Lisp to paste contents of clipboard with specified font and spacing etc
When I Paste something copied out of Excel, it simply comes in as Mtext in the current Style [with whatever font is in its definition] and height, not using the font or size from the Excel file, so all that should be needed for the font is to set the Text Style you want. Or is it your intent that the Mtext should have internal formatting forcing Arial font on the entire content, regardless of the nominal text Style?
[The line spacing distance is not needed, because it is not stored in entity data, but is only a result of the text height and the line space factor.]
As for "defined height," there should be no need to specify that unless Columns are involved, in which case there's an entry for "Column Autoheight." Is that what you mean?
Are you thinking text height applied in a Style that has zero defined height, or using a Style that has your desired height fixed in its definition?
Apart from these questions, the rest should not be difficult to impose with AutoLisp (append)/(entmod) functions on the latest object after a text Style setting and a PASTECLIP.
@paul9ZMBV wrote:
.... can spacing not be defined at 3.2249 ?
It can be, using:
(vla-put-LineSpacingDistance VLA-ObjectName 3.2249)
with conversion of the Mtext to a VLA object, or without the need for that,
(setpropertyvalue EntityName "LineSpaceDistance" 3.2249)
but not through entity data, because it contains no entry for that, but it's only a result of the relationship between the text height and the line spacing factor.
The advantage of the entity data approach is that you can impose all of these things at once, with a big (append) of desired-value entries at the end, which will override earlier existing entries for the same properties in the entity data list. With the above approaches, it's necessary to handle each property with its own separate (vla-put-) or (setpropertyvalue) function.
And the line spacing distance and line spacing factor are locked to each other -- change one, and it changes the other -- so there's no point in forcing both. So I would do the factor, as part of a collective entity data modification, and the distance will follow.
@paul9ZMBV wrote:
....
Column Autoheight would be good
....
Would you ever be bringing in enough content in one Pasting to involve Columns? If so, there are other Column-related choices to be made. But that sounds like a lot from one Excel cell. If I Copy/Paste more than one cell into an AutoCAD drawing, or just a cell without getting inside it to Copy out the text content, I get an OLE object, not Mtext that can have all those properties assigned.
Maybe an example of a [small] Excel file and a drawing file with the desired result would help us understand.
[Before Message 7 arrived]
I find that (append)ing a text-content entry on the end of the entity data list doesn't replace the earlier one, but appends content to it, resulting in a doubling of the content, the first being the original in whatever Style/font that is, and the second having the Arial font override. So it's necessary to replace the entry wholesale [which could be done with a little less code using (setpropertyvalue) instead of what's below, but since we're into entity data for the other reason...].
And I find the code-79 entry for Column Autoheight rejected, probably because by default my Mtext has no columns, reinforcing the need to specify other Column-related settings if they're really needed [see my previous Reply].
Ignoring that, this seems to work in minimal testing:
(defun C:WHATEVER (/ edata)
(command-s "_.pasteclip")
(setq edata (entget (entlast)))
(if (member '(0 . "MTEXT") edata); it's the right kind of thing
(progn ; then
(setq edata
(subst ; replace:
(cons 1 ; text content
(strcat
"{\\fArial|b0|i0|c0|p34;"
(cdr (assoc 1 edata))
"}"
); strcat
); cons
(assoc 1 edata); original without font override
edata
); subst
); setq
(entmod
(append
edata
'(
(40 . 2.2171); height
(44 . 0.8727); line space factor
(73 . 2); line space style=exactly
(71 . 1); justify=top left
(41 . 95.0); defined width
); list
); append
); entmod
); progn
); if
(prin1)
)
Your last Copy-stuff-to-the-clipboard needs to have been text content from inside a cell in Excel, or pulled from some Text/Mtext object in AutoCAD, or probably some other possible text sources, but not just anything. For example, it doesn't work pulling content from MS Word, which Pastes in as an OLE object.
@paul9ZMBV wrote:
....I'm automating specifications for joinery drawings within excel and the pasting it to a layout far right hand side ... examples attached,...
If you're talking about making the list of Notes in the drawing, as one Mtext object, my routine won't be able to deal with content from multiple cells at once. And the cells whose content is concatenations of content from other cells are way out of the question. I think some very different approach would be in order, but it might be that it needs to be within Excel, not AutoCAD, to merge all those cells, or something.
Well, there's a problem when the content gets that long. It splits up the text-content entity data entries into a bunch of code-3 entries [I think 250 characters' worth?] and finally a code-1 entry with whatever's left less than that long. So it can't just substitute it all in one code-1 entry replacement. The (getpropertyvalue) approach keeps all the content in one piece, but the "Text" property there is read-only, so you can't replace it that way.
I'm not sure what can be done. It might require breaking up the content into 250-character [if that's the right number] pieces for 3-code entries and a 1-code closer, if that's possible -- not a simple procedure, not knowing how many will be needed, etc.
I think the easiest way to move the content down a notch from the insertion point would be to begin it with a hard return or two.
