Purge Dimstyle "Standard"

Using 2004, I found that the -PURGE command would permit purging dimstyle
"Standard" (so long as it's not the active dimstyle), but the dialog PURGE
command would not. In fact, if you toggle on "View items you cannot purge" the
TIP window reports "The default dimension style, STANDARD, cannot be purged."
Just tested... same story in 2000i and 2002. Not so in R14.01.

Is this a bug in the -PURGE command, or is it really okay to purge dimstyle
"Standard?" I've checked out drawings after purging "Standard" and they seem to
behave alright, but I wonder if they'll ultimately be corrupted.

I discovered this by accident after using an adaptation of Marco's function:
;; Step#16 - Purge Dimstyles
;; Credit to Marc'Antonio Alessi
(defun @Step#16 ( / Purging)
(and
(setq Purging T)
(while Purging
(setq Purging nil)
(command "._PURGE" "_Dim" "*" "_YES")
(while (> (getvar "CMDACTIVE") 0)
(setq Purging (not (command "_YES")))
)
1
)
)
)

If "Standard" should really NOT be purged, the apparent solution is to replace
"*" with "~STANDARD" which seems to ignore case.

 

Hi John,

Bug?, not certain. What I do know is I have
always purged 'standard' from my drawing files
and don't have any trouble with corruption.

FWIW

 

Thanks, Jason. I tend to agree with your observation. Perhaps Autodesk should
fix one or the other (PURGE vs. -PURGE) to eliminate the confusion. BTW, the
PurgeAll method will delete "Standard" also.

 

John,

I'm still running A2k2 so don't know about later releases but ...

I have noticed that if you rename the initial dimstyle "Standard" to say
"Test" for example, and then later create a new dimstyle named
"Standard", then AutoCAD will not let you purge "Test", but will let you
purge the new "Standard".

So from observation, it appears that AutoCAD doesn't let you purge the
initial dimstyle in the drawing. (did that makes sense)

Don't know if that's your situation or not.

Steve Doman

 

Thanks, Steve. But I think the case is really that you *can't* purge the
'ActiveDimStyle no matter what its position in the table, and you *can* purge
any nonactive nonreferenced dimstyle no matter what its position in the table or
what it's named. Of course I say this in 2000+ context, not R14.

 

It's an interesting question, and for us compulsives might bring a slacking of
tension. But is there a compelling reason to delete it?

rs

 

Funny how some always want to do something different. If it ani't broke.......

 

There's no compelling reason. I was simply wondering which was abnormal... to
be able to delete it (-PURGE) or not to (PURGE). I had never noticed that you
could purge dimstyle "Standard" until having run Marco's function, which, of
course, won't tell you that it has purged "Standard" unless your CMDECHO is
turned on and you scroll back up the text screen.

At this point I feel confident that it's okay, so it becomes just the client's
choice as whether to retain it or let it go. My guess is that they'll want to
delete it so that all their 6135 dwgs I'm converting will contain only the one
(1) dimension style upon which they intend to standardize.

 

Very wise under the circumstances. I always thought of it as a required pain,
like Display Configuration: Standard v
rs

 

You are quite correct.

You can find some past discussions about this, and to just
summarize, AutoCAD will not allow you to purge a drawing of
*all* dimension styles (I suppose because there must always
be an Active Dimstyle, but there are probably other good
reasons).

Hence, AutoCAD places no significance on the dimstyle whose
name is 'Standard'. It places significance on the *first* entry
in the dimension style dictionary.

To wit, there is an ObjectARX API function that returns the
'default' dimstyle table entry's Object ID. As it turns out,
this function simply returns the object id of the first entry
in the dimstyle table. TMK, there's nothing else about that
dimstyle that makes it sigificant, other than its position
in the dimstyle table.

The governing constraint is that you cannot purge a drawing of
*all* dimstyles, but AutoCAD's way of enforcing it, is to not
allow you to delete/purge the first entry even if it is not
referenced.

FWIW, you can circumvent the constraint by editing a DXF file,
and can do anything, including remove the first dimstyle or
rearrange the order of the dimstyle table. But, I'll venture to
guess that you cannot remove *all* dimension styles and still
have a valid full DXF file that is accepted by DXFIN.

--
http://www.caddzone.com

AutoCAD based Security Planning Solutions:
http://www.caddzone.com/securityplanning

AcadXTabs: MDI Document Tabs for AutoCAD 2004/2005
http://www.acadxtabs.com

 

Unless I'm misunderstanding you, I think you're partially wrong. At this point
I don't think there is any significance on the first entry in the DimStyle
table. I believe you *can* purge the first entry in the DimStyle table so long
as it is neither the ActiveDimStyle nor referenced, no matter what its name.
Note that the ActiveDimStyle need not be nor does become the first entry in the
table unless preceding entries are purged/deleted. This may not have been the
nature in R14 or earlier, but it seems to be with R15+. Just as Autodesk has
confused us with the PURGE vs. the -PURGE commands, perhaps the ObjectARX API
documentation is not consistent with the AutoLisp (tblnext) function or related
ActiveX methods.

