Adding Standard Notes on Tool Palette - Suggestions

[sbrusco]

Hi All,

I have been asked to automate the insertion of standard notes into our drawings and it was suggested that I use the tool palettes. I'm not locked in to the TPs so any and all suggestions on what you think is the best way to accomplish this would be appreciated.

I've thought about creating blocks, inserting and exploding but in the back of my mind I think there is probably a better way.

I think "Importing text..." might be nice then the content of the text can be maintained in an ascii file on a network drive and the vehicle used to add the mtext can be reused and just pointed to different ascii files for its content. Nice, but I don't know how to automate this so the users don't have to find the correct ascii file.

So, what do you believe is the "best" way to get this done?

TIA for any input.

Sal

[john.vellek]

Hi Sal,

I set up this kind of shared text on my Intranet (actually in Sharepoint). Users could use a search to find the exact note they were looking for and could even filter by discipline or task.

Once they found the note they could simply copy it and paste it into Mtext.  I tried this with blocks too but found the copy / paste worked better for most conditions.

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

[sbrusco]

Hi John,

Thanks for your input but I need something a little less user involved. We don't want the users to have to 'find' and then 'copy n paste' but rather just pick a tool on a palette (or something like that) and then pick a location point in the drawing.

I'm imagining possibly a LISP program with an argument that points to the ascii file that contains the text of the note. Then the user would be prompted for the location point and the LISP would create the MText object with the appropriate text. Then this LISP could be used for ALL notes and simply just point to a different text file, or even just some kind of marker inside the text file itself. With internal markers, one ascii text file could contain ALL our standard notes.

In fact, how does that sound to you all? Does anyone have any other suggestions or enhancements to this idea? I may pursue this approach but I haven't done any programming for a while so if anyone has similar code they don't mind sharing...

Sal

[pendean · Accepted solution]

use TP, your text can be a block set to auto-explode upon insertion: you can preset it to the correct layer, style, format and more. All your user does is drag and drop, nothing more.

[sbrusco]

Hi Dean,

Ah, the voice of reason. This is certainly the easiest way and it is also efficient. I got a little carried away with programming automation. 

The block can also be scaled to LTScale or DimScale, as well as the correct layer, but can I also "Style" and "Format" as you suggest? I'll have to look into those.

Thanks for reigning me in to reality.

Sal

[kzD1219]

Having the same kind of issue.  Lots of standard text and would like to put them somewhere easy to use.  On the TP, are all the notes individual blocks?  So I have things like 200mm pipe, 400mm pipe, concrete, grass.  We want that all standard and on the correct layers.  If I make 60 some odd blocks and put them on the tool palette is that the best way to deal with them?  A little leg work in the beginning, but does it work well?

[sbrusco]

Hi kzD1219,

I did just what you described and it is working for us. Somewhere in the recesses of my mind I'm imagining a little program that would parse through one or several ascii file(s) for certain text and add it as a note to the drawing, but I just don't have the time yet. 

My idea would look something like the attached UI.

The ascii file might look something like:

TAG: Please verify/provide all boxed...

%%uARCH/CUSTOMER NOTE:%%u

PLEASE VERIFY/PROVIDE ALL BOXED DIMENSIONS.

TAG: Steel support must be provided...

%%uCUSTOMER NOTE:%%u

STEEL SUPPORT MUST BE PROVIDED FOR BASE OF PANELS SO AS NOT TO DEFLECT TO CONTACT WITH TOP OF LOWER WINDOW.

TAG: Clearance as shown is required...

%%uARCH NOTE:%%u

CLEARANCE AS SHOWN IS REQUIRED TO PROVIDE ACCESS FOR MAINTENANCE PEOPLE.

PLEASE CONFIRM.

...

where TAG lines would populate the radio buttons in the "Note Selection" group as well as separate the notes in the ascii file.

But it is just a dream now. If I ever get around to it, I will share here. Until then, the tool palette works for us.