I'm an AutoCAD instructor in a corporate training environment. I'm curious as to what everyone uses Action Recorder to do. I'm always looking for good examples of productive uses for my students.
Thanks!
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I'm an AutoCAD instructor in a corporate training environment. I'm curious as to what everyone uses Action Recorder to do. I'm always looking for good examples of productive uses for my students.
Thanks!
I suspect that I'm far from alone in saying that the Action Recorder gets used for nothing. Considering how long this forum has been here, and the extremely limited number of posts in that time, it seems fair to say that the Action Recorder is considered not usefule or not usable by the majority of people.
On the face of it, that seems odd - since a perennial wishlist item was a macro recorder. However, like many other things, the implementation is weak. I'm of the opinion that people were asking for something that would use an existing language, or at the least export to LISP so the recorded sequence could be edited, modified, de-bugged, packaged, and shared/distributed. What we got instead, was essentially a black box of next-to-zero-utility.
Heck, there were better keystroke macro-recorders in the DOS days that worked with Acad....
Every time I have tried to use it for something useful it crashes ACAD.
After hearing early reports I never even tried to use it. :(
My students are mostly either new users, or average users. Almost none know LISP. I try to teach them Action Recorder as a way to make their own macros without having to learn a programming language. I usually try to inspire creativity in using the tools, rather than stifling it by discussing nothing but the limitations. I had hoped that here, of all places, some of the most creative AutoCAD users in the world would have been able to find a use for Action Recorder. To inspire you, I've included a sample file I created for class. Yes, this could have been done in lisp, or as a simple script, but keep in mind that I'm dealing with students who cannot do those things. The macro is called superpurge. It audits a dwg, fixes errors, purges zero length geometry and empty text boxes, runs purge three times, and saves the drawing. Yes, it's simple, but it's a time saver for those who may not know how to program.
Teaching them how to do simple scripts could help those "average users" become better. Scripts are not that hard once you are taught how to do it. It is also editable which the Action Recorder files are not.
Simple tools are not in and of themselves hindrances to creativity -- in many cases, excess complexity does not equate to increased creativity. Heck, scripts and batch files are very simple tools, but over the years I had tremendous success saving time and effort with both.
Broken tools on the other hand, are _dangerous_, and should be either disposed of, deliberately ignored, or locked away. The Action Recorder is a perfect example of a tool that was broken by design. Whoever was involved with defining the scope of work for that programming effort evidently had little to no experience in either CAD production or CAD management. The tool does a poor job from either perspective, and as such is less useful than nothing. As Ed noted, the inability to maintain the action recorder macros is a huge hindrance. why waste time working on a macro that is not extensible or otherwise maintainable. Better to teach the student simple commandline lisp (getpoint) (getdist) (setq) etc.
Claiming that this tool is an implementation of the long standing AUGI wish list is at best disingenuous. No one that I'm aware of asked for a black hole recorder....
Action Recorder - brochure feature.
I use the Action Recorder all the time. I have created several to cut monotonous steps - such as going into model space, searching for certain text and zooming into the area. Also, I have one that zoom extents my drawing, goes into paperspace and goes into the editing the titleblock.
awesome post. Finally someone else that uses it, not just complain about it.
No lecture here, just an answer to your question.
I have made several action recorders to simplify repetetive tasks.
One example:
pedit command to create and join polylines,
It's about 6 steps, So I recorded it, gave it a name and now it's
2 steps.
Mike
Not to discredit your method, but using your example... that could be done as a menu macro or script file and have the benefit of being just as easy to create, much easier to edit and that ability to run in any version of AutoCAD made in the last ±20 years and almost certainly future versions.
On a curious note, how does your action recorder script handle PEDITACCEPT (or other variables that affect the script)? Do you just set the value of this variable so that you know what it is, or does the script handle the differences as needed?
