You gotta try visibility-add-eng-v1.1

[Anonymous]

Ok, the instructions aren't the clearest, however, when you get the hang of
it you'll love it. Try to make my valve (attached) without using this lisp
routine, you'll spend 10X longer.


Here are the steps I figured out:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Elements:
Lines, arcs, splines, attributes, text, etc.

1) Place all the elements. The location doesn't matter at first, so make
them easy to select by not stacking things on top of each other.

2) Add all the parameters/actions you want - DO NOT add any visibility
states or lookups yet. Make sure your actions affect the things you want,
and don't affect the things you don't want them to.

3) Load visibility-add-eng.lsp.

4) Add a visibility parameter using (visibility_add). Rename the parameter
accordingly.

5) Set this new visibility parameter active using (visibility-up). There is
a little problem with the program here. When you have one visibility
parameter active and you set a new one active, it gets hung up. Use the
visibility state pulldown and select a state. Note the command line will
ask you for a visibility state. Type ? to see those available, then type in
any name you want.

6) Add the states to the list of visibilities - DO NOT change the visibility
of anything yet.

7) Using (element-sel-current-del) select all the elements you do not want
to be affected when you change this particular visibility state.
For example: If I'm working on the "actuator" visibility states, I don't
want my valve type to change if a person wants to use a different actuator,
therefore, I will select every element that is not an actuator.

8) Now you can make elements visible or invisible in the states you've
defined. Do not bother changing the visibility of the elements you've
removed.
NOTE: if you draw a new object or copy something, it will not be removed
from any visibility sets.

9) Repeat steps 4 thru 8.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

I did not list all the functions in this routine. Many I don't even know
how to use yet, or why.

Todd

[rapidcad]

Hey Chris, if you'll dig into the past pages of this quite long post, you'll see that nobody's been able to get v1.5 to work correctly yet. I don't see why you couldn't try to paste the function in from v1.4, but it probably will not work. I assume that the DWG object model changed regarding this part of the program between AutoCAD 2010 format and AutoCAD 2013 format. I think you might have better luck in writing the author - he's quite an AutoCAD master in Russia. Maybe he'd consider looking into it?

His name is Nikolay Poleshchuk, but you reach him through his friend (who translates) Andrey Lazebny.

Andrey lists his email as lazebny#pelisker.ru (changing # to a "necessary symbol" and putting AutoLISP & AutoCAD in the message topic. I don't know if this will help, but you can always try.

Ron

[Anonymous]

Dear Ron,

Yes, I have been looking over this post, and I had read about the bad luck people have had. I also know that my own AutoCAD has been cursed since I got here. What a shame this is.

I assume that with Mr. Lazebny's e-mail address, the pound sign should actually be the encircled "a" (known as "at" symbol), correct?

Thank you once again, Ron. I at least feel some relief that I'm not alone out here.

Chris

[rapidcad]

Yes, it's the symbol for "at" @

No problem.

[NikolayPoleshchuk]

Hi friends,

The author is Andrey Lazebny and I am a translator and owner of the web pages.

Andrey changed job and does not support this program any more. As you can understand the most reliable version is 1.4 and it works well in AutoCAD 2011.

To our pity Autodesk inserted many changes into DWG structure so the program is hardly to be customized to new releases. Autodesk knows about this application but gave no support to it.

[Anonymous]

It is a SAD NEWS.

I hope he will continue his support in some manner.

Waheed

[rapidcad]

Sorry Nikolay for mixing up who is who there. And Waheed, don't be discouraged about it. For the time being we can still create MVP dynamic blocks in 2011 and use them in 2013 and probably 2014-15 too since the object model of the 2013 DWG format is set for these 3 versions. By then (Lord willing) we will come up with something to out-do it.

[Anonymous]

Yes, this is truly sad news. I feel like I should be sending somebody a sympathy card.

Mr. Poleshchuk, thank you for the update. And to you, Ron, I wish you all the best with making blocks, as long as you can access AC 2010/2011. I so far haven't got the access, and my IT guys seem to be AWOL ATM. Doesn't help that they're now in a different state.

