AutoCAD LT 2013 - How to measure total length?!

[Anonymous]

I am using Autocad LT 2013. Is it possible to measure total length of selected object line/Pline? I have tried Lisps (TLen) but didn't work. Is there another way? Thanks in advance

[ The subject line of this post has been edited for clarity by @handjonathan Original: How to measure total length?! How to measure total length?! ]

[rkmcswain]

LISP files are not supported in AutoCAD LT.

See: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-lt-general-discussion/total-the-length-of-multiple-lines/td-p...

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

>> measure total length of selected object line/Pline?

Select the polyline and look to the property window, there you'll find the length of the polyline.

- alfred -

[Emmsleys]

Hi @Anonymous, 

To add another suggestion to this thread. 

Is using the DIST command not an option? 

AKN help file for the DIST command. 

Demo link

[Anonymous]

Type list, pick polyline, read length.

[john.vellek · Accepted solution]

Hi Adela.h1610,

I found a slick way to do this. If you create a block with an attribute field for each  line or polyline you are trying to measure then you can see the lengths posted right on the screen or even perform an attribute extraction to get totals. You can also do this just with a field if you don't intend to extract the information.

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

[Anonymous]

I know this. I am talking about multiple selection of Plines or lines. Like for example electrical or telecom.network cables. Just to give you an idea.

[rkmcswain]

John, you say to make a block, but in your screencast, that is a polyline. Also, there are no attributes involved either.

It would be nice if Autodesk would just give us a command to get the total length from a selection set, like TLEN.lsp has been doing for probably 20 years.

Also, you do know when you broke the polyline, the resulting total was only for one of the two segments, right?

[rkmcswain]

Adela.h1610 wrote:
I am using Autocad LT 2013. Is it possible to measure total length of selected object line/Pline? I have tried Lisps (TLen) but didn't work. Is there another way?

There are alternatives out there that do accept lisp files (I tried TLEN.lsp in one such application, and it works fine) I'm not going to mention the names here, but guess what? This particular program also reports the total length of a selection set, so you don't even need the lisp file anyway.

[pendean]

LT is the wrong software for what you need to do. Explore other options.

Good luck.

[john.vellek]

Hi rkmcswain,

Thanks for your input. As I described, the fields can be linked to an entity to report the length and that by breaking the polyline in my screencast it shows that the now shorter polyline's length is reported dynamically in the field. The next obvious step then is to create an attribute in a block with such as field. Then using -ATTEXT, a table representing the lines could easily be sorted, totaled, etc.

If the user wants to avoid the blocks, then simply placing a table with the fields directly in it would work fine too especially with a Total Sum formula.

Thanks again for your contribution.

[john.vellek · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous,

I am checking to see if you had explored any of the solutions in the thread. As I pointed out, a collective total length is not possible as a "Properties" or as a command feature.

I have found my solution of adding Fields (whether in blocks or not) has been effective. I did a bunch of telecom design years ago and this was a great way to tag items for type and specifications which I usually pasted straight into a table.

Please add a post with your results so other Forum users can benefit.

Please hit the Accept as Solution button if a post or posts fully solved your issue or answered your question.

[Anonymous]

 I have installed TLEN lisp routine, and it works perfect.

Anyway I'm going to try the solution below, and see if it is worth using it.

Thank you in advance for the Help.

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@john.vellek wrote:

Hi @Anonymous,

I am checking to see if you had explored any of the solutions in the thread. As I pointed out, a collective total length is not possible as a "Properties" or as a command feature.

I have found my solution of adding Fields (whether in blocks or not) has been effective. I did a bunch of telecom design years ago and this was a great way to tag items for type and specifications which I usually pasted straight into a table.

Please add a post with your results so other Forum users can benefit.

Please hit the Accept as Solution button if a post or posts fully solved your issue or answered your question.

---

[Paul_Gander]

I know this is an old thread but it is a question I've seen asked many times over the years and I have only just got round to adding the unit conversion function. I've been using this method for quite a while but, as I was born in the UK after 1970, I have never used feet & inches.

Firstly, in AutoCAD LT, you will need to temporarily change your unit display format to decimal [LUNITS=2]. Getting Excel to isolate a string such as "2'-6 3/4"" and convert it to the value of 30.75 is a challenge for another day or, more likely, another person. Feel free to have a go.

Use the LIST command to display the properties of all the lines, polylines, lwpolylines, circles, arcs, ellipses and/or elliptical arcs, the lengths of which you wish to add together. Press return when prompted until the entire list is displayed on the text screen and then copy the text to the clipboard.

Note: It is easier to select these objects if you are able to isolate them on their own layer. Any other types of object you select will be ignored when calculating the total length but there will be more text to copy to the clipboard.

In the spreadsheet (See attachment) set the AutoCAD units to match whatever you used in the drawing. If you used the Architectural or Engineering unit display format then this will be inches.

Set the units in which you wish to have the total length displayed and the number of decimal places to show. The spreadsheet will do the conversion for you.

Finally, click on the button labelled 'paste & calculate'. The object properties text will be pasted into column A and the formula in column B will analyse the text & extract the relevant length data. The total length will then be displayed in the green result box in your chosen format.

I hope I've explained it clearly enough, that you all find it useful and it saves you lots of time.

The conversion table is on Sheet2 should you need to add more unit types. Inserting rows or columns in the table rather than adding data to the ends will ensure that the unit descriptions are automatically added to the drop down lists on Sheet1.

[Paul_Gander]

Version 2 of the spreadsheet can now accept values in all of the AutoCAD unit formats so there is no need to change the units setting before using the LIST command and there are options to display the result in feet and inches in both engineering format (with decimal places) and architectural format (with fractions).

I've also fixed the bug I found with converting between centimetres and metres. I had the values the wrong way round in the conversion table. It was a last minute change that I should have tested before posting.

[steven-g]

Nicely done, there is an undocumented variable in LT, set "qaflags=2" and there is no more need to keep pressing enter when using list on lots of items.

[Anonymous]

This is a great work around.  Now my problem is I am doing irrigation pipes and wires for golf courses and have many lines on each layer for which I need a total length.  The text box gets full quickly and I cannot see all the lines selected.  Is there a way to enlarge the size of the text box to save more lines or reduce the amount of information per line so I can get all the information without having to copy paste in sections?

Thanks,

Mark

[hwalker]

At the command line type LOGFILEON. This will save all the information from the text screen to a text file. To see where the file is saved at the command line type OPTIONS and open the highlighted tree in the picture below

[lineinc]

This is genius. Thank you so much for making and sharing this!

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@Paul_Ganderwrote:

Version 2 of the spreadsheet can now accept values in all of the AutoCAD unit formats so there is no need to change the units setting before using the LIST command and there are options to display the result in feet and inches in both engineering format (with decimal places) and architectural format (with fractions).

I've also fixed the bug I found with converting between centimetres and metres. I had the values the wrong way round in the conversion table. It was a last minute change that I should have tested before posting.

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[Anonymous]

Paul - another thanks from me - genius indeed!