Move form viewport's center

[Lee5150]

Hi guys, I'm new to the boards. I was wondering if you could help me. I have never used LISP's before and i think I'm in need to use one.

 

Here's my problem,

 

I have complied a series of commands in microsoft excel (to later copy to the command line in CAD) to quickly select and zoom to specific parts of my drawing, draw a viewport around it and import it to a specific layout tab. The problem i have is that my viewport is always in the bottom left hand corner of my layout page. Is there something I can do to select a viewport in Pspace and move it (from its center) to a specific coordinate on my layout, using only commands. i.e without any user input from the mouse.

 

it would be great if some one could help

 

many thanks

 

lee

[Lee Mac]

Firstly, welcome to the forums Lee, I'm sure you'll like it here

 

I think you could use the vla-put-center method on the viewport object to move it to the correct position.

 

I am not sure what you have so far though, so can't really advise much more than that.

 

Lee

[Lee5150]

Hi, thanks for that,

 

As I said, I'm completely new to anything to do with LISP's. Is what you just gave me a command in CAD or something you would use in a LISP?

 

I think my previous post was a bit confusing.

 

I'll simplify it...

 

What I'm wanting to do is move a viewport (from its center) to a specific coordinate using only the keyboard, i.e commands that can be typed in. This is just so it looks neat went I send my drawings to clients.

 

thanks again

 

lee

[Lee Mac]

Hi, thanks for that,

 

As I said, I'm completely new to anything to do with LISP's. Is what you just gave me a command in CAD or something you would use in a LISP?

 

I think my previous post was a bit confusing.

 

I'll simplify it...

 

What I'm wanting to do is move a viewport (from its center) to a specific coordinate using only the keyboard, i.e commands that can be typed in. This is just so it looks neat went I send my drawings to clients.

 

thanks again

 

lee

 

Sorry, vla-put-center is a LISP method - I would approach this problem using LISP.

 

But, using the keyboard only, if you didn't want to stray into LISP, this may be difficult imo.

 

Lee

[Lee Mac]

As an example code:

 

(defun c:vpmove  (/ ent pt)
 (vl-load-com)
 (if (and (setq ent (car (entsel "\nSelect Viewport: ")))
          (eq "VIEWPORT" (cdr (assoc 0 (entget ent))))
          (setq pt (getpoint "\nSelect Point to move it to: ")))
   (vla-put-center
     (vlax-ename->vla-object ent)
       (vlax-3D-point pt)))
 (princ))

[Lee5150]

thanks again,

 

I know I probably seem a bit stupid but I have never used LISP's.

 

I use CAD everyday at work and I understand most things but not lisp's.

 

how do I make a lisp? I know there is some sort of editor within CAD but i've never had to use it.

 

lee

[Lee5150]

i am wanting to select the viewport using move and then picking 10,10 (to select the viewport)

then i need to select where to move it from (need this to be its center)

then i need to place it at 165.6,133.5

this will leave it in the middle of my companies titleblock.

[Lee Mac]

thanks again,

 

I know I probably seem a bit stupid but I have never used LISP's.

 

I use CAD everyday at work and I understand most things but not lisp's.

 

how do I make a lisp? I know there is some sort of editor within CAD but i've never had to use it.

 

Not a problem.

 

Firstly, do you know how to load and run a LISP?

 

If not, there is a tutorial here

 

If there is anything you don't understand about that, just ask.

 

As for the writing side:

 

• I would suggest using the Visual LISP Editor provided in ACAD, open it by typing VLIDE at the command line. Then go to "File" > "New File" and you can begin writing your code.

• If you have never written a LISP before, I would suggest starting with just plain AutoLISP and get competent in that, before maybe moving onto Visual LISP, as this is a bit more involved.

• There are loads of tutorial sites you can visit, just Google: AfraLISP, JefferySanders, Ron Leigh.. etc etc

If you need any help on this code, I'd be more than happy to lend a hand.

 

Lee

[Lee Mac]

i am wanting to select the viewport using move and then picking 10,10 (to select the viewport)

 

then i need to select where to move it from (need this to be its center)

 

then i need to place it at 165.6,133.5

 

this will leave it in the middle of my companies titleblock.

 

This will put the center of the viewport at (165.6 133.5 0.0):

 

(defun c:vpmove  (/ ent)
 (vl-load-com)
 (if (and (setq ent (car (entsel "\nSelect Viewport: ")))
          (eq "VIEWPORT" (cdr (assoc 0 (entget ent)))))
   (vla-put-center
     (vlax-ename->vla-object ent)
       (vlax-3D-point '(165.6 133.5 0.))))
 (princ))

[Lee5150]

thank you very much!

