AutoCAD Procedures

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PROCEDURES

AutoCAD Procedures

Usage
You are free to use the information listed here, but it is copyrighted works and
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DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR OPERATION, OR INABILITY TO USE
ANY INFORMATION AVAILABLE HERE. FURTHERMORE, BY USING THIS
INFORMATION YOU AGREE TO HOLD DOTSOFT HARMLESS FROM SUCH
CLAIMS. DotSoft makes no warranty, either expressed or implied, as to the
fitness of this information for any particular purpose. All materials are to be
considered 'as-is', and use of any information should be considered as AT YOUR
OWN RISK!
Adding Customization, how to add user lisp and routines to your system.
Excel Scripting, making an AutoCAD Script file from Excel.
Raster Plotting, how to create bitmaps from your drawings.
Text Linetypes, how to create linetypes with embedded letters.
Adding Customization
Users often want to add miscellaneous lisp routines to their system, having
them automatically loaded and available at all times. The intentions of this
procedure is to allow the customization to survive a reinstallation or upgrade of
AutoCAD.
Autoloading of these files will be controlled by a special file called ACAD.LSP,
which will load the custom routines. Note that AutoCAD does not create or use
this file.
1. Create a separate 'unique' subdirectory such as C:\CADSTUFF using
Windows Explorer.
2. Add the directory C:\CADSTUFF to the AutoCAD Support File Search
Paths. For those unfamiliar:
A) Issue the OPTIONS command.
B) Click the Files tab.
C) Expand the Support File Search Path section.
D) Choose the Add button.
E) Choose the Browse button.
F) Navigate to and choose the C:\CADSTUFF folder.

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3. Place all your LSP and related files into the C:\CADSTUFF directory.
4. Using Windows Notepad (or another ascii editor) create a new file named
ACAD.LSP in the C:\CADSTUFF directory containing a load statement for
each routine to be loaded.
An example is shown in the following lines.
(load "ROUTINE1.LSP")
(load "ROUTINE2.VLX")
Now whenever you start/restart AutoCAD, it will locate the ACAD.LSP file and
load it. Loading of ACAD.LSP will in turn load your designated files. Since these
files are loaded, you will be able to initiate these added commands by typing
the command defined in each routine.
You may also wish to add buttons or aliases to speed up the initialization of
these commands.
Scripting from Excel
This procedure will walk through the process of using Microsoft Excel to create
script files to be read into AutoCAD. Tabular information is often present in the
spreadsheet that needs to be transferred to AutoCAD. The example explained
here is a table of layer names with colors and linetypes. It could quickly be
adapted to use point coordinates to create inserts. This example provides Excel
specific explanations, but users of other spreadsheets should be able to adapt
the instructions to their particular product. The following instructions will
reference the next example.
A

1 PROPOSED

RED

2 EXISTING

GREEN CONTINUOUS

3 ANNOTATION 255

DASHED

CONTINUOUS

The goal is to populate column D with concatenated values appropriate to pass

to the AutoCAD command line.
1. Make cell D1 current.
2. Enter this expression in cell D1.
="N "&TRIM(A1)&" C "&TRIM(B1)&" "&TRIM(A1)&" LT "&TRIM(C1)&"
"&TRIM(A1)

3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

It is very important that the spaces be included. Note that just as in the
command line layer command, we must pass the layer name after each
designation such as color to tell AutoCAD to assign that color only to the
current layer. This explains the multiple references to A1.
Copy that expression down to all the valid lines.
Highlight the entire column D and copy it to the clipboard.
Choose File/New to create a new empty sheet.
Choose Edit/Paste Special, choose Values.
Insert a blank row at the top of the file and enter this:
'-LAYER

