Pattern with dimensions

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I hope this is the right section.  Im looking into creating a macro/routine/'something' that will enable me to draw a handrail plan, based on a series of prompted dimensions.

Essentially, i want to draw a series of circles and squares on a line, the spacings of which is determined by a few (around 6) dimensions, that are manually entered in a prompted box.  Usually the pattern is [circle, 3x squares, circle] however i may want to repeat this more then once with a spacing between them.  The attached pdf should explain a bit better.

I think what i am after is reletively simple.  Ideally, i would like to know how to do it, so that i can edit/ammend it as necessary.

Any help is much appreciated.

[Kent1Cooper]

Some questions:

Would the Line in question already be drawn, or is that part of what you want the routine to do?

The Line is in a different color at the ends in your image -- does that represent multiple collinear Lines, or overlapping longer and shorter lines, or would it really be one Line?

The Circles and Squares in the larger-scale detail are double, and the squares have rounded corners [representing metal tubes with thickness, I assume] -- are they Blocks, or are you really talking about drawing squares [presumably closed Polylines] and Circles?

And a suggestion for something you might look at, if one Line per rail section is already drawn:  try out the DIV+ command in DivideMeasurePlus.lsp, which you can get here.  Unlike regular Divide, it has the option to place whatever markers you designate [Points, Blocks, crossing Lines, user-Selected object(s)] at the ends of the selected path object [in this case the Circles or circular-tube Blocks at the ends of your Line].  And if you choose that option, it can "divide" the path into one segment [regular Divide requires more than one] so that they are only at the ends [again, your Circles].  It also has the option to inset the end markers from the ends of the path by whatever distance you want, and divide the remaining distance into however many spaces you want [your squares or square-tube Blocks].

[Anonymous]

Some questions:

Would the Line in question already be drawn, or is that part of what you want the routine to do?

Thats what i would want the routine to do.

The Line is in a different color at the ends in your image -- does that represent multiple collinear Lines, or overlapping longer and shorter lines, or would it really be one Line?

Multiple lines, connected to each other at the ends.

The Circles and Squares in the larger-scale detail are double, and the squares have rounded corners [representing metal tubes with thickness, I assume] -- are they Blocks, or are you really talking about drawing squares [presumably closed Polylines] and Circles?

Those particular squares are blocks.  However their size and shape doesnt really matter.  All i really need is 2 different shapes to show the locations.

And a suggestion for something you might look at, if one Line per rail section is already drawn:  try out the DIV+ command in DivideMeasurePlus.lsp, which you can get here.  Unlike regular Divide, it has the option to place whatever markers you designate [Points, Blocks, crossing Lines, user-Selected object(s)] at the ends of the selected path object [in this case the Circles or circular-tube Blocks at the ends of your Line].  And if you choose that option, it can "divide" the path into one segment [regular Divide requires more than one] so that they are only at the ends [again, your Circles].  It also has the option to inset the end markers from the ends of the path by whatever distance you want, and divide the remaining distance into however many spaces you want [your squares or square-tube Blocks].

I will definately give that a shot.  Although i have managed to nearly produce what im after with a dynamic block.  I've applied constraints along the sections of handrails, and constrained the shapes.  This way i can move it freely, or type in specific lengths.

However, (and i'm aware i might be pushing my luck with this), i also need to produce a table with the dimensions between the shapes (hereby known as A,B,C,D...etc) listed.  From there i could even look into importing those values into excel which would be fantastic.

Firstly i need to work out how to store a length restraint from the dynamic block into a table.  I'm aware that this may be the wrong forum section for this, please advise if this is the case and i will re-post.

Many thanks for your help.