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As we say here in NL : garantie tot aan de deur I've updated RlxPaste in attempt to handle dynamic blocks a little different than the normal cut/copy stuff. At this time it only works (if it works at all) when you select 1 dynamic block to add. It checks if block is dynamic or not. If so , it reads all dymanic properties of this block (I nicked a couple of Grand Master Lee's routines but don't tell him ) Save the block (under a different name of course because you can't save a block with the same name as the dwg) Then it writes all properties to a text file in the same folder & same name as the block but with extenion dbd (dynamic block data). Theory is that after insert it reads this dbd file and puts all props back. If it works , oh happy day , if it doesn't this conversation never happend... RlxPaste.LSP

The student is instructed to insert a tree block (previously created) at various locations through the subdivision based upon a list of coordinates given in the instructions. The text above suggests that instead of typing in the coordinates for each location, and possibly mistyping one or more, the student copy and paste the coordinates. Have you created your tree block?

Good afternoon @ReMark I’m not quite understanding this part of the project?

Thanks Most of it is figuring out the nomenclature / syntax For example, figuring out the mapping between the Attribute Tags and Report Field names. One would think they would be the same.

Well, you have me stumped. I used AE to create electrical ladder diagrams. Sorry, I can't be of more help. Good luck in your endeavor.

I might be covered based on my initial investigation. There still is alot I dont know about ACAD electrical. As for Solarwinds, 1. I don't have a license for SolarWinds Network Topology Mapper 2. I'm not trying to create a network topology diagram, that is at a far higher level and more of a functional diagram I'm trying to create a cable diagram so one knows how to install cabling (know what connects where) or use it as a reference to identify where cables are going based on labeling. I think you are focusing too much on the "network" part as it is largely irrelevant. The "cable" part is what's important. I want to make a drawing showing how cables connect. I'm still unsure as to what path is best to go down if I use autocad electrical. I listed a few different paths. can you recommend one over the other? For each Object (computer, switch,etc) 1. Create custom components in the library 2. Just draw rectangles For cables, 1. Create custom cables in the library, but then the diagram will be very cluttered if I have to define every wire 2. Create custom cables but only define one wire, not sure if that will work 3. Just use use a generic cable marker on one wire 4. Treat a wire as a cable and don't use cable markers I'm still not sure how to handle breakout cables (one connector on one end breaking out to multiple connectors on the other end) If I just connect wires together, the report only shows one leg. These options can give me the visual i want. I can still use autocad electricals shortcut features like routing wires cleanly in the diagram. I'm less clear about how to get them to work with reports. Right now I'm just blindly trying things. I don't wan't to fully invest until I'm sure I'm going down the right path. I seem to be getting very close so it is promising The closest alternative I've seen is using draw.io but that doesnt support reports

