Expert: Bill DeShawn - 3/6/2007

Question
Hi Bill,

I guess all I meant by "opening a drawing that has been saved" was that this only happens after I re-open a drawing, never during a work session. And my last name is not Hurley.

I don't know much about AutoLISP. I am a freelance architectural draftsperson. I work at home on my own computer and have, for better or worse, taught myself AutoCAD. The arrow thing is weird. Also, sometimes I'll notice that my dimension lines will have huge "bullyseye-type" points attached to them - again, only when I re-open a drawing. Might it have something to do with working on womeone else's drawing file that was created with another program?

Shaun
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The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
Hello,

This may be an easy one for you, but it is driving me crazy. It has to do with formatting, specifically, quick leaders (arrows). When I open a document that has been saved with quick leaders, sometimes the arrow is not pointing at the thing I saved it to point at. And sometimes it is drastically reformatted. I don't get it. It seems as though there is some kind of 'associative' format attached to the file, kinda like how dim lines can be set to change when the thing they are dimensioning changes. But I am not changing anything. And it only seems to happen when I open a file that has been saved. I've tried, but I cannot deduce a rhyme or reason. And I've searched the menus for clues, but to no avail.

Thanks!!!!
-----Answer-----
This may sound weird, but I'm thinking that there are two definitions of the arrow block that you are using that are working against each other.  When you reopen a drawing it may be that you are redefining the arrow block via an AutoLISP startup function.  Is there some way you can check on that?  Are you the CAD Manager?  

Is your last name Hurley?  I don't know very many Shauns; you would be the second one.  By the way.  Just a little fun and no offense intended:  How do you open a file that hasn't been saved?  :)

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


Answer
OK.  I don't do this very often, but I'll do it this time.  Could you send me the drawing?  Send it to me at bdeshawn@sterling.net and I'll have a look at it.  QLEADER is generally less dependent on dimension styles, but it still generates a leader.  If you create a dimension object - even a leader, it is associated with a dimension style.  Do you use any startup AutoLISP like ACADDOC.LSP ACAD.LSP?  Check into APPLOAD to see what is loading when you start AutoCAD.  There is a startup suite in appload that indicates all the routines and applications that run when AutoCAD starts.  If you could create a list of them and send it, I would appreciate it.  I might then request a copy of some of those routines, to see what it is they do.  If worse comes to worse, I'll create a Leader LISP routine for you that doesn't use associativity to text.  Because of how the leaders work in AutoCAD in recent releases, I have been shying away from them and prefer my own routines.  But I'll still help you try to solve this problem.  One thing you might want to do is to change the name of the block after you get it working.  If that solves the problem, then we ARE looking at a problem of the block getting redefined.  If that doesn't solve the problem, then probably the dimension style is getting redefined.

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