Advance Steel custom commands-share your ideas

[acbsdesign]

Hello,

It will be nice to learn more about custom commands / combination of Autocad and Advance Steel commands improving productivity. 

To colleagues willing to share-Thank you.

Here is a tiny example:

"Hide parts with identical numbers"-used when parts are detailed using drawings styles.

^C^C_AstM5equalpartsMarkSame \;AstM4CommSelectMarkedObjects ;_AstM4SwitchReprMode off

And another one:

"Hide Similar Advance Steel Objects":

^C^C_SelectSimilar \;_AstM4SwitchReprMode off

Regards, 

Ilko Dimitrov

ACBS

[Drawtech · Accepted solution]

More drawing labels:

If you have a standard note on your GA drawings covering steel grade, but need to note only any members that are a different grade within their label, use this label definition (or a variation of it) for everything:

Note: change the red marked grade to your standard grade:

%MainPartPosNum - %Name %%script(Mat = "%Material": MatStd = "S275": Compare = StrComp(Mat, MatStd, 1): If Compare <> 0 then appendstring Mat)

This will then only include the grade in the label if non-standard.

[Drawtech · Accepted solution]

More drawing labels:

The default slot length in a label is the overall length.

If you want the slot length between hole centres in the label:

%BoltCount No. %Diameterøx%%script(LenTotal = %Length: LenCtrs = LenTotal-%Diameter: appendstring LenCtrs)ctrs slotted holes

[acbsdesign]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Adrian.Mangan wrote:

This is a great one Ilko, I have tried to adjust it myself it add a remove markings before the command but I cannot find it in the CUI to add it. Any ideas? This would be a great one for me. Thank you for all your input.

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Adapted from Sebastian's "Select Main Part"

Isolate Assembly (with a remove all marking command at the start, without that it will isolate the assembly of the selected part, plus any currently marked parts). Also an Escape at the end i pinched from one of Ilko's.

_^C^C_AstM4CommUnmarkObjects;_AstM4SwitchReprMode MAINSTRUCTURE \;AstM4CommSelectMarkedObjects ; _AstM10ViewSelObjects;;_AstM4CommUnmarkObjects;;;graphscr;redraw;

Adapted from Ilko's "Isolate Identical Parts" (with a remove all marking command at the start, without that it will isolate the identical parts, plus any currently marked parts). Also an Escape at the end i pinched from one of Ilko's.

_^C^C_AstM4CommUnmarkObjects;_AstM5equalpartsMarkSame \;AstM4CommSelectMarkedObjects ; _AstM10ViewSelObjects;;_AstM4CommUnmarkObjects;;;graphscr;redraw;

If, like the commands above, a command clears all marking I put a warning in the command name. That's a lesson I learned the hard way!

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For isolate identical parts-I couldn't get the parts unmarked, after I execute the command, and show all, they are still marked.

[Anonymous]

Ilko,

You have to start the command, then select your part. If you select the part, then start the command it misbehaves.

I think it's because of the clear marking command at the beginning. That is not a command that requires an object to be selected.

For this reason the modified commands won't work as part of your context sensitive right click menu.

There must be a way though... consider "Clear marking + display objects connected in shop" on the Advance Tool Palette.

That command should form the first half of our Isolate Assembly command, but I can't see the difference. I'll work on it.

[acbsdesign]

@Anonymous 

I made it work:

Just I add this to all commands that need Unmarking:

_AstM4CommUnmarkObjects;graphscr;redraw;

[Anonymous]

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@acbsdesign wrote:

@Anonymous 

I made it work:

Just I add this to all commands that need Unmarking:

_AstM4CommUnmarkObjects;graphscr;redraw;

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I can only get the opposite effect, it will work now if I select the object first. But not if I want to start the command, then select an object. This is driving me mad!

Does it work both ways for you?

