Automatic masking of Footprints... and balloons?

[rhesusminus]

[jseefdrumr]

Very cool Trond!

Is that one of the new tools in 2017, or is that custom?

[rhesusminus]

Nah... It's custom.

I'm working on a toolbox for AcadE, to put on Autodesk Exchange store. Just trying to figure out if this is something people would be willing to pay a few bucks for. So. I have to "fish" a little, to see if anyone takes the bait

[jseefdrumr]

As they'd say where I live (central Kentucky, USA), " He's a-nibblin' "

...I like this tool just because it's annoying to have to put wipeouts into every footprint I create.

Speaking of which, are you using wipeouts for this? I'm curious because another annoying thing about them is that they have a pretty hefty performance penalty, sometimes. One of my recent panel layouts had several hundred, and this affected everything from panning/zooming to plot time. If you found another way (like manipulating text masking), I'd be curious as to how it compares, performance-wise.

Alternatively, being able to turn the feature on/off would be a great work-around, if wipeouts are taxing your system too much.

Looking forward to see what else might be in this toolbox of yours!

Jim

[rhesusminus]

"Unfortunately", there ain't no other solutions available than a wipeout. Didn't know about the performance issue, so I'm considering epanding the tool now, to put wipeouts on a special layer that can be frozen/thawed using a couple of buttons. Also. create a small tool that moves existing wipeouts to this special layers.

I'm using a "convex hull" algorithm to draw the wipeout, so here you can see the wipeout frames off/on:

 

 I also have the following tools:

• Automatic zoom extents/limits on save. If qsave (triggered by CTRL+S for example, a zoom prevoius can be done as well)
  This make sure the "preview image" of the drawing always looks nice in the project manager.
• "Quantize" - This function moves all wires/blocks to the nearest "snap point", defined by the user. I hate getting drawing that are drawn without snap 😄
• "ActiveDrawingIsNotPartOfActiveProjectWarning". You get a graphic warning on the cursor when your active drawing is not part of current project:
  
• Swap pins - A quick command that swap pin numbers on components. Either by "coordinate", pins located exatly opposite each other get swapped, or by TERMX value. TERM01 swaps with TERM02, TERM03 with TERM04 and so on.
• Global search of catalog - Free text search of entire catalog database. Doesn't work with SQL databases in 2017 yet 😞

This is what is ready. I've got a loooong list of stuff to make. Can't say too much yet about this. Trying not to give promises I can't keep 🙂

What I REALLY need, is someone that can do some nice buttons that matches the AutoCAD interface.... I'm not much of a graphic designer 😄

As you might see, I've been through the "AutoCAD Electrical Ideas" forum to see what people want, that is possible to make.

[jseefdrumr]

I especially like the zoom extents/save combo, active drawing out-of-project notification, and the ability to globally search the catalog. And the wipeout trick of course.

Speaking of which, the 'performance penalty' that seems to come with wipeouts isn't anything I can find documentation on, it's just something I've personally noticed. I see the same thing in drawings with multiple polygonal viewports, which for some reason are worse than square ones. I'm of the understanding that it has something to do with how many vertices are in the bounding shape of the viewport. I'm inclined to think it's the same for wipeouts.

How does the masking tool deal with terminal strips? One single wipeout for the whole thing would be better, to me, than having hundreds of individual ones. (And if wipeouts affect performance, think of the difference there...four vertices versus four hundred.)

The only downside I can think of for your tool, is that it might necessitate removing wipeouts from my custom blocks and/or the terminal strip blocks. But this would be balanced against no longer needing to add them to future footprints, so.

If I could make good looking buttons, I'd do it for you! But alas, I'm not so great at graphical design either. In fact, I don't use buttons in ACADE. My workspace is so minimized...I LISP all of my most-used commands to macros and use those. I wouldn't know the first thing about editing/creating toolbar buttons anymore. Hopefully someone here can help you out...

Jim

[rhesusminus]

I'll have a look into wiping out entire terminals strips, to see if there's any smart way to do this. As it is now, each selected block definition will get a wipeout, meaning that all block references also will get one.

You don't have to do anything with your existing custom footprints. I only add a wipeout if one isn't already present (Automatically assuming that if someone has taken the time to add a wipeout to a block, it is drawn correctly).

Lets hope someone knows a graphic genius 🙂 Anyone?

[rhesusminus]

Short video showing "Swap Pins"

[gclark]

How do i get you my CC info?

[rhesusminus]

😄 "Take my money!" 😄

It will appear on the Autodesk App-store.. They have paypal there. I'm just not sure on how to do this.
Create one big toolbox with a "high price", or create single command, at a "low price"?
What is high? What is too high?

