Need to eliminate hundreds of unwanted vertices from drawing but autocad 2000 doesn't have "weed" command.
Hi,
this is now the 3rd thread opened with the same basic question.
Please stay in one thread instead of opening multiple ones, this is more work for those who help, and more work for you too as you have to reply to multiple threads, even equal questions or suggestions.
There also exist suggestions which you have not replied to (yet).
WEED is not a command in AutoCAD 2000, nor on AutoCAD 2021, functions for weeding vertices can be found in AutoCAD Map 3D and Autodesk Civil 3D or in 3rd party tools, but not in Vanilla AutoCAD.
From the drawing you showed >>>here<<< you had about 240 vertices for the complete curves (text and dimension not included), reducing number of vertices means reducing accuracy. E.g. you can't remove a vertex from a rectangle and see again a rectangle with just 3 points.And it sounds strange if you have curves with 240 vertices and you want to remove hundreds of them!
Same for your drawing, you might remove some vertices, but then the geometry is not the same any more.
And to be honest, I really have a problem thinking about issues with curves with 240 vertices. What exactly does the other tool that reads your DXF-file tell you, how many vertices does it find? Is it verified that the text objects are ignored because if these objects are not ignored then yes, then you have a lot more than 1000 vertices.
- alfred -
Alfred NESWADBA
ISH-Solutions GmbH / Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS
www.ish-solutions.at ... blog.ish-solutions.at ... LinkedIn ... CDay 2026
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(not an Autodesk consultant)
WEED is not an AutoCAD command. It's an AutoLisp routine written by Jerry Workman, originally in 1987. It's available >here<, and there's a WEED2 by Skyler Mills from 1998 [I'm not sure what the differences are] that's >here<. But be aware that those work only on "heavy" 2D Polylines. If you pick on one of yours, and in the Properties palette it says it's a "2D Polyline," those should work. If it says it's a "Polyline," that means it's a "lightweight" one, and you can use my routine written to work on those, PLDIET.lsp with its PLD command, >here<. [You'll find it in other places, too, but that's the latest version. If it doesn't work on older AutoCAD, try Searching in the Customization Forum for the earliest version you can find.]
@jimschmidt wrote:
I have the "weed.Isp" file by jerry workman. How do I apply it? My PC doesn't have an application for Isp files.
In the quick select section of the properties palete it give my a choice to select either line or 2D polyline. No where else does it indicate polyline or 2Dpolyline
That's an L, not an I -- if all-capitalized, WEED.LSP. But even if you have it spelled right in the file name, your computer wouldn't have an application associated with .LSP files, because you don't run it alone, but only inside AutoCAD. In a drawing, type AP [the alias for the APPLOAD command], navigate to where you put the file, and Load it. Without opening it, I'm not sure, but I expect the command name is also WEED -- it's whatever immediately follows (defun C: in the file.
You have a Line object coinciding with the Polyline at the place where you selected it, which is why it gave a choice of which to select. But if the other option it's offering is a 2D Polyline, then WEED [or WEED2] would be applicable, and PLD would not. You could also use CONVERTPOLY to make it a lightweight one, and use PLD on it. That has some advantages: it remembers your distance and amount-of-bend-angle limit choices, and offers them as defaults on subsequent use. And it removes all vertices along collinear stretches, no matter how many, even if longer than your distance limit [which I don't think WEED does, though I haven't confirmed that].
@jimschmidt wrote:
....if I choose yes it says spline curve vertices have been added).....
When I tried convertpoly I get the choice heavy or light but either choice gives me "0 objects converted)
....
That shape is made of Polylines that have had PEDIT's Spline option used on them. You can tell by the control points not being on the curve, and there not being any mid-segment grips:
That's one of the situations where "heavy" 2D Polylines occur -- they result from applying that option or the Fit option to a "lightweight" one. Those can't be CONVERTPOLY'd [as you have found], and it appears WEED doesn't want to work with them, either. You could try PEDIT's Decurve option on it first, and then try WEED again.
I haven't loaded WEED to try [because I virtually never have "heavy" 2D Polylines], but PLD was written pretty much to do the same kind of thing to the "lightweight" ones. I forget WEED's particulars after all these years, but if PLD's operation is similar to it, that distance option is a maximum distance to straighten. It won't remove a vertex if it will result in a segment longer than that maximum. Even in the LWPolyline [the cyan one] in your drawing, which you can apply PLD to, if that were a "heavy" one that you could apply WEED to, your 0.1 distance choice is much too small for any vertices to be removed, because the spacing between vertices is mostly in the 1.0 to 1.5 range. You need to give it a distance that is greater than the length of segments you want reduced in quantity.
But of course, the reason for the high number of vertices, and for using PEDIT's Spline option, is to achieve a reasonably curvy appearance, or actual smooth curvature. If you remove vertices, it will get "kinkier," so you need to decide how kinky is acceptable.
[I need to revisit PLDiet, under newer versions than it was written in -- it's not behaving right on the cyan Polyline in your sample drawing. I couldn't say whether WEED is similarly affected by version.]
[[EDIT: No, maybe I don't -- I find that your cyan LWPolyline has large numbers of coincident vertices, which can cause problems with all manner of things. The second vertex location has 8 vertices, all in the same place! The third location has 9, and the fourth location has 12 ! When I got rid of those with OVERKILL, PLD worked as expected. I couldn't say whether WEED would have trouble with similar conditions.]]
If you load PLDiet.lsp and try the PLD command, you'll see:
Command: PLD
Maximum distance between non-collinear vertices to straighten: 7
Maximum change in direction to straighten <15>: 3
Retain or Straighten arc segments [Retain/Straighten] <S>: S
To put LWPolyline(s) on a diet {All option available},
Select objects:
That won't be able to be put into something like an AutoLisp (command) function, since PLD is not an AutoCAD command, but it should be able to be put into a command macro in a Tool Palette button. Whether that will work along with the other things requested, I haven't explored -- maybe later.
@Anonymous wrote:
.... to reduce the complexity w/o loosing any curvature. ....
That's not possible. The complexity is what creates the "curvature." It's not really curvature in your drawing, but relatively short line segments, bending along the "curves." If you reduce the number of vertices, the line segments must get longer, and the bends farther apart, and the curvature cannot do otherwise than get less curvy.
