Expert: Bill DeShawn - 6/4/2007

Question
QUESTION: Bill,
I am now at an office in where the automated keynote routines I've been used to - and miss dearly - are unavailable. I am using Acad 2005 LT and do have lisp capabilities, but have become very, very frustrated with manually updating each and every keynote list per sheet. As you would probably know, this is time consuming. Any good suggestions as to where I can find a routine that automatically places keynotes on a sheet (or model space) relative to what's found within the drawing? I feel as though I've exhausted the internet searching for one. Your help with this mattter is sincerely appreciated.

ANSWER: Owen.  I'd love to help you with this question, but I need more info.  First, I've seen this terminology of "KEYNOTING" before, but never really delved into what it meant.  However, I may be doing it already where I work, so, if I knew exactly what it was, I might have some real suggestions.  Sounds like you might be using DRCAUTO.  Do you have just AutoLISP capabilities or can you also do Visual LISP?

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


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Bill,
Thank you for the quick reply. Basically, 'keynoting' is when a series of numbers is placed within a drawing as a reference to a sentence (or group of sentences) describing a condition, material, etc.. Normally, all of these descriptions are carried within a database. Most desirable is to place the numbered keynotes within a drawing and - with a quick command - have a master list of the keynotes' descriptions only contained within that particular drawing generate in either 'model' or 'paper' space. I am now using 'LT Extender' with some satisfaction. Again, thank you for your help.
Sincerely,
Owen

Answer
OK.  I understand now.  I have ADT, so I was able to look the process up here as well and have a better understanding of it.  Oops.  I just found out that Autodesk is suing LT Extender.  Oh, well.  

Hmm.  It appears that keynoting is beyond normal LISP programming for productivity.  You've probably already experienced that, so, I'm not telling you anything so far.  One thing that I have done is attach a hyperlink to an object (be it a text, mtext, or block reference), and set it to open a word document, text document or spreadsheet.  So, you would therefore have an externally referenced document that would need to accompany the drawing just like an XREF.  ETRANSMIT would not look for it, so you would just have to remember that the document exists or place a note in the drawing to remind a viewer or drafter that the document needs to be found by AutoCAD to reference it.  All "keynoted" objects could have attached separate or identical hyperlinks to either separate documents or the same document.  Does LT have or does LT Extender have the ability to attach a hyperlink to an object?

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