Options for extracting linetype definitions from a drawing.

[ReMark]

Both options involve the use of custom lisp routines.

 

The first one comes by way of the CADforum. At the opening page look to the left. Find and click on Downloads. At the next page look for the heading Free applications and CAD Utilities. Click on CAD Utilities then scroll down to the entry LinOut. LinOut exports linetype definitions (incl. shape+text info) from an AutoCAD DWG drawing back to .LIN file. Click on the diskette icon on the left to start the download. The file that will be downloaded is named linout.vlx (a compiled lisp routine). Use the APPLOAD command in AutoCAD to load the program. Type linout to start the process. A file using the same name as one’s drawing but ending in the .lin extension will be written to the folder the drawing was stored in. Use any ASCII text editor, like Notepad, to open the file and view the contents. To get to the CADforum click on this link:

 

http://www.cadforum.cz/forum_en/

 

Be aware that forum membership (free) is required prior to downloading any available content.

 

The second one comes by way of the lazydrafter blog. Thanks to forum member profcad for providing a link to the lisp code itself in a thread posted 11th April 2012 (see below). The actual program was written by Greg Oliver in 1995 and appeared in Cadalyst magazine as Tip #1076 with a file name of LLTYPES.lsp. For those of you comfortable enough with copying and pasting the code to a TXT file and naming that file LLTYPES.lsp this is a good place to start. For those of you that aren’t quite up to the task or just don’t want to be bothered the lisp routine can be downloaded from the Cadalyst website (verified 11th July 2012) at the link shown below. Use the APPLOAD command to load the routine. As soon as the routine is loaded the user is prompted “Write Linetype definitions to a file (Y/N)?” Respond by typing “Y” at the command line then press Enter. In a blink of an eye the file, named lltypes.lin, will be written to the folder that the drawing was located in. To view the contents use any ASCII text editor as previously mentioned.

 

http://lazydrafter.blogspot.com/2009/04/export-linetypes.html

 

http://cadtips.cadalyst.com/export/extract-linetypes

 

What one does with these linetype definitions is entirely up to them. Some users might create a custom linetype file separate from acad.lin while others may choose to append the definitions to acad.lin itself. If the latter method is used be sure to insert the definitions in the proper place as noted.