lot better shape than before, possibly even in good condition.
simpify each section, break each set up into its layer "groups" then set about whittleing those down by "hand" you will probably find that's when you revise the "cruise_missle.lsp" (i've named it, patent pending
) to do the whittling.
in short. divide and conquer.
HTH
i'll put the long version up next week.
