Door blocks

Hi,

I'm using AutoCad 2004.

I have a block of a door drawn on plan with an opening size of 1 unit
so that When I insert the block in a drawing I can scale it up to suit
the opening width and then extract the block's xscale to build a
schedule of door sizes.
Further, the block's polarity can be used to determine whether the
door is left- or right-hand hung.

I'd now like to incorporate an attribute that displays the current
leaf-size on screen (and print), such that when the door is resized,
the attribute updates automatically.

I guess that Xanadu's Excellink might help me with this feature but I
was wondering if anybody had any other (fairly simple and very cheap)
ideas to help me achieve this.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Zac

 

The attributes BL:XSCALE (and BL:YSCALE) give you the current scale
factor(s) of your insertion. Extract this atributes and you will get a list
of all door sizes.

Juergen

 

I think I'm missing some posts in the thread, Jurgen.
Has someone suggested that these attributes be added to the
block, or are you?

 

OK, my posting was a little rudimentary. It should be: Add an attribut
BL:XSCALE to the door block, then you can extract the scale factors.
Thanks for the correction.

Juergen

 

Is there some way that acad automatically sets the block X scale to an
attribute named "BL:XSCALE", etc.
or will the OP have to enter this stuff manually? If the former, how and in
what version?

 

Of course you can do this with some lines of LISP. (The DXF-codes 41, 42
and 43 of an insertion give you the X-, Y- and Z- scale factor). So you
don't need attributes.
I guess you can write it yourself?

Juergen

 

Yes, I know how do get that info from entdata. (I'm not the OP.)
My question was whether there was something special about the
specific attribute name you gave that makes it behave like a reactor,
i.e. it automatically takes the value of the scale factor.

Tell me soon because the other villagers and I are building a large
likeness of you out of straw and sticks down by the bank of the river... :
D

 

I don't know nothing about the internal program code of AutoCAD (only a
little knowledge of LISP). The only I know is, that there are some
predefined (built in) attribute tags beginning with bl:... (bl:level,
bl:name, bl:x, -y, -z, bl:layer, blrient and any more), which can be used
to extract the properties of block insertions.

:

???


Juergen

 

Additional, to avoid a possibly misunderstanding: it's NOT necessary to
include these bl:... attributes to a block definition. If the block includes
at least one user defined attribute, the (e)attext command can read
(extract) all the block insertion properties.

Juergen

 

Well, I didn't read the OPs question carefully. Now we are very Off Topic.
To the OP: Yes, it should be possible with some lines of lisp (using
reactors). I'd suggest to ask in the customization group at
discussion.autodesk.com

Juergen

 

....not THAT far really. Knowing what Jurgen just revealed, if bl:xscale
could be made a visible attribute,
you are basically there except for mirrored insertions where the value would
be a negative number.
You could then use a scheme like I did for years where I had a right-handed
and a left-handed door block,
sized at 1 unit.

 

This is facinating. I'll look into it. How far back was this the case?

A(n obscure) reference to the "cargo cults" where technologically primitive
people
come to deify technologically advance peoples, building likenesses of them
from available materials and techniques. The meaning?

You are a god if you can do this! ; )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult

 

I don't know if I understand your question right: These bl:... attributes
are known AFAIK since Rel. 11 (sure), in older versions I don't know - that
was deep in the prior millenium ;-).

Thanks for the explanation

This is a conclusion that is not acceptable ;-)

But now let's finish here this off topic small talk. If you want a
furthermore conversation send me an email (delete the CAPS in the adress)


Regards
Juergen