topic Re: Reading Autotext value into a variable in GDL

Reading Autotext value into a variable

Eric B — Tue, 24 Sep 2024 08:28:29 GMT

Good evening

Apologies if this has been asked before but I could not find anything relating to this

How can you read an autotext value into a variable in GDL

I would like to be able to do the following and read the first two characters of the Master Layout Name:

strsub("<MASTERLAYOUTNAME>", 0, 2)

Many thanks

Eric

Re: Reading Autotext value into a variable

runxel — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 14:51:10 GMT

@Eric B wrote:

How can you read an autotext value into a variable in GDL

Sorry to inform you: You can't.

Autotext is an abstract layer on top. GDL does not see it.

Re: Reading Autotext value into a variable

Eric B — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 20:22:29 GMT

Thats not the answer I was looking for 😂

Is there a way to get sheet information into GDL i.e sheet width or sheet height?

I am trying to auto populate the scale in a drawing title with the sheet size ( Scale 1:100 @ A3)

Cheers

Re: Reading Autotext value into a variable

Lingwisyer — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 02:12:52 GMT

Even if there was a request for sheet size, using it to generate a scale would not work as the object would need to be placed on a sheet in order to read it, in which case it would not be able to see the GLOB_SCALE of placed views... or it would see the scale of every placed View. There is a way to do a scale bar within the title object of a View if that will do. I think one of the Drawing Titles in the US library has that option. For us, we sometimes want to show the scale at multiple sheet sizes so in a way not having it linked is good for us. The user can select the scales they want to show at the page sizes they want, and I guess everyone here is used to how slow it was for us to change in aCAD.

Ling.

Re: Reading Autotext value into a variable

Eric B — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 05:32:47 GMT

Hi Ling

Thanks for your reply

Sorry I may have not been very clear. I don't want to generate a scale I just want to append the sheet size to end of the scale '@ A3'

We have had a couple of instances where a client has asked for drawings to be published on A3 when they were originally published on A2. Our current drawing title has this as a custom field but when you republish them on a different size sheet you have to go and manually update all of the drawing titles

I was hoping now that you can get the Master Layout Name as auto text I could use this as all of our Master Layout Names start with the sheet size

Cheers

Eric

Re: Reading Autotext value into a variable

Barry Kelly — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 05:39:20 GMT

You probably can get the master layout name, but you can't get the first 2 characters only.

You can read and show autotext values, but you can't manipulate them or use the value in any sort of calculation.

So you will be stuck with the full master layout name.

Barry.

Re: Reading Autotext value into a variable

Eric B — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 05:42:59 GMT

Hi Barry

Yes I can get the full name with <MASTERLAYOUTNAME>

I was hoping I could just add it to a variable and be able to run it through a series of if statements to figure out the sheet size but the contents of the variable is '<MASTERLAYOUTNAME>' rather than the actual name

Cheers

Eric

Re: Reading Autotext value into a variable

Xandros — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 06:24:10 GMT

The only way I found to get the sheet size in a GDL Object is via the subtype 'drawing title'

With this subtype you'll get the array AC_LayoutRect that has the information you need.

Re: Reading Autotext value into a variable

Lingwisyer — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 08:47:48 GMT

A2 at A3, RIP your scales...

Re: Reading Autotext value into a variable

Erwin Edel — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 10:01:02 GMT

I am probably missing something obvious, but we ussually have an A1 set at 1:100 and an A3 booklet scaled to 1:200 (50%) for this reason and since the views just update automatically, it's a matter of making the booklet once and just keep publishing it as needed.

Re: Reading Autotext value into a variable

Eric B — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 22:32:31 GMT

Perfect. Thanks Xandros

Not idea but at least I can use logic with it and determine the sheet size that way. Exactly what I wanted to do

Much appreicated