And, if anyone know anyone good with designing icons, I'm interested 😄

[gclark]

Honestly, ACADE does not have sufficient support from my experience. I get more qualified support from community members on various forums (this being one of the major ones) from a select few. Autodesk Needs to hire you guys as consultants and provide little widgets like this to the community free of charge considering their new "subscription model that is better for you" approach. 

the CTRL+S widget to zoom extents seems like a no Brainer and should be built in! Z <enter> E <enter> CTRL+S is annoying which makes me think I am pretty sure I can edit the quick key to do exactly that right?

The drawing is not part of the project is good as well.

Wipeout, WOW talk about time saver trying to place things were they don't have lines running through them. 

Seriously Autocad Electrical Staff, Give these guys 15k consulting fees for a 1 year contract and a 1k, 500, 250 bonus each month they place 1st, 2nd, and 3rd on solutions. 

[rhesusminus]

Here's a video showing the quantize function. If you get a drawing with elements not drawing "on snap", this function will move object to "snap".

Let me know if this is useful for anyone....

[Icemanau]

Ohhh yes, that will be VERY useful...

I deal with a lot of legacy dwgs from before 2000.

Most of them are drawn without using snap or ortho for the wires.

This looks like it will fix all those problems in one go rather than manually selecting each one and adjusting the line/block.

When will you have your collection on the app store?

There's nothing there under 'Rhesusminus' when I did a publisher search...

Will they work on earlier versions of ACADE (using 2008 here at work)?

Regards Brad

[rhesusminus]

It's not available on the store yet. Thought I'd finish a little pack of tools first.

It'll be for release 2015 -> I believe.

Need some feedback/betatesting first, but I don't think that this forum is the right place to discuss this.

Are you all on facebook? Then I can create a group there, where we can discuss functionality, bugs etc.

[rhesusminus]

Made a small program tonight after doing some training. When removing a drawing from the project, it's not "deleted", so you're not able to add a new drawing, named the same.

This small program find DWG-files that are located in the project folder, but is not referenced in the project. You get the opportunity to "delete" those files (They are actually just renamed). Useful?

[Icemanau]

Instead of deleting the dwgs (or renaming them) how about an option to move them to a sub directory called Removed DWGS or something like that.

Regards Brad

[rhesusminus]

Thanks for the input Brad.

I thought about that, but a project can have DWG-file in subfolders of itself as well, so I thought it would be simpler to leave the files where they are.

Maybe I can create a "restore-file" option in the same dialog? Just list the renamed files, and make you able to "undo" the renaming?

Would that be useful?

[Icemanau]

The restore function would be useful as well.

Regards Brad

[gclark]

Are these tools available?

Also maybe I can convince you to make an automatic ISA LOOP sheet generator, all the info is within ACADE but it is not capable of creating the sheet. This would take allot of explaining so maybe best not on the forum; however, I have watched many engineering firms staff many draftsmen for months on end to make ISA Loop Sheets. The value added engineering is up there, if I had an option to tell my customer formalize ISA loop sheets to cost X per sheet (After the regular package is done) I am sure they would bite every time as they regularly make them themselves after I get done with my packages. It doesn't even need to make the entire loop sheet (likely too difficult to do the P&ID part) if it just did the majority of it that would be a big step in the right direction. 

https://www.isa.org/pdfs/news/chapter7-control-loop/

I have played with EXCEL VBA where a row is identified by a sequence number (17298) which there would be maybe 5 items (SE17298, SI17298, PY17298) the row also provides the Loop Sheet file name, Specification Sheet File Name, Drawing File Name and 3 extra file names (all file types are in specific directories) it finds all identical sequence numbers, and referenced files and prints them all into a PDF document stringing them together and saving it to another folder for "Loop Folders" for a receptionist to now print and make a folder. Loop folders are common industry practice for Petrochem and offshore rigs where if there is a problem with 17298 you simply give the technician the folder and they have everything they need without searching for spec sheets, P&ID, Loop Sheets etc.... 

[rhesusminus]

The tools aren't available yet. Need more time, but most of all.. Someone that can make nice icons for the buttons 😄
And beta-testers...
And.. I have to think about how much I can charge.. And.. Should I create one "big but expensive" pack, or divide it into "several smaller but cheaper" packs? THe latter causes more administrative work, as I need to have some kind of licening so that it can't be copied freely between computers...
And.. Well.. A lot more that I have to think about..

And regarding Loop Diagrams.. I'm going to have a meeting now with a large "offshore" customer regarding automatic creation of loop diagrams....