The action was recorded with peditaccept at 1. So far it has worked every time. If a drawing enviornment is different than the recorded environment a prompt will ask you if you want to continue. I realize Action Recorder is far from perfect, but it's simple and it works for the most part.
Mike
I realize the Action Recorder is inferior to routines and script files.
I greatly appreciate, those who have spent hours and hours writing amazing routines and sharing them with us (I work with such folks).
But for me at least, I am paid to draft and complete my assigned projects and for that the Action Recorder works just fine.
There was no time or effort involved (it literaly took me 30 seconds to make 1)
Maybe the action recorder will inspire us to the next level of code, scr, etc.
respectfully,
Mike
The AR is invaluable when Im doing 50-100 rev updates to drawings that are all fairly similar (Loop Diagrams) I like LSP but have yet to master it and scripts take way to long to put together. That said Im pretty junior when it come to that sort if stuff.
The AR works for me and I use it quite a bit.
PS I thought it was useless when it came out but there have been improvements and it is editable now.
I am a Lisp programmer and I have found that the Action Recorder can be useful. I have found it best when you need to do something over and over again. I had 86 drawing that I needed to edit the legend. The legend being slightly different in all the drawings otherwise I would have just cut and pasted or created a block. With that in mind I created a couple of recordings and added some user input to my recordings where needed. I have to say it was quick and it probably took me a quarter of the time to edit those legends that it normally would have. I would not use the action recorder to create a program. It's only good for repetition where you may have a slight difference in the repetition. Otherwise you could use a script. I think it is a tool that will get used, it just won't get used a lot. So it's best to take sometime to get to know it so that you will realize when it's a good time to use it or not.
I have several macros and yes, they're excellent for shorter, repetitive tasks. One just freezes all layers except the active one, one thaws all layers, one for putting callouts with text on plans, one that adds words under dimension lines, one that moves a dimension off the dimension line and places a leader line. Anything that can shorten the number of mouse clicks or typed Autocad commands is worth making into a macro. They're simple to make and if they had more editing capability, I'd use them even more.
I use it to install rungs on my new drawings. All you do is enter the rung count when prompted, and all your rungs will be inserted almost instantly. We always place our rungs in the same position, so the recorder just automates it. It cuts down inserting rungs form about a minute per page to about 5 seconds per page.
I, contrary to most of the replies, do use Action Recorder. I create AutoCAD drawings for the manufacturing of fish hooks. Most items have several end layouts. First are the layouts for marketing, shown to customers, then are the detailed drawings for manufacturing, and then drawings for Q. C. and a set for our packagers and finally a set for future catalog graphics. In practice, the manufacturing department requires hooks with a "reverse" offset be drawn with the shank on one side of the hook, and those with a "kirbed" offset drawn on the opposite. All was well and good until marketing insisted the catalog drawings all have the shank on the same side, regardless. In order to not have to create separate drawings, I have learned to flip the view port UCS 180° on the y axis and 90° on the z axis. When there is a set of up to 20 sizes, it is a very time consuming process to open each viewport and rotate each hook drawing so the plate is acceptable. A simple recorded macro created in Action Recorder works quite well. Now I just enter "rc" (Rotate for Catalog) and one viewport is given the needed UCS plan view and moved to the next viewport. I simply tap the space bar until they are all rotated. Then it is only a matter of orienting the space of each viewport with zoom to 1 to 1 scale and ALINGSPACE. I haven't figured out how to automate that much yet, but I probably will one day.
Another Action I have developed is for changing a layout from a barbed hook to a non-barbed hook. These are views of the same drawing with lines representing the barb on one layer and lines representing a non-barbed hook on another layer. On each layout for manufacturing there are 2 representations of the hook drawing, a 1 to 1 for laying a sample on the drawing, and a dimensioned 5 to 1 for use on a comparator. If a barbed hook is now going to have a non-barbed version, I copy the layout,change the title block to reflect the non-barbed specification, and type "nb" for a macro to go into each viewport and turn on the non-barb layer and turn off the barbed layer. This macro adjusts 3 viewports, as that is common. The layouts showing all the sizes gets the same treatment, I copy the layout and runn the "nb" macro until all the barbed hooks are now shown as non-barbed hooks.