Chris (who is now slinking back into the shadows of obscurity)

[Anonymous]

Dear Ron,

I received a new workstation last Friday, which includes a version of AutoCAD 2010. Specifically, my shortcut calls it "AutoCAD Civil 3D as AutoCAD 2010" (and I can't change this, so this is what it's called from the install). Anyways, I've been spending this morning getting it set up, and working through Block Editor trying the MVP LISP. And, I can say it works 100%!

But, I did notice one issue, once done editing the block. I accidentally exploded one of my blocks, only to see some of the elements vanish. When this happened, I also saw that the BURST command does the same act. Now, the only items that disappear are elements not visible in the block's default insertion state.

Any clue why this version is doing that? I don't recall this happening before. Of course, these blocks shouldn't be exploded since they're so smart, but who's to say they won't?

Thank you.

Chris Martin

[rapidcad]

Good for you Chris! Yes, running that shortcut loads Civil 3D without the vertical menus, so it is plan old AutoCAD if I understand correctly. I have a little experience with AutoCAD Mechanical which is run in a similar fashion.

My blocks behave similarly and always have since I began making MVP blocks.  I have to think it is due to the lisp writing entity data to undocumented parts of the object model, then when an explode happens, the only handles that could find those addresses are destroyed in the explode process. I haven't tried burst, but I can see why it would also fail to place all objects in the drawing.

This is a great tool, but it does come with a cost. Whenever you work on the bleeding edge, you risk getting marooned somewhat. Our policy is to never explode dynamic blocks anyway.

Are you sure that one of the previous releases of the lisp created blocks that exploded properly? I haven't seen that.

[Anonymous]

Well, I have reverted back to Version 1.4, which apparently is the end of the line for us MVP devotees. However, this is the first time I recall seeing exploded block elements vanish. I agree with you about not exploding blocks (that's not the point, if you're gonna bother making them). Plus, I am the only CADD operator here for Electrical systems, so I know I wouldn't explode them if not needed.

An Idea I had (which I'm about to try) is for each parameter, I set an all-on visibility state. Many of my blocks utilize Block Property Tables, so I just set the table lines without using the all-on state.

Let's all cross our fingers.

Chris

[Anonymous]

And, I believe my experiment was a failure, but not without hope for the future.

Something I had tried was exiting Block Editor in a different parameter besides my Master Parameter on top (via Visibility-Up). When I exploded the block each time, the lead parameter's elements stayed on the screen. When all said and done, I went back to my Master Parameter on top. And then in the Visibility States screen, I set the first state to be my all-on state (instead of my default-install state, which is what I want shown when the block is first inserted in a drawing). When that happened and I exploded the block, the elements that were visible at the time stayed.

Problem now is, when I first install my block, I have more elements on screen than what I wish to see.

Any suggestions, please? Thanks.

Chris Martin

[rapidcad]

If it helps, you could try inserting from the tool palette which, once you've created a block and dragged it to a tool palette, you can right click on the palette tool and change some properties under the "Custom" section. What I'm saying is without programming, you can insert a dynamic block and set a number of properties before it inserts. That might allow you to make those objects display in the default view, but hidden when you insert. 

Otherwise, I can't think of much. My blocks are way too complex to try to assure that explosion can happen without issue, so I'm just making it a rule - no exploding. Besides, we're developing an asset library with the goal of exporting block data to databases for BOM, costing and maybe ordering if we work it out right, so the whole point is intact block data.

Visibility add engine is a huge help to me for now. Autodesk just might be convinced to integrate this kind of programming into the product since "multiple visibility parameters" was #3 on the wishlist that AUGI just presented to Autodesk at last fall's AU. Those high ranking wishlist items often find their way into the program. However, if it does, I'm sure we will all have to start over since they would almost certainly be incompatible with our friend's program.

[Anonymous]

I like your idea here, Ron, but I do not fully understand how I am to do what you suggest here with tool pallettes.

All in all, I completely agree with you about not exploding blocks. I'm not for it either. At this moment, I'm just trying to obey the universal business law: Cover Your Rear (in this case, my own). My prayers are with us all who wish for AutoDesk to incorporate MVP's into their base program.

Thank you.

Chris Martin

[Charles_Shade]

I am interested in asking that very same question and may get an opportunity to before too long.