Friends, An other round of update, refine functions to work with blank cells, added Feet-Inches-Sixteenths number format for conversion and simple calculations. The list of Excel UDF now grow to 34, and it long, so instead of list all in this post, see text file (or Excel 365 Test and Debug if you refer) attached in the end of this post. Please note that all Excel UDF are consider experiments, error may occur, use at your all risk! Let me know if you find any bug or error, Thank you! Phh Snapshot of text file Update Notes: All functions now work with range. Added Feet-Inches-Sixteenths (FFIISS or fis format) conversion/ simple calculations. Replace UDF functions those return Error #N/A! are replaced with text string "n/a" instead to prevent SUM() stopping the calculations when blank cells in range occur. Update UDF functions those with the line with MAP() function for consistency calculations. Added alternative function in 1 line version to save spaces. Updated formula to work with range, fixed some format issues after conversion display specially toimpa(), toimpe() If using range, range must be in consecutive (ex. A3:A20), if having multiple ranges on various locations, use Excel VSTACK() function to pack them up (ex. VSTACK(A3:A6,A11:A20,C3:D6). Be aware that convert from_factor and convert to_factor, depend on function they have different effect for example: toimpa(), sumtoimpa() - when using range with mixed imperials and decimal value in range, only decimal values are converted based on the conversion factor, see function note for details. Update averageimpa(), averageimpe() incorrect result when cell(s) are blank Update functions when empty (blank) cell(s) or error in dynamic range/ range will output literal text "n/a" instead of function "n/a" so excel SUM() function continues to calculate. UDF name scope, ending with: ...dec -> Return decimal value, default decimal inch. ...fis -> Return number represent Feet-Inches-Sixteenths format, ex. 120608 (aka 12'-6 1/2") ..impa -> Return imperial architectural format, ex. 9 1/4", 12'-1 5/16", 7/16" etc. ..impe -> Return imperial engineering format, ex. 9.25", 12'-1.3125", 0.4375" etc. ... UDF name scope, begin with/ or [Excel function nane]+: imp... -> Imeprial to, convert to, etc. fis... -> Feet Inches Sixteenths (fis) to, convert to, etc. ... Strongly recommended but not required to define "Excel Name" to hold conversion factors such as: in=1 (default inch if not specify) ft=1/12 yd=1/36 mi=1/63360 (mile) mm=25.4 cm=2.54 m=0.0254 km=1/39370 ... Fuction List: 1. todec() 2. toimpa() 3. toimpe() 4. sumtodec() 5. sumtoimpa() 6. sumtoimpe() 7. averageimpa() 8. averageimpe() 9. minimpa() 10. minimpe() 11. maximpa() 12. maximpe() 13. rangeimpa() 14. rangeimpe() 15. largeimpa() 16. largeimpe() 17. smallimpa() 18. smallimpe() 19. fis2dec() 20. dec2fis() 21. imp2fis() 22. fis2impa() 23. fis2impe() 24. sumfis2dec() 25. sumfis2impa() 26. sumfis2impe() 27. averagefis() 28. minfis() 29. maxfis() 30. rangefis() 31. smallfis() 32. largefis() 33. sumfis() 34. sumimp2fis() Screenshot of Excel 365 xlsx Test Debug UDF 20250315.xlsx Excel UDFs Rev1.3-20250315.txt

It seems you have it covered then. I cannot think of anything else to add short of looking at something very specific like SolarWinds Network Topology Mapper.

I do not know which one they were made with. Is it even possible to know? As far as I can tell, Autocad Electrical is mostly a layer on top of Autocad that gives "shortcuts" to make some tasks (related to Electrical) faster. The video link I have in the first post shows a drawing very close to what I'm looking for. I don't know if they used autocad or autocad electrical. It seems like electrical would at least give some shortcuts. I don't think any software currently exists to produce EXACTLY what I'm looking for with zero effort. Therefore I need to pick the right tool that gives me the most tools to get me what I want with the least amount of tedious work. Thus far autocad electrical seems to get me closest because it has the ability to create reports based on my drawing. In regular Autocad I can see how I could just draw lines and create what I'm looking for but that would be extremely tedious. Spending some more time in Autocad Electrical I see a few paths that could work. I don't necessarily care about symbols in the sense that I don't need a picture of a computer/switch/etc. I need a rectangle with ports/pins that represent the connection points. (ie. A switch would have a connection for each port in the switch). It seems like Autocad Electrical would want me to create a custom component block in the library for each type of object (Switch, Computer, etc) to define all the connections. It seems like it wants me to define every wire and connector. Then connect all the wires and then group/mark the wires to define the cables. However, I'm not building cables, they are purchased prebuilt (ie. CAT6 cable, fiber cable). I don't really need to define the wires in each cable. I just want to define each cable so I can have a drawing showing where each one plugs in. I could just draw a rectangle to represent each object and stick connectors on. Then for each cable, just represent them with one wire. I am still not quite sure how to properly use cable markers. Especially because I have some cables that are breakout cables? (One connector on one end to multiple connectors on the other end). One idea is to essentially go down one level of complexity for everything since I don't care about the wiring in each cable. Treat each cable as a "wire" in autocad. Treat each object (computer, switch, etc) as a autocad "connector". Treat each connector as a autocad "connector pin" to connect the cables together. I see I can define pin numbers and description for each pin. Just playing around in Autocad electrical, I can get it to visually show the way I want fairly easily. I'm still not familiar enough with reports to get an output of what I need. (cable id, cable pn, cable desc, from object, from connector, to object, to connector). This is why I'm asking the question to autocad experts to look for recommendations for the best path to go down to get the most out of autocad electrical that I can while avoiding pitfalls.