 

so once the text is inserted into the lisp editor i then save it as a .lsp

and load it.

 

what do i then type to get the command to work?

 

will i need to select the viewport manually or can i do it using coordinates?

 

lee

[Lee Mac]

thank you very much!

 

so once the text is inserted into the lisp editor i then save it as a .lsp

and load it.

 

what do i then type to get the command to work?

 

will i need to select the viewport manually or can i do it using coordinates?

 

lee

 

When the code is written in the Editor, you can load it straight from there, or save it as a .lsp and load it manually using "appload" at the command line.

 

In this case, type vpmove to activate the command - see the tutorial link I posted.

 

As for selecting the viewport, I can make a code that will let you select it using coords, but imo, it would be better to do the whole operation using LISP, instead of a mixture of commands from Excel. :wink:

 

Lee

[Lee Mac]

Load it in the Editor using this button:

 

 

Then run it with the syntax that appears after : (defun c:

[Lee5150]

i work for a furniture manufacturing company called british thornton.

 

i know i have gone the long way around but what i need to do is have individual rooms on layout tabs. i have done this by drawing a rectangle around the room in mspace. then i give the rectangle a group name. i use a series of commands written in excel to select and copy the group, pull it through into layout 1 in pspace, then make it into a viewport then zoom and scale to the original group (therefore zooming to that room) i copy and paste it into the command line from and it does it in seconds. but because i used copyclip to copy the rectangle in the first place, and the pasting it at 0,0 on my layout, the viewport is not in the center.

 

i tried the lisp and once iv selected the viewport, it doesn't move.

 

im sorry to mess you around

 

lee

[Lee Mac]

Ok, I think that could all be done using LISP, but as you have got to this stage already, I think its best we carry on from here.

 

i tried the lisp and once iv selected the viewport, it doesn't move.

 

As for this, I tried the LISP on my machine, and the viewports is moved correctly. Is there any chance you could attach a sample drawing so that I could see whats wrong?

 

Lee

[Lee5150]

do you have an email address i could send the samples to because theyre too big to upload onto here?

 

thanks

 

lee

[Lee5150]

i figured out why the lisp didn't work. its because I'm using a viewport that is made from a polygon. i don't know if theres a way to do it with one of those.

 

lee

[Lee Mac]

i figured out why the lisp didn't work. its because I'm using a viewport that is made from a polygon. i don't know if theres a way to do it with one of those.

 

lee

 

Ahh, yes that makes things slightly difficult.

 

I think you would have to find the centroid of the lwpolyline and then move it relative to that.

 

Lee

[Lee5150]

if you would like me to email you a sample of what i am trying to achieve i can do. maybe there is an easier way of doing it.

[Lee Mac]

I would send you my email address, but I can't seem to send you a PM with it

[SteveK]

Hello,

 

I'm trying to do something similar with regards getting the center of the viewport:

I'm trying to modify the center of another viewport so that it has the same x co-ordinate as the other viewport. (And I'm also trying to do this is autolisp, not vlisp ).

I was looking at the viewport entity and I'm guessing the viewport's center is at dxf code 12, so based on that (and I know it's not the best code layout but) here's what I've got:

(defun C:vp1 (/
         en1 enlst1 en1_cen_x
         en2 enlst2 en2_cen_x
         new_cen)

 (setq en1 (car(entsel))
   enlst1 (entget en1))

 (setq en2 (car(entsel))
   enlst2 (entget en2))
 
 (Cond ((eq (cdr (assoc 0 enlst1)) "VIEWPORT")
    (setq en1_cen_x (cadr (assoc 12 enlst1))))
   )

 (Cond ((eq (cdr (assoc 0 enlst2)) "VIEWPORT")
    (setq en2_cen_x (cadr (assoc 12 enlst2))))
   )

 (If (AND en1_cen_x en2_cen_x)
   (Progn
     (setq new_cen (list en1_cen_x (caddr (assoc 12 enlst2)) (cadddr (assoc 12 enlst2))))
     (entmod (subst (cons 12 new_cen) (assoc 12 enlst2) enlst2))
     )(princ "Either or Both selections are not Viewports")
   )

 (entupd en2)

 (princ)
 )

This doesn't work. It just doesn't change the dxf code 12.

Does anyone know what the problem is?

 

EDIT: on further investigation it appears DXF code 17 is the modelspace centerpoint I'm after. But changing from 12 to 17 still doesn't replace the x co-ordinate in the second viewport. Any help would be great thanks.