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8. Choose File/Save As, choose Save As Type, then choose Text (OS/2 or
MS-DOS)(*.TXT).
9. Enter the script filename such as D:\PATH\FILENAME.SCR.
10. When prompted that the selected format does not support multiple
sheets, choose Ok.
11. Excel has the file locked down in the operating system, and AutoCAD
can't even run it, so we must close it first. Choose File/Close, choose No
to the next dialog. This was just a temporary workbook anyway.
12. Back in AutoCAD, make any preliminary settings as necessary, such as
loading linetypes.
13. Issue the SCRIPT command, choose your script. When its done you will
may have to press enter once.
14. Check the layer table. It should be populated with the information from
Excel.
Creating Text Linetypes
This procedure will walk through the process of creating your own text
linetypes, utilizing the capability introduced with AutoCAD R13. You might be
surprised at how much you can do with this simple customization, especially
when combined with the Windows Wingding Truetype font.
Note that not all details or principals of creating linetypes are presented here.
You should consult the AutoCAD customization guide for full details.
Where definitions are stored:
While linetype definitions can be stored in any file with the LIN extension, you
will probably find it easiest to make your changes to the ACAD.LIN file. This file
is found in your AutoCAD SUPPORT directory. This approach does involve some
recommended backups. First it would be convenient to backup the original
ACAD.LIN file. Second after you get the new linetypes established it would be a
good idea to backup the file again, to protect against overwriting if AutoCAD is
reinstalled.
The easiest approach:
One simple way to create an additional text linetype is to copy one of the
examples in the ACAD.LIN file. We have reproduced a small portion of it here.
*HOT_WATER_SUPPLY,Hot water supply ---- HW ---- HW ---- HW ---A,.5,-.2,["HW",STANDARD,S=.1,R=0.0,X=-0.1,Y=-.05],-.2
*GAS_LINE,Gas line ----GAS----GAS----GAS----GAS----GAS----GAS-A,.5,-.2,["GAS",STANDARD,S=.1,R=0.0,X=-0.1,Y=-.05],-.25
Notice that the primary difference between these two definitions is the letters
used (HW -vs- GAS) and the last number on the second line. The value was
incremented by 0.05 to accommodate the extra character. You may need to
experiment with this value to determine the right number to produce the
desired gap for the text. A starting point is 0.1 times the number of characters,
as the added WATER linetype works well with a value of -.5.
*GAS_LINE,Gas line ----GAS----GAS----GAS----GAS----GAS----GAS-A,.5,-.2,["GAS",STANDARD,S=.1,R=0.0,X=-0.1,Y=-.05],-.25
*WATER_LINE,Water line ----WATER----WATER----WATER----WATER---A,.5,-.2,["WATER",STANDARD,S=.1,R=0.0,X=-0.1,Y=-.05],-.5

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The need for UNICODE:

In our next copy we also desire to have a quotation mark for inches, such as in
a water line of 6" to be drawn as W-6". Since the linetype definition uses the
quotation marks as a delimiter, we can't simply add another quotation mark.
UNICODE comes to the rescue with the ability to express these as well as other
characters not available on the keyboard. A small sampling includes:
\U+0022 = Quotation Marks
\U+00B0 = Degree symbol
\U+00B1 = Plus/minus tolerance symbol
\U+2205 = Diameter dimensioning symbol
Next example appears as:
*WATER_LINE,Water line ----WATER----WATER----WATER----WATER---A,.5,-.2,["WATER",STANDARD,S=.1,R=0.0,X=-0.1,Y=-.05],-.5
*6IN_WATER,6in Water line ---- W-6 ---- W-6 ---- W-6 ---A,.5,-.2,["W - 6\U+0022",STANDARD,S=.1,R=0.0,X=-0.1,Y=-.05],-.55
With many fonts you should be able to use %%34 for the quotation marks.
The need for Styles:
Notice that all of the examples we have used so far have referenced the
STANDARD text style, which will always be defined in the drawing. If you would
like to use a different text style in your text linetype you need to make sure
that the style is defined in the drawing before you try to load the linetype,
otherwise you will receive the unwelcome "Bad Definition Error".
In consideration of this, it would be a good idea to add the needed styles to
your prototype/template. You may even want to open your prototype, add the
desired text styles and even establish the text linetypes needed. Once saved,
new drawings based on this prototype/template will automatically provide the
text linetypes ready to use, you won't even have to load them. As there is a
small amount of overhead associated with each linetype, you would want to be
conservative and only add those you would expect to use most of the time.
WingDings expands the possibilities:
You have the ability to use any font in your text styles which in turn can be
referenced in your text linetypes. So why not take advantage of the useful
symbols contained in the various Windows WingDing fonts. You will also see
some useful symbols in the SYMBOLS.TTF and other truetype fonts.
To see the contents of these fonts and identify the appropriate character value,
you will need to enlist the help of the Windows Character Map tool. This comes
with all versions of Windows but may not be installed by default. From the
Windows Start button, check under Accessories and maybe System Tools.
If you don't have this program [CHARMAP.EXE] you will need to use the
Add/Remove Programs applet of the Windows Control Panel to add it. It will be
in the System Tools section of the Windows Setup tab. Once you get Character
Map you will be ready to continue. The application looks like this with the
WingDings font set current.
Notice that the bold right arrow is currently highlighted and the keystroke is
shown in the lower right hand corner. So to add our fancy Wingding text

