Find drawing extents

Hi

I'm trying to find the outside perimiter of the drawing, and I remember there was a command that could be used for this but I don't know what it was. And it drives me crazy.

x

LIMITS? and another 10 characters

I don't know what you're trying to say. I can specify the model space limits with LIMITS.

What I need is the outline of the drawing.

zoom > extents?

I'm not sure what you are after, if this is not it, you need to explain more what you are after.

Extmin / Extmax

Or, more specifically

(defun GetDrawingExtents nil
 (mapcar (function getvar) '("EXTMIN" "EXTMAX")))

I've uploaded an example. If this is what the drawing looks like, then I'm after this

Please disregard that the yellow outline is the same as the result, this is seldom the case.

I've got to agree with Tiger here - that is hardly what you first described with "Find Drawing Extents", hence my original post.

But, I believe this is what you are after.

You are after the area? Command AREA?

I've got to agree with Tiger here - that is hardly what you first described with "Find Drawing Extents", hence my original post.

"I'm trying to find the outside perimiter of the drawing" was the original post, the topic name is not theral.

The link asks for a password/username.

You are after the area? Command AREA?

No I'm not after the area, I need the border, for future reference, trimming, etc.

It's not Limits.

It's not Area.

"I need the border, for future reference, trimming, etc."

OK. I take it that you want to save this border perhaps as a Block? By the way, is the border a continuous polyline by any chance?

...

 

No I'm not after the area, I need the border, for future reference, trimming, etc.

So you need for example a Lisp that takes a look at your current drawing and draws a Polyline around the very outside of the drawing? And the outside is probably not one continous line? Not a command that I have ever heard of that does that.

Is the area that you have shown part of a much larger map? There is a Lisp routine called Cookiecutter that can trim away everything on the outside of a border.

So you need for example a Lisp that takes a look at your current drawing and draws a Polyline around the very outside of the drawing? And the outside is probably not one continous line? Not a command that I have ever heard of that does that.

I had to draw another polyline a rectangle, etc to enclose it, then the command would create an object which would have the drawing as a hole in it. I don't remember what did this.

Could you be a bit more specific?

Could that command have been Boundary or Region?

I had to draw another polyline a rectangle, etc to enclose it, then the command would create an object which would have the drawing as a hole in it. I don't remember what did this.

I would guess that what you had was a Lisp, written by someone before you and integrated in your AutoCAD without you being aware of it. It's not as strange as it sounds, it's fairly easy to make your own toolbar or menu and populate it with personalized commands and Lisps.

If you do manage to recollect the command, you can Google it and see if the lisp in question is posted somewhere.

I remember now, it was bpoly, what I forgot that it only works if the inside pline is already continous.

This is what you are talking about?

BPOLY

If you have several segments with overshoots as shown in the image attached and you want to clear the overshoots and make a closed polygon, you will probably use "trim" command.

There is an alternative way to do this faster.

Use the bpoly command.

After using this command, a dialog box opens and you have to pick a point inside the closed area.

Please note that this works only for "closed" areas.

A polygon is formed at the boundary of closed area.

You can now erase the original entities and use the closed polygon thus formed.

I think you have to run it from the command line like this: _Bpoly

ReMark, is BPoly an express command?

Not to my knowledge.

I just tried typing it in using 2010 and it is recognized (a Boundary Creation dialog box appears). Yet, Bpoly is not listed as a command nor can it be found using the Search feature in AutoCAD Help. It must be a holdover from an earlier release.