Insert All Blocks In A Grid

[Anonymous]

C3D 2020.

I have a drawing with hundreds of blocks in it. Does anyone know of a way, or a lsp routine, that will insert all of the blocks separated by space between them?

thanks

[pendean]

what spacing is needed? Or what grid sizing?
and in what order are the blocks to be inserted?
And which blocks starts where?

[Anonymous]

what spacing is needed? Enough space in between blocks so that they do not overlap, but not a lot more.

Or what grid sizing? Ditto. If they all came in a row and I had to move blocks to make into a grid, that would still be a lot easier than inserting one by one. Otherwise just enough room plus a little to avoid overlap.

and in what order are the blocks to be inserted? Alphabetical

And which blocks starts where? Pick a point or 0,0. It doesn't matter. The idea is to have a dwg with all the blocks in it, visible, as they are defined. An added bonus would be to have the name appear below the block.

[Kent1Cooper · Accepted solution]

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@Anonymous wrote:

.... I have a drawing with hundreds of blocks in it. Does anyone know of a way, or a lsp routine, that will insert all of the blocks separated by space between them? ....

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I have one that Inserts all drawings  in a given folder  that way -- BlockChart.lsp, available >here<.  It could be modified pretty easily to do all Blocks in the current drawing in the same way, if that seems like it would work for you.

[Anonymous]

thanks @Kent1Cooper ! I will give it a shot. I was able to extract all the blocks to separate dwg's. I don't know how they will come back in, i.e. annotative and dynamic properties, but I am about to find out.

[Anonymous]

I am ignorant to how this works. well, your routine worked great! the blocks did, in fact, retain annotative and dynamic characteristics that they were defined with. what i don't get is that if i open up an individual block drawing it's just the drawing objects that make up the block. i have no idea how/why those block characteristics were retained, but it is time to move forward. thank you for the assist!

[DaveSimmons71]

@Kent1Cooper 

I know this is an old old thread, but I would be interested in your BlockChart.lsp modified to insert ALL blocks in the same drawing.  I have a drawing with about 640 blocks which I need to review.  Is there a way to have the block name placed as well?

BlockChart.lsp,  It could be modified pretty easily to do all Blocks in the current drawing in the same way, if that seems like it would work for you.

[Kent1Cooper · Accepted solution]

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@DaveSimmons71 wrote:

.... I would be interested in your BlockChart.lsp modified to insert ALL blocks in the same drawing.  ....  Is there a way to have the block name placed as well? ....

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Try the attached [lightly tested] BlockChartInternal.lsp with its BCI command, for the charting part.  [The "Internal" is about Blocks within the current drawing, as opposed to the original that does drawing files from a folder.]  Not labeled [yet] -- maybe later.

[DaveSimmons71]

Kent1Cooper

Thank you very much for.  It worked great

[DaveSimmons71]

@Kent1Cooper ... Anyway you could add the name of block in TEXT for me?... that would be fantastic.

[Kent1Cooper]

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@DaveSimmons71 wrote:

... could add the name of block in TEXT for me?... that would be fantastic.

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And it would require some criteria.  On a particular Layer, or just the current one?  In a particular Style, or just the current one?  At a particular height, or just the current one, or proportional to the size of each Block, or proportional to the size of the first one Inserted, or would the Style criterion always be one with a fixed height?  Positioned where in relation to the Block?  Always at zero rotation?  etc.

[DaveSimmons71]

@Kent1Cooper  

I had not given all that detail much thought... Just basic standard OOTB defaults.

Layer = 0

Style = Standard

Height =. 125

Position = -.25Y and I will adjust as necessary

Rotation= zero rotation (horizontal)

Just used a utility to see block shape and name for reference, not a production drawing.

Thank you very much,

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

[Kent1Cooper]

Try the attached.  I added L to the end of the command name, for "Block Chart Internal, Labeled."  Minimally tested.

[MaccyDee]

does this lisp still exist? link is broken and cant find it through google searches

[DaveSimmons71]

Here is the one I had...

[cadffm]

Hi,

BlockChartInternational.. link is not broken and works.

Try another browser !?

[cadffm]

and by google, a version of kents blockchart

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/visual-lisp-autolisp-and-general/help-to-update-2-useful-lisp/m-p/877...

[MaccyDee]

I did it just kept going to the Autodesk forum main page, like it was trying to link to a post that didn't exist...probably Sophos stopping me from doing absolutely anything again 😑

[Kent1Cooper]

If you mean the one called BlockChart.lsp from Message 4 [I think -- the new setup doesn't have Message numbers, despite many complaints], yes, a lot of in-the-Forums links seem to have that problem lately.  I attach the file.  Write back if that's not the one you're after.

[MaccyDee]

That's the one, thankyou my man 🙏