need some Ideas on how to create a sign schedule

[Anonymous]

Group, Every project I do I must create a custom sign schedule for airport signage. Currently we use solid and a few blocks to generate the schedule, But this is very tedious work. I placed a jpeg in the AutoDesk-AutoCAD-customer-files called airportsigns.zip that is a sample of the type of sign schedule I must create. I guess I'm looking for some ideas on how to approach this task with vba. I thought about creating a group of TextBoxes that correspond with each panel of the sign and have the TextValue placed in the panel and a CheckBox for the hatch color to be placed behind the text value. Then I thought want about some type of text file or excel that could be read and have those values placed in the correct panels. I thought that I could use a template. Looking for any ideas you might have to automate this process. Thanks, Have a great day. John Coon

[Anonymous]

Hi John, In planning this project ask your self these questions: Data entry: In which software will it be easiest to enter the data I need. At first pass it seems as thought Excel would be a winner here. It would be easy to enter the data as code on one sheet and query it to another or to AutoCAD for presentation How are my signs to be presented: In an AutoCAD drawing as AutoCAD objects ? In an AutoCAD drawing as bitmap objects ? In Excel ? How many different text messages exist ? It seems there is a relatively limit set. How many different locations for text exist in a sign ? It seems only 2 if you break most of the signs down to a single letter item.. How many different background colours are needed ? Only 3 are shown, red, green and white How easy is it to create a set of columns in Excel to uniquely define a sign. For example, the first sign in the second row could be 4 A G R LA R G E R G RA R G in thirteen columns with the 4 indicating 4 blocks The second sign in the row would be 4 A G R Nul R R Nul R R Nul R R where the entry for the letter wouldn't matter as both colours are the same. Within this system, the first row is different and the first sign could be coded with the 2 indicating 2 blocks. 2 E G R 17-35 W G and the second as 2 E G R 4Row R G Can I create an AutoCAD block with a solid background (for which I can easily change the colour) and with a single text attribute showing above it ? It looks from your file that many of the signs could be assembled from 4 square blocks containing a single character inclusive of: Solid coloured letters. Their only appears to be a limited number of letters used. You could treat the letter as an attribute of the block or make individual blocks (or bitmaps) Letters with text outlines which appear in pairs Arrows in various directions Paired line combinations. If your table is to be presented in AutoCAD, I would upgrade to the 2005 version of AutoCAD before doing any further work. I think you would find it s table facilities would save a lot of programming work. Hope this makes sense. I wrote as I thought. -- Laurie Comerford CADApps www.cadapps.com.au "John Coon" wrote in message news:404a74e8_3@newsprd01... > Group, > > Every project I do I must create a custom sign schedule for airport signage. > Currently we use solid and a few blocks to generate the schedule, But this > is > very tedious work. > > I placed a jpeg in the AutoDesk-AutoCAD-customer-files called > airportsigns.zip that is a sample of the type of sign schedule I must > create. > > I guess I'm looking for some ideas on how to approach this task with vba. I > thought about creating a group of TextBoxes that correspond with each panel > of the sign and have the TextValue placed in the panel and a CheckBox for > the hatch color to be placed behind the text value. Then I thought want > about some type of text file or excel that could be read and have those > values placed in the correct panels. I thought that I could use a template. > > Looking for any ideas you might have to automate this process. > > Thanks, Have a great day. > > John Coon > >

[Anonymous]

