Topic: LT Challenge . . .

[Shinyhead]

totally forgot.... but guess was a tilde ~

for the filenames, there is a little app that I did... ShortLongPathName.exe somewhere around here - that convert the filename to the appropriate format.

see if helps...

Thanks Luis, I found the little app and it should be help.  Many times on projects with a single sheet, the file name winds up being the project name (including the company name and location.  The path names may be more trouble unless some discipline can be instilled ... there are currently 9 different people doing things about 10 different ways.

Chris, diesel is another one of those things I heard about 15 years ago and poked at only once or twice and promptly forgot about after drifting into the vertical apps.  Is there anything in THAT bag of tricks that may point in a different direction to take this little project?

I will see what I can do regarding the block insert on the unexploded option.

[Shinyhead]

OK, I think I have a possibility here, LT is not going to insert the new block definition unless you use DC or you delete and purge the original.
The nice thing is we can probably get the somewhat automated depending on a few factors.

First off, in the viewport where your block that you need to update, is there ever anything besides the block located there?
This is important to make this work the way I am thinking it could.

Let me know, I don't wanna start playing with the code till I know.

-Chris

[Dinosaur]

OK, I think I have a possibility here, LT is not going to insert the new block definition unless you use DC or you delete and purge the original.
The nice thing is we can probably get the somewhat automated depending on a few factors.

First off, in the viewport where your block that you need to update, is there ever anything besides the block located there?
This is important to make this work the way I am thinking it could.

Let me know, I don't wanna start playing with the code till I know.

-Chris

There will be never be anything in that viewport other than the block (exploded in one instance and unexploded the other).  In fact the entire drawing will be nothing other than the block contents, the single viewport and the title block information on the layout tab.
Now there appears to be a new twist ... The macro button idea seems to be progressing OK on my own machine at work but when I installed the new menu files on a different machine for a user to try out everything fell flat when LT would not allow a block with more than the old DOS standard 8 characters.  WE tried quotes around the filename with no joy.  There must be some sysvar setting that will have to be addressed ... any ideas for where to look?

[Dinosaur]

Would 'paste special>autocad entities' help at all?

It works with some applications

This is our current method I am trying to simplify.  This all boils down to being a plot as far as the user is concerned in most cases and I have to keep this painless enough to balance out the hassle of creating the form in SKM, saving it locally and retrieving it before plotting providing it has not been lost.

[Shinyhead]

OK, I think I have a possibility here, LT is not going to insert the new block definition unless you use DC or you delete and purge the original.
The nice thing is we can probably get the somewhat automated depending on a few factors.

First off, in the viewport where your block that you need to update, is there ever anything besides the block located there?
This is important to make this work the way I am thinking it could.

Let me know, I don't wanna start playing with the code till I know.

-Chris

There will be never be anything in that viewport other than the block (exploded in one instance and unexploded the other).  In fact the entire drawing will be nothing other than the block contents, the single viewport and the title block information on the layout tab.
Now there appears to be a new twist ... The macro button idea seems to be progressing OK on my own machine at work but when I installed the new menu files on a different machine for a user to try out everything fell flat when LT would not allow a block with more than the old DOS standard 8 characters.  WE tried quotes around the filename with no joy.  There must be some sysvar setting that will have to be addressed ... any ideas for where to look?

This gets really tricky.
Is the macro command different then we posted above?  diesel gets very... strange once you start having to quote. It can work but its really strange how it handles them.
Post the current macro code and let me take a look at it.
Also what is the version of LT, are they both the same?

[Dinosaur]

This is as close as I can get to the current macro (we scored an unscheduled paid holiday today so I can't access the computers) ... I have created an alternate version that is able to pull up the insert dialog box to see if there is a clear preference and made a copy of each that skip the explode portion for files we will be updating.

