"" Please, do show me the "half a dozen tools available" in AutoCAD that would allow me to build parametric doors, that include all of the information above.""
LISP
VBA
ATTRIBUTES and extraction
Extended Entity Data
C++
ObjectARX
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"" Preferably the ones that don't require me to first take a year of night classes in database programming, C++ and .Net to create new object types in ObjectARX.""
Well there ya' are. Wanna curse the dark cuz' the light switch is waaayyy over there.
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"' Cobbling together a complex and tenuous "solution" using software that requires such gymnastics to get it to work this way is simply not acceptable in this day and age""
Sorry, for most of the folks I deal with, it's not all that complex and tenuous and no gymnastics are involved. And a little customization is quite acceptable for those of us who wish to use the software instead of ...
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"" By the time you are "done" you could have bought and learned ADT or Revit.""
Neither of those programs provide a solution for what we do, they are merely more expensive.
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"" please expound on your techniques""
I would, but for some reason you've discounted customization. I can only assume you draw all you 2D stuff with OOTB functions, correct? No? You'll customize for 2D but not 3D? why is that?
But hey, that's just me.
Randall Culp
Civil-Structural Design Technician
(aka CADaver)