Overkill not working

[AnneinKZN]

Happy New Year, evereyone.

Can anyone tell me why overkill (from express tools) gives me a message "Unable to open dialog box".  Filedia is set to <1>, and I thought maybe the overkill lisp routine (and the dcl file) had somehow got corrupted so I replaced these files from my backup, but I still get the same response.  I've tried closing and reopening autocad, I've tried different files, and I've tried as new file - same message everytime.

If it is not the lisp routine, then presumable it must be some setting, somewhere, but I have no idea what or where, so if anyone can help I'd be grateful.

Anne Coventry

South Africa

[Moshe-A]

@AnneinKZN  hi,

try to run another express tools command (like aliasedit) to see if the dialog comes on and if it does not i assume something went wrong with your autocad installation and repair\reinstall is required.

Moshe

[AnneinKZN]

Moshe

For some weird reason it is suddenly working.  The only thing I did was to delete constraints (delcon) from a drawing I had brought into my drawing (also an autocad file).  When I tried using overkill after that it just worked.  So I tried with the other drawings, and also the new drawing, and it worked for these too. 

It might have made sense if the problem had only been in the drawing with constraints, but I can't think why it would suddenly start working again for all of them - I didn't do anything else, not even restart autocad again.

I downloaded a lisp routine called CLEAR, and this worked quite well, but I prefer overkill.  Next time it does this to me (it has done it before), I will check on whether other dialog boxes are working - thanks.

[ВeekeeCZ]

don't you have some heavily restricted write permissions on your workstation?

If you use -overkill, does it work?

[AnneinKZN]

I have a stand alone programme, so I hope there aren't any heavily restricted write permissions.  Yes, overkill works - when it doesn't tell me it  can't open the dialog box, that is.

[ВeekeeCZ]

Well, it's Windows that rules the permissions - that would likely be the issue.

Since version 2012 is overkill integrated into the core, so you must have something even older... would be difficult to help.

[TomBeauford]

Guessing as it's been over a decade since that was an Express Tool but it sounds like the DCL dialog box file isn't in your Support File Search Path since it isn't able to load it. it should be the Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 20XX\Express folder for whatever version you're using.

[AnneinKZN]

I've been using autocad since autocad version 9, so forgive me if I sometimes use old commands which I find work.  I am now on autocad 2020 (will probably have to upgrade shortly).  On one of the upgrades I suddenly found overkill wasn't available (when people say it is now in the core, what is the command for it?) so I just copied the lsp routine (and the dcl file) and made it load automatically.  It has worked perfectly until now.  I said yesterday that I had replaced both of the overkill files with backups, and nothing has changed, so why would it suddenly not be able to find the path?  And then just as suddenly find it again, and now lose it?  It just started working out of the blue and now, once again, it isn't working.

I tried Moshe's suggestion, and other Express dialog boxes are loading, so that isn't the problem.

What is the command for overkill now, if we no longer need the 'ancient' routine?

[TomBeauford]

The OVERKILL (Command) can be found in AutoCAD help

https://help.autodesk.com/view/ACD/2020/ENU/?guid=GUID-44B9ECFC-752C-4CC5-9DA3-84DBF3B17CA6

It's got more features and all it's settings are saved in the Windows Registry so any modifications you make will stay there. They can also be modified by lisp.

[ВeekeeCZ · Accepted solution]

Being integrated into the core means that the overkill.lsp file is not part of the program anymore. The code is no more available to see. The command name remains the same, OVERKILL. So that makes me wonder, what did you actually update, and from which version your backup comes.

BTW If you want to run the OVERKILL from your routine, use UNDEFINE first to undefine the core command, then load your routine. 

[AnneinKZN]

Thanks, I did realise what was meant by integrated into the core. 

I have now taken overkill out of the list of routines which I load automatically, closed autocad and reopened it, and the overkill works perfectly, so thank you for that.  The version I uploaded from is presumably the last Express Tools which had it, which means it worked fine for the last 10 or 11 years.

I don't see any difference in this version (integrated into the core) and the routine from Express Tools, though.  The dialog box seems identical.

[TomBeauford]

The commands that still remain as Express Tools are now included in AutoCAD help with all the other commands and autoload whenever you enter them on the command line. 

They've even added 8 acet-* Express Tool functions to AutoCAD help.

https://help.autodesk.com/view/ACD/2023/ENU/?guid=GUID-985B33C7-0A4B-4FBE-8DC2-7EE2E673CC49