Need preview of old blocks

[thomas_climawest]

Hi everyone,

at my new workplace I'm supposed to use a vast company-specific block library.

For some reason the block were saved (back in 1999) without name, only numbers.

So I have to literally go through all the blocks to find oout what is what.

I don't know much about LISP but enough to know that there is a way to have autocad do this;

• open
• purge (while we're at  it 🙂 )
• zoom extents
• save (at another location if the lisp requires it, I don't know)
• open next drawing in directory

This way i get a preview.

Much obliged

Manu

[mid-awe]

I'm working it out but what is the file name structure? (ex. 001, 01, 1, etc.)

[Kent1Cooper]

Try a Search.  I put "Drawing Preview" in the Search window and got a lot of hits, some of which look like pretty much the same question [though I didn't dig into all of them].

[thomas_climawest]

The filename is constituted out of 4 numbers.

Very curious how you're going to do it...

[mid-awe]

Are the numbers consecutive (ex. 0001, 0002, 0003)

[alanjt_]

ScriptPro should do what you want.

[thomas_climawest]

No not consecutive, I'm afraid.
I can make that happen with a rename...

[dgorsman]

Have you considered using the DWG Convert function in TrueView?

[alanjt_]

http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/scriptpro/

[mid-awe]

Ok, I see that you've already recieved an example, but since I told you that I was doing it, here goes another approach.

(DEFUN C:POB (/ DIR DIRF)
  (SETQ	DIR  "C:/DWG/FILES/DIRECTORY/"
	DIRF (VL-DIRECTORY-FILES DIR "*.DWG" 1)
  )
  (FOREACH IDX DIRF
    (IF	(VLA-ACTIVATE (VLA-OPEN (VLA-GET-DOCUMENTS (VLAX-GET-ACAD-OBJECT)) (STRCAT DIR IDX) :VLAX-FALSE))
      (AND (VL-CMDF "-PURGE" "A" "*" "N")
	   (VL-CMDF "ZOOM" "E" PAUSE)
      )
    )
  )
)

 I understand why you got all the suggestions for scripts, but my version will simply pause for you to save or close the current active drawing.

[aqdam1978]

Hi,

Just copy your drawings to C:\THUMB

load this lisp and type UTB for running!

;; drawing purger for thumbnail update purpose
;; By Abbas Aqdam
(defun C:UTB ( / path files dwg sf )
(if (or (= (getvar "SDI") 0) (> (getvar "DBMOD") 0))
   (alert "Please: \n\n1-SAVE and close all open drawing!\n\n2-Set SDI to 0")
   (progn
      (setq path "C:\\THUMB\\")
      (setq files (vl-directory-files path "*.dwg" 1))
      (if (> (length files) 0)
         (progn
            (setq sf (open (strcat path "T.SCR") "w"))
            (write-line "Filedia" sf)
            (write-line "0" sf)
            (foreach dwg files
               (write-line "open" sf)
               (write-line (strcat "\"" path dwg "\"") sf)
               (write-line "(command \"purge\" \"a\" \"*\" \"N\")" sf)
               (write-line "(command \"zoom\" \"e\" \"zoom\" \"s\" \"0.95x\")" sf)
               (write-line "qsave" sf)
            );foreach
            (write-line "Filedia" sf)
            (write-line "1" sf)
            (close sf)
            (command "script" (strcat path "t.scr"))
         );progn
         (Alert (strcat "There is no dwg files in " path "!"))
      );if
   );progn
);if
);defun

 Thanks,

Abbas

[pbejse]

---

@dgorsman wrote:

Have you considered using the DWG Convert function in TrueView?

---

1+ 

[thomas_climawest]

Wow, there are several paths to follow here.

I'm going to try all 'till I find what works best.

Thanks a bunch guys, you're the best!