Expert: Bill DeShawn - 3/28/2005

Question
Bill, thanks for getting back to me.  I am we only use regular Autocad, Im on 2005 and the rest of my office mates are on 2000i.  Our layers are organized in a somewhat standard way as far as architeture firms go.  A few examples are DET, FINE, FAR and WALL.  These layers are used primarily to draw the floor plans in our xrefs.  Each xref has our first, second, etc. and roof plan in it and then we just xref and xclip the portion we need into our 201 Floor Plan sheets and so on.  Another layer is our CON layer which is a very light line and we use this for our construction lines and our title block.  One of the custom buttons we have is named Layer Configuration and with it you can select Plan, which will turn on all layers.  If you select Plot it will turn off the CON layer since we dont want those lines showing up in the plots.  Another button within the Layer Config. is Electrical which turns on all the layers we use to show our electrical layouts and fixtures in plan.  I hope that kind of gives you an idea our that particular button.  Another Custom button we have is one that has a series of sub-buttons that lets you browse through a block library we have stored on our server, or local machine.  If you click Plumbing, a dialog box comes up and lets you preview each block, choose one and then you place it with the mouse.  All of the blocks are pre-drawn, so this button just accesses the block library directory.  Another button deals with our text styles we use.  Within the button you can choose any one of the six or so text styles we use and then pick in the drawing and type.  It puts the text on the Note layer, or whatever layer is appropriate.  

I thought that it might be helpfull if I could show you the MNU file that the rest of the office uses, the one that works in 2000i with all these custom buttons and such.  Just by looking at it I have found one of the custom buttons, the Layer Config. is under the ***POP 13 heading.  I tried just copying the text under that into my 2005 MNU to see if it worked.  After I opened 2005 the button shows up but whenever I click any of the sub buttons Autocad tells me that the command lyrplan, or lyrplot is an unknown command.  Of course I made a backup of the 2005 MNU before trying any of that.  I hope this gives you an idea of where Im coming from.  Im sure some of my explination is lacking for simple fact that Im just not that familiar with this aspect of Autocad.

I am going to try to reply again to you and include the text form the 2000i MNU file that has all the custom buttons in it.  I will do this right after I send this response in case it kicks it back if it gets too long.

BTW, you are correct, I am in Houston Texas.  Sunny and 67 today, cant comlain, though Washington state is beautiful.

Thanks so much for the help,
-Mario Ciaralli






Followup To
Question -
1) AutoCAD 2005 and 2000i on a P4 3GHZ 512MB Ram Win XP

2) I have been working with AutoCAD for about ten years or so, started on release 12 back in high school and now work for an architectural firm here in Houston TX.  My problem is this.  The firm I work for has a whole host of custom buttons that do a variety of things like access a block library, draw a wall insulation hatch after you pick 3 different points, turn on and off different layers depending on what you want to see (i.e., plan button turns on all pertinent layers and turns off things like RCP and construction line layers) just to give you an idea.  Now the problem is this.  We are switching from AutoCAD 2000i to 2005.  Since I'm the only one in the office who is willing to take this on I have already switched platforms and am doing fine with 2005.  Only problem is all the custom buttons aren't there so it has really slowed me down quite a bit.  Some of the things I can do without but the layer management one as well as the block insert one I really need.  Thing is I want to learn how these custom buttons work and how I can utilize them.  I'm not just looking for someone to do it all.  My wife is a computer programmer and is willing to help me.  I'm not even sure if LISP's are what I need, or if its just writing the code and putting it in my current MNU file.  I kind of know what macros are and I am fairly proficient with all things related to computers (building my own, setting up my home network and server) but I just don't know how to get a handle on these custom buttons/functions.  I was hoping I might be able to send you the old (2000i) MNU file that has these things in it and then we could go from there.  I think that's the only file you need to change/ add things to.  Is that right?

I think that's about it.  Thanks in advance for any help you can provide me with this.  How will I know if you respond or not?  Do I need to check a website, or will it be an email?

Regards,
-Mario Ciaralli
281.468.7970

Answer -
OK, Mario
You put in the time, and I'll interject advice.  I do basically what you do.  I work for an architect and handle all his layer management and other tasks via LISP.  Try not to get too hung up on menus, as the format will change with AutoCAD 2006.  Are you using Vanilla AutoCAD or are you using a product like ADT?  What is your layer structure like?  Do you do different floors working with XREFs?  Do you put all floors in one XREF in the floor plan?  What have you been using up to now?  Layer states?
Give me the low-down.  Include where you are located.  Your area code suggests that you are in Texas (Houston Metro Area).  Is that correct?  I am in Portland.  My architect is in Portland Oregon and is not licensed in Texas.  Therefore I don't think he would mind my advising you.  So, give me some basics of what your drawings are like with some layer names and how they relate to your drawings.

Keep in touch
Bill DeShawn
http://my.sterling.net/~bdeshawn


Answer
Mario.  It sounds as though by the "unknown command" error that there are LISP routines that are supposed to be loading that are not loading.  But lets have a look at the menu file.  Go ahead and send it to me at:
bdeshawn@sterling.net

Keep in touch
Bill DeShawn
http://my.sterling.net/~bdeshawn