[acbsdesign]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@acbsdesign wrote:

@Anonymous 

I made it work:

Just I add this to all commands that need Unmarking:

_AstM4CommUnmarkObjects;graphscr;redraw;

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I can only get the opposite effect, it will work now if I select the object first. But not if I want to start the command, then select an object. This is driving me mad!

Does it work both ways for you?

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No,

I start the command first, for both Isolate Identical Parts and Hide Identical Parts, I have them in the Default Shortcut menu.

[vuk.vukanic · Accepted solution]

Thank you for all the contributions, here is a couple of tips I didn't see in previous posts:

1. I look at every opportunity to eliminate unnecessary mouse movement (hence i use keyboard shortcuts as much as possible). You can use the Action Recorder to save a particular set of commands (steps) and assign a keyboard shortcut alike shown in the video. I have attached a file containing those I use, they are the most basic (and most used in my case) like: placing and rotating UCS, orient view at curent ucs and zoom at 500 magnification, change from wireframe to conceptual, isolate assembly, clear marked objects, and so on. Just copy folder to

C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\Advance Steel 2019\R23.0\enu\Support and the commands will be available. To see what they do, you need to turn on the manage tab via CUI.

1 or 2 keys + space = hours saved

https://autode.sk/2P62lXS

2. Have you ever had the need to change project information (general notes and alike included) after finishing drawings? Updating Page Header can work, but... Here is a non conventional workflow I use. It is based on XREF. I created .dwgs that contain mock up information (or just a border to indicate intended space for it) and loaded all of the above into prototypes. My XREFs have generic names that never change, so they can be switched with one another. It took me literally 5min to change general notes on approximately 500 drawings and run printing (the print to pdf took about 4hours). I'm still experimenting with this, but found no downsides so far. If you are curious, it's explained in the video accessible here:

https://autode.sk/2yxm11j

Hopefully someone will find it useful, or a way to make it better and share 😄

thx

[acbsdesign]

@vuk.vukanic 

These two a great, changing notes on all dwgs is a pain in the neck, I will implement them and use them.

Thank you very much for sharing. 

[Adrian.Mangan]

Interesting, will have to record these and learn how to apply them.

Thank you

[pinnacledrafting]

Since we are talking about customizing and hopefully I didn't miss this earlier in the discussion, does anybody know what makes the Bolt/Hole/Anchor/Stud icon in the Switch panel change? The "toggle switch display SP/MP" in the Part Marks panel does the same thing. I created a custom tab for modeling to streamline the process, to exclude many icon/commands I never use and all the "switch/toggle" lost the ability to switch. I compared side by side in the CUI the original icon and the one I copied into my custom panel and the only difference I see is in the "element ID" under the "Advanced" dialog in the buttom properties.

BTW, some really good customizing ideas on here, keep'em coming.

I've got some drawing LISPs I've made that I can share later.

Thanks

Bill

[Masibanda-CE]

These are excellent Dave! I'm starting to see that AS is much closer to Tekla in its ability to manipulate data now!

A question for you: Is there a resource for finding the available "variables" you can call up? One of my biggest gripes was not being able to put the model role in the title. With this scripting I can see a possibility. I've tried a few  ... ModelRole, Role, Rolle, etc but can't get it.

Cheers,

Gary

[Sebastian_Eiche]

There's a table for it, if you open the table editor and search for token, you will find it I thought it's located in the kernel database. 

But I think not all token could be used. This have for example the following reason: if you don't set the box in the property to true to create a difference between two objects by using the role. The result in the numbering could be, that two beams with the same role could have the same number. And if you want to add the role of the beam...which should AS use?

Therefore some token could not be used

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

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@acbsdesign wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@acbsdesign wrote:

@Anonymous 

I made it work:

Just I add this to all commands that need Unmarking:

_AstM4CommUnmarkObjects;graphscr;redraw;

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I can only get the opposite effect, it will work now if I select the object first. But not if I want to start the command, then select an object. This is driving me mad!