^C^C-I;\0,0;;;;EXPLODE;L;-PU;B;;;N;Z;E;PS;-VPORTS;L;ON;ALL;;SAVEAS;2000;;Y;FILEDIA;1;

I have also discovered that at least with the unexploded version, we will have to make that viewport active before redefining the block and it appears there will need to be away to cancel the insert lest there are two blocks to deal with.

[Dinosaur]

. . .
Also what is the version of LT, are they both the same?

I have confirmed that LT 2004 is the only AutoCAD in the office however some machines have either 2008 or 2009 DWG True View installed.

[Dinosaur]

This macro is still kicking my behind ... it works fine on my machine but blows out at or after the INSERT command on every other machine I have tried.  I have checked noun-verb selection and confirmed that PICKADD and PICKFIRST are "1" on all machines and even the simplest of names refuse to insert although I can bring in files with all kinds of weird characters in the name. 
Any ideas on what other system settings could be causing this failure would be appreciated.  Again, 2004 LT with SP 1A installed.

Here is the macro in the current incarnation:

^C^Cinsert;^CExplode;l;-pu;b;;n;zoom;e;ps;-vports;l;ON;all;;filedia;0;saveas;2000;;y;filedia;1;

[M-dub]

Copy and paste the macro into notepad and have it on the screen.  Go into AutoCAD and try typing each command out on the keyboard.  You should quickly find out where the problem areas are.

[Dinosaur]

Copy and paste the macro into notepad and have it on the screen.  Go into AutoCAD and try typing each command out on the keyboard.  You should quickly find out where the problem areas are.

I can't duplicate the error(s) on my machine so I have to be able to take someone out of production to do any testing.  I might be able to catch someone going out over lunch.

[M-dub]

Copy and paste the macro into notepad and have it on the screen.  Go into AutoCAD and try typing each command out on the keyboard.  You should quickly find out where the problem areas are.

I can't duplicate the error(s) on my machine so I have to be able to take someone out of production to do any testing.  I might be able to catch someone going out over lunch.

Yeah, I meant to say that it'll only help on the machines that HAVE the problems.

A quick way to find the error is to hit F2 when the macro screws up and work your way back through the command history to find out where it went wrong, but again, you have to get onto their machine to do it.

[Dinosaur]

I know it barfs either during the insert or while selecting the last object to explode ("last" is not being accepted.  It seems like those machines want more input for the insert to complete.  After it breaks, I can activate a viewport in a second layout tab and eventually the block will appear but it will not show in model until then and never appears in the viewport with the titleblock - and YES, that viewport is turned on and activated.

[M-dub]

I know it barfs either during the insert or while selecting the last object to explode ("last" is not being accepted.  It seems like those machines want more input for the insert to complete.

Sounds to me like it's just missing or has an extra semicolon somewhere, but for it to work on yours and not theirs... that puzzles me.

It'll be easier to tell once you view the command history on their computer and compare it to yours.

[Dinosaur]

solved it - apparently they have never run the insert command on these machines.  I went with the option to use the dialog box to keep it as simple as possible and the default condition in the dialog box had the boxes checked for the command line input which I had removed from the script.  After specifying the scales and location in the dialog for use the script works perfectly.
The procedure now after creating the DXF files and preparing the drawing files to accept them, I open a drawing, push the macro button, browse for the correct DXF file and a few seconds later I have the finished drawing.
The archiving macro that keeps the block definition still has problems when updating the block.  After I acknowledge the redefinition, the macro contiues on to place a new copy of the block along with the redefined one.  It is no big deal to erase one, but I would prefer a bit more polish to prevent the second insert.  Are there any ways short of another macro to accomplish this?

[M-dub]

The archiving macro that keeps the block definition still has problems when updating the block.  After I acknowledge the redefinition, the macro contiues on to place a new copy of the block along with the redefined one.  It is no big deal to erase one, but I would prefer a bit more polish to prevent the second insert.  Are there any ways short of another macro to accomplish this?

Is the macro putting in two copies of the block?

Off the top of my head, you could add an erase option at the beginning of the macro, allow them to select it, purge the reference out and then continue with what you already have...