Insert a round block using any quandrant

But CopyObjects doesn't work if the object is in an xref, right? I modified
it because the mod was simpler, but more importantly worked equally well on
an xref, I thought.

I've looked through the posts I could find on "(entmake (entget" a bit more
and it seems Tony (and perhaps others) would say to avoid (entxxxx)
altogether. I know I'm a newcomer here and have a lot to learn, but having
looked through the previous posts I find myself still wondering if it isn't
worth using in this case.

The situation: I (and John if I understand his need correctly) basically
just want to accurately copy the geometry from an nentselp, even from an
xref. Unless I've missed something, the xref part wipes out the vla-
methods and even (command "copy"..., leaving us with (entmake (entget... or
learn a whole new language.

So, if we're
1. okay with this being limited to "simple" objects,
2. don't care about optional properties (color, ltype, and such),
3. have no use for extended data in the copy,
4. and will just be promptly deleting the "copy" anyway,
is it okay to use (entmake (entget...?

I hope I'm not coming across too much like I'm second guessing everyone.
I've just always been pretty bent on understanding in detail the things that
I learn and use... One of these days I'll have something 'finished' that I
can post and everyone can critique. Something just came up and I will be
gone the rest of the day, will be looking forward to further education
tomorrow...

James

 

James,

I think, given the conditions you mentioned, the (entmake (entget... thing is OK.
Tony and others might disagree.

You would want to add some type checking to what you posted. For instance, was the
object returned from (car (nentselp... contained in a block reference? An xref or a
standard insert. Maybe like this to avoid an error if the user picks something other
than a block reference.

(defun c:demo (/ pick obj)
(setq pick (nentselp))
;test for a transformation matrix
(if (= 4 (length (caddr pick)))
(progn
(entmake (entget (car pick)))
(setq obj (vlax-ename->vla-object (entlast)))
(vla-transformby obj (vlax-tmatrix (caddr pick)))
)
(princ "\nBlock not selected. ")
)
obj
)

You are right thinking this is a very easy way to copy an object from an xref or
block insert. Regarding the CopyObjects method with objects contained in an xref,
that can be done using ObjectDBX.

You are asking good questions. So keep it up.

Joe Burke

 

Joe, your patient help is very much appreciated. Good point about the type
checking. Hopefully John and others will find this helpful as well.

James