 

Hi John, thanks for credit,

---

(this is slightly different from Tony stated)

Tested in A2k4:

1. DimStyles:

1.1 you can -purge (command line) or rename all DimStyles
regardless of position in dimstyle table with the
rename command or Dimstyle command

1.2 you cannot rename the DimStyle "Standard" with entmod

1.3 if you rename the DimStyle "Standard" with the rename
command or Dimstyle command, now you can rename it
with entmod and purge it with dialog PURGE command


2. Styles (text):

2.1 you can rename all Styles with the rename command

2.2 you cannot rename the first entry of style table
with Style command

2.3 you cannot purge the first entry of style table

2.4 you cannot rename the Style "Standard" with entmod

2.5 if you rename the Style "Standard" with the rename
command, now you can rename it with entmod

---

See also: ""Standard" tblobjname(s)" - posted in 2001?

From AutoCAD 2004 docs:

The following entries may not be renamed [ (with entmod) ]
but are otherwise modifiable, subject to restriction:

Symbol table entries that cannot be renamed
Table Entry name
STYLE STANDARD
DIMSTYLE STANDARD
BLOCKS *MODEL_SPACE
BLOCKS *PAPER_SPACE
APPID No entries may be renamed



--------------------------------------------------
Purge notes
--------------------------------------------------

In >A2k2:


3. you can purge all nested obects with one pass
with:

1.1 Purge command dialog

1.2 (command "_.PURGE" "_ALL" "*" "_N") < "_N"



4. with:

(vla-purgeall (vla-get-activedocument (vlax-get-acad-object)))
or
(command "._PURGE" "_All" "*" "_YES") < "_YES"

you purge only on level a time


Note: (command "._PURGE" ...) is equivalent to -purge
command line

See also: "Purge vs. vla-purgeall" posted in 2001?


---

Cheers.

________________________________________________

Marc'Antonio Alessi
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/alessi
(strcat "NOT a " (substr (ver) 8 4) " guru.")
________________________________________________

 

Marc'Antonio - You're correct, my comments were erroneously
referring dimstyles, but in reality, apply to text styles.
There's no ObjectARX API function for getting the 'standard'
or default dimstyle either (as there is for text styles).


--
http://www.caddzone.com

AutoCAD based Security Planning Solutions:
http://www.caddzone.com/securityplanning

AcadXTabs: MDI Document Tabs for AutoCAD 2004/2005
http://www.acadxtabs.com

 

Tony,

Thanks for the confirmation but I think maybe AutoCAD's purge behavior
may have changed in recent versions. I just did a short test using
AutoCAD 2005 to purge dimstyles and here's what happened:

*** AutoCAD 2005 ***

Using the dialogue based PURGE command, the "Standard" dimstyle was
filtered from the list of items shown in the list "View items you can
purge". Whether or not "Standard" was the first dimstyle entry didn't
matter. Hence, I was unable to purge "Standard".

On the other hand, using the command line version -PURGE, AutoCAD did
allow purging the "Standard" dimstyle. It didn't matter if "Standard"
was the first dimstyle entry or not, so long as it wasn't referenced of
course.

Hmmf! Rather inconsistent I must say. Well the last time I checked
AutoCAD wouldn't allow purging the initial dimstyle. My statement in my
previous post was based on experience from using the new fangled
dialogue PURGE command, and ASSuming the command line version worked the
same way.

Steve Doman

 

Hi Steve - My comments were actually relevant to text styles,
rather than as I erroneously suggested, to dimstyles.

--
http://www.caddzone.com

AutoCAD based Security Planning Solutions:
http://www.caddzone.com/securityplanning

AcadXTabs: MDI Document Tabs for AutoCAD 2004/2005
http://www.acadxtabs.com

 

Ok,

I have noted also (AutoCAD 2004 Italian version):

1. if you make a new empty drawing with metric default

1.1 there is a Dimstyle "ISO-25" (no Standard)
1.2 there is a Style "Standard"


2. if you make a new empty drawing with imperial default

2.1 there is a Dimstyle "Standard"
2.2 there is a Style "Standard"

....

9. consequently:

9.1 Dimstyle Standard is not always present in a drawing
9.2 Style Standard is always present in a drawing until
it is renamed
...
9.9 I prefer to have to have Standard (Dimstyle and Style)
in all my templates (I use only metrics)