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AutoCAD LT. 2014 Drawing Generator


themattman007

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Hello everyone,

I am looking for an off the shelf program that can be configured to turn layers on and off in AutoCAD Lt. 2014. I have a drawing with a ton of layers. Each layer is an option that can be added to our product. I need a program that has an interface where a non-engineer person can pick options, click go, and the program will turn on or off layers. The finished drawing would then be used to build our product with all of the options that were picked. 

Any help is greatly appreciated:)

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I'm not sure you're going to have much luck with this. Autocad LT can't run lisp routines or any sort of custom programs. You might be able to create a script file, provided it's not too complex, but there wouldn't be any kind of interface to it. It would just be a simple string of code that you could call from the command line that would turn specific layers on or off. You wouldn't have any options to pick what you want it to do. If you want to run custom dialog based commands you will need the full version of Autocad.

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Like Cad64 excel comes to mind but adds a extra lot of interface to and fro.

 

Have you looked at using wildcards in your "layer off wall*" will do just that turn off all wall...... layers same with freeze/thaw. 

 

If that works you may be able to add a menu with some of the offs/on that you want so just pick from menu. You can turn off multiple layers in one go. Layer off wall*,foot*,dims*

 

Steven-g a diesel function ?

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Is that a metric ton of layers?  

Approximately how many are you talking?

I have never used LT, but I am curious if saving Layer States might be an option, as it would in Autocad Vanilla?

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I'm assuming this is meant for in-house use by an employee, not for the general public?

 

The "non-engineer person" would need to have a copy of AutoCad on their computer, which could get expensive depending on how many "non-engineer" persons would be using it.

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6 hours ago, BIGAL said:

Like Cad64 excel comes to mind but adds a extra lot of interface to and fro.

 

Steven-g a diesel function ?

I would doubt there is an off the shelf option particularly for LT as LT has no way to create dialogue boxes. A whole range of toggles could be setup using diesel to turn on/off individual layers and placed in a toolpalette or toolbar but there is no visual feedback on those (other than items on those layers in the drawing being visible or not). You could create your own ribbon panel and fill that with layer macro's, there is a method to visually highlight ribbon icons for on/off toggles. But I would personally go with Excel it is easy to create a menu dialogue with tick boxes for each layer and once a user has selected the correct sequence use a button that would create an AutoCAD script. This would be a two step method as LT has no API's to allow it to be directly controlled by an external source, so you would need to let Excel create the script, and you could then have a ribbon icon (button) in LT to run that script (the script would need to be created in a predetermined folder location).

I have done things like this in the past but certainly have nothing off the shelf that could be adapted for this particular work flow.

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Thanks everyone for you input. Here is a little more back round information. We had an engineer, (that left the company), who created a tool with a combination of Microsoft Visual Studio, Python, C+, and a few more programs. This tool has an interface that a person can select various options, and then click "Create Script". The program then uses script files to turn on or off layers in an existing drawing. Once complete, we end up with a completed drawing package that would then be used to build a machine. This is only for in house use, not for the general public. Attached is a picture of the interface. This system "works", but has a lot of bugs, and is difficult to modify. I was hoping there was some existing program out there that could be manipulated to perform the same task. If having a old version of Lt. is an issue, we'll upgrade to a newer version of full AutoCAD.

And the answer DadGad's question, it's a metric ton:)

Program Interface.jpg

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You cannot create anything like that in LT, possibly in the full version but I'll leave that to someone else to answer. Certainly possible in Excel with that same idea of creating a script. The question is still going to be is there anything 'off the shelf' or at least very similar to work from. Otherwise you are going to have to find someone within the company who either knows the basics of progranning, or is willing to learn. Or look at spending some money on a custom solution.

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Depending on what your drafting Bricscad may be an alternative. It has Lisp and .net support. 

 

If you can post a sample dwg and a explanation of layers to turn off suggestions can be made for a non LT solution.

 

The image are they on/off select buttons that can be done "Toggle buttons" DCL.

 

Do you have the source code not the compiled then the layer settings can be found inside it.

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