Quickest Way of Creating 100+ Custom Layouts

[Akrid]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to ask about a problem I'm running into. I work in an Interior Design department of an Arch firm. Often we end up with CAD files with 100+ elevations, and to print all this we use layouts - usually 1 per elevation. This is a bit of an arduous process - creating layouts and filling out title blocks can take up to 2-3hrs of work per project, and to me it always seemed like a time sink we could probably find a way to avoid.

Are there more advanced layout creation/paperspace tools that I'm missing here that could help me out? Right now we duplicate our 1 initial layout literally 100+ times, rename the layout tab, move the viewport to the elevation, set scale, fill out titleblock, etc etc.. Doing a dozen or so plans this way is no big deal, but its a bit unreasonable for how many we're having to make.

My thought right now is to have these layouts set up beforehand, but it's a little more difficult than that because we don't know how many layouts we'll need for each project. So there's some variability that's pretty tough (but probably not impossible) to accommodate for.

Does anyone have experience trying to optimize this sort of thing? I'm open to any and all suggestions.

I'm on AutoCAD LT 2020. Is this something that could be addressed easier if we weren't using LT?

Thanks!

[steven-g]

It will depend on a lot of factors, with LT you can run a script that will create and name as many Layouts as you want, if you use elevations that are at known coordinates and use known scales then again a script could perform that for you. But if this changes for every case then having to rewrite the script each time would take longer than manually doing this.

If it is a straightforward logical series of steps where you can decide on a repeatable set of rules, then using Excel to create a script based on X number of layouts with a sequential naming convention and a grid of elevations then a script would work fine in LT.

If however, the layouts need to be created by 'reading' data from the .dwg then you would be possibly better off with the programming options found in the full version with it's API's which are not available to LT.

So with your limited description then the answer would be maybe LT could it, but probably not all by itself.

[pendean]

The level of automation you seek does not exist as a practical solution in LT, and in full AutoCAD it will require quite a bit or programming and advanced planning with named viewports etc. for each items that needs to be a viewport in layout.

Your posted "thought" is the best approach with LT that you have IMHO.

[Anonymous]

The Title Block could be automated using Fields to populate most of it.   But sounds like the same steps I usually use, Copy another layout, zoom out, Zoom+Window to another area, start dimensioning.

[hwalker]

If you have Visual Basic it can be done. You need someone with a very good working knowledge of it.

See the attached zip file.

It creates however many templates you ask for. It also pans by a certain distance within each viewport.

I'm sure it can be edited for your needs.

Use the drawing in the zip file to see how it works.

[steven-g]

I copied the files into the 'support' folder but I get this error

[hwalker]

Copy the Layout.exe file into the support folder and then create a button with ^C^C_ai_startapp Layouts.exe

It might not work due to the APPACTIVATE line saying LT 2016

[hwalker]

Also Mysendkeys is needed. The link is below

API: Replacement for Sendkeys (mvps.org)

[steven-g]

But where does that go? Do you also need to have Excel running with that code in a module

Or if there is a fixed reference to 2016 LT it could be that, I have 2021 LT running.

[hwalker]

You need at least VB6. Then put mysendkeys as a module in it and compile the result.

Unfortunately I can't do it anymore due to work policy.

[steven-g]

Ahh Visual Studio. I was thinking just VBA in Excel, shame but I like that call to _ai_startapp that looks promising 😀

[cadffm]

_ai_startup and _mtedit (with well setted Mtexted) are the only "active ways" to start a program from LT (or?)

because of the missing shell command.

@Akrid 

Are you read that all? All what you need is to know "How to write a Script(.scr)"

And the knowledge about the command and option names in AutoCAD you are using 100x times.

For more comfort

If you can write a Script, you can also use external programs like hwalker spends a sample.