Line length

Hi all

I need to set up a pretty basic drawing which is going to have certain lines whos length the client needs to be able to obtain as simply as possible.

It will not be a straight line but a line made up of 3 lines segments. EG a Z?

It would obviously have to be a Polyline right?

Would it require LISP? Is there another way?

Thanks

Rob

You could use just plain lines and one of the LISP routines (Quick Line Length or Line Length) mentioned in the link (cadalyst magazine) below.

http://cadtips.cadalyst.com/node/tiplisting?page=1&keywords=LENGTH%20OF%20LINE&destination=node/tiplisting

Note that the length of a polyline "Z" would be given as a total of all three legs if you used the LIST command.

You can see the lenght of the polyline in its properties, just like that(3 legs together).

Alternatively you could create a fancy data extraction table inside the drawing which displays the lenght of these lines and updates them if changed.

You could use a dynamic block?

z.dwg

Nice block GE! good to know dimensions are useable in dynblocks.

Thanks Tommy

You can also suppress the dim lines if you prefer to just have the number- I've done that quite a bit in the past too.

You could use a dynamic block?

or

blocks of differrent names (eg. block1_10meters, block2_20meters, etc) which can be easily inserted and refedit if a need arises.

ReMark - I work with LT and I believe Im not able to use LISP.

Tommy - Your idea seems closest to what the client is looking for. You have a link for me to investigate further?

He needs to be able to click the line once (if possible) and Autocad needs to give him the length.

To fill you in, this line will indicate a copper bar and he needs to be able to order exact lengths according to the length of that line.

MisterJ, if your client has a recent version of autocad he can read the lenght in the quickproperties window that pops up after clicking the line.

Autocad's help files are very good for learning about the data extraction tool.

By the sound of it, just dimension the lines? No need for dynamic blocks.

As Tommy78 suggests, it sounds like the customer has ACAD so I think his suggestion is spot on. If they have a recent version you won't even need to go into properties depending on the setup.

Ok thats true.

Ill propose that. At worst Ill investigate the data extraction option.

Thanks guys

Thanks Tommy

 

You can also suppress the dim lines if you prefer to just have the number- I've done that quite a bit in the past too.

I've used that suppressing the dim lines but those defpoints show up even after I turn off the defpoint layer. Can't figure that out.

Any suggestions on that?

On the Z line dilemma.

I would use a polyline and insert a field -> object -> length (attached).

You just have to remember to regenall (i reset my pgp command to r). It does automatically update upon plotting, saving, opening and such if the "FIELD" settings are right in the tools-> options -> user preferences -> field settings is set up right.

z2.dwg