These are only two examples. It would be nice if the feature were editable. One can delete some commands, but when I wanted to reverse the command to change a non-barbed drawing to a barbed drawing, I had to start from scratch. I thought I could copy the macro, which I could, and change the names of the layers turned on and off. No ability to do so.
I think any often repeated task that is not too complicated, is candidate for Action Recorder.
Back about a hundred years ago, I used Bentley's Pwerdraft, and it had a simple Basic recorder that seemed similar to Action Rcorder. Te difference is that with the Basic Recorder, you would push Record, it would then record all commands you selected or typed, and when you were done you pushed the stop button. Then you saved it where you wanted to, and when you played it........it worked.;)
There was something called Hurricane that was like that as well..
Wow! I am not sure if I can understand everyone's lack of appreciation for the Action recorder, but I find it very helpful as a CAD/BIM Manager to maintain my office standards. I use it for several reasons, but one main reason, file exiting.
I always encourage my staff to keep their files neat and clean. Which means upon exiting the drawing, zoom extents, purge, -purge (registered applications), audit and close. So instead of my users having to perform five different commands to exit a drawing, I created an action file and saved it on a shared server. Now it is sooooooo easy for them to keep their files tidy.
Remember it doesn't need to be so complicated, just select the record button and work through the commands. Then name your file and save it to a server location where all users can access it. You can edit the saved action file through the Action Tree (Manage panel, Action Recorder tab, black pull down arrow).
I hope this gives you a better sense of how you can benefit from the Action recorder.
(version 2010)
I've used it for a few things but the most success was in laying out curvlinear parking lots. It would take an existing stall marking block, and use the measure command to lay them perpendicular to the edge of the bay at the specified interval. Simple but saves a ton of user entry time at the keyboard.
I can see how this would be a great intro to new users, keep it up. I also see, being an old user, the limitations and I am also frustrated by them. Things like using the Recorder to set up a new standard drawing, migrating an old drawing to a new standard or other repetitive tasks - it just falls short.
I like to have it do simple things....
Change from the current layer to the Dim layer and then back to the original layer when placing a dimension
Change from the current layer to the Viewport layer when creating a new Viewport in PS and then back to the original layer
Add specific text to a dimension like (TYP) or MIN, MAX
Insert a specific block or leader/text that I use all of the time
Just upgraded to 2012 full version from 2009 and I guess the recorder files do not convert because all of my "simple things" do not work. Good way to purge the old !
For the first two, consider this add-on: http://www.cadforum.cz/cadforum_en/qaID.asp?tip=6433
For #3, do you mean you want to pick an existing dimension and add the text?
For #4, you should be able to do this with a menu macro.
looks like and interesting utility. could come in handy for adding those layers automatically if this is something one needs
When I choose this action recorder command, I place a dimension and it adds the text automatically
When I choose this action recorder command, it enters into the insert command with the block on my curser waiting for me to place the block.
Just to clarify, I was answering the question (subject line) What do you use Action Recorder for? with my ideas of what actions i have recorded.
Thanks
Sorry, I misunderstood.Quote:
Originally Posted by derek.96018
I took your last line to mean that these things did not work after your upgrade.
I beleive that the Action Recorder would be much more useful if we could modify recorded macros.
http://forums.augi.com/showthread.ph...-as-to-VB-or-C
Has anybody used the Action Recorder in 2013? Have some of the features improved? I am curious if this is something worth trying for fixing some exported Revit files.
I actually just discovered it and have set it up to freeze and thaw some layers that i want on and off at different times. Then i went into my PGP file and set a shortcut to turn on the Action Recorder Manager. Now it is key stroke A, and then the menu comes us and then i select my action to play.