error: bad argument type: 2D/3D point: nil

[Anonymous]

I'm trying to get the distance until a certain point but keep getting the same error. The point exist in the line.

this is my code:

(setq Ent (entsel "Select the polyline : " ) )

(setq Vl-Obj (vlax-ename->vla-Object (car Ent )) )

(setq p2 (list -102469.3 -47412.9 0.0)

(vlax-curve-getDistAtPoint vl-obj pt2)

[Ranjit_Singh2]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'm trying to get the distance until a certain point but keep getting the same error. The point exist in the line.

.............

(setq p2 (list -102469.3 -47412.9 0.0)

(vlax-curve-getDistAtPoint vl-obj pt2)

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You are calling the wrong variable pt2. It should be p2.

[Anonymous]

I fixed that, but now i'm getting nil as answer

[Ranjit_Singh2 · Accepted solution]

You cannot exactly catch a point on the polyline by typing it in because of decimal issue. Try this

(vlax-curve-getDistAtPoint vl-obj (vlax-curve-getclosestpointto vl-obj p2))

[Kent1Cooper]

[The (vlax-curve...) functions will take entity names -- no need to convert to a VLA object unless you need that for some other purpose.]

[You're also missing the closing  )  on the (setq p2... line.]

Another way to go about getting the point exactly on it from the point that apparently isn't quite on it:

(setq Ent (entsel "Select the polyline : "))

(setq p2 (list -102469.3 -47412.9 0.0))

(vlax-curve-getDistAtPoint (car ent) (osnap p2 "nea"))

[john.uhden]

@Kent1Cooper wrote, "(vlax-curve-getDistAtPoint (car ent) (osnap p2 "nea"))"

That's fine if there are no other nearby objects.

I think that closestpointto is more reliable because it focuses on the object of interest.

I presume that precision makes a difference in the "atpoint" functions, though I have not done a study.

That's why we should write code that covers the misses without erroring out...

(or
  (setq p (vlax-curve-getclosestpointto object p))
  (prompt "\nUnable to find closest point to object.")
)

[Anonymous]

Your explanation made a lot of sense ! Thank you so much for the help ! 

It worked just fine !