Looking for a DIMCENTER replacement

I want a replacement for DIMCENTER that draws a centerline as crossed CENTER2 linestyle lines so that the cross in the center is the short dash of the linestyle. That way, when clicked on, the entire line will be selected with a grip right in the center. Center lines should NOT be multiple lines!!!
Can anyone help? I know nothing about lisp and can't take the time to try to learn it.
If someone can write this I will be grateful.

 

I assume from the wording that you want the equivalent of dimensioning's
"line" variety of center mark, rather than the "mark" variety, and you want
the lines to extend past the circumference of the curve (arc or circle).

It wouldn't be too hard to make a routine that would use the DIMCEN variable
and the curve's radius to calculate the length of the lines, and the
endpoints relative to the center-point of the curve, and draw two lines.
But I don't think you can do what you want (with consistent results) using
that kind of simple line-calculation and the CENTER2 linetype, because
depending on the radius of the curve relative to the linetype scale,
sometimes you'll get lines with the short dashes in the center, and
sometimes you'll get them with the long dashes in the center (and for small
enough radii, with no dashes at all). You'd still always get a
"symmetrical" crossing of line segments at the center, but sometimes they'd
just be the longer dashes. Is that acceptable?

Another question is whether you want the same effect as standard DIMCENTER
(with the only breaks in the lines being close to the center), or you can
live with additional breaks farther out, when the lines are longer.

Another approach would be to do the regular DIMCENTER thing, and then grab
those last six line entities that it makes and turn them into a selectable
group. Then you could pick on any of them, and you'd select all of them,
and have a grip at the center (the common midpoint of the two crossing
lines). [Do you ever have a reason to want to select only one of the lines,
or would you always want both anyway?] If that works for you, that's a
different routine altogether.

If the size of your center-marked things doesn't vary a whole lot, you could
also consider a routine that would insert a crosshairs block. It could be
scaled according to the radius of the curve, and the size of the cross-hair
intersection at the center would vary accordingly, which is why it would
work best if there's not much range in size.

Give us a little direction, and there are certainly ways (including, I'm
sure, some I haven't thought of) to accomplish what you want.

Kent Cooper, AIA

CENTER2 linestyle lines so that the cross in the center is the short dash of
the linestyle. That way, when clicked on, the entire line will be selected
with a grip right in the center. Center lines should NOT be multiple
lines!!!