Redraw with Highlight color?

[mid-awe]

Hi all,

I have need for a simple visual-aid that can change the color of model space mleaders & be visible to the user through a paperspace viewport. I don't want the change to be permenant; it's only to help the user find the mleader while working within the main function.

I tried (REDRAW (HANDENT en) 3), but the highlighting doesn't seem to be visible (dashed line @ totally different scale). And so, my mleader is set to color by layer & I was thinking that could be easily changed to-&-fro. Although if it is possible to highlight the mleader by changing it's color rather than the dashes with the redraw mode 3 then no need for rewriting any code.

Is there a sysvar or something that I can do to get an obvious color change?

Thanks for any help.

[mid-awe]

Ok, I think I have something that'll do:
(vla-put-color (vlax-ename->vla-object (HANDENT en)) 1)
& to return to the blylayer color:
(vla-put-color (vlax-ename->vla-object (HANDENT en)) 256)

[Lee_Mac]

I'm not aware of your exact situation, but in general when performing an action that shouldn't modify the drawing (such as visual feedback) I would recommend storing the original colour, and resetting it afterwards so that the drawing remains unchanged.

You might also consider pushing & popping the DBMOD system variable so that the change is not registered by the drawing, e.g.:

(setq obj (vlax-ename->vla-object (handent en))
      tmp (vla-get-color obj)
)
(acad-push-dbmod)
(vla-put-color obj acred)

;; ... Your code here ...

(vla-put-color obj tmp)
(acad-pop-dbmod)

[mid-awe]

Thanks Lee.

The "pushing & popping the DBMOD" is a new one to me. Never heard of that. I'll check it out.

Thank again.

[Lee_Mac]

You're most welcome as always mid-awe - its always nice to find out something new

[doni49]

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@Lee_Mac wrote:

.....I would recommend storing the original colour, and resetting it afterwards so that the drawing remains unchanged....... 

---

Lee,

How do you prevent the change from being made permanent if something happens that causes the code to crash before the color is reset after the work is done?

[Lee_Mac]

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@doni49 wrote:

---

@Lee_Mac wrote:

.....I would recommend storing the original colour, and resetting it afterwards so that the drawing remains unchanged....... 

---

Lee,

How do you prevent the change from being made permanent if something happens that causes the code to crash before the color is reset after the work is done?

---

Hi doni,

You should include the color resetting expression (with sufficient error trapping) inside the error handler function to reset the color change if an error occurs, e.g.:

(defun c:test ( / *error* col ent obj )

    (defun *error* ( msg )
        (if
            (and
                (= 'int (type col))
                (= 'vla-object (type obj))
            )
            (vla-put-color obj col)
        )
        (if (not (wcmatch (strcase msg t) "*break,*cancel*,*exit*"))
            (princ (strcat "\nError: " msg))
        )
        (princ)
    )

    (if (setq ent (car (entsel)))
        (progn
            (setq obj (vlax-ename->vla-object ent)
                  col (vla-get-color obj)
            )
            (vla-put-color obj acred)
            (getstring "\nPress Enter to continue, press Esc to force error...")
            (vla-put-color obj col)
        )
    )
    (princ)
)
(vl-load-com)

Note that the error trapping within the *error* function is required to account for if the user presses Esc before an object is selected and hence before the symbols 'obj' & 'col' are defined.

Lee