Need help counting support quantities, can you please help?
Not sure if there's a way to automate this.
But perhaps you can explain a bit further by looking at the below screenshot
I see 2 plines drawn on layer:: "TENDON-BANDED-BACKGROUND"
There's a call out up top 8 SPA @ 36 1/2" and 8 SPA @ 36" drawn as DIMENSION on Layer: "DIMENSION-UNIFORM-SUPPORT"
Next there are all those 16 short but same length vertical plines drawn on Layer: "SUPPORT-BARS-BANDED"
These plines all have different #s on top such as 4 3/4", 3 1/4", 2 1/4", 2", 2 3/4", 5", 8 1/2" and etc. all as Mtext on Layer: "SUPPORT-TEXT-BANDED"
Now looking at this how do you manually count supports quantities and add them up by height and create a list in numerical order?
1st up this is a chair used in concrete slabs. They can be different heights and I think is what we are talking about.
I think this is what you want, as the first step to select the chair text, I used;
(setq ss (ssget (list (cons 0 "MTEXT")(cons 8 "SUPPORT-TEXT-BANDED"))))
Then when asked to select you type "WP" this allows you to select a window on angle. If the dwg is horizontal then do not need the wp as a default selection is a window.
PS 44 selected.
You now have a selection set of the chairs so can get text, sort and count how many of each type then multiply by the number of tendons. Working on it have an answer for blocks need to edit to match chairs text.
Almost there just have to add multiply by number of tendons and sort the height correctly, need to convert like "2 1/2" to 2.5 etc so sort works correctly.
Thanks to lee-mac for strip mtext and Gile for do count.
Also need to manually check count is correct, but shows something can be done.
The biggest problem is taking the mtext and convert to a decimal number, in the mtext there is like 4 variations in what is used, inches only, inch & fractions, fractions only, different text but with suffixes and again a mix of inches and fractions. Working on that.
@Sea-Haven wrote:
.... The biggest problem is taking the mtext and convert to a decimal number, in the mtext there is like 4 variations in what is used, inches only, inch & fractions, fractions only, different text but with suffixes and again a mix of inches and fractions. Working on that.
That's mostly not an issue, because the (distof) function can work with all of those possibilities except the suffixes. It can handle it whether or not there is a fraction involved, whether or not [as some might do] you use a hyphen between inches and fractions, whether or not you include the inches mark at the end, and if the distances get big enough to include feet. Even if the content is already a decimal number, with or without the inches mark, it can work with that, returning it as a decimal. Assuming no other internal Mtext formatting [like font or color or height overrides] to complicate things, these all convert to good decimal equivalents for sorting:
Command: (distof "2 1/2\"") with fraction and inches mark, without hyphen
2.5
Command: (distof "2-1/2\"") with fraction and inches mark, including hyphen
2.5
Command: (distof "2-1/2") with fraction and hyphen but no inches mark
2.5
Command: (distof "2") no fraction, no inches mark
2.0
Command: (distof "2\"") no fraction, with inches mark
2.0
Command: (distof "2'-2 3/4\"") including feet
26.75
Command: (distof "2.5\"") already decimal, with inches mark
2.5
But the suffix spoils it, so something would need to be done to pare it down to just the distance content.
Command: (distof "2-1/2\" S.B.")
nil
@Sea-Haven wrote:
.... Did look at distof and found the string problems.
"\\W0.8000;11 {\\A1;\\H0.7x;\\S1#4;}\"" = ("11" "1/4")
"\\A1; {\\H0.7x;\\S3#4;}\" S.B." = ("3/4" "S.B")
....
So there is [at least sometimes] internal Mtext formatting -- that would be necessary given the stacked fractions in the sample drawing. Fortunately, the (getpropertyvalue) function can give you the text content either with or without that formatting. If txt is a variable holding the entity name of this Mtext object [with its Contents showing in the Properties palette]:
then you can pull that Contents string using (getpropertyvalue) instead of the (assoc 1) entry in entity data:
Command: (getpropertyvalue txt "Contents")
"\\A1;3 {\\H0.7x;\\S5#8;}\""
But you can get it without the formatting directly, using a different Property:
Command: (getpropertyvalue txt "Text")
"3 5/8\""
and then you can use (distof) on it as above.