Hi Laurie, Thanks for your comments they are extremely helpful breaking down how to approach this task. At first I was thinking of creating a form to create a single sign at a time. I was pretty sure I could work those the operations to do that. Ultimately having the ability to read some form of data/text values and create the entire sign schedule would be the end solution. I guess if I'm going to work on this I should do as you suggest and work on something that looks and smells more like the end solution. I might take longer to create but will be more efficient and powerful. >AutoCAD drawing as AutoCAD objects ? The signs will be AutoCAD objects. After creating the sign schedule I then place the same signs scaled down into the plan view signage plan. much like a roadway signage plan, just for airports. > How many different background colours are needed ? Only 3 are shown, red, green and white actually black, yellow, white, red. (I changed then so you see yellow on a white background) > How many different text messages exist ? It seems there is a relatively limit set. I would need a letter for every taxiway name designation (A,B,C,E,F,D,H,I,J,K, )....and numbers for every runway number (1-36) and double rw end callouts 17-35 plus and blocks that can't be drawn with text like the arrows and hold lines as show in the jpeg . > How easy is it to create a set of columns in Excel Learning something new is good! I've written to excel but I've yet to read any data from excel. I'll look for some sample code. ? Would you use a template drawing with the panel square blocks already in place with maybe attributes or pre-set blocks with known coordinates or in your option would it be better to use a getpoint and work from there. There will be cases where I'll need to insert a schedule into a plan drawing. 2005, yes I should get my copy this week. I'll look into the table styles. Thanks for Your Ideas, They really help. John Coon "Laurie Comerford" wrote in message news:404ac9ce_1@newsprd01... > Hi John, > > In planning this project ask your self these questions: > > Data entry: In which software will it be easiest to enter the data I need. > At first pass it seems as thought Excel would be a winner here. > It would be easy to enter the data as code on one sheet and query it to > another or to AutoCAD for presentation > How are my signs to be presented: > In an AutoCAD drawing as AutoCAD objects ? > In an AutoCAD drawing as bitmap objects ? > In Excel ? > How many different text messages exist ? It seems there is a relatively > limit set. > How many different locations for text exist in a sign ? It seems only 2 if > you break most of the signs down to a single letter item.. > How many different background colours are needed ? Only 3 are shown, red, > green and white > How easy is it to create a set of columns in Excel to uniquely define a > sign. For example, the first sign in the second row could be > 4 A G R LA R G E R G RA R G in thirteen columns with the 4 indicating 4 > blocks > The second sign in the row would be > 4 A G R Nul R R Nul R R Nul R R where the entry for the letter wouldn't > matter as both colours are the same. > > Within this system, the first row is different and the first sign could be > coded with the 2 indicating 2 blocks. > 2 E G R 17-35 W G and the second as > 2 E G R 4Row R G > > > Can I create an AutoCAD block with a solid background (for which I can > easily change the colour) and with a single text attribute showing above it > ? > > It looks from your file that many of the signs could be assembled from 4 > square blocks containing a single character inclusive of: > > Solid coloured letters. Their only appears to be a limited number of > letters used. You could treat the letter as an attribute of the block or > make individual blocks (or bitmaps) > Letters with text outlines which appear in pairs > Arrows in various directions > Paired line combinations. > > If your table is to be presented in AutoCAD, I would upgrade to the 2005 > version of AutoCAD before doing any further work. I think you would find it > s table facilities would save a lot of programming work. > > > Hope this makes sense. I wrote as I thought. > > -- > > > Laurie Comerford > CADApps > www.cadapps.com.au > > > > > > "John Coon" wrote in message > news:404a74e8_3@newsprd01... > > Group, > > > > Every project I do I must create a custom sign schedule for airport > signage. > > Currently we use solid and a few blocks to generate the schedule, But this > > is > > very tedious work. > > > > I placed a jpeg in the AutoDesk-AutoCAD-customer-files called > > airportsigns.zip that is a sample of the type of sign schedule I must > > create. > > > > I guess I'm looking for some ideas on how to approach this task with vba. > I > > thought about creating a group of TextBoxes that correspond with each > panel > > of the sign and have the TextValue placed in the panel and a CheckBox for > > the hatch color to be placed behind the text value. Then I thought want > > about some type of text file or excel that could be read and have those > > values placed in the correct panels. I thought that I could use a > template. > > > > Looking for any ideas you might have to automate this process. > > > > Thanks, Have a great day. > > > > John Coon > > > > > >