Lines Auto Dimensioning

[Fire Alarm]

I have looked for a lisp routine or command, for having the lines that I draw automatically show their lenght. I do not know how lisp routines work. I am currently studying them, but cannot figure out how to create one. Any help would be greatly appreciated. It would help me save time when I try to figure out voltage drop calculations for my notification circuits.

Thanks

[Tiger]

Do you mean get an proper dimension as soon as you have completed the line? That would be tricky, but probably not impossible.

If you mean see the lenght of the line while you are drawing it, you can turn on Dynamic Input (click the DYN button at the bottom of the screen) - right-click on the DYN-button to get to Settings for it and set it up as you want it.

[Fire Alarm]

What I usually do is draw a pline from device to device and then select the line and go to properties to see the length. I would like to see the lenght of the line once it is drawn. Not while I am drawing it.

[Tiger]

Aha. I'll move your thread to the Lisp forum and hope someone there can help you

[BlackAlnet]

You want to figure it alone? a few tips if yes, you can take 2 points, do the pline command and then, add this

(command "dist" p1 p2);if p1 and p2 is the points.
(princ)
(setq di (getvar "Distance"))

This will show the distance from points.

[JohnM]

when you draw you line is it a line or pline?
is it always straight or is the curves involved?
is it from point a to point b or many points?
do you want a autocad dimension or just a text with the length?

[Fire Alarm]

when you draw you line is it a line or pline?
is it always straight or is the curves involved?
is it from point a to point b or many points?
do you want a autocad dimension or just a text with the length?
JohnM
1) They are plines
2 & 3) there are 90 deg turns (I try not to go point to point so I have a distance safety factor)
4) just show text length is fine

BlackAlnet
Don't know enough to do alone.

Thanks

[chelsea1307]

lee mac wrote me a lisp a while back that after the plines are drawn you start the lisp and select your pline and the text is placed next to it, would that get you closer to what you want?

[Lee Mac]

Something like this?

(defun c:leng (/ ent Obj)
  (vl-load-com)
  (while
    (progn
      (setq ent (car (entsel "\nSelect Object: ")))
      (cond ((eq 'ENAME (type ent))
             (setq Obj (vlax-ename->vla-object ent))
             (if (vlax-property-available-p Obj 'length)
               (not (print (vla-get-length Obj)))
               (princ "\n** Invalid Object Selected **")))
            (t (princ "\n** Nothing Selected **")))))
  (princ))

[Lee Mac]

lee mac wrote me a lisp a while back that after the plines are drawn you start the lisp and select your pline and the text is placed next to it, would that get you closer to what you want?

This one I believe:

http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?t=36659