Importing polygon from a csv file

[labmonkey]

Thanks BIGAL,

I will look into that. That may be simpler than using an external program (such as excel). In my previous post you can see some example of the original *.cel file. There are also a lot of lines containing 'nonsense', but they should be easily disgarded. My idea for using excel was that I can strip out the nonsense relatively easily and then insert cells where I need to containing commas, spaces, and text such as " _C _CHPROP _L _C 3 _HATCH _P _S _L _CHPROP _L _C 5" and then re-save it as the script.

Also look at "read file" the same thing can be done without rewriting the csv to create a script using lisp you can read a line in work out the L & W and insertion pt and create a rectang or a pline, the lisp just keeps going till it hits end of file.

How can I create this from a csv file? for example 0 0 10 5. A csv is a comma seperated variable file 0,0,10,5 you have a space delimited file, good news it doesn't matter just need to tell lisp to use space or ,

Post a few lines of the csv

[labmonkey]

So, I'm still confused with this script.

_PLINE -79.289,-229.289 -79.289,-200 20.711,-200 20,711,-229.289 _CLOSE 
_LINE -96.860,32.583 56.082,32.583 
_ZOOM E

(edit: there is a space after "_ZOOM E", but it's not showing above for reasons I guess due to the forum software.)
If I literally copy the above code and paste it into the command line it does exactly what I expect and this is seen in the command line window.

Command: _PLINE
Specify start point: -79.289,-229.289
Current line-width is 0.0000
Specify next point or [Arc/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]: -79.289,-200
Specify next point or [Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]: 20.711,-200
Specify next point or [Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]: 20,711,-229.289
2D point or option keyword required.
Specify next point or [Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]: _CLOSE
Command:
PLINE
Specify start point: _LINE
Invalid point.
Specify start point: -96.860,32.583
Current line-width is 0.0000
Specify next point or [Arc/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]: 56.082,32.583
Specify next point or [Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]:
Command: _ZOOM
Specify corner of window, enter a scale factor (nX or nXP), or
[All/Center/Dynamic/Extents/Previous/Scale/Window/Object] <real time>: E

But, if I try to tun it as a script (there is nothing else at all in the script), it fails. It hangs while asking for the next point for the PLINE. This is what is seen in the command line window.

Command: script
Command: _PLINE
Specify start point: -79.289,-229.289
Current line-width is 0.0000
Specify next point or [Arc/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]: -79.289,-200
Specify next point or [Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]: 20.711,-200
Specify next point or [Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]: 20,711,-229.289
2D point or option keyword required.
Specify next point or [Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]: *Cancel*

(The last cancel is after I hit escape to stop it from hanging.)

Any ideas? It is really confusing me.

[MSasu]

Please check that you have used a comma (",") instead of a dot (".") which translate last input into a 3D point - the polyline command will accept a 3D point argument only for first point, all subsequent ones must be 2D:

_PLINE -79.289,-229.289 -79.289,-200 20.711,-200 20.711,-229.289 _CLOSE

[labmonkey]

Thanks!
I cannot believe I was so dumb!
I've been staring at that code for ages, and never noticed I'd accidentally used a comma instead of full stop!
I think I have a follow up question in a couple of minutes.

[MSasu]

You're welcome!
The "trick" is to check careful the messages AutoCAD is issuing to you; on the troublemaker input it was complaining that the format is not expected one for a 2D point.

[labmonkey]

You're welcome!
The "trick" is to check careful the messages AutoCAD is issuing to you; on the troublemaker input it was complaining that the format is not expected one for a 2D point.

Thanks. I was so convinced that the error was about closing the pline that I didn't consider I had a problem before that. I spent ages today trying various combinations of _CLOSE, _close, -CLOSE,.... etc.

My follow up question (and hopefully last) is about this code, which is the shell of my final script.

_LINE -96.860,32.583 56.082,32.583  _CHPROP _L  _C 2  _HATCH _P _S _L  _CHPROP _L  _C 1 
_RECTANGLE -69.138,-14.067 -15.304,14.531 _CHPROP _L  _C 2  _HATCH _P _S _L  _CHPROP _L  _C 2 
_PLINE -79.289,-229.289 -79.289,-200 20.711,-200 20.711,-229.289 _CLOSE _CHPROP _L  _C 3  _HATCH _P _S _L  _CHPROP _L  _C 3 
_COLOR 1 

_MTEXT 20,5 _H 1 20,10 1.0  

_COLOR 2 

_MTEXT 20,3 _H 2 20,8 2.0  

_COLOR 3 

_MTEXT 20,1 _H 2 20,6 3.0  

_ZOOM _E

It seems to work completely fine the first time I run it. However, if I run it a second time (without either erasing or zooming or panning the drawing) some of the text in the _MTEXT command gets shifted. I don't think this will be a problem because I will only ever run the script once, but I am curious why it does it. Probably I am using the _MTEXT command incorrectly. I simply want (in this case) three lines of text, each in a different colour). Should I be clearing the memory somewhere?

Apart from that, my next problem is how to extract the coordinates from the original *.cel file. I'll probably use some external program which I am more knowledgable about.

[Blackfish]

It seems to work completely fine the first time I run it. However, if I run it a second time (without either erasing or zooming or panning the drawing) some of the text in the _MTEXT command gets shifted. I don't think this will be a problem because I will only ever run the script once, but I am curious why it does it. Probably I am using the _MTEXT command incorrectly. I simply want (in this case) three lines of text, each in a different colour). Should I be clearing the memory somewhere?

I can run the above script as many times as I want and nothing is shifted; text, line and polylines are exactly as they should be (why not?) in the same place with or without zooming or panning.

[labmonkey]

Thanks. I'll try it on another computer later to make sure it's not just my machine.

[MSasu]

I was so convinced that the error was about closing the pline that I didn't consider I had a problem before that. I spent ages today trying various combinations of _CLOSE, _close, -CLOSE,.... etc.

Always keep in mind the an error message is issued right after the trouble-maker input; is also true that for some cases the processing is resumed and the following inputs are retrieved on prompter that may cause more errors. So, focus to solve the first one, since the following others may be just consequences.

[MSasu]

I'll try it on another computer later to make sure it's not just my machine.

Please try to disable the Osnap before run the script. Seems that, at least in AutoCAD 2010, the MText are affected by this feature.