fun with designators

Arrogance here, ; }

Once you put aside the question of how you would "logically" sequence a set based solely on a set of x,y,z coordinates, I don't see why you have to take the extra step to an ASCII file. My gut tells me you could do this with lisp alone. I like attributes because they are fixed to the block and cannot be easily misplaced or mis-associated. The code to retrieve the value of an attribute is a few more lines, but once you've done it, you've done it. TOPO.LSP on my site does all kinds of stuff with attributes-you could grab some code there.

The thing I don't get immediately is how to assign "rational" names automatically. Left to right? Top to bottom? Which way first? What about numbering along a "branch"? This is the interesting part of the project to me. The rest is "clockwork".

"Michael Bulatovich" wrote in news:lkwHc.48047$ snipped-for-privacy@news20.bellglobal.com:

thanks Michael.

"rational" translates to "sequential along the circuit".

I have a dozen floors of fire alarm wiring to show, sort by wire type, circuit number, device type/number, pretty much in that order. then, since these are mostly addressable loops, I want to also show the actual conduit, and where short cuts can be made to cut down path length for "return" portion of circuits.

not as difficult as I make it sound.

think this through with me, if you will. autocad is a database. a circuit is a polyline in the database. these lines could be superimposed on each other and still produce drawings, but I would know the length of each conductor. devices are blocks located at vertices along the polyline (circuit), with meaningful data stored as attributes......

just typing has been helpful, thanks. I think I am liking this.

by the way, I collect antique mantle clocks. I have a healthy respect for the talent it takes to repair such, let alone that reqired to design one.

That's what I figured.

I haven't fooled around with polylines, but if the the points are preserved in a sequential order (you'd hope they would), you could prompt for a pick on the "bottom" of the polyline and then crawl up the list of vertices....Look for routines that manipulate polylines. You should find a chunk of code to get started.

First you would have to make a selection set of the alarms for the branch and store that. Then as you hit a pline vertex you could check that point for the insert of an alarm from the list. (You had better be good about snappin the inserts!) Then you could sequentially change the attribute number, (I'm assuming a block with attributes.) I have a routine on my site called Bseq. LSP that has some code for generating sequential att values, it's yours to mangle as you see fit. Another thought, your block might have two atts, one for the number and one for the circuit name or number. That way you could select the whole mess as long as the circuit numbers were done right, and do it in one shot. I still think you'd have to pick the plines to indicate which end to start at, unless they are always drawn from tip to tail.

I drag my wife over to the table occasionally just to explain something to her, because in the process I OFTEN come up with a new view of the problem, and sometimes the solution just jumps up and swats me in the nose.