All these utilities were written when I was CAD manager/assistant in various ARCHITECTS offices simply to make life easier for both myself and my staff by making AutoCAD do work more automatically. These items were either not available or not in the packages we are running, or in most cases the management did not want to buy the full product.
They are or were all tested in the offices but are working tools not products, they work and worked for us they were never foolproof, other setup and networks, and the inevitable AutoCAD updates mean that the files need tweaking or altering in some small way. If get feedback and fixes I will post them here. so if things go wrong look here first. If you find a problem and fix it please let me know.
There is also a contact page and user forum,
All the packages are FREE and have no restrictions.
LAYER FUNCTIONS
20 March 2005
Controlling layers. One of the most common problems and requests is to do with controlling layers. Some functions move to special layers or look for particular layers. If these layers cannot be created for found the routine stops and prompts the user, however the routine will not continue after that.
The simplest thing is not to use layers but this is not practical. On simple routines you can leave the user to move to that layer before using the tool, but it is nice if it does this automatically the following will help you ether add or modify the layer function to a lisp file.
If you are going to do this and do not know lisp try it on a simple utility first, say the 'boxtext' file, always uses a plain text editor like notepad.
The function within a lisp file looks like this:
(command "layer" "m" "san" "c" "cyan" "" "")
parts>
a
b
c
d
e
f
g h
(a) The word 'command' says treat the following as if it were entered in at the command line from the keyboard, every word or number is quoted " in quote brackets " as real words from keyboard.
(b) The next word is the AutoCAD command, in this case "layer"
(c) Following this is "m" which stand for make layer, it creates the layer if it does not exist or simply moves to it if there is one.
(d) The third word is the name of the layer, "san" (for sanitary fittings) this is the word you can change if you so wish.
NOTE In any one lisp file there may be any number of layer changes, try to understand what is being changed before altering a series of layers.
(e) The fifth word "c" is the prompt for layer colour, this is only required for making a new layer but will change the colour of an existing layer to the one stated in part f.
(f) The sixth word is the colour of the layer this can be either a named colour, one of the six basic colours or a number from the colour code wheel. To start, stick with the basic names as in this case "cayn" (light blue)
(g) The next pair of quotes "" is accepting the colour, it is like pressing return.
(h) The last pair of quotes "" finished the command function and passes the routine back onto the lisp file to carry on its function.
This is to too complex when you understand what is happening. If a simple function falls over asking for layers try omitting the layer functions by putting a semi colon in front of it like ; this tells AutoCAD to ignore this line.
NOTE AutoCAD keeps changing the way it looks as layers from time to time so this line is the one that often give the most trouble when updating. If it needs changing not down haw you change layers from the command line then follow that format.
USERS - Any users of later versions of AutoCAD (after 2000) who find the above needs updating if you could let me know and I will update this information.
KEC-cavity wall openings. This file uses layers to determine of the lines are a cavity wall and which side of the wall is the outside, if altering these layers be careful. It can be done but you have to change the creation of cavity walls as wells as the opening function .
End of layers answers part.
27 December 2004
The problem with velux on Easy Section- Error in menu code missed out a bracket.
Load the new menufile 'KESection-acad-2000.mns' from the Supplementary Files in the 'Upgrade & Menu' section of this site, this files also contains the bit maps in there for this menu. This fixes the problem. Load these files in Acad. directory before starting Acad.
26 November 2004
Problems with Acad 2004, buttons are a question mark. compiled lisp files not recognised.
AutoCAD 2004 changing the format again. Look at the 'Upgrade & Menu' where I have put up the non compiled lisp files a mns menu and icons in a separate file. The open source lisp files should be used to replace the existing lisp files. This should get around the problems of not reading protected files.
15 July 2004
Problem with arch in Easy Elevation . Menu calls for archead & archead2. Lisp routine calls
karchead & karchead2. This problem has been fixed and replaced in download file.
3 June 2004
I have tried the Architectural Applications with AutoCAD 2004 and the menu will not load. Putting up source code to the site problem will become general as people upgrade.
I can change the code as required but will need help from someone who has 2004 and is prepared to do a bit of testing.
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