Create a dynamic block that displays areas

[eltowne]

Hello all, I am a new member this is my first post.

 

I am wanting to create a dynamic block for a pipe trench excavation that I can insert - edit a few default dimensions such as the total depth of bury, and the diameter of pipe, and the rest of the trench profile will update from the parameters.

 

The goal is for the block to return the "area" attribute of two or three closed poly-lines and multiply those values by a text field containing a user entered value for length of trench - so by inserting the block, editing the dimensions, and entering the length of pipe run, the text or a table or something will return my volumes of total excavation, pipe bedding, and pipe void in cubic yards.

 

Right now I do this in excel with a few tabs, but it's sort of limited to a few basic shapes. I think it will be infinitely more flexible in CAD. With the added bonus of a visual to include with my earthwork estimate.

 

I've attached a sketch of a typical pipe trench cross section with the variables involved. If the solution can be made by a casual CAD user like myself, and anyone has a few good ideas to get me started on it, I'd be very grateful. Or if I'm wasting my time and I'm better off making bigger and more cumbersome excel spreadsheets, that's helpful info too.

 

Thanks

Pipe Trench Shape.dwg

[zaphod]

here is a sample, I'm sure you can figure some things out from this.

Pipe Trench Shape.dwg

[zaphod]

after I did some testing I re-wrote the block to work better.

 

and Welcome to Cadtutor.

Pipe Trench Shape2.dwg

[eltowne]

Wow -That's fantastic! I could tell by flipping through this forum that there were some pretty talented posters.

Thanks so much for your help.

 

That helps me understand how to create the dynamic object and create rules to keep it from returning something illogical- like the pipe diameter exceeding the bottom of the trench.

I'll create one now.

 

So what's left is to somehow capture the area values for the corresponding parts of the geometry and display them somewhere. Is that possible?

Can I make a region(s) or something within the block that I can extract an area measurement from?

[zaphod]

I've added a few things to this one to help you better understand what is going on and how, I do not know if you can extract a region, but you can calculate one. I find dynamic formulas work best, for me on this machine, if I break them down to small equations verses 1 long one.

Pipe Trench Shape3.dwg

[eltowne]

!!! Impressive!

Such a powerful and flexible solution, great work!

My expectations have been exceeded, AutoCAD is such an awesome program.

This will save me 15 minutes out of every hour, Many thanks!

 

Looking at what you've done here - It stands to reason then, that you could draw a line in the block, and use the length of it as an attribute to multiply the area values generated in your example into volumes?

Or better yet, Just create another variable you could edit directly in the property box- "Trench_Length"?

 

On my lunch break, I'm going to attempt re-create your example from scratch.

[zaphod]

!!! Impressive!

Such a powerful and flexible solution, great work!

My expectations have been exceeded, AutoCAD is such an awesome program.

This will save me 15 minutes out of every hour, Many thanks!

 

Looking at what you've done here - It stands to reason then, that you could draw a line in the block, and use the length of it as an attribute to multiply the area values generated in your example into volumes?

Or better yet, Just create another variable you could edit directly in the property box- "Trench_Length"?

 

On my lunch break, I'm going to attempt re-create your example from scratch.

 

 

Thank you for the challenge, I'll be looking forward to see your approach. Yes you could add in the "Trench_Length" variable to a line and some formulas. And cause it to be visible from outside the block, with the example you should have an idea of how to do it. One more thing, learn about the command “Overkill” it will be a big help in the future.