AutoCAD and AutoCAD Electrical are two different pieces of software. Do you know, for a fact, that the drawings you saw were created with AutoCAD Electrical? I've used AE in the past and I do not recall seeing any of the items you mentioned in your first post as being included in the software. Maybe AE has been updated to include such symbols?

(defun c:bmm () (setq x-distance (getdist "\nEnter distance to separate polylines in X direction: ")) (setq y-distance (getdist "\nEnter distance to separate polylines in Y direction: ")) ;; Select all polylines and get the number of selected entities (setq ss (ssget '((0 . "LWPOLYLINE")))) (setq count (sslength ss)) (setvar 'osmode 0) ;; Check if there are multiple polylines selected (if (and ss (> count 1)) (progn ;; Initialize variables (setq i 0) (setq j 0) (setq k 0) (setq n 0) (setq h 0) ;; Iterate over the selected polylines (repeat count (setq ent (ssname ss i)) ; Get entity name of each polyline (setq pt (vlax-curve-getstartpoint ent)) ; Get start point of the polyline ;; Check if the x coordinate has changed (if (= (car pt) (car (vlax-curve-getstartpoint (ssname ss j)))) (progn (setq j i) (setq k 0) ) ) (if (/= (car pt) (car (vlax-curve-getstartpoint (ssname ss n)))) (progn (setq n i) (setq h 0) ) ) ;; Calculate new position (setq newPos (list (- (car pt) (* k x-distance)) ; Calculate new X position (+ (cadr pt) (* h y-distance)) ; Calculate new Y position (caddr pt))) ; Keep Z position the same ;; Move the polyline to the new position (command "_move" ent "" pt newPos) ;; Increment indices (setq i (1+ i)) (setq k (1+ k)) (setq h (1+ h)) ) ;; Print success message (princ "\nPolylines moved apart successfully.") ) (progn ;; Print error message (princ "\nNo suitable polylines found or only one polyline selected.") ) ) (setvar 'osmode 511) (princ) ) I can not create space between objects on the y-axisdirection test.dwg

I WILL WAIT FOR GOOD NEWS FROM YOU TKS!

I've attached also the working drawing for your reference. FOR ABBS.dwg

I draw polylines that have circle segments for smoothing inside corners and such. I want to extract the polyline data from the DXF. I can find the polyline in the DXF and extract the start and end points of the various "VERTEX" items. The circle segments have an identifier " 42 " that clues me in that the current segment is a circle segment. But I am only finding the start point and end point for the circle segment. How can I find the center point for each circle segment listed in the polyline data? Attached are a simple polyline and CSV I extracted from the DXF. CircleSegPolyLine.CSV CircleSegment-PolyLine.dxf

Can you explain why you don't think Autocad Electrical would be useful? I know its possible in AutoCAD as I have many similar drawings in autocad format created by other people. I am aware of those tools. As mentioned, those tools focus more on providing pretty shape libraries to give a very high level picture. As shown in the example, I'm trying to depict far more detail. Showing which cable connector plugs into which box jack. Showing the cable label, connector labels, jack labels. None of those tools go down to that detail.