Does it work both ways for you?

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No,

I start the command first, for both Isolate Identical Parts and Hide Identical Parts, I have them in the Default Shortcut menu.

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Please find below variations on some of the recent custom commands.

These are all commands where it matters whether you select the object and then initiate the command, or whether you initiate the command and then select the object.

Personally I prefer to select the object first, but that's just my natural instinct, YMMV.

If someone could find the command string that would make them work both ways that would be the most elegant solution, I don't know enough about command strings to be able to do that.

Isolate Assembly (Clears Marking) (command first)
_^C^C_AstM4CommUnmarkObjects;_AstM4SwitchReprMode MAINSTRUCTURE \;_AstM4CommSelectMarkedObjects ; _AstM10ViewSelObjects;;_AstM4CommUnmarkObjects;;;graphscr;redraw;

Isolate Assembly (Clears Marking) (select object first)
_^C^C_AstM4CommUnmarkObjects;_AstM4SwitchReprMode MAINSTRUCTURE graphscr;redraw;_AstM4CommSelectMarkedObjects ; _AstM10ViewSelObjects;;_AstM4CommUnmarkObjects;;;graphscr;redraw;

Isolate Identical Parts (Clears Marking) (command first)
_^C^C_AstM4CommUnmarkObjects;_AstM5equalpartsMarkSame \;AstM4CommSelectMarkedObjects ; _AstM10ViewSelObjects;;_AstM4CommUnmarkObjects;;;graphscr;redraw;

Isolate Identical Parts (Clears Marking) (select object first)
_^C^C_AstM4CommUnmarkObjects;_AstM5equalpartsMarkSame graphscr;redraw;_AstM4CommSelectMarkedObjects ; _AstM10ViewSelObjects;;_AstM4CommUnmarkObjects;;;graphscr;redraw;

Hide Identical Parts (Clears Marking) (command first)
^C^C_AstM4CommUnmarkObjects;_AstM5equalpartsMarkSame \;AstM4CommSelectMarkedObjects ;_AstM4SwitchReprMode off

Hide Identical Parts (Clears Marking) (select object first)
^C^C_AstM4CommUnmarkObjects;_AstM5equalpartsMarkSame graphscr;redraw;_AstM4CommSelectMarkedObjects ;_AstM4SwitchReprMode off

Hide Similar Parts (command first)
^C^C_SelectSimilar \;_AstM4SwitchReprMode off

Hide Similar Parts (select object first)
^C^C_SelectSimilar graphscr;redraw;_AstM4SwitchReprMode off

[acbsdesign]

@Anonymous 

Thank you for the two options and commands being summarized

@Drawtech 

Thank you for sharing all these options

Is there any way to insert a block in the label per the attached screenshot below (the slot direction symbol):

Block in Label

And is it possible to insert a block in Detail Title:

Block in Detail Title

Thank you for your time.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Some quick Icons for the following commands

Hide parts with identical numbers (Clears marking)
Hide Similar Advance Steel Objects
Isolate Identical Parts (Clears Marking)
Isolate Assembly (Clears Marking)
Trim / Extend to system
Trim / Extend to line
Bolts off
Bolts Solid
modelboxes and jointboxes off
connection elements off

[acbsdesign · Accepted solution]

A small one,

Not a custom command, but at time saver-match properties of a pre-defined dimension chain and style:

https://autode.sk/2ust5Kc

[Adrian.Mangan]

Interesting

[acbsdesign]

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@Adrian.Mangan wrote:

Interesting

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I am going to prepare a small table with pre-defined dwg styles, and properties (text below, text above etc) and I will place it in all prototypes, for now, this is the fastest way to change the dim's until we would be able to do it within the dwg style, I doubt if it will ever happen.

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[Adrian.Mangan · Accepted solution]

Old table with commands for AS, taken from 2015 Management tools. May be off use to some novices like myself.

Attached.

P.S. no idea if these work