Data to Calculator or other program

I like to have Calc2 over in a corner while working pipe slopes, etc. But
windows Calculator or others would work, too. If I get data off the drawing (by
getdist or getpoint) how can I place it in the clipboard so it can be inserted
into the calculator? Can't find it in vlisp but I bet it can be done with
Vbasic. Or can the Clipboard be opened like a file for input?

rs

 

Or can the Clipboard be opened like a file for input?

Yes, in NT at least, there's a Clipbook Viewer application included.

Way back, I remember a wish-list fantasy item being kicked around -- a
dedicated Acad calculator where you could denote numbers, areas, distances,
etc. by picking them from the graphic screen. For instance, pick two
dimensions to extract their distance info, and mutliply them to get an area,
or obtain an angle by picking a sloped line, that sort of thing. Still could
be a good thing if someone could figure out the interface.

 

Bob,

DOSLib: (dos_clipboard (rtos <number>)) and paste to calculator.

Joe Burke

 

Thanks guys. Actually, that on-screen calculator was on my mind. If the whole
thing -- calculator and interface were written within the Visual Whatever sphere
then the clipboard wouldn't be needed. But I do like Calc2 and can't see
replicating it in Vlisp.

I will give DOSLib a shot.

rs

 

Copying and pasting (with ^C and^V) from the AutoCAD text screen into the
Windows Calculator works, if that does what you want.

 

I was trying to do it programmatically. Pick a distance or text and place it in
the clipboard.

rs

 

Hi, Hang in there. I have a program that I wrote that I have adapted for
clipboard support. I downloaded the trial of Calc2 and was able to run
my program to get a distance and then hit paste in Calc2 and it worked.

Tom Smith mentoned a wish list program and this program may come close,
no areas though, just distances and angles.

It may or may not be for your style of working.

First of all the warnings. It is a very large program due to all of the
functionality and GUI interface. It uses ObjectDCL so you have to
install that runtime. It uses DosLib, only for the clipboard, so you
have to have that also. Works without DosLib if the clipboarad is not
used. There are many files and it is designed to be run as a Vlx. There
is no main program which when loaded will load all of the support
functions. It was written and tested in 2002. I do not know how it will
react in newer versions as I don't have those for testing.

There are two main functions and a host of smaller ones that are built
from the main components. It is designed as an angle and distance GUI
library that you can use anytime you want a distance or angle in your
program. The two main programs are examples of using this library.

First is GD for GetDistance. Works stand alone at the command line to
check distances or can be called by any Acad function that requests a
distance.

Call GD, a dialog appears. Buttons across the top allow picking
distances by different modes. Pick two points. Pick any object that has
a length property and the length is returned. Pick two points on any
object and the length between the points is returned. Quick picks for
diameter and radius. Works on objects nested in blocks. Any Object means
lines, plines, circles, arcs, ellipses, elliptical arcs, and open or
closed splines.

Has a History which stores the last selected values plus five user saved
values.

Uses the current drawing Lunits or can be swithched to decimal. User can
control the precision of the final output.

Can keep a running total of selected distances

Supports Acads calculator. When calculator activated, the user is shown
a dialog which lists Symbols set to all distances in History and angles
from companion program, GA, GetAngle. So for example if you save two
distances, U1 and U2, the expression to average them would be
"(u1 + U2)/2.0". In other words, you don't type in numbers but use
defined symbols.

It is MID aware. You can pick a distance in one drawing and use it in
another.

Gonna stop now. There is too much more to explain.

This a fairly stable and tested program. I've been working on it for a
couple years on and off. It is alot more complex that it looks. I had to
write a matrices library to go from World to Entity coordinate system
(or was it vice versa - anyway the way you didn't used to be able to go)
to enable some nested block functionality. That took a couple of months.

I will have the program done in a week or so and will post in Customer
files.

Larry

 

Wow. Sounds great! I will haunt Customer Files.

rs

 

Outstanding. I will fly it today.

Thanks,

rs

 

I did, and it works fine. One problem, you can't have it inactive but visible.
So It would be a bit tedious to crank a number, copy it to clipboard, kill the
routine and then paste to a text or mtext line. But its ability to grab various
values is very good.

Not exactly what I was looking for but so nice I will keep it on hand.

rs

 

I am posting GetDistance Manual.pdf to customer files today. It
describes in detail the capabilities of the program. I will post the
program in a couple of days after I clean a few things up.

Larry

 

I an posting today the big product description in customer files, the
GetDistance Manual.pdf. It is large but describes in detail what the
program and functions do. The main functions are really pretty self
explanitory in use and you don't really need to study the manual, but
there are some other very useful functions in there that one might be
interested in. They are all built from the main engine functions. Me, I
always liked to read about things in case I missed something.

DosLib works well. Is very easy and commonly available. Clipboard is the
only place I used DosLib. If you don't have it, Clipboard does not work
but the program does not crash and is otherwise functional.


Thanks for the MS tip, though. I doubt that it would be as easy as the
couple of hours I spent modifying with DosLib.

Larry

 

Second reply.

Forgt to tell you to try the calculator functionality in GetDistance.

Pick the length that you want or a couple and save them with the
History. Activate the calculator. Use the symbols for the lengths you
picked in your calculations. The answer is returned to the program and
from there to your eyes or supplied directly to an Acad command. No
pasting or messing around.

I know nothing about piping and what you are trying to do, what type of
calculations and so on. But it seems to me that this is a candidate for
a dedicated function. With the way my program is written, it should
fairly easy to use it in a dedicated function to get a distance or more
than one, angles if required, feed the data to Geomcal, get the answer
and be done. That assumes that the same or very similar calculations are
always being done.

If you send me some comprehensive examples of all that you want to do,
I'll see if I can knock something up.



Larry

 

I'll be glad to supply examples. But, really, my original need was to pick a
text object and stow the string into the clipboard. The business about picking
points may be adding more complexity than I had in mind. There's no magic in
pipes or civil calculating in general; just distance, slope, etc.

rs

 

Understood. I thought you were picking distances from geometry which is
what the program I proposed does.

For getting numbers from text, I knocked up a little function and have
posted it Customer files. It is called GetTextNumber.zip.

Hope you get this post and can use the function. Requires DosLib.

Function: GTN - GetTextNumbers

Select an entity which contains text and a number(s) that you wish to
copy to the clipboard. Function tested with Text, Mtext, Dimensions,
and Qleader. When selecting from a Qleader, select the text portion.

Functions scans text and retrieves legally formatted numbers contained
in the text. If there is only one number, the number is placed
immediately on the clipboard. If there is more than one number, a dialog
box is displayed containing the numbers in their original format. Select
one of the numbers and it is placed on the clipboard.

Numbers are placed on the clipboard in decimal format suitable for use
with a calculator.



Larry

 

in VBA::

Code:

Dim textObj As DataObject
Set textObj = New DataObject
textObj.SetText "put text here"
textObj.PutInClipboard

or in a LISP hack:

Code:

(defun c:clipboardTest()
(command ".vbastmt"
"Set textObj = New DataObject"
".vbastmt"
"textObj.SetText \"put text here\""
".vbastmt"
"textObj.PutInClipboard"
);command
(princ)
)

 

Thanks, Larry. I have DosLib and will use it if necessary, but it's unwieldy to
circulate a small lisp routine with a whole library. I'd rather have code if I
can figure it out. Can't one sneak bits of visual basic into lisp?

rs

 

Ok, PutInClipboard is a routine available in VBA, I take it. I will now read up
on VBA.

Thanks

rs