Auto-Number with Grids

[simon.perkins]

Guys,

I have a bunch of building plans that require desk numbers to be added for some large scale moves we are about to undertake. I have seen a desk numbering LISP before that 'pulls' a Grid Reference from the drawing (Northing vs Easting or similar) and updates each desk block dynamically once you move it within the drawings.

Ideally, I would like to configure the Grid for size, density and / or zones to suite each building, but I could live with a fixed grid too. Can someone point me in the right direction please.

In advance of your support..

Kind Regards

[rkmcswain]

So to put it in the simplest terms.... You want a block that you can move around that will show its location dynamically? You can do this with FIELDS.

[irneb]

There's 2 methods I can think of. Both would work with FIELDS as per rkmcswain's post.

1. Using nested fields for Object Insertion Point X & Y values inside a formula field you could divide say the X with the distance between grids. Similar for Y. Problem here is if the grid changes you need to modify each and every field.
2. Use a field to simply get the block's insertion point X and Y values. Then use Data Extract to place the block's values in an Excel spreadsheet. Have a list of the gridline's X and Y values (you could use Data Extract for that as well). Then in Excel use the VLOOKUP function (or similar) to find the closes gridline. You could fine-tune it by generating a halfway point between 2 gridlines as well. Tip, VLOOKUP can find a value matching Approximate ... do some testing to figure out how you'd want this.

What is really a pain is when the grid is not parallel with the X & Y axis. For that you'll need to look at maybe UCS conversion (trans function in LISP). It would be nice if someone could give an Excel formula for UCS conversion, then option 2 could work here as well.

[simon.perkins]

Many thanks guys, appreciate the help. I will have a look at both options and see how I get on..