topic Re: Rotate a drawing in Visual LISP, AutoLISP and General Customization Forum

Rotate a drawing

eyal.ch — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 06:53:14 GMT

Hi everybody,

I need a lisp that after calling it, it will show 2 options:

1. to select a line to rotate,

2. to restore the original view.

for example I have this drawing:

I want that by selecting a line in the model it will rotate all the drawing so it will be horizontally with this line.

(like in UCS object). and when I call the lisp again and choose the second option - to restore- it will restore the original rotated position.

( I know I can do these options by UCS) , but I want to do these in 2 clicks:

1. by selecting a line- it will rotate.

2. by choosing restore - it will restore the view.

thank you.

Re: Rotate a drawing

Moshe-A — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 07:56:59 GMT

@eyal.ch hi,

1. when using the UCS command it rotate the whole model, as i can understand you do not want that?!

2. if 1 is true, what about objects on off, freeze, locked layers?

3. if after the align to horizontal position you add more objects in that part of the drawing but it could be else where

how can the lisp know which objects is part of the rotate (for the restore option) and which are not

you have to define some known boundary for that.

4. are you familier with ALIGN command?

Moshe

Re: Rotate a drawing

eyal.ch — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 09:16:37 GMT

Hi @Moshe-A ,

I'm familiar with the align command and it align the model with the horizontal line but I need the rotation to be temporary like when you rotate with UCS command.

tha't exactly what I need, and it is for rushing the work,( I know jow to work with ucs and with align) but:

I want by clicking only 1 line from the rotated model , the all drawing will be rotated ( like in the ucs) and will let me work on it or print it and then when I want the model to be like its original position, I will call the lisp again and choose to restore.

Re: Rotate a drawing

Moshe-A — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 11:45:01 GMT

The ucs command has object\entity option are you familier with that?

Re: Rotate a drawing

Kent1Cooper — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 12:16:01 GMT

I just want to be sure I understand what you want to do -- to actually ROTATE all the drawn objects in the drawing, without changing the UCS or the View? If so, there's no issue with object selection for Rotating back in a restore option, whether anything has been added or deleted -- just Rotate ALL objects. But it does raise questions:

As already asked, what about things on Off/Frozen/Locked Layers? Should it save a Layer State, Thaw and turn On all Layers, then Rotate everything, and should part of the restore option be to restore the Layer State after Rotating everything back?

What should be the base point for the Rotate command? The picked point? Some Osnappable location on the picked object, such as an ENDpoint or MIDpoint?

Should it test that you have picked on something straight? Or if you pick on a curve, should it use the direction of that at the pick point? [That would give different results depending on exactly where on it you pick.]

What should determine which way along the selected object is the X-axis direction from the Rotate base point? Would you care whether it sometimes put things more like up-side-down, because of the drawn direction of that object?

Etc., etc.

Re: Rotate a drawing

eyal.ch — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 13:00:14 GMT

Hi @Kent1Cooper and @Moshe-A ,

No, I want to explain again:

I want to do exactly this, but in 2 clicks.

1. to choose a line from the rotated drawing and it will rotate the drawing horizontally according this line.

2. click restore and get the drawing position back as it initially was.

usually you could do what I want like this example:

1. I want to rotate the drawing according the red rectangle base line.

I click UCS and click OBJECT and then I can select the line of the rotated element.

click the text TOP in the middle of the cube and it will be rotated

the model will be rotate and I can work on it or print it.

then if I want to restore the original position I type UCS again and select WORLD

that's what I need, but instead of doing it with a lot of commands, I want it to be quickly.

thank you

Re: Rotate a drawing

dbroad — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 13:31:56 GMT

You don't need a lisp program to do that. Just set ucsfollow to 1.

Re: Rotate a drawing

Kent1Cooper — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 13:41:32 GMT

@dbroad wrote:

You don't need a lisp program to do that. Just set ucsfollow to 1.

... and use the UCS OBject option and select the desired edge.

Re: Rotate a drawing

dbroad — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 13:46:07 GMT

Or ucs e

Re: Rotate a drawing

Kent1Cooper — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 14:26:36 GMT

@dbroad wrote:

Or ucs e

Interesting.... How is one supposed to know of that option [however unnecessary it may be, given the existence of the OBject option]? It's not in the prompt, nor included in Help for the command. If I assume that it's an initial for something not listed in the prompt, and try typing in assumed somethings like Existing or Edge, it doesn't accept those as options. Do you know what it's for?

Re: Rotate a drawing

Moshe-A — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 15:11:31 GMT

@Kent1Cooper

long time ago we had UCS Entity

than they changed it to UCS OBject and i assume Entity is still there for those old applications.

Moshe

Re: Rotate a drawing

dbroad — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 14:56:40 GMT

You've just had to have been an AutoCAD user for a long time(be old). It used to be there. Some coder at some point thought it'd be cooler to call them objects instead of entities. Probably when the ActiveX became popular. You're already familiar with enames, which stand for entity names, Autodesk's original terminology for lines, etc.

The e option is useful for one very good reason. It's easier to type and since it's legacy, it's never going away.

(defun c:ue ()(command "ucs" "e")(princ))

Re: Rotate a drawing

hak_vz — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 15:01:30 GMT

I don't kn ow if this is what you ask but....

Put UCS along the object (line) you want drawing to be horizontal, then run command PLAN.

To return to original view use UCS with Previous option and run command PLAN again.

No need for any lisp.

Re: Rotate a drawing

Moshe-A — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 15:07:14 GMT

@eyal.ch

be aware that each ucs change (and plan) must drag a regen

for such issues i recommend to explore SNAP rotate command (+ ORTHO on)

here is a lisp call SNR to implament this 😀

Moshe

Re: Rotate a drawing

Kent1Cooper — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 17:11:52 GMT

@dbroad wrote:

.... Some coder at some point thought it'd be cooler to call them objects instead of entities. Probably when the ActiveX became popular. ....

Or maybe because all editing commands involving selection of what to work on use the "Select objects: " prompt [and I think they always have], so they figure that's the word users will be more familiar with than "entity" -- AutoLisp code geeks are accustomed to that, but how common a word is it, really?

Re: Rotate a drawing

eyal.ch — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 15:18:22 GMT

Hi @hak_vz ,

That's exactly what I do, but if it's the fast way , I keep doing it.

thank you all.

Re: Rotate a drawing

hak_vz — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 15:34:49 GMT

@eyal.ch wrote:

Hi @hak_vz ,

That's exactly what I do, but if it's the fast way , I keep doing it.

You can use named views. Changing from one named view to other practically takes same amount of time. I personally use PLAN command. In case when you have more then one drawings in same model space named views may be faster.

Re: Rotate a drawing

Sea-Haven — Sun, 23 Jul 2023 04:12:35 GMT

If you pick an object like a line can get the angle, so make a view based around say the pick end pt, but with a rotated view, need to save a "world" view 1st. Found this how do I entmake a view? - Autodesk Community - AutoCAD

So if run the (setq ViewData (entget (tblobjname "view" "ValidViewName"))) it reveals lots of answers. need to think about it maybe try on some real dwgs so can work out some of the dxf values.

Re: Rotate a drawing

john.uhden — Tue, 25 Jul 2023 00:30:05 GMT

@eyal.ch ,

I guess you are not a Civil.

When xreffing dwgs we don't want them to end up in positive or negative outer space. So rather than rotating the world, we rotate the camera by using DVIEW;TWIST. That way everything can reside in the same WCS, and all references can be inserted at 0,0,0 so there's no "racking" required.

Try it. You may come to like it.

Then again, if your an architectural type, you're gonna do what you want and to hello with the engineers.