Long Term MicroStation user learning AutoCAD 2013

[blothian]

Question No.2: How to divide a distance between 2 points on-the-fly by an integer

Progress is still going well until I have become stuck on this. In MS, there are many ways to divide a distance between 2 points into any number of equal sized parts. One is a built-in feature called the snap divisor (Sets the number of keypoints on a line, line string segment, or curve segment to one greater than this value), the other is to use the MS version of tracking and a keyin. For the latter say I have the a basic floor plan and I have some rectangles represent desks. What I want to do is move all of these desks to 1/3rd of the room width from one of the walls. To achieve this in MS I would:

1. Select all the desks, activate copy and snap to basepoint (at this point the elements are floating ready for the destination point to be entered)
2. Activate MS version of tracking
3. Snap to first basepoint,left-click to send data point
4. Lock direction of travel (just like turning ORTHO on)
5. Move to next snap point however...
6. On the Accudraw(MS Data entry tool) Type "/x" on (where x is the number of equal sizes the distance would be split into eg Midpoint = /2) and the current distance between the 2 tracking points is divided by the integer x.
7. Left-click to send data point and place geometry at desired location

This is an extremely quick and efficient method to positioning geometry without resorting to method that place additional geometry to represent the snap points. This is the only solution I have found with the DIVIDE command though its somewhat not as streamlined due to having to set up an extra line first to match the length of wall (the extent of the original is not made from 1 single line), then divide that to create points and then go through the move procedure. Is there a less clunky on-the-fly approach to be learned?

[Wanderer]

Question No.2: How to divide a distance between 2 points on-the-fly by an integer

Progress is still going well until I have become stuck on this. In MS, there are many ways to divide a distance between 2 points into any number of equal sized parts. One is a built-in feature called the snap divisor (Sets the number of keypoints on a line, line string segment, or curve segment to one greater than this value), the other is to use the MS version of tracking and a keyin. For the latter say I have the a basic floor plan and I have some rectangles represent desks. What I want to do is move all of these desks to 1/3rd of the room width from one of the walls. To achieve this in MS I would:

1. Select all the desks, activate copy and snap to basepoint (at this point the elements are floating ready for the destination point to be entered)
2. Activate MS version of tracking
3. Snap to first basepoint,left-click to send data point
4. Lock direction of travel (just like turning ORTHO on)
5. Move to next snap point however...
6. On the Accudraw(MS Data entry tool) Type "/x" on (where x is the number of equal sizes the distance would be split into eg Midpoint = /2) and the current distance between the 2 tracking points is divided by the integer x.
7. Left-click to send data point and place geometry at desired location

This is an extremely quick and efficient method to positioning geometry without resorting to method that place additional geometry to represent the snap points. This is the only solution I have found with the DIVIDE command though its somewhat not as streamlined due to having to set up an extra line first to match the length of wall (the extent of the original is not made from 1 single line), then divide that to create points and then go through the move procedure. Is there a less clunky on-the-fly approach to be learned?

Well, a dynamic block wouldn't exactly be on-the-fly... have you seen the ARRAY command in 2013? That might do what you're after, if I've read your post right.
(page 9 of this document or look at these youtube videos... sorry, I don't have access to youtube here so I can't give you a direct link to a demo)

[blothian]

Well, a dynamic block wouldn't exactly be on-the-fly... have you seen the ARRAY command in 2013? That might do what you're after, if I've read your post right.
(page 9 of this document or look at these youtube videos... sorry, I don't have access to youtube here so I can't give you a direct link to a demo)

I don't think it is tbh. Seeing as I'm likely to be posting quite a bit on queries like this I think adding some screencasts of what I'm trying to do will make it easier for the AutoCAD experts respond more accurately. Here is a basic example of a theoretical room with some desks and how I can place them at 1/3rd of the top horizontal wall in from the left hand side. The dimensions play no part, they serve only to illustrate and confirm that the divisor setting is placing the geometry in the correct location.


http://screencast.com/t/tWpesZwQw56

[Wanderer]

I don't think it is tbh. Seeing as I'm likely to be posting quite a bit on queries like this I think adding some screencasts of what I'm trying to do will make it easier for the AutoCAD experts respond more accurately. Here is a basic example of a theoretical room with some desks and how I can place them at 1/3rd of the top horizontal wall in from the left hand side. The dimensions play no part, they serve only to illustrate and confirm that the divisor setting is placing the geometry in the correct location.


http://screencast.com/t/tWpesZwQw56

Hmm, my fault for misreading. I was thinking you were setting out multiple desks at even intervals along a specified distance.
I think the closest in-built ability would be the M2P osnap, but, that would only give you the midpoint, you can't select different increments like 1/3.

Hopefully your screencast can give one of the smarter folks a clue.

(btw, Yay my IT department has finally unblocked screencast! I didn't used to be able to get to that.)

