Can I use a lisp to take an Excel file and create a floor plan?
Why Excel, if I may ask? There's already a file format "that has all the parameters of the building" -- .DWG. What can putting any of that into a spreadsheet format do for you? And where is such an Excel file coming from? How is it getting the parameters put into it? How does it store them?
Bonjour @tbrown
You do not have enough information in the xls file to draw what is on the pdf.
It really lacks a lot, position, and width and height of the door, width of the rooms, thickness of the roof...
It is interesting as question, but the lack of information are too many.
Amicalement
Wow.... Even for just the simple shell part, with only the little information in that file, first of all the .xlsx file needs to be converted to .csv format so AutoLisp's (open) and (read-line) functions can pull information from it. Then once we get past the heading lines to the "meat" of it, I think at the very least some aspects of the content would need to be formatted differently. For example, here are the first few lines of real content, as pulled by (read-line):
",Grade to Heel (GTH):,12,FT,148,IN,"
",,4,IN,,,"
",Heel Height:,14,IN,,,"
",Purlin Height:,3.5,IN,,,"
",Purlin Spacing:,24,IN,,,"
",Top Chord Pitch:,4,/12,,,"
",Bottom Chord Pitch:,0,/12,,,"
",Building Width:,42,FT,504,IN,"
",,0,IN,,,"
Assuming a working around the comma cell separators, and defining what to ignore like the "IN" parts, note that certain relevant content is not even contained within a single line -- the feet and the inches in red go together. [In the later case with zero inches, the first line would be enough, but that can't be assumed.] If set it up to ignore the FT part and use only the IN number after that on the same line, somehow it would need to be instructed to completely ignore the next line it reads, but not all such dimensions are on two lines like those. But the Column Spacing numbers go beyond that, to have a redundancy on the number of feet on the same line as the number of inches.
And other things occur to me, not about the extracting information to draw with, but about the information itself. The building is 42' wide, and the end column spacing is 7'. If that 42' is [as would be typical] an exterior dimension, at least the end bays of the column spacing [which would typically be a center-to-center dimension] would need to be less than 7'. Likewise with the Building Length and the Sidewall Column spacing.
And even after getting relevant information in some usable way, there could be big complications about [for example] where to draw a given Line that it has determined needs to be drawn. Maybe that would be manageable if there's something close to constant about the range of possibilities.
It all seems very daunting to me. But at least I would want to start from a file with information formatted in a way that is conscious of how AutoCAD needs it.
Sorry Kent "as pulled by (read-line):" no need just read Excel direct can look at any cell I have read the 1st and last cell no user input, so all parameters are within that range, the 1st step though would be work from outside to in, rearrange the sequence the 1st two rows should be length and width. Then Roof etc, then doors, then whatever.
It looks like a commercial style building with say steel columns and rafters.
For me @tbrown look at this movie of a task it would be easier to just start again, manually a person reading the excel for a start and just filling in questions.
Starting with something like this just add more options. This dcl took like 2 minutes to make.
Please be aware the movie project was a paid for project. This is a package yes it has a cost. But its answer questions and object is drawn