This function is multipurpose. You need to accompany it with two arguments: 'lw' is the entity name of the polyline you want to check 'p' can be: a list of points; the entity name of a "TEXT", "MTEXT", "POINT", "SHAPE", or "INSERT" that you want to check if it's within the polyline; or a text string, in which case it will be used as a filter to create a selection set of texts containing that string, and all of which will be checked if they are included in the lwpolyline. In all cases, the function returns, depending on what was entered as the second argument, a list with the point and/or the objects included in the lwpolyline, or nil if none exist.

@maahee Ray-Casting trauma has hit me I forgot your interest was the opposite: checking the point from the lwpolyline I'll fix that right now. ;*************************************** ;****** G L A V C V S F E C I T ****** ; ARGUMENTS: ; lw -> LWPOLYLINE entity name ; p -> can be: -list point ; -TEXT, MTEXT, SHAPE, POINT or INSERT entity name ; -text string (string for make a text selection set by string filter) ; ; Return: list with object/s or list point inside the polyline; or nil (defun inside? (lw p / en ex d r rs l i n o r4 cj) (defun r4 (p e / r is f l) (foreach l '(0 1.5708 3.141592 4.71239) (if (not f) (progn (setq r (vla-addline i (vlax-3d-point p) (vlax-3d-point (polar p l d)))) (if (setq is (safearray-value (variant-value (vla-intersectWith r e 0)))) (setq f (= (rem (length is) 2) 0)) ) (vla-delete r) ) ) ) (not f) ) (setq en (getvar "extmin") ex (getvar "extmax") d (max (- (car ex) (car en)) (- (cadr ex) (cadr en))) i (vlax-ename->vla-object (cdr (assoc 330 (entget lw)))) ) (cond ((= (type p) 'LIST) (if (r4 p (vlax-ename->vla-object lw)) (list p) ) ) ((= (type p) 'ENAME) (if (wcmatch (cdr (assoc 0 (setq l (entget p)))) "*TEXT,SHAPE,POINT,INSERT") (if (r4 (cdr (assoc 10 l)) (vlax-ename->vla-object lw)) (list p) ) ) ) ((= (type p) 'STR) (if (setq cj (ssget "x" (list '(0 . "TEXT") (cons 1 p)))) (if (setq cj (vl-remove-if 'listp (mapcar 'cadr (ssnamex cj)))) (foreach o cj (if (r4 (cdr (assoc 10 (entget o))) (vlax-ename->vla-object lw)) (setq rs (cons o rs)) ) ) ) ) rs ) ) )

If the rotation is to fast use (command "delay" 500) I think the number is mirco seconds. Add in RLX code into the while.

Do a google "dynamic block to static block autocad" 1st result was an answer.

Part 2 you can use SSADD to combine selection sets into a single one.

As suggested try loading current 2025 Autocad you get at least 30 days, you need at least windows 10. We had a problem with the inbuilt Intel graphics card stopped Autocad from working just a comment. My laptop has a NVIDIA graphics card. Maybe contact Bricscad also.

1st your example dwg is flat the pipe is not 3D. Ok rather than code this is how I would do it. Fillet the pline with correct radius as required. Draw a circle that is dia on end point of pline Ucs ob pick pline near circle Use Rotate3d to rotate the circle to a vertical alignment look at Ucs Icon I used Y axis 90. Use extrude path UCS W All done` You need to practice your 3d solid skills. I made this faster than I could write code.

Did you know there are network diagram and map creators? Two that are free include LucidChart and SmartDraw. Maybe either one of these might be more suitable for your purposes. I doubt AutoCAD Electrical would be useful.

Thanks rlx that was brilliant it works like a charm. I don't know visual lisp but I am going to try and figure it out, that was visual lisp right?

I never wrote this app with dynamic blocks in the back in my mind but I may have a look at this someday. Thing is , I have very few dynamic blocks myself. Probably can count them on one hand. Mainly because static block are easier to handle in lisp. (very difficult to teach old dragons new tricks haha)