Mechanical Ballon in Autocad

[Anonymous]

We work with Mechanical 2014.

We often get our drawings modified by engineering firms.

Is there a way (let say explode) for a AUTOCAD user to modify a BOM, a BALLON, a WELD etc that was generated with Mechanical?

In AutoCAD vanilla, I tried to explode.  It works.  I can then modify it.  But then the Mechanical portion remains.

I tried to erase it, it won't.  How to erase a Mechanical object?

I can accept that I will loose the intelligence of the BOM.

Now our issue is that the information gets doubled.  So when we get the drawing back we have to erase or correct everything.  Really not preactical.

And No, we can't force the firms to use Mechanical.

Thanks for any input.

[m_latz]

I'm not sure if there is an app in the Autodesk app store that will do this.

If you could not find something and it helps you if you have an explode command which does explode and delete the mechanical entities I can give you a small arx program which will do this.

I had a similar problem and already have a piece of code that will do this. But I explode all (is for batch mode). What you need is, that you can select the mechanical elements you want to explode, correct ?

If you can't find anything else I can modify the program and give it to you.

regards

Markus

[Anonymous]

Hi Markus,
I looked but did not find any app that lets me delete a acad_proxy_entity (which in my case are Welding symbols, balloon, nomenclature that were all generated in Mechanical 2014).

I can explode the acad_proxy_entity with the basic autocad Explode command. But I cannot erase the acad_proxy_entity.
That is the problem. When I Explode the acad_proxy_entity (example welding symbol), I can edit the resulting entities. But the acad_proxy_entity remains, so not so practical.
The same goes for the Nomenclature, so imagine I explode it, then edit the description and the result is an overlap of my new description and the original description (since it cannot be deleted.

Patrik

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[m_latz]

And the function I have written is that I replace all "mechanical entities" with the exploded version and insert each as block.

If this helps you, I will modify my function (add select) and you can use it ("as is") at no costs.

But takes a few days til I have time to modify.

regards

Markus

[MDimitrova]

Thanks

But before you modify it, can I try your command that replaces all?

Because if it doesn't work now, it will make no difference to select only desired one.

Patrik

(This is weird, I'm posting as one of my coworker)

[m_latz]

The function is part an arx module which modifies a drawing before it is exported to IGES to get better imports in the target cad system.

So you can send me a test drawing, which I can "convert" (all mechanical entities are replaced with a block with "normal" AutoCAD entities).

But it is difficult to send you this arx program, it has no gui, because used only in an "AutoCAD batch server".

regards

Markus

[Anonymous]

Here you go.

I put a REVCLOUD around all the ACAD_PROXY_ENTITY that I can explode but cannot delete.

Patrik

[m_latz]

I have converted the drawing from AutoCAD Mechanical 2015 to AutoCAD Mechanical 2013, because I have not 2014 installed. But this should have no influence on the result.

regards

Markus

[Anonymous]

Thanks.

The Nomenclature (BOM) and the balloons got converted to blocks (cool), but the welding symbol is gone (not so cool).

(oops, I was testing and it was ajusted to "Do not show proxy graphics") is still there but it's still a ACAD_PROXY_ENTITY.

Patrik

[m_latz]

Hi Patrik,

this should not a problem. I have a search filter when I walk through the whole dwg database. I have to check for the "internal name" of this PROXY entity and add it to my search filter.

The question is, are the other entities as expected ?

regards

Markus

[m_latz]

Okay filter modified, now all "Mechanicals" should replaced with block.

regards

Markus

[Anonymous]

Oh yes, like I said in my post, they converted to a block.  They look identical.

And your new drawing, they all got converted.

I found a way to do it manually, but like your program, it does it to all the ACAD_PROXY_ENTITY. 

What is required is a way to do it to only the desired one.

Hence only the one that needs modification, whereas all the other do not loose their intelligence.

The manual way (and it could easily be done with script or LISP):

I open the drawing, using QSELECT with Object type = ACAD_PROXY_ENTITY, explode the result and saveas DWGxplodedProxy.dwg.

I create a new drawing, INSERT DWGxplodedProxy.dwg at 0,0 and exploded.  I import the Layout from Template from DWGxplodedProxy.dwg.

Save this new drawing.

All ACAD_PROXY_ENTITY are now as editable entities (not as block tough). ie all ACAD_PROXY_ENTITY are deleted and all that remains is their exploded counter part.

The bad part is that sometimes only a few ACAD_PROXY_ENTITY needed to be modified or erased. 

This way it's all of them that lost their intelligence when it goes back in Mechanical.

So what I need is actually a command that convert only the one that needs to be modify and the rest remain as intelligent proxy.

AutoCAD should let me ERASE a ACAD_PROXY_ENTITY.  Then there would not be an issue.  All I would do is explode the culprit, then erase the PROXY that is behind.

Thank you for all your work.

Patrik

[m_latz]

If I were in your case, I would write two arx programs.

First part for AutoCAD, which hide's all mechanical proxy and create a block the user can modify.

Second part for AutoCAD Mechanical. When a drawing come's back from an external, compare the hidden mechanical entities with the modified block's and update the mechanical entities according the modifications, with the AutoCAD Mechanical API. If modifications can not apply to specific mechanical entity, because not possible, give user a warning.

regards

Markus

[Anonymous]

Hi Markus,
Thanks again for your work.
The only reason I'm not stating this as a solution is because your solution requires higher programming skills than mine. I have not written an ARX since AutoCAD 14. Also ARX are version dependant. This means that I would need to manage multiple versions of the program for different firms.

The solution I'm looking for is to be able to delete an ACAD_PROXY_ENTITY. Not all of them. Since we can explode an ACAD_PROXY_ENTITY, that means we can modify it.

Now I have to explain to multiple engineering firms how to do it (which half of them won't understand).

My current solution (which is a HUGE BAND-AID), is for them to explode the ACAD_PROXY_ENTITY that needs to be modify and put that ACAD_PROXY_ENTITY on a ToBeDeletedLayer, turn it OFF.
For the ACAD_PROXY_ENTITY that need to be erased, put them also on a ToBeDeletedLayer (also Turned OFF), and when we receive their drawings we have to remember to check for this (or write a LISP that will do so).

But this is a lot of "procedures", room for mistakes. The AutoCAD ERASE command should work period. Hopefully future version will cover this. Hey maybe it does already (I'm on 2014, maybe 2017 works).

Thanks again

Patrik

[Ichiro.W]

Hi Patrick,

AutoCAD Mechanical is created Balloon and WELD objects, converted to save Then block in [AutoCAD 2010 Drawing] format.
However, this block can not be changed because the "anonymous block".
To edit in AutoCAD, you must use the EXPLODE command to "anonymous block".

Regards,

[Anonymous]

Hi Ichiro,

I don't understand.

As I said previously, what I'm looking for is a way to delete SOME not all proxies.

Actual example:

A drawing (Mechanical) was sent to an engineering firm that does not have Mechanical (only AutoCAD).  Ofe of the change that needed to be done is to remove a welding note on a part.

The drawing contains multiple welding notes, balloons, BOM etc.

We don't want them to convert all the proxies (as this makes you loose all the intelligence, ie BOM).

If that was the goal, one can use DWGTRUEVIEW.  When you do a saveas with it, all proxies get converted to blocks.  But that is not what we`re looking for.  We want to modify some proxies only.

Thanks