custom linetypes in tool palettes

[tlewald]

Hello,

I could really use some help solving this problem.

I have created several custom linetypes to represent storm, sanitary , water, etc. I have put them as polylines on my tool palette and customized them to draw the desired linetype and on the desired layer. The problem, is that as soon as i use one of my custom linetypes, every custom linetype I pick from the palette looks like the 1st one.

It's really strange considering the create linetype layer and linetype definition loads in the layer manager, although the newly created entities continue to behave with the 1st used entity no matter what you do to it, although using the polylines from the tool palette with standard linetypes work fine.

Please help!

[rkmcswain]

What version of AutoCAD and what SP level?

[tlewald]

Sorry I failed to mention that.

Civil3D 2009 SP2.

Although I tried it in several younger versions of vanilla 'acad, civil3d and LDD and have the same issue.

[jpaulsen]

I assume you mean SP1 (version 2) because SP2 is not released yet.

I just tried it in C3D 2009 SP1 and it works fine. I created two polylines. Assigned a linetype to each then dragged them onto a tool palette.

How are you creating the tools. What do the tool properties look like? Are you accidentally setting the same linetype in the tool property and expecting the linetype to change with the layer?

[tlewald]

Thanks for the reply jpaulsen.

Sure, SP1, regardless it doesn't work.

It works when you use them in the drawing they were created, but if you use them in a new blank drawing they do not work.

Mind you this is also using custom linetypes, in my case the custom linetypes have shx components.

I've tried it on several workstations with varying configurations and it doesn't work on any of them.

[jpaulsen]

How are you creating the tools. What do the tool properties look like? Are you accidentally setting the same linetype in the tool property and expecting the linetype to change with the layer?

I may be able to help if you can answer these questions.

[tlewald]

I may be able to help if you can answer these questions.

Thanks again for the reply and I appreciate the offer for assistance, although it doesn't seem like it's along the right tracks.

The tool palette was created by right-clicking the object and copy-n-pastin'. See the attached screen capture for the properties of the line.

Everything works great in the when you use it in the drawing it was created, although it does not function properly when you try it in a blank drawing where the linetype has not been loaded.

As a work-a-round, I added the following LISP to my acad2009doc.lsp:

(setvar "Expert" 3)
(command "._linetype" "_load" "*" "mylinetypes.lin" "")
(setvar "Expert" 0)
(princ)

to load the linetypes into every drawing, although this is not the ideal way fix to the problem, but it does solve the problem.

It's definitely not just me either, everyone has this problem, it's something with Autocad.

[jpaulsen]

As far as I know AutoCAD only loads linetypes in the ACAD.LIN file automatically. If you want to load a linetype file with a different name you will need to do load it using lisp similar to what you have done. I would recommend creating an ACADDOC.LSP file instead of using the ACAD2009DOC.LSP. You will have less chance of losing your custom code during a reinstall.

Alternatively you could add your custom linetype definitions to the ACAD.LIN file in the search path. This is the way we have ours setup at my company.

You can verify which line file is being used by AutoCAD by typing the following at the command prompt:

 
(findfile "acad.lin")

[tlewald]

As far as I know AutoCAD only loads linetypes in the ACAD.LIN file automatically. If you want to load a linetype file with a different name you will need to do load it using lisp similar to what you have done. I would recommend creating an ACADDOC.LSP file instead of using the ACAD2009DOC.LSP. You will have less chance of losing your custom code during a reinstall.

Alternatively you could add your custom linetype definitions to the ACAD.LIN file in the search path. This is the way we have ours setup at my company.

You can verify which line file is being used by AutoCAD by typing the following at the command prompt:

 
(findfile "acad.lin")

Thanks again Jeff, although this is not the ideal way to solve the problem. Having to load the linetypes in every drawing vs having them load "on-demand" when selected from the tool palette.

There's gotta be a better way!

[rkmcswain]

As far as I know AutoCAD only loads linetypes in the ACAD.LIN file automatically.

Not exactly. AutoCAD doesn't load any linetypes automatically.

I would recommend creating an ACADDOC.LSP file instead of using the ACAD2009DOC.LSP. You will have less chance of losing your custom code during a reinstall.

Correct, do not use acad20xxdoc.lsp.

Alternatively you could add your custom linetype definitions to the ACAD.LIN file in the search path. This is the way we have ours setup at my company.

You can verify which line file is being used by AutoCAD by typing the following at the command prompt:

 
(findfile "acad.lin")

Going back to the first point, AutoCAD does not load any linetypes automatically, and the only thing accomplished by having one or more .LIN files in the support file search path, is that this is what appears as a default when loading them using the ._LINETYPE command.

You could put any number of .LIN files anywhere and load them at anytime without them being in the support file search path, so technically doing the (findfile) thing doesn't really tell you anything.

Furthermore, remember that linetype definitions are stored in the drawing, it's very possible that a linetype in a drawing may not match a linetype stored in "Acad.lin" (or any other file), even if they have the same name. I see this periodically when a linetype looks wrong even though it has the correct name, and it turns out it was loaded from a different file.