Object Publishing

administrator — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 23:16:00 GMT

In this month’s tip, we will examine the SOL viewing family of commands which include: SOLVIEW, SOLDRAW, and SOLPROF. We will also take a quick look at a familiar command called FLATSHOT. Additional references for these commands can be found in AutoCAD Help.

Object Publishing is defined as the process of creating 2D profiles from an object in modelspace into paperspace to give you maximum viewing control for drawing layouts.

The advantage to creating profiles of an object is that you have control from paperspace on how these profiles are generated. These tools are efficient when producing accurate detailed drawing views for production, and it’s the way to go if you are looking to speed up drawing times.

The SOLVIEW family of commands should be used in order. The documentation that creates the profile for this command is run by an Internal .ARX file (SOLIDS.ARX). If, for some reason, they are not working correctly, make sure you check to see if that file is loaded correctly.

SOLVIEW

This is the command that starts the process of creating the specified viewport profiles. Once a viewport is created with this command and named, it will add four layers that will be associated with it. This allows you to put specified information on this layer to control what the viewports views.

The layers that are related are:

VIEWPORTNAME-VIS
VIEWPORTNAME-HID
VIEWPORTNAME-DIM
VIEWPORTNAME-HAT

Under the SOLVIEW command, you have the viewing control in which you will create the profile viewport. Those options are: UCS, ORTHO, AUXILIARY, and SECTION. These command controls allow the user to select the desired views of the object.

Since this command is run off the.ARX file, it is very efficient and will allow profile drawings to update according to the object. If you make changes to the referenced object, the profile in the viewport will update and apply those changes made.(AutoCAD Objects)

SOLDRAW

The SOLDRAW command is used to clean up the profiles drawn with the SOLVIEW command. The command takes those profiles and projects them on to a plane for viewing purposes.

SOLPROF

The SOLPROF command is similar to the SOLDRAW. It gives you the option to display hidden profiles and display the edges and silhouettes of curved objects.

Example Exercise:

Insert an object into modelspace. Go into paperspace and make sure there is no viewports active. If there are active view ports, delete them.
In the command line type SOLVIEW to activate the command.
To create the initial viewport select the control UCS.
For the next control select world. Then select the world coordinate system.
Specify the scaling you want to draw the viewport.
Select the view center. This is going to be the anchor point on which you will place your view of the object.
Select a point to place the view. Hit enter.
Select your corners to place the viewpoint box around the view.
Insert the view name. This is the name that will appear in the layer manager with the temporary lays for that view.

You will now have a single viewport we can work off to create other viewports. Now, we will create four additional viewports to complete a full drawing layout.

In the command line, type in SOLVIEW. Select ORTHO. Then, select the side of the existing viewport to project.
Select the view center and pick a point to place the view. Then, pick the corners for the viewport box.
For the next view the SOLVIEW command will stay active. Select the AUXILIARY. Select points through the object to create the AUXILIARY plane. Then select the side to view from. Then select the view center and pick a point to place the view.
For the last view select the section control. Specify the cutting plane points. Select the side to view from. Enter the viewing scale. Then select the view center and pick a point to place the view. Then create the viewport box around the view.

That will complete a full drawing layout for this object. Now, you can start adding additional information such as Dimensions, Drawing Block etc. You can also place that information on the temporary layers that are created for each viewport and access those layers from the layers manager.

Another command that is use for the same purpose is the FLATSHOT command. It is the same principal as SOLVIEW and SOLDRAW commands but instead of just projecting the profile onto a plane, it creates a block that can be inserted or substituted into a drawing.

Author: Brannon Pumphrey, Microvellum Technical Support

AutoCAD Combination Commands

administrator — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:39:00 GMT

Creating combination commands using Macros allows you to develop AutoCAD commands that speed up drawing ability without having to edit the Lisp routines. All though you have more control over commands by editing Lisp routines, using Macro elements is a good starting point for anyone looking to increase efficiency, but also get their feet wet in some programming.

The easiest way to understand Macro Strings is to think of them as a language, where each character or sets of characters has a meaning, and controls how the command acts through its entry process.

Adding commands is accomplished through CUI interface with AutoCAD 2007 and above. You may want to have a basic understanding of the CUI interface before getting into this section.

Getting Started:

Open the CUI Dialog Box; make sure you are working in the main AutoCAD CUI file (acad.cui). The AutoCAD commands are stored under the command list section.
From there, select “New”, this is going to open a new command with the name “Command1”. On the right side of the dialog box, there is an information selection that displays the properties of the new command.

The Copy Rotate Command:
This command will allow you to copy and rotate a Profile, Solid, or Surface; all in one command.

Under general (for name enter something along the lines of Copy Rotate) under that description is a help text that will pop up when you highlight the command.
The next category is macro. Here is where the macro string is written that controls how the command operates. Within that field insert: ^c^c_rotate;_copy;_base;

Explanation:

The ^c is the cancel command. So it does a double cancel command in the beginning to ensure that no other commands are active (this is optional).
"_rotate" activates the rotate command.
";" is the character that stimulates the enter key which activates the next command in the string.
"_copy" activates the copy command within the rotate command. It is now a selection, during the command you will select copy.
";" another stimulation of enter to move on to the next command
"_base" activates the base command. Which is the base point selection to copy and rotate is made.
; this is the final enter stimulation to end the active command after the copy rotate is made.

The Copy Scale Command:
This command allows you to scale a Profile, Solid, or Surface while having the option to copy coincidently. The macro for this command will be: ^c^c_scale;_copy;_base;

Try both of these combination commands, they should increase drawing efficiency. You can combine most of AutoCAD’s commands in macro string to develop useful customized tools.

After these commands have been developed they can be applied to any CUI Menus, Toolbars, Toolpalettes, or Grips. They are run as everyday command operations. They can also have hot keys assigned to them for quick keyboard entry.

Text Commands
If you are looking to take it one step further here is a more complex Macro string that creates a command that is always based on the aehalf.shx font and a specific text layer. The command will tell the text to always stay at a certain height and rotation direction when entering it. For this example we will use the font style aehalf.shx.

The Macro string will read like this: ^C^C-style;aehalf;aehalf.shx;0;1;0;;;;-layer;m;fixedtext;;dtext;\.1875;0;layer0;
Here is the same macro string with the definitions inserted for the meaning of what each macro character does:

^Cancel command^Cancel command;-style command;name of text;font file;font height;font width;font angle;;;;-layer command;m;the new layer;;dtext command;\height of text;rotation;restores the layer that was current.

Author: Brannon Pumphrey, Microvellum Technical Support

Tips & Tricks

Object Publishing

AutoCAD Combination Commands