[rapidcad]

Sounds like you would both like to know more about inserting dynamic blocks from tool palettes?  If so, I'll outline the steps:

With AutoCAD open and toolpalettes on, right click on an empty area on the palettes and select "New Palette" from the right click menu to create a new tool palette - you can call it whatever you want for now and rename it later if you choose.

Simply open a windows explorer (my computer) window and navigate to a dynamic block on your drive or you can even open a drawing and highlight a dynamic block. Either way, just drag the block onto the tool palette and it becomes an insertion tool with a lot of power.

Now right click on the block and select "Properties" from the bottom of the pull down menu.  You will see a dialog box like this:

Up in the top, you can right-click on the image and select any bitmap you might have - I often create special ones to show the block in certain configurations. You can also call this tool anything in the upper Name field. I often give a more detailed description in the Description field which is a tooltip that shows up when you hover over it with the mouse.

Source file shows if the block came from within a drawing file (yes, you can drag pre-configured dynamic blocks from a library file onto the tool palette to make a certain tool). If you do choose to use a single source file, consider that if the source file gets corrupted, your whole library could be toast, so keep older versions available if you choose this method. Source file can also just be the wblock file from your drive.

You can pre-set scale, rotation, whether you want to prompt user for rotation, auxiliary scale (like ltscale), the layer, color, and all those general properties, and then there's the "Custom" properties.

Each of your dynamic block parameters that you allow (yes, on the properties palette of each parameter you place in your DB, within the block editor, you can select "Show Properties" yes or no.) If yes, these are available for editing in the properties palette or in this tool palette dialog box. 

It is here, in this Tool Properties - "Custom" section that you can pre-set any dynamic parameter value so it will be pre-set upon insertion. If these are good enough you don't even need lisp to create custom insertion tools. This is ideal for LT users like yourself, Charles. Of course, if you are doing really complex things, you might need to develop a lisp or ARX or VBA program to change some of the properties under certain conditions. There's a lot of customization available here.

Hope that is what you were asking about.

[Anonymous]

Dear Ron,

That ability is extremely cool on many levels (oops, I meant layers! ). It is a prime example of a program being able to do so much, yet a typical user does so little on it. I've given you a kudo for that post, but if I could I'd give you 99 more! You deserve them all for showing us this.

And, you deserve my gratitude. Thank you very much.

Chris Martin

[rapidcad]

Aw shucks!  Glad I could help!

[Anonymous]

Dear Ron,

You did help a great deal with showing me new abilities. Sadly, though, my exploding/bursting block issue persists, even after a comple recreation of the block. Only elements visible upon my block's initial insertion remain visible. Everything else disappears when exploded or burst.

I am under the impression that this fault is due to me having "AutoCAD Civil 3D as AutoCAD 2010" instead of the actual program itself, AutoCAD 2010. Fortunately, I am only dealing with this for 1) this block needed an update from when I created it originally, and 2) to see how well this MVP LISP routine cooperates with my new workstation.

I have also tried to enter the CADD sheet files that I had created to display my block libraries, and exploded & burst some copies of blocks made earlier, and nothing vanished at all. I feel it is the program chosen for me to use.

Anyways, Ron, you are right. You always were right, about not exploding/bursting blocks. And I don't ever intend to.

Thank you for your valuable help & education.

Chris Martin

[rapidcad]

Just to clarify, it does not seem to matter if you have Civil 3D, or Mechanical or Architecture, when doing MVP dynamic blocks, they only seem to explode correctly if the default visibility is still active. In other words, if you configure a MVP dynamic block and visibility states are changed in the process, your explode will not reflect the correct entity geometry. I have the same issues on plain old AutoCAD as you do with Civil 3D.

[TopDawggamer]

I'm using 1.5 and AutoCad 2012 to try and create some blocks that  will be used in 2007LT (hopefully we upgrade soon..). I can't get the visibility to work right. I read on earlier posts 1.5 and 2012 don't work correctly so I was hoping some one with a different version would have time to set them correctly for me. The VisParameters are already set up correctly but they interfere with each other. If I am doing something wrong please let me know. Thanks in advance if anyone has time to help me. I am still new to dynamic blocks.

P.S.

I had to erase some lines and text to meet the file size limit. Will it be possible for me to add these back to show all the time easily. They will not be in the visibility states.