Thank you @Kent1Cooper for that idea, should be able to remove a defun that worked out fractions of a inch, need that for the sort function, make a list of (3.75 "3 3/4").
Give this a try. I did find one value sorted wrong for the entire dwg. Will look into why that happened.
PLEASE CHECK COUNTS ! If incorrect let me know.
; https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/visual-lisp-autolisp-and-general/need-help-counting-support-quantities-can-you-please-help/td-p/14238558
; layer SUPPORT-TEXT-BANDED
;Take text and make them into a table
; counting the text also
; by Alan H Aug 2026
(vl-load-com)
(defun AH:table_make (numcolumns txtsz / numrows curspc colwidth numcolumnsobjtable rowheight sp doc)
(setq sp (vlax-3d-point (getpoint "Pick top left")))
(setq doc(vla-get-activedocument (vlax-get-acad-object) ))
(if (= (vla-get-activespace doc) 0)
(setq curspc (vla-get-paperspace doc))
(setq curspc (vla-get-modelspace doc))
)
(setq numrows 2)
(setq rowheight txtsz)
(setq colwidth 100)
(setq objtable (vla-addtable curspc sp numrows numcolumns rowheight colwidth))
(vla-settext objtable 0 0 "TABLE title")
(vla-SetTextHeight Objtable (+ acDataRow acTitleRow acHeaderRow) txtsz)
(vla-SetText Objtable 0 0 "Chairs")
(vla-SetText Objtable 1 0 "Size")
(vla-SetText Objtable 1 1 "Count")
(setq obj2 (vlax-ename->vla-object (entlast)))
(vla-Setcolumnwidth obj2 0 (* 6 txtsz))
(vla-Setcolumnwidth obj2 1 (* 4.5 txtsz))
(setq obj2 (vlax-ename->vla-object (entlast)))
(princ)
)
; By Gile
(defun remove_doubles (lst)
(if lst
(cons (car lst) (remove_doubles (vl-remove (car lst) lst)))
)
)
; By Gile
(defun my-count (a L)
(cond
((null L) 0)
((equal a (car L)) (+ 1 (my-count a (cdr L))))
(t (my-count a (cdr L))))
)
; Starts here
;
(defun c:AHsupports ( / cnt lst lst2 lst3 obj2 rownum ss trow txtsz val x))
(setq txtsz (getreal "Enter text size ")) ; try say 25
(setq ss (ssget (list (cons 0 "MTEXT")(cons 8 "SUPPORT-TEXT-BANDED"))))
(if (= ss nil)(progn (Alert "no items were selected will now exit ")(exit)))
(setq lst '())
(repeat (setq k (sslength ss))
(setq textstr (getpropertyvalue (ssname ss (setq k (1- k))) "Text"))
(princ "\n")
(setq lst (cons (list (distof textstr) textstr) lst))
(princ lst)
)
(setq lst (vl-sort lst '(lambda (i j) (< (car i)(car j)))))
(setq lst3 '())
(setq lst2 (remove_doubles lst))
(princ lst2)
(foreach val lst2
(setq cnt (my-count val lst))
(setq lst3 (cons (list val cnt) lst3))
)
(princ lst3)
(AH:table_make 2 txtsz)
(repeat (setq x (length lst3))
(setq rownum (vla-get-rows obj2))
(vla-InsertRows obj2 rownum (vla-GetRowHeight obj2 (- rownum 1)) 1)
(setq trow (nth (setq x (1- x)) lst3))
(vla-SetText Obj2 rownum 0 (cadr (car trow)))
(vla-SetText Obj2 rownum 1 (rtos (cadr trow) 2 0))
)
(vla-SetTextHeight obj2 (+ acDataRow acHeaderRow acTitleRow) txtsz)
(vla-SetAlignment obj2 acDataRow acMiddleCenter)
(alert "To run again type AHsupports")
)
(c:AHsupports)
