Geometric Data

Hi,

I am wanting to extract geometric information from 3D drawings i have made in CAD, ie the node of a box, and the vectors to other co-ordinates, for use in another programm i am using. I wish to do this automatically, for the entire file, not just specifying individual lines using ID and DIST.

Does anybody know of an existing program which would help me do this, or am i going to have to use VBA. Not sure of how to proceed with this so any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Andy

 

That's a fairly open ended question. You would have to provide some more
detail about what, exactly, you're trying to accomplish.

The short answer is "Yes, VBA can do that". AutoLisp/VLisp can do it, also.

Have you done any google searches for existing apps?

in CAD, ie the node of a box, and the vectors to other co-ordinates, for use
in another programm i am using. I wish to do this automatically, for the
entire file, not just specifying individual lines using ID and DIST.

am i going to have to use VBA. Not sure of how to proceed with this so any
feedback would be greatly appreciated.

 

Hi Andrew,

There are some items you are going to have to define for yourself.

AutoCAD has numerous items - which ones do you want ?

eg a line has end points - do you want both ?
a circle has a centre, radius and centre location - do you want them all ?
a block has an insertion point.
text has an insertion point, but is also affected by justification
etc. etc for all AutoCAD objects.

Next, what order do you want data to appear in ?
Do you want the items in drawing order ? Or all lines, then all blocks etc.
?
Do you want them sorted by X value ?

In general you will make a selection set of the items you want and then use
code along the lines of:

For each Item in SelectionSet
OutputValue = Item.property
Do something to format the OutputValue
Write it to a file
next


--


Laurie Comerford
CADApps
www.cadapps.com.au

in CAD, ie the node of a box, and the vectors to other co-ordinates, for use
in another programm i am using. I wish to do this automatically, for the
entire file, not just specifying individual lines using ID and DIST.

am i going to have to use VBA. Not sure of how to proceed with this so any
feedback would be greatly appreciated.