Problem with my cleanup macro.

[Glen1980]

Further to Remarks comment on this thread I have updated my deep clean macro to this

 

^C^C_model;;;-overkill;all;;d;;;-purge;r;*;n;;;-purge;a;*;n;;;audit;y;;;zoom;extents;;;qsave;

 

It zooms to extents but then stops, what have I done or not done to quite zoom and then save my drawing?

 

If anyone else has any suggestions they would be more than welcome

[steven-g]

You've been a bit trigger happy with the ";"

Autocad keeps repeating commands without you noticing any ill effets, untill it hits the zoom command, and then it expects a different input than you are giving it.

Try this

^C^C_model;-overkill;all;;d;-purge;r;*;n;-purge;a;*;n;audit;y;zoom;extents;qsave;

[Glen1980]

Cheer Steven, that worked a charm!

 

I've never really been taught how to write macro's I've just copied bits I need from ones on here and bodged things together.

[steven-g]

You're welcome, I do bodged a lot

[BIGAL]

Glen when putting you macro's together do the commands manually and count the no of enters required model;;; would do model model model so it keeps working as that is a valid command even though you did it 3 times, an example of traps in macros like this depending on your text style you may need a different number of enters, preset ht means one less enter, insert a block accepting default values for attributes need to know how many.

[Glen1980]

Thanks BIGAL.

 

I mostly use macro's where possible rather than LISP so I can help out my LT using colleagues. Is there an easy way of testing a macro? Currently I go into customize then change the command which is a bit of a faff.

[steven-g]

I mostly use macros from a toolpalette rather than creating them in the CUI, that means I can edit and test them directly from the toolpalette, without going through that sequence of opening the CUI each time. Once it's working there, you can copy and paste it elsewhere. For creating new macros it's as easy as copy and paste an existing one in the toolpalette, then right click and choose properties to rename and edit the macro.

[Glen1980]

Nice, I can instantly update my colleagues tool palettes then by moving them to the network drive where I have told their AutoCAD to look.

[YZ]

steven-g, that is a great idea to test macros from a tool palette. That would give much quicker access than the ribbon when you need to make consistent small changes in a testing mode.

 

Our tool palettes are shared, and so is our ribbon. I find the ribbon to be much more stable than tool palettes when one user is making changes and other users are also accessing. Then it is simply a matter of everyone closing and re-launching AutoCAD.

 

Further to steven-g's suggestion of putting on a Tool Palette (which is a faster way to make small changes), I have a testing suite on my Manage Tab of the ribbon. This way I can put multiple buttons in there for testing a few at a time. One of the biggest obstacles to creating a new macro idea is that you need somewhere to "put" it before you can run it. Have a 3x3 grid of buttons called Test 1, ... Test 9, has been super helpful.

 

While I agree entirely that tool palette is great for testing macros, I only use a select few macros on the tool palette, mainly associated layering buttons to assist with drop in objects or hatches related to the tool palette being used. The ribbon is still the ideal place for all your macro buttons. Our tabs, panels and buttons are now almost entirely replaced with macros we have written to suit our workflow. And the difference in drafting speed is phenomenal.

 

Glen1980, I highly recommend learning macros. You will be rewarded many times over in time saving. Good on you for persisting with that one despite only starting out.

[steven-g]

I use macro's either from the toolpalette (because it autohides), or using keyboard shortcuts, I never use toolbars, the ribbon is off and I only have the menubar active when I need to use it, the command line is off most of the time as well.

[Glen1980]

I used to be like Steven-g with regards minimal screen collateral, but since I have started working with revit and have been given an almost capable desktop and 2015 I have started using my own customized ribbon. Properties, X-ref manager and the toolbar go on the left hand small screen and I have the floating-transparent toolbar to give me more screen for the drawing. I do mostly use key commands however.

[steven-g]

I have properties, layer manager and Design center to the left of my screen and sheet set manager,tool palette and exref manager to the right, but I must admit I have no idea how sheet sets work at the moment

[Glen1980]

I haven't really scraped the surface of sheet sets. I built a set from a small job I was doing for the chairman so I could open and print all of the drawings easily. Not much point setting up sheet sets for all jobs when I'm the only person who has it.

[BIGAL]

I prefer menus and creating casading menus is very easy -> &

 

[Glen1980]

May I ask what you're macro for plot A0 is? I've been experimenting with preloaded page setups and pc3 files for our plotters, but the plot server keeps mucking us up.

[BIGAL]

Have a look at this the menu just calls the correct lisp program ^c^c^p(load "plotA0") we plot with all settings etc on the server no probs.

 

http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?69132-Printing-LISP-Help...&highlight=Printing-LISP