New lisp project (Where to start?)

[navbor]

I do a lot of Inventor work, but my customers often want the drawings in AutoCAD format. Generally I just use the Inventor "save as" -> AutoCAD.dwg option, create the files and send them. However, the format (look and feel) of the files are rather boring. I want to write a lisp routine to Automate the process of making the dwg files look more appealing.

I want to do this with lisp, but it's been a loooong time since I used lisp, and even then, my lisp skills were somewhat limited. So,.. I have written myself a "project brief" which is below, and now I am ready to start my lisp project. However, I find myself staring at the brief and thinking "OK, where do I start." The concern is not so much the basic lisp functionality which I am sure will come back to me rather quickly, but more the bigger picture. Does anyone have any advice / guideline to offer as to how to approach this task. Programming is kind of a hobby thing, so I don't really want a coded solution, I would really like to code this myself, but some ideas, about how to break the problem down into more manageable chucks would be a big help. Of course any coding advice / tips are always welcome as well.

Thanks

;; Once a drawing is saved from Autodesk Inventor to AutoCAD,

;; the drawing needs to have certain changes done within the

;; AutoCAD environment before sending the ACAD file to the

;; customer. Here is a list of the changes:

;; 1.) All blocks need to be exploded

;; 2.) Any attributes within blocks need to be converted to

;; text (i.e. attribute values must not be lost)

;; 3.) The standard exported layers from Inventor need to be

;; assigned new colours (colours can be hardcoded in the

;; lisp file)

;; 4.) The drawing must be "saved as" AutoCAD version 2000.

;; As well as DXF AutoCAD version 12.

;; #########################################################

;; ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

;; The lisp routine for doing this must be loaded into the

;; AutoCAD session / environment at all times.

;; Apart from calling the routine from the AutoCAD command

;; prompt, there should be no further user interaction. (i.e.

;; no dialog boxes or further prompts). Any changes after this

;; can be added later.

;; All Inventor drawings will be exported to AutoCAD in

;; modelspace, so there is no need to be concerned with

;; paperspace issues.

;; When drawings are "savedas" from Inventor, each drawing sheet

;; is saved as its own dwg file.

;; The routine must collect all the drawings exported in one batch

;; and put them all into one AutoCAD dwg file.

;; Consideration need to be given to issues like when the blocks

;; are exploded, they also need to be purged, so that when the

;; drawings are "merged" there must be no block name clash.

;; Also positioning of the drawings needs to be considered

;; so that if there are multiple drawings that are merged they need

;; to be arranged in such a way to use the least amount of graphics

;; window and also have the sheet numbers follow in a logical fashion.

[Rtogores]

I believe reading Chapter 2 of my book "AutoCAD expert's Visual LISP" could help. It deals with the basics of a Visual LISP project, from the start up to compiling and demandloading. I have shared a PDF of this chapter here.

More information on the book can be found in my blog lispexpert.blogspot.com. If interested, the book can be bought at the CreateSpace e-store.

[Rtogores]

By the way, I used to teach Inventor VBA at the University a few years ago. You can see some of my class materials at http://www.togores.net/inventor-01/autodeskinventor. They're in Spanish, as this was a Spanish University but I suppose the code can be readily understood...

[Anonymous]

I find that going through & doing what you need done manually first, writing down your steps/commands (which you kind of have already) then just jump in and make the automated lisp. I start with geting the lisp to work by manually loading & running it at the command prompt. Then try automating the loading/running without user intervention.

For the attributes conversion there was a lisp from the express tools called BURST that explodes & keeps attribute values. (I think it will also explode regular blocks).

You might want to purge your drawing after exploding blocks to get rid of them & their layers (change current layer to 0 or something you want to keep).

The rest shouldn't be too hard.

Good Luck,

Rick

[3wood]

You can try EXPLODEALL.vlx to do Step 1 & 2.