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    • Tag: autoLISP

    AutoCAD 2021 is Here

    Posted on by Rikki Kenzhebayeva

    It’s that time of year again folks; Autodesk has released their flagship product in AutoCAD 2021.  Here is an excellent article explaining the new changes.  Below are the features that are close to this BLOG writer’s heart.

    Format

    There is no format change this year.  Excellent!

    Enhanced Commands

    Trim and Extend have new default behavior resulting in fewer clicks.
    Revision clouds are now their own object.  Including a new Arc Length property.

    The Break At Point command can now be repeated resulting in fewer clicks.
    Drawing version history comparison for files stored in cloud services such as OneDrive and DropBox.

    The block palette now contains a Library for blocks stored in cloud services or other folders.

    AutoLISP

    A brand new AutoLISP development interface which uses Visual Studio Code with a LISP extension.  Auto-complete functions and parentheses.

     

    AutoCAD FLATTEN

    Posted on by Rikki Kenzhebayeva

    AutoCAD has a command contained within the Express Tool named FLATTEN.  It is designed to remove any non-zero elevations from selected objects within a drawing.  It does an excellent job with this, but there is some behavior that may not be obvious to all users.  This command works very well with many objects such as TEXT, LINES, and some BLOCKS.  However, unexpected behavior results when flattening Dynamic and Annotative blocks, even blocks with embedded non-zero-elevation linework.

    Annotative Blocks:  For example, an annotative block with a name of Arrow, is inserted 3 times.  Regardless of the attached annotative scales, the result after the FLATTEN command will be 3 blocks with 3 different names; Arrow-flat-1, Arrow-flat-2, and Arrow-flat-3.  Further, they will no longer be annotative.

    Dynamic Blocks:  After the FLATTEN command, each dynamic block will no longer be dynamic and will become an “unnamed block” with a name similar to “*U63”.

    Blocks:  A typical block will FLATTEN adequately.  A block which contains elements which have non-zero elevations, will also flatten adequately.  Understand that the FLATTEN command will make changes to block definitions in this example to set all elevations to 0.

    So what can be done?  Here are two options.

    • Download and run a LISP command from this discussion group post.
    • Be selective when flattening.  Flatten objects which have no deleterious results afterwards.  The AutoCAD FILTER command can be configured to easily select compatible objects.  The filter can be saved for future use.