Square footage calculations

[leadraft]

Does AutoCad LT provide any mechanism, besides the area command, to calculate and store square footage information for polylines and store that info within the drawing?

For example, if I have a 1,000 square foot space and wanted to divide it up into three parts, I could draw three polylines and total up the area for all three, but can I save that TOTAL in the drawing? What I'm trying to avoid is having to do the area command each time I make a change to the drawing. Some of my plans have more than 30 distinct areas.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Check out "Regions" and "Mass Properties".

Conny

"leadraft" skrev i meddelandet
news:f14d20b.-1@WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> Does AutoCad LT provide any mechanism, besides the area command, to
calculate and store square footage information for polylines and store that
info within the drawing?
> For example, if I have a 1,000 square foot space and wanted to divide it
up into three parts, I could draw three polylines and total up the area for
all three, but can I save that TOTAL in the drawing? What I'm trying to
avoid is having to do the area command each time I make a change to the
drawing. Some of my plans have more than 30 distinct areas.
>
> Thanks
>

[pmadrid]

did you find anything out on this topic...I have a drawing of a building and need to get square footage of rooms with in the building....Please let me know

[Anonymous]

AREA command, or LIST command and select the outline:
assuming you have UNITS set the way you desire.

--
Dean Saadallah
Add-on products for LT
http://www.pendean.com/lt
--

[jholt]

Make a new layer called A-AREA-ROOM, or the like. On that layer draw plines around all the rooms. Then use the following macro to pick the pline and insert the area.

*^C^Carea;o;\;;text;_c;\;0;$M=$(rtos,$(/,$(getvar,area),144),2,2)" S.F.";

You can also do other things like insert a block with attributes for the room name, building, area, perimeter, etc.

jeff <><

[powellk00]

Hi JHOLT,

I know it has been a few years since you posted this macro.  Thank you for posting it.  I tried using it and it doesn't seem to want to allow me to pick the polyline shape when i run it.  It keeps telling me that the "point or option keyword required".  I am currently running autocad 2014.

I tested the inserting text part of the macro separately, i used this portion of the macro, text;_c;\;0;$M=$(rtos,$(/,$(getvar,area),144),2,2)" S.F.";.  when i used it a 0 was inserted where i clicked. 

I am very much an amature at writing macros.  Any help with getting this corrected would be greatly appreciated. 

I do have one question though, is there a way to get it to just put the square foot mark after the test instead of s.f.?

Thank You,

Kevin Powell

[pendean]

Your LT version? a lot has changes since the year 2005.

[powellk00]

I currently use autocad 2014 but we also have people using 2012-2014 autocad lt.  I would just attempt to write a lisp program but since people are using lt version i cant do that.  

I am just trying to write a macro that will take the area of a polylined shape and insert text with the square footage in 2 place decimal with a " ' "(square foot symbol).

I have no proir experience with writing macros.  I dont see why autocad cant do it but i just dont know the correct steps to writing it.

Thanks,

Kevin

[pendean]

What happens if you test the entire macro? Not just the snippet that has nothing to refer to/call back for the area trigger at the beginning of the macro... . You probably get a zero because there is nothing for the macro to call/reference (aka the fist part of the macro you dropped).

If you understand LISP, you can use this guide to understand DIESEL: http://www.cadcentar.com/DIESEL.pdf

[powellk00]

I actually am new to the lisp and macro writing.  I just knew that there had to be a way to automate what i was doing.  I would have written a lisp program but with having to use it on autocad full version and lt I had to use a macro instead.  

To answer your question, when i put the full expression, it wont get past the area command it gives me the error "*Invalid Selection* Expects a point of Last.

So thats when I tried to see if the mtext part of it worked just to test it.

Also thank you for the url to the Diesel Information.

[powellk00]

HI,

So an update to my situation.  I got the following macro to work on my full version of autocad 2014.

*^C^Carea;e;\-mtext;(setq pnt (getpoint));\!pnt;$m=$(/,$(rtos,$(/,$(getvar,area),144)))';;

I then went to a computer running an version of autocad 2014 lt and it doesnt work.  it has a problem with the setq portion.  What can I do to make this work in lt?

Thanks,

Kevin

[drjohn]

Unfortunately no LISP in LT versions.

Regards,

[powellk00]

Is there any way to write it in a form that would work in LT?

I was under the impression that since it was in macro form that it would work?  I knew that lisp programs wouldn't work.  Thats why i modified it to work for what i needed.

Thanks.

Kevin

[drjohn]

Essentially, if it has parens it won't work.  Diesel will and macro will.  SETQ is a LISP function as is GETPOINT ... etc ...etc... Even though it's in MACRO form it would still need a LISP evaluator loaded for those expressions.

 I'm not a programmer. But I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

Try >>>here<<<  They may be some help.

Regards,

DJ

[jeh_uk1]

Hi,

we use the following macro, which works in LT without a problem, other than having to run the macro before selecting the object

^C^C_area;_object;\_modemacro;\;$M=$(*,$(getvar,area),0.000010764) Square feet;

This was originally based on someone else's macro, that I modified for my use many years ago.

We also use fields (object, polyline, area) attached to polylines, using a 1.0764e-005 conversion factor.

The full expression is %<\AcObjProp.16.2 Object(%<\_ObjId 8796079711824>%).Area \f "%lu2%pr0%ps[,ft\\u+00b2]%ct8[1.0764e-005]">%

Hope this helps.

Jason

[pendean]

The error message means you are not selecting an object the macro is expecting. Looks like you may have too many semi-colons in it.

The one I use (works fine in LT2005 through LT2015, and AutoCAD to boot):
^C^C_area;_o;\_-mtext;$M=$(getvar,viewctr);@;AREA= $m=$(rtos,$(/,$(getvar,area),144),2,2) USF;;_move;_l;;@;\

Change USF to anything else you want, you can take out the "area=" if you don't need it, you can drop the ",2,2" if you want LT to default to your file settings, and modify anything else as needed to suit your needs.

[powellk00]

Thank you so much.  It worked like a charm.  

Now i just have to figure out one that will take all the nets i insert and add them up for the sum of the nets.

[drjohn]

---

@powellk00 wrote:

Is there any way to write it in a form that would work in LT?

I was under the impression that since it was in macro form that it would work?  I knew that lisp programs wouldn't work.  Thats why i modified it to work for what i needed.

Thanks.

Kevin

---

A long time since I did any programming.  I stand corrected and apologize for the bad info.

Regards,

DJ

[powellk00]

Hi DJ,

No problem.  You know more about it than I do.  I am very much an amature at this.  

Now i just need to figure out how to write a macro that will take all the nets i place and add them up and insert that in text format.  Luckily all the nets i insert are in there own layer so that is to my advantage.

Kevin

[jeh_uk1]

Hi Kevin,

For multiples, we attach several fields, within tables, to separate polylines. See attached screenshot.

Within the table, you can have the cells adding up much as you would in excel, and then just manipulate the polylines as required.

It will take a bit of time to setup (at least the 1st 10 times!, and work out how it all goes together, but the time spent in learning how to do this, is worth the investment over the rest of your career!