How can scripts or Lisp be used to manipulate windows ?

I have hundreds Acad drawings that need new "page setup" from the "plot dialog" box changed. We have a new plotter and these drawings need to be updated with the new plot settings. The problem is that I do not know of a way to manipulate the "page setup" up from strictly the command prompt, therefore I don't' know of a way to use scripts, Lisp, or anything else to control dialog boxes to access commands that do not have a command prompt equivalent. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to address this specific problem or know of a general way to manipulating dialog boxes ?

 

-plot at the command line ...write down all your responses ... you want to
enter YES to save changes and NO to plot at the end...then save the
file...then create a script or lisp to repeat using the values you just
entered.

 

Save your new plotter setup in your .dwt file then use this menumacro

^C^C.-PSETUPIN "yourtemplate.dwt" "*"

 

dialog" box changed. We have a new plotter and these drawings need to be
updated with the new plot settings. The problem is that I do not know of a
way to manipulate the "page setup" up from strictly the command prompt,
therefore I don't' know of a way to use scripts, Lisp, or anything else to
control dialog boxes to access commands that do not have a command prompt
equivalent. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to address this
specific problem or know of a general way to manipulating dialog boxes ?

this might help you get started. You can alter and autoload this and then
can run this from a script to add the page setup to all of your drawings. It
adds my HP1050 and LaserJet 4V pagesetups from a template file that contains
all of my page setups to my DDP_1 layout tab and makes the HP1050 page setup
current.


(defun C:add1050C ()
(setq tablist (layout-list))
(setq gettab (car (member "DDP_1" tablist)))
(if (eq gettab "DDP_1");if the DDP_1 layout tab exists
(progn
(setvar "FILEDIA" 0);turn off dialogs
(setq expert (getvar "EXPERT"));save sysvar
(setvar "EXPERT" 2);eliminate the annoying dialog if a PS already
exists
(setq psetuplist "HP1050C-ArchD,11x17L");list of pagesetups
(command "PSETUPIN" "PageSetupMaster.dwt" psetuplist);import page
setups
(command "-PLOT" "N" "DDP_1" "HP1050C-ArchD" "HP1050C.pc3" "N" "Y" "N")
;make the HP1050C Page Setup current in the DDP_1 tab
(setvar "FILEDIA" 1);turn on dialogs
(setvar "EXPERT" expert);restore sysvar
);progn
);if
(princ)
);end defun add1050C

Dave
DDP

 

And do not forget to turn FILEDIA to 0 and then back to 1

I actually run a LISP routine DAPS to Delete All PageSteups and
then -PSETUPIN from a file I call PLOT.DWT

(defun c:daps ()
(vl-load-com)
(vlax-for ps (vla-get-plotconfigurations
(vla-get-activedocument
(vlax-get-acad-object)))
(vla-delete ps)
)
)

 

Thanks so much for your replies. This was exactly what I was looking for. It seems that the "psetupin" command is the command line equivalent for interacting with the plot dialog box. Which leads me to the general question, do all dialog boxes have a command line equivalent? (such as: "-psetupin" for "Page Setup Name" in the plot dialog or "-xref" for the "Xref Manager") Because it seems that there is no way of interacting with dialog boxes with any type of code. If there is no command line equivalent for a dialog box, then is it impossible to work with the feature in that dialog box?

Thanks again,
treyr

 

Thanks for the input I like the approach, but i'm not sure how the routine that you have shown deletes the previous page setups. I don't recognize any of the commands used thought out the LISP routine. (I would really like to incorporate the deletion)

Thx

 

that you have shown deletes the previous page setups. I don't recognize any
of the commands used thought out the LISP routine. (I would really like to
incorporate the deletion)

save the daps.lsp as a text file somewhere, preferably in your Acad search
path. Use Appload to load the routine, then type DAPS at the command line.
Your existing page setups in that drawing will be gone. If you want to run
it in a script on multiple drawings before using another routine to psetupin
new page setups just write a script like:

open
C:\WhereTheDrawingIs\DwgName.dwg
daps
whatever the command is to do your psetupin
qsave
close
open
so on and so forth

there are many ways to automate the creation of script files, but, that's
another subject
Dave
DDP

 

Try setting FILEDIA to 0 in your script, and then use -PSETUPIN and then
name the location of the server/drive/folder/file that you want to get the
Page Setup from...

Also note that an "\" in a script is a prompt whereas a "/" (both less
"quotation marks) is what you need to privide to a macro or a script in
order for it to address pathes...

Lastly do not forget to reset FILEDIA back to 1