Dialog box container and source files

[RocksterB]

One of my users made the suggest of creating door elevations driven by using dialog a dialog box. At first I dismissed the notion, but it been ever there..., in the back of my mind..., yearning for attention.

So, is this possible? My Caption Hindsight (South Park) instincts tend to think its possible. Via either a drop or check box, the dialog box would allow the user to chose from six door types and add shutter, hardware, molding styles. The dialog box would include a large door image in the middle and a few images adjacent to the selection boxes. Once the user clicks OK, a routine would gather/insert the CAD block from the server location at 0,0,0, maybe even the user could pick the location of the inserted objects. Of course, both the dialog box and source files need to be editable of future use. This one of those things that would be used for years if it works.

Is this a simple request or a major pain not worth considering? 

[RocksterB]

Correction: Captain Hindsight

[dgorsman]

Getting a background image into a DCL dialog can be something of a fight; thankfully the content can usually be organized well enough so that its not dependant on the image.  Otherwise, perfectly do-able.

[RocksterB]

Could someone assist me in this venture or provide me the building blocks to put this together?

[RocksterB]

Anyone?

[scot-65]

RB,

I tried to respond the other day but it did not get posted...

Stay with radio buttons, list boxes, popup lists, and toggles to limit user interaction.

If you have to use image tiles, I would suggest making a slide of all the door options as

one single slide (in a row with labels below). As DG said, image tiles are a entity in itself.

Restore down the window, size it accordingly, zoom extents, and make a slide.

Repeat for door casings (header and slight jambs). You will be writing code for days

if using the vector method to create these patterns, however, clickable fields can

be defined on a "master" slide.

Door casing as well as door pattern is a moving target.

Will you utilize your symbol library to do all the work?

Or will you generate the object with code, then create a block of all the entities generated?

I'd like to see what you come up with as far as a DCL screen capture as I too have had

this type of idea in the back of my mind. I do have a screen capture of a dialog-developed

only (at this time) of windows in elevation, if interested...?

Have you looked into the possibility of dynamic blocks?

You can control the width, height, casing, and style for a single door, with a second dynamic

block taking care of double doors. The dynamic block forum can help you here regarding the

lookup control to control stretching and visibility states. At the time I investigated dynamic blocks

(R2007), only one lookup control was allowed per dynamic block for a vanilla AutoCAD. 😞

To get around this, I had to nest a dynamic block(s) inside another dynamic block where this

nested block cannot be a part of a stretch action of the top level block (move, yes, stretch, no).

[mid-awe]

dynamic blocks is the way to go with this. In fact I believe that I've already seen one floating around the dynamic blocks forum. over a year ago.

[RocksterB]

I'm not a programmer, but will except your suggestions for the dialog box controls. The simpler to understand, the better. You're probably right about using slides instead of images, AutoCAD would digest slides better. I could maybe even get away with not having slides of the components surrounding the door, just the ComboBoxes around the door of the components. Its not as visually pleasing, but it conveys the layout to the user. 

My thought is to use the dialog box to capture/gather the block from my library and produce the CAD entities. This way, it would be easier to capture future evolution of the components by changing the CAD file

Using dynamic blocks seem like a great idea. That way, similar, like items can be called visually and geometrically from each dynamic block.I was just nesting dynamic blocks yesterday and realized I couldn't access the control for the nested block. I'll work around that next week.

MA, if you can remember more information about that dynamic block on the web, I'd appreciate the info.

[mid-awe]

You may gain some insights here: Dynamic Door Blocks

[RocksterB]

I took a look at the door videos on the site and found them quite informative. It reminded me of a monster Revit door family that could morph into like 50 door types. Still, the dynamic block did a good job of being able to morph based on the parameter types. In my case I need the morph to occur in the dialog box to produce the final door assemble.

[paullimapa]

Involving Slide management, download this free SLM utility:

https://github.com/ADN-DevTech/AutoCAD-Slide-Library-Manager

SLM can assist you in creating a slidelibrary (.slb) combining all the slide (.sld) files into a single file.

Then use this function call to show the individual slide (.sld) file from within the slidelibrary (.slb):

(slide_image x1 y1 width height slidelibrary(slidename))
You'll also have to specify the entire path of the slidelibrary (.slb) file
You can use following escape codes to get the open parenthesis "\050" and close parenthesis "\051"
Check out my Dwg Setup code which shows slides inside the dialog by calling them from within a slidelibrary file:
specifically function: AC_shwsld which passes following arguments:
imgkey = "shtsld" is the image key in the dcl
sldlib = "ddsetup" is the name of the slidelibrary
sldnam = slide file name from within the slidelibrary

Area Object Link | Dwg Setup | Feet-Inch Calculator | List on Steroids
Exchange App Store

[RocksterB]

Phil, thanks for the information. I'm in the weeds right now, but will have a look at the untility later today.

[RocksterB]

Phil, is there an easy way to download the many SLM files?

[paullimapa]

I had no problems downloading that file using that link.

But you can always do a search to see if there are any other mirror sites.

Area Object Link | Dwg Setup | Feet-Inch Calculator | List on Steroids
Exchange App Store

[paullimapa]

See attached screen capture with instructions on downloading the program from the URL:

https://github.com/ADN-DevTech/AutoCAD-Slide-Library-Manager

After download & installation, run program from:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Autodesk\Slm\slm.exe

Or click Start and on the search box type: SLM

and the SLM.exe program will be listed for you to click on

Area Object Link | Dwg Setup | Feet-Inch Calculator | List on Steroids
Exchange App Store

[RocksterB]

Thanks Pli.

This is one part of the larger picture of creating and designing the dialog box. Layout and coding is needed before the slides are needed, right?