topic Re: Automated Color Changes? in Visual LISP, AutoLISP and General Customization Forum

Automated Color Changes?

johnfischerLSI — Tue, 18 Apr 2023 21:08:36 GMT

Hoping to get some ideas here! My company just switched sheet lasers, and the new machine doesn't read DWG color data (for determining laser power) the same as the old one. What I'm hoping to do is create a batch process to modify all the old files into compatible ones. Essentially, here are the steps I'm hoping to automate:

- Open DWG

- Explode block (there's just one in each drawing)

- QSELECT all RED lines

- Change property to WHITE

- QSELECT all GREEN lines

- Change property to YELLOW

- SAVE

So far I've looked at BatchInEditor, but that doesn't quite seem to have the correct commands. I'm guessing this is a good situation for a custom LISP, but I don't have any experience writing those. I greatly appreciate any insights. Thanks!

(Attached sample files for reference)

Re: Automated Color Changes?

Kent1Cooper — Tue, 18 Apr 2023 21:21:50 GMT

(defun C:RWGY () ; = Red to White, Green to Yellow

(command

"_.explode" (entlast)

"_.chprop" (ssget "_X" '((62 . 1))) "" "_color" 7 ""

"_.chprop" (ssget "_X" '((62 . 3))) "" "_color" 2 ""

)

(prin1)

)

Re: Automated Color Changes?

johnfischerLSI — Tue, 18 Apr 2023 21:24:34 GMT

Wow, that was quick! I'm pretty new to using these sorts of commands, how do I enter this in, exactly? Do I need to add this to the body of a new LISP command?

Re: Automated Color Changes?

Kent1Cooper — Tue, 18 Apr 2023 21:47:57 GMT

Save it from a plain-text editor such as Notepad to a file with a .lsp filetype ending [call it whatever you want as a file name otherwise]. In AutoCAD, use APPLOAD to load it, and type the command name RWGY [always the part immediately following the C:, and you can change that to anything you prefer] to use it. If you want to try it first, you can just paste the code into AutoCAD at the command line, hit Enter if it ends at a ), and then type the command name.

There's a way to have it loaded automatically into every drawing you create or open, if it's something you would use often enough to want that. If you have other things defined into a file of such things that you load, it can be added into that instead of having its own separate file.

Re: Automated Color Changes?

CADaSchtroumpf — Tue, 18 Apr 2023 23:57:31 GMT

Going back to @Kent1Cooper 's proposal and you want to do a batch process on a folder, try this

For security purposes:
You open a single Autocad session (a new drawing, no other drawings open)
You copy-paste the given code directly into the command line.
You choose the folder where all the drawings to be processed are contained.
And there you should have a command window which will run AcCoreConsole on each of your files.

((lambda ( / f_exe ShlObj Folder FldObj Out_Fld file_scr file_bat) (vl-load-com) (setq f_exe (findfile "accoreconsole.exe")) (setq ShlObj (vla-getinterfaceobject (vlax-get-acad-object) "Shell.Application") Folder (vlax-invoke-method ShlObj 'BrowseForFolder 0 "" 0) ) (vlax-release-object ShlObj) (if Folder (progn (setq FldObj (vlax-get-property Folder 'Self) Out_Fld (vlax-get-property FldObj 'Path) ) (vlax-release-object Folder) (vlax-release-object FldObj) ) ) (setq file_scr (open (strcat (getvar "ROAMABLEROOTPREFIX") "support\\update.scr") "w")) (write-line "((lambda ( / ss n)" file_scr) (write-line " (setq ss (ssget \"_X\" '((0 . \"INSERT\") (2 . \"`*U*\"))))" file_scr) (write-line " (if ss" file_scr) (write-line " (repeat (setq n (sslength ss))" file_scr) (write-line " (command \"_.explode\" (ssname ss (setq n (1- n))))" file_scr) (write-line " )" file_scr) (write-line " )" file_scr) (write-line " (setq ss (ssget \"_X\" '((62 . 1))))" file_scr) (write-line " (if ss (command \"_.chprop\" ss \"\" \"_color\" 7 \"\"))" file_scr) (write-line " (setq ss (ssget \"_X\" '((62 . 3))))" file_scr) (write-line " (if ss (command \"_.chprop\" ss \"\" \"_color\" 2 \"\"))" file_scr) (write-line "))" file_scr) (write-line "(command \"_.audit\" \"_Yes\")" file_scr) (write-line "(command \"_.-purge\" \"_Regapps\" \"*\" \"_No\")" file_scr) (write-line "(command \"_.-purge\" \"_All\" \"*\" \"_No\")" file_scr) (write-line "(command \"_.saveas\" \"_LT2013\" \"\" \"_Yes\")" file_scr) (close file_scr) (setq file_bat (open (strcat (getvar "ROAMABLEROOTPREFIX") "support\\update.bat") "w")) (write-line (eval (read "(strcat \"set accoreexe=\" \"\\\"\" f_exe \"\\\"\")")) file_bat) (write-line (eval (read "(strcat \"set source=\" \"\\\"\" Out_Fld \"\\\"\")")) file_bat) (write-line (eval (read "(strcat \"set script=\" \"\\\"\" (getvar \"ROAMABLEROOTPREFIX\") \"support\\\\update.scr\" \"\\\"\")")) file_bat) (write-line "FOR /f \"delims=\" %%f IN ('dir /b \"%source%\\\*.dwg\"') DO %accoreexe% /i \"%source%\\%%f\" /s %script%" file_bat) (close file_bat) (startapp (strcat (getvar "ROAMABLEROOTPREFIX") "support\\update.bat")) (princ"\Job finished") (prin1) ))

Re: Automated Color Changes?

komondormrex — Wed, 19 Apr 2023 08:06:42 GMT

hey,

is there a necessity to explode a block?

Re: Automated Color Changes?

Kent1Cooper — Wed, 19 Apr 2023 12:29:13 GMT

@komondormrex wrote:

.... is there a necessity to explode a block?

They would need to answer that, but some thoughts:

It's certainly a lot easier to change the colors working with top-level objects rather than nested ones, so Exploding simplifies things considerably. But with more complex code it could be done inside the Block definition.

Since in their case, as described, there's only the one Block in a drawing, it reduces the file size to Explode it, if it is also then Purged from the drawing. It takes less memory to store the information about the pieces on their own than to store all of that and the definition of it all into a Block and the information about the Insertion of that Block.

Re: Automated Color Changes?

johnfischerLSI — Fri, 21 Apr 2023 13:58:10 GMT

This worked like a charm! Thank you so much for your help!