Make FILLET Command more robust

[Anonymous]

Well, I went to the IDEAS area to post this idea, but AutoCAD was not listed, just customized versions like Civil. So, here's an idea to make the FILLET command more robust. To do a radius fillet between two lines I click on the fillet icon on the modify section of the Home ribbon. Then I press the "F" key to specify a radius. What if, when you press the "F" key you are presented with a list of the last few radii that were entered? This would be very helpful, for example, when working on a parking lot, because in my case, I use several radii such as 24", 5', 10', 15', 25', etc. It would be quicker not to type in the radius every time it changes.

[rkmcswain · Accepted solution]

Yeah, there is no AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT IdeaStation - for unknown (to us) reasons.

I think they have enough Ideas, they don't need any more 😉

You can also head over and drop this in the AUGI wishlist.

[steven-g]

How about creating a custom toolbar or toolpalette tab and assign macro's for as many standard fillet sizes as seems reasonable, that reduces the whole thing down to just a single click, and if you make it a repeating macro there is no need to keep restarting the command for each fillet, just pick your radius of choice and keep filleting away, finish with escape.

[pendean]

Q: how is scrolling through a list any faster than typing it? If you are a one-hand-on-mouse and one-hand-on-keyboard type user of course and are aware that outside of typing text content the spacebar can be used as <enter> function.

I for example also learnt to type 60 instead of 5', 120 instead of 10' and so on to keep that one hand over the numkeys.

Just create a new button to launch FILLET + Radius prompt at once too to save on typing.

[Paul_Gander]

In addition to Steven's suggestion, it is also possible to add options to the shortcut menu if you have it enabled to appear when you use the right hand mouse button after starting a command. See Options, User Preferences, Right-click Customization.

In the CUI editor, create a new shortcut menu and add command_fillet to its list of aliases. Then create some new commands with macros to set the radius to the values you use most often such as _radius 24 and drag and drop them onto your shortcut menu. Set the display name for each menu item to what you would like to see appear on the menu, eg. Radius 24"

Now you should be able to start the fillet command, right-click to bring up the shortcut menu and select your desired radius from the popup list.

For more detailed information on this subject, start help and search shortcut menu

Give it a go and let us know how you get on.

[I believe it could be possible to have a list of up to 10 values stored in an environment variable and have the menu values generated from that variable using $(index,n,$(getenv,radiuslist)). The fillet button macro would then include code to test the value of FILLETRAD against the list and add it if not already present, removing the first value in the list to make room. Let's take things one step at a time though. ]

[Anonymous]

Good suggestions; however, I use AutoCad LT and it doesn’t support macros that’s why I suggested the recent radii be offered up as a choice when executing the Fillit command. That’s not much different than autocad listing recent files when one goes to open a file.

[Paul_Gander · Accepted solution]

I liked your idea and I'm sure we can get something to work at least close to what you have suggested while we wait for Autodesk to implement it. (It might be a while.) LT does support macros. Every time you click on a button or a menu, LT runs a macro that executes the command you have selected along with any sub-options. There must be thousands of examples of macros on this forum and plenty of guidance on how to use them.

The solutions offered by Steven, Dean and myself are perfectly doable with just the basic fillet command. No programming is required. Explore this forum and LT help to learn about customizing the user interface (CUI command) to get started. You should then be able to follow the instructions we have given. We cannot sit at your computer and do it for you!  It is well worth the effort. Have a go. We are here to help if you get stuck.

[steven-g]

To repeat what Paul has said LT certainly does support Macro's and with the use of Diesel can perform some very rudimentary programming, and these can be operated from just about anywhere within LT ribbon, menu, toolbars, toolpalette the only place they won't operate is from a keyboard shortcut, though even that is possible if you use control keys.

It is quite a steep learning curve but once you get the basics it is a great way to customize how you work in LT.

[Paul_Gander]

I finally found the time to write the code I described in my earlier post on this thread.

I have created a shortcut menu you can call up from within the FILLET command that will display a list of your 10 favourite radius values.
Selecting one of the values from the list will set the radius and move that value to the end of list.
You can use the NEW VALUE option at the end of the menu to add a new radius to the end of the list.

The value at the top of the list will be removed so that there are always 10 items.
In this way the most-used values should always be available and the least-used will be replaced.
The values will be displayed in an appropriate format to match your drawing unit settings.

To set it up: The first thing you need to do is initialise the radius list. It is stored in the registry and can be set by entering the following at the command prompt:

setenv pgm_fltradlist 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9

The values can actually be any number you want but there must be 10 of them.

Next: Save your current workspace settings. (WSSAVE command - Just to be sure you won't lose any changes you've already made.)
Start the CUIIMPORT command, open the attached 'Fillet menu.cuix' file in the right hand pane of the Transfer tab and expand the Shortcut Menu section to reveal the Fillet Command Menu.
Now drag and drop the Fillet Command Menu over to the Shortcut Menu section in the left hand pane and click on OK to save the changes.

NOTE: I had to add .txt to the filename in order to attach it. You should rename it back to a .cuix file.

To use: Simply start the Fillet command from the command line, ribbon, toolbar or menu and then right click (or hold down the right hand button, depending on your settings) to bring up the shortcut menu.

One thing to be aware of is that you will need to set the radius before using the Polyline or Multiple options of the Fillet command.
You can still use the normal Radius option to set a value without it being added to the favourites list.

I hope you'll find this useful.