[cadtag]

Interesting capability, but I think this may help

Since it's possible to use LISP at the command line, I can set a distance that's any fraction of a known (or knowable distance)

So to define a distance as 1 fifth of the distance between the endpoints of a wall, the syntax would be:

(/  (getdist) 5.0)

and pick the two endpoints using OSNAP.

I can enter that on the command line anytime a value is needed that's 1/5 of a distance.

One can also use the QC command (Quick Calculator) to calculate distance in a simlar manner.

Using more elaborate LISP coding, it's feasible to define additional osnaps using calculations like that, and make the readily available. IIRC the tentative select feature in uSTN was replicated in LISP by Tony T back with R12.

[Tom Beauford]

Question No.2: How to divide a distance between 2 points on-the-fly by an integer

Progress is still going well until I have become stuck on this. In MS, there are many ways to divide a distance between 2 points into any number of equal sized parts. One is a built-in feature called the snap divisor (Sets the number of keypoints on a line, line string segment, or curve segment to one greater than this value), the other is to use the MS version of tracking and a keyin. For the latter say I have the a basic floor plan and I have some rectangles represent desks. What I want to do is move all of these desks to 1/3rd of the room width from one of the walls. To achieve this in MS I would:

1. Select all the desks, activate copy and snap to basepoint (at this point the elements are floating ready for the destination point to be entered)
2. Activate MS version of tracking
3. Snap to first basepoint,left-click to send data point
4. Lock direction of travel (just like turning ORTHO on)
5. Move to next snap point however...
6. On the Accudraw(MS Data entry tool) Type "/x" on (where x is the number of equal sizes the distance would be split into eg Midpoint = /2) and the current distance between the 2 tracking points is divided by the integer x.
7. Left-click to send data point and place geometry at desired location

This is an extremely quick and efficient method to positioning geometry without resorting to method that place additional geometry to represent the snap points. This is the only solution I have found with the DIVIDE command though its somewhat not as streamlined due to having to set up an extra line first to match the length of wall (the extent of the original is not made from 1 single line), then divide that to create points and then go through the move procedure. Is there a less clunky on-the-fly approach to be learned?

To achieve this in AutoCAD:

1. Select all the desks, activate copy and snap to basepoint (at this point the elements are floating ready for the destination point to be entered)
2. Enter plt(cur,cur,1/3) at command line
3. Lock direction of travel (just like turning ORTHO on)
4. Pick the two points to place the desks between

I added this macro under 'Mid Between 2 Points' in the 'Object Snap Cursor Menu' Shortcut Menus:

 (setvar "USERR1" (getreal "Fraction of the distance between pick points: "));\'cal plt(cur,cur,getvar(USERR1));

with the Command Name 'Snap, Fraction Between 2 Points'
Then to achieve this in AutoCAD:

1. Select all the desks, activate copy and snap to basepoint (at this point the elements are floating ready for the destination point to be entered)
2. Select 'Snap, Fraction Between 2 Points' from the 'Object Snap Cursor Menu'
3. Enter 1/3 or whatever fraction you like
4. Pick the two points to place the desks between

This could also be done easilly with lisp or a script. There is many ways to do almost anything in AutoCAD once you get the hang of it.

[blothian]

Thanks Tom, that looks like a good solution. I'm familiar with VBA though the syntax of the above code is somewhat alien but its probably easy to understand with a bit of experience.

I've not delved into the customization side of things yet and I'm not sure what file(s) are involved when modifying the existing GUI but will be something I intend to look into. This being the case I'm not likely to use your example until I have a good understanding of what its doing to the default installation.

Onwards with the tutorials!

[Tom Beauford]

Thanks Tom, that looks like a good solution. I'm familiar with VBA though the syntax of the above code is somewhat alien but its probably easy to understand with a bit of experience.

I've not delved into the customization side of things yet and I'm not sure what file(s) are involved when modifying the existing GUI but will be something I intend to look into. This being the case I'm not likely to use your example until I have a good understanding of what its doing to the default installation.

Onwards with the tutorials!

Programing options for AutoCAD include Diesel, Lisp, Visual Lisp, VBA & Net as well as the CUI. Since you're familar with VBA it and Visual Lisp may be the places to start for you. Before customizing a CUI always copy it somewhere first just in case. The help makes it look easy, but you can mess it up really easy. There are forums here for CUI Menus, Customization, and different programming languages. AutoCAD's discussion groups can be helpful and it only take a couple of Google searches to find the online help sites for AutoCAD are limitless.

Good luck and I hope you learn to enjoy AutoCAD as much as we do.

[blothian]

I've been pretty busy lately so I'm just starting to get back into this again. I'm just starting to play with title blocks and I cannot seem to snap to the sheet boundary to place the border as a block or reference. Is this possible?

[cadtag]

if by sheet boundary, you mean the dashed line that show up on a layout tab, then no - it's not an 'object' just a graphical guide to visually show the printable limits.

Generally speaking, most people set up their sheet border/ title blocks so they are always inserted at 0,0,0. That keeps it simple and always repeatable. One can use x and y offsets in their pagesetups to properly locate the lines on the hardcopy