topic Pipeline trim macro, selection issues in VBA Forum

Pipeline trim macro, selection issues

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 10:24:48 GMT

Hello,
I have written the following macro to help me quickly trim pipelines when I am working on a P&ID.
*^C^C_CIRCLE;\;20;_trim;L;;\;erase;P;;
Basically what it does is creates a circle at an intersection and then you select which line to trim within the circle so that you can show they are not connecting. After of which it deletes the circle out of the drawing. It then repeats so you can do multiple pipeline intersections at once.
It works exactly how I want it to, unless you miss click off the line that you are trimming then the whole macro falls down instead of allowing me to use the box selection for that function.
How would I go about rectifying this?

Re: Pipeline trim macro, selection issues

pendean — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 14:02:41 GMT

Can you post a video of it in action? Use the free Autodesk SCREENCAST app https://knowledge.autodesk.com/community/screencast

Re: Pipeline trim macro, selection issues

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 14:16:43 GMT

I will try to get the screencast program however my company wont let me download it unless I raise a ticket which I will do now.

Re: Pipeline trim macro, selection issues

pendean — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 14:39:46 GMT

A series of images would do as well: help us understand what you select, how the macro progresses, what the end result looks like.

Re: Pipeline trim macro, selection issues

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 16:34:53 GMT

The first three pictures are the macro working how it is supposed to. It creates a circle you click on the line and then it erases the circle after.

Re: Pipeline trim macro, selection issues

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 16:37:07 GMT

These last two pictures show what happens when i use the box selection which i find faster and requires less accuracy with my jumpy mouse. The trim function doesn't seem to end and it will not erase the circle anymore?

Does that help?

Re: Pipeline trim macro, selection issues

john.vellek — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 18:09:46 GMT

Hi @Anonymous,

Welcome to the Community forums.

I feel that you are facing a fairly common challenge with AutoCAD LT customization is that the way you are building a macro does not include any kind of error checking such as found in LISP with full AutoCAD.

Would a block with a mask do this process for you so you don't actually have to trim the linework?

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

Re: Pipeline trim macro, selection issues

Kent1Cooper — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 18:26:42 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

....
It works exactly how I want it to, unless you miss click off the line that you are trimming then the whole macro falls down ....

That's because the macro content only has the one backslash for User input to pick the Line, and then it moves on as though the Trim command is done, which it isn't if you miss.

Are you using Acad LT as @john.vellek mentioned [I didn't see any indication]? If you have "full" AutoCAD, there are many AutoLisp routines out there that will do this sort of thing with a User-specified gap size, for instance several >here<. I haven't tried all of those, and some may have the same problem, but I imagine at least some of them operate in a way that doesn't even require the User to pick the portion to be Trimmed that way at all.