How do I get AutoCAD to count?

[daveyboyd]

I was wondering if there is anyway to get AutoCAD to count, let me explain. . .

I work in the Civil Engineering sector and more than often we have to supply plan/profiles drawings of say a pipeline route. On this we put chainage values, usually in meters, for example 00 being the start of the piepline and then in increments of 50m dependant on the length of the pipe. To do this I use the measure command on the pipeline route (usually a polyline) and use block a circle out for the indicator. I then have to manually insert and align text with the chainage value on, which can be time consuming especially when you have a really long pipe! I was wondering if there was a way of using the measure command to insert aligned text along the pipeline which increases in numeric value as it progresses. I know this is a big ask but it would be a great help.

I would also like to add that I love this site and although I haven't posted much on here, I regularly visit and find it an excellent source of information which I have used a lot, thanks.

[Alan Cullen]

G'day Davey....

First up...I'll bet your a bit annoyed about your pommy team loosing the Ashes, and then getting flogged by the Aussies in the 1 day series.....

Yeah, what you want to do can be done using lisp.....may take a while to write though.....

Alternatively, you could do it in civil design software extremely easily...then import it into acad. Does anyone there use 12D Model ???

[ASMI]

I was wondering if there was a way of using the measure command to insert aligned text along the pipeline which increases in numeric value as it progresses.

Something like this? http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?t=10723

[alderney]

Do you have access to the Autodesk Civil Design add-on?

[daveyboyd]

Thanks people for all the advice. We do have 12d and MX software here for Civil designing but as always getting someone to churn something out ussually takes a couple of days and a letter from god. I haven't tried the other lisp suggestions yet but from the description they seem to be what I want, again thanks for your help, yet again proving the worth of this forum.

Cheers

Dave

[Alan Cullen]

Dave.....give the pipeline string to one of your 12D blokes, he'll be able to chainage label the string for you in seconds, then give everything back to you for importing back into acad.

Just in case...... the 12D label feature is.....
Strings -> Label -> Chainages

[daveyboyd]

Cheers Alan, oh by the way, I think you spoke a bit too soon about the cricket mate, good luck with the world cup though!

[Alan Cullen]

Cheers Alan, oh by the way, I think you spoke a bit too soon about the cricket mate, good luck with the world cup though!

Yeah.....I did, didn't I

Ah well......we still won the big one....the Ashes (with a whitewash)