topic Re: PGP file hit and miss in AutoCAD LT Forum

PGP file hit and miss

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 00:05:07 GMT

I'm loading a PGP file (acadlt.pgp) into ACAD LT 2017. I've modified it for my own commands. Some of them work, some don't.

For instance, I've set TT for tilemode, works just fine.

I've tried setting ET, ZZ, EDT, etc. for DDEDIT. If I type DDEDIT at the command line, it works. If I type ET and wait a second, it shows in paranthesis the command that's being called (DDEDIT) so it knows it's supposed to run the DDEDIT command but responds back: ET Unknown command "ET". Press F1 for help.

So... what gives? It's a known command. It is loading the correct PGP file or else the rest of the commands wouldn't work and it wouldn't know that I want to set ET for DDEDIT.

I've seen this with a few other commands too where it's not doing the command, but it knows it's supposed to be tied to the keys.

Tried restarting ACAD. Tried using REINIT and made sure was pointing to correct file. No, the line isn't remarked out with a ";". No, there isn't a duplicate entry for that keystroke combination.

I attached the PGP file as a TXT file since this forum won't allow PGP files to be uploaded.

-Jon

Re: PGP file hit and miss

h_s_walker — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 13:24:28 GMT

I would suggest you delete that ET from your PGP file.

Then find the ED, *DDEDIT line. Copy that to the end of your PGP file and change the D to a T. I just did that and ET worked fine for me

Re: PGP file hit and miss

pendean — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 15:25:42 GMT

Your customizations/changes to the PGP file MUST be at the very bottom of the PGP file, way down there: AutoCAD/LT read the list from top to bottom, last read is first used.

Re: PGP file hit and miss

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 15:57:29 GMT

Actually, doesn't matter where you place your modifications. Yes, last read is first used, but they can be in any order. There is no other hierarchy to the PGP file, it's just a text file that's being read into ACAD when it starts up and it processes each line as it loads, hence the last written at the bottom is the last in is which is proccessed last then since it's just going down the list. It looks for a semicolon to remark out any text on the line after the semicolon. Then it looks for the text, followed by a comma, then any number of spaces or tabs and then the asterisk and the command. If it doesn't work at the top of the heap, it's not going to work at the bottom of the heap.

Re: PGP file hit and miss

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 16:06:16 GMT

Again, doesn't matter where it is in the lineup - that simply doesn't matter unless there are two key stroke definitions that point to two different commands then the final loaded (ie last in the list) will be the one used.

However, there isn't any other ET command being created.

Finally, as I mentioned, it's not a matter of ACAD not loading the command correctly; it knows ET or ED or whatever I want to define it as and whereever I place it, whether at the top of the file or the bottom of the file, it's still reading that in and it reports on the command line that ET = DDEDIT. It wouldn't do that if the problem was with the PGP file.

At the command it shows ET (DDEDIT) if you don't press enter right away. You can see from the attached image what I'm talking about. It wouldn't show in the list as a known command like that if it was an issue with the PGP file. It's when you press enter to accept the ddedit command that it says "ET Unknown command "ET". Press F1 for help."

So, back to the original question. Why does it accept some key stroke commands from the PGP as legit commands and for others, such as DDEDIT, it doesn't.

Re: PGP file hit and miss

pendean — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 16:20:29 GMT

Post #2 did the test and it works.

From two equally ancient users of AutoCAD/LT (we are not Autodesk staff), our advise stands the test of time and works 100%, always 🙂

From the PGP file, at the bottom, yours I believe:

It may help to turn off the second-guessing feature when typiing in modern versions of LT: a common complaint from "fast typers" since AutoCAD/LT2010. It seems to fit your latest description too. It helps if you do not use a mouse button for <enter> too.

Good luck: remember, around here the most frequest repliers to your posts are us old-timers like you with 25-30 years of work experience with the product in question.

Re: PGP file hit and miss

pendean — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 17:08:17 GMT

It's time to call it TEXTEDIT too

Re: PGP file hit and miss

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 17:18:13 GMT

Hahaha... Ok.. you got me on that one.

I'm an old fart ACAD user. Been using ACAD for over 30 years now so I don't always update to the latest commands because I still use the ones I know and with stuff like this I don't even see that they've changed the name of the command till one day they stop working, esp with things like DDEDIT where they are now being masked into another command in the PGP file. This was an upgrade for us from 2014 to 2017 so I missed that in 2015 they made it obsolete.

It's that mask that's causing the problem here and why some of them are working and some aren't. You cannot define a keystroke command to another keystroke command. At the point DDEDIT stopped being a command and started being a line in the PGP file (DDEDIT, *TEXTEDIT) it would stop the follow up from working (et, *ddedit).

Problem solved...

Re: PGP file hit and miss

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 17:20:38 GMT

Yes, at the bottom it has always said add your stuff here. However, it doesn't matter where it's added. I usually pull out the remark lines and re-order all the lines in the pgp file so they are in alphabetical order. Only reason ACAD added the bit about your stuff here was to alieviate some of the confussion as to why things when added didn't work so that user added items would overwrite any defaults from acad.

Re: PGP file hit and miss

pendean — Wed, 27 Apr 2016 12:26:35 GMT

While it is true you can add your customzations anywhere, if you place them at the bottom you will always find then and you will always know for sure there is nothing after it that may replace it. Always true, regardless of what you've done since 1985 🙂