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linetype we would first need to create the WINGDING style based on the
Windows WINGDING.TTF font. Then we would add the linetype.
*RIGHT_ARROW,Right arrow ---- > ---- > ---- > ---- > ---A,.5,-.2,[">",WINGDING,S=.1,R=0.0,X=-0.1,Y=-.05],-.2
To achieve the special character enclosed in the quotes, hold down the Alt key
on the keyboard while you enter the numbers 0232 on the number pad, then
release the Alt key.
When the text linetype is loaded and used, it can produce attractive results,
such as the following example.
Note that with this arrow text linetype the arrow will generally point in the
direction that the geometry was drawn. However ARC's will always display
pointing counter-clockwise. For these situations simply generate the left arrow
linetype and change the geometry's linetype.
PLINEGEN plays a part:
You may notice that on polylines that contain arcs that the annotation always
wants to read counter-clockwise even if you reverse the polyline. That is
because the the linetype generation flag for that polyline needs to be turned
on. ToolPac users simply use the ToolPac>Polyline>Ltype Gen>On option and
select the affected polylines.
Centerlines possibilities:
To show the stacked centerline symbol in your linetypes, use the lower case 'q'
in conjunction with the GDT.SHX font. Use the same procedure discussed to set
this up.
Plotting to Raster Files
A popular inquiry from AutoCAD users is how to plot a drawing to a raster file
(or bitmap/picture). This is often in response to the need to provide a 'picture'
of the drawing without actually providing the DWG, or perhaps a drawing is to
be displayed in a web page.
First is the simple to use (but less control) command called BMPOUT. It creates
a Windows Bitmap .BMP file, appropriate for Paintbrush but not ready for a web
page. It captures the whole drawing viewport so center your drawing as well as
possible before issuing the command. The following procedures can be used to
'plot' your drawing to a raster file.
2000+ Users:
Setup:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Choose File > Plotter Manager.

Choose 'Add-A-Plotter Wizard'.
Choose Next, then Next again (accepting My Computer).
Under Manufacturers, choose 'Raster File Formats'.
Under Models, choose 'Portable Network Graphics PNG'.
(details on why below)
6. Choose Next until the Finish button becomes available.

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Use:

1. Issue the Plot Command.

2. On the Plot Device Tab, choose the PNG output created.
3. Choose the Properties button, and choose the output resolution
desired.
4. In the lower right corner, specify the path and filename to
create.
5. Switch to Plot Settings tab, specify the window and complete the
plot to file.

R14 Users:
Setup:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

7.

8.

9.

10.
11.
Use:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Issue the PREFERENCES command.

Choose the Printer tab.
Choose the New button.
Choose Raster File Formats.
Enter a Description such as 'Raster Plot'.
Choose an output resolution.
(Consider the resolution of the target device, if the output is to a
display, you may want to use 1024x768 or less)
Choose a raster format.
(None of the choices are ready for web output, but the Windows
BMP format is easily converted to such a format with raster
converters).
Choose Monochrome or Color.
(If its a single color line drawing, choosing mono can make for a
smaller file, otherwise 256 color is your best choice)
Specify the background color.
(The default is 0=black, acceptable for display but would
consume much ink/toner if output. So consider color 255 for
light white.)
Hit enter for 'Change Anything'
Choose OK to close the dialog.
Issue the PLOT command.
Choose the 'Device & Default Selection' button.
Choose the 'Raster Plot' setup previously.
Choose the 'File Name' button and designate a file.
Proceed to plot as normal, the output going to the file.

Why PNG?
You may wonder why the PNG file was chosen. It is a clean highly compressed
format. In comparison, the JPG (JPEG) format is absolutely NOT a desireable
format for representing linework in raster format. While JPEG is fine for
photographs, it is a 'lossy' compression and will produce noticable 'snow' on
line drawings, especially diagonal lines.
The PNG file is your best choice for raster output. It is very compact in size and
is a 'loseless' compression. It can be displayed by all 'current' web browsers as
well.

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