F.A.O. Frank O.

Hi Frank

As your site is down at the moment, could you post your filterlayout routine
here please.

Thanks

Dave F.

 

Public Sub FilterLayout(ss As AcadSelectionSet, layoutName As String)

Dim max As Long, objArray() As AcadEntity

max = -1

For i = 0 To ss.Count - 1
If
LCase(acadApp.ActiveDocument.ObjectIdToObject(ss.Item(i).OwnerID).Layout.Nam
e) _
<> LCase(layoutName) Then
max = max + 1
ReDim Preserve objArray(0 To max)
Set objArray(max) = ss.Item(i)
End If
Next

ss.RemoveItems objArray

End Sub


--
R. Robert Bell


Hi Frank

As your site is down at the moment, could you post your filterlayout routine
here please.

Thanks

Dave F.

 

I'll have to beg everyone's pardon here, but I've
had about enough of this mindless perpetuation of
ignorance.

WRT the 'code' you requested, why on Earth would you
want to use that junk for? Not only is it completely
unnecessary in most scenarios, but it is probably
some of the most horrifying, inefficient code I've
ever seen posted here.

Do yourself a favor. Don't allow yourself to become
the victim of someone else's learning mistakes, as
that is basically what the 'code' Robert just posted
amounts to.

Why?

First, constructing arrays by using "redim preserve"
once for each element you add to the array, is the
trademark signature of an entry-level, amateur. But,
that's not important. What is important, is that this
practice is also the primary reason why so many VB and
VBA applications written by beginners, run 10x slower
than they otherwise can.

So, WRT the 'REDIM PRESERVE' business for building
arrays, don't ever do this!!!

If you need to build an array and the final size
cannot be easily determined from the outset, then
you use a collection, which can be appended to
much more efficiently.

Second, the manner in which that code goes about
filtering by layout is basically like taking the
high road to China.

When you have a selection set and want to process
only entities in that reside on a given layout,
then all you need to do is integrate a simple If/Then
construct in your primary selection set processing
loop, using ObjectID of the desired layout's Block,
and the OwnerID of each entity.

The following represents the main processing loop for
your selection set, where you perform whatever
operations you're doing on each entity. All you need
to do, is skip over the entities that are not on the
desired layout, and all you have to do to find out
what layout an entity resides on, is to compare the
value of its OwnerID to the ObjectID of the Layout's
Block object:

Public Sub ProcessSelectionSet(SS As AcadSelectionSet)

' Assume that you only want to process
' entities on the layout named "Floor Plan"

' First, we get the ObjectID of the AcadBlock
' associated with the "Floor Plan" Layout:

Dim BlockID as Long
BlockID = ThisDrawing.Layouts("Floor Plan").Block.ObjectId

' >>> PAY ATTENTION <<<<
'
' The value of an entity's OwnerID property is
' EQUAL to the value of the ObjectID property
' of the AcadBlock object that is associated
' with the layout which the entity resides on.

' So.... All you must do is process the entities in
' your selection set, and skip those that are not on
' the desired layout:

Dim Entity As AcadEntity

For Each Entity in SS
If Entity.OwnerID = BlockID Then
' This entity is on the desired Layout
' So, just do what you want to it.
End If
Next Entity
End Sub

You see, what those who wrote and perpetuate that kind
of 'code' didn't understand, is that determining if a
given entity resides on a given layout, is far simpler
than all of the crap you see them going through in that
code you asked for.

The most important thing to remember, is that there is
no need to 'pre-process' your selection set and remove
entities on all but the desired layout, unless you're
going to pass the selection set to some code that you
don't have, which unconditionally processes all of the
elements in the selection set. In a scenario like that,
then you must filter the selection set, but if all you
need to do is loop through the selection set and do
something to each entity on a specific layout, then the
need to preprocess it to remove entities on all other
layouts, is entirely pointless.

If you want to write a generic function to filter the
entities not on a desired layout, you can use something
similar to the above example along with a collection
object, to build a far more efficient filtering function
that will not make your code run like a slug.

I'll leave that as an exercise.

 

Just out of curiosity, from autocad vba programming by kramer and gibb, pg.110
If you need to iterate a selection and to *change* it (maybe removing some elements), start from the end:


Sub My_Filter2(SS As AcadSelectionSet, ET As Object)
Dim I As Integer
Dim Ent(0) As Object /*this is another witty trick*/

I = SS.Count
While (I > 0)
I = I - 1
Set Ent(0) = SS.Item(I)
If Ent(0).EntityType <> ET.EntityType Then
SS.RemoveItems (Ent)
End If
Wend
End Sub

 

Thanks for your perspective on this, Tony. Your post couldn't have been
more timely for me.

In particular, thanks for mentioning collections. I've always wondered why
go through the redim stuff when a generic collection would handle most
situations 'better'. I made the apparently erroneous assumption that a
collection added overhead, so I've been avoiding going that route.

 

Thanks Tony

TomD - I've been told on here that using scripting dictionary
(tools-reference- Microsoft scripting runtime) is faster/more useful than
even collections. The two I find most useful are Exists & Remove.

Dave F.

 

Ooook. I'll have to look into that. The only think I've really done with
WSH is for files (reading/writing ASCII and getting file lists, etc.).

Thanks for the tip.

 

Hey Tony,
Have you used Collections to get an unknown array of text from a DB to be inserted in a DWG at various locations within the DWG?

 

I must apologize to the ng, as I did not review that code before I posted
it. All I saw was a request for a function that used to be posted on the
website, and I did not take the time to review the code's efficiency. Sorry,
all.

 

None necessary, IMO. Your efforst here are appreciated and helpful to many.

 

Thanks for the kind post, but I have to agree with Tony, posting bad code is
just... bad. ;^)

 

Don't feed the troll. There's no need to apologize.

Did you receive a request for the most efficient way to go about a given
task or did you receive a request for a specific routine?

 

It always amazes me how you can offer the most insightful analysis
combined with the most odious attitude known to man.

Don't ever change.

P.S.

Thanks for the tips.

 

Ooook

Are you an Orangutan Librarian?
(Not sure if you'll know what I mean. There's a British Author called Terry
Pratchett whose written numerous hilarious books set in a fantasy world
called Discworld. One of the characters is the librarian at the wizards
university who accidentally got turned into an orangutan by an unstable
spell. The only word he uses to comunicate is Ooook, in all it's various
inflections.)

If you like a laugh, I suggest you check him out.

Cheers
Dave F.

 

Here, here.

 

No, I'm not, but sounds interesting............thanks. I think I'll check
that out.

Terry

 

Yeah, I agree, but..............Just know that it is appreciated.

 

No. But collections are just a generic feature that can be used
like an array, except that they're better at operations involving
indeterminate quantities.

within the DWG?

 

I don't mean to beat a dead horse, or anything, but generally speaking, is
there any major performance issues?