We're moving!!

There may be a small interruption to Support emails this week as we're relocating the office from Edinburgh to Wiltshire. Obviously we'll try to maintain our normal levels of support as much as possible, but please bear with us during the move.

From the 1st July 2010 our new contact details are:

Wish Software Limited,
Hartham Park,
Corsham,
Wiltshire,
England,
United Kingdom,
SN13 0RP.
Telephone numbers +44 (0)1249 700714/5/6

Mobile numbers and email addresses remain the same.

AutoChart version 2010.00.02 is now available for download

We are pleased to announce that the latest AutoChart version 2010.00.02 is now available for download from the Wish Software Support Page:
http://www.wishsoftware.com/AutoChartSupport.aspx
Access to the download page requires a User Name and Password, so please contact your company's AutoChart Administrator in the first instance to obtain the required login information.

Version 2010.00.02 contains a number of new commands, modifications and bug fixes and the new install is required for use with AutoCAD 2011.

Please note that AutoChart version 2010.00.02 will be the last version of AutoChart to support AutoCAD 2000 - 2006. All future versions will be compatible with AutoCAD 2007 and above only.

A list of new features is shown below and full details of these can be found within the AutoChart Help File. 

I'll also be discussing some of the major changes and new commands in forthcoming posts on this blog, so if there is anything in the above list that you are particularly interested in then please let me know.

Listing the coordinates of Polygons/Closed polylines in AutoCAD MAP

In my last post, I discussed the process involved in exporting a listing of polygon positions through ArcGIS. So how could you export the same information using AutoCAD MAP?

Again, it's a fairly simple operation, the main trick being how to easily get the centre points of the polygons or closed polyline entities and this involves using the AutoCAD MAP Create Centroids command.

So, the first step is obviously to have your source data that you want to export the positions from. This could be an existing set of entities (with or without object data) or you can use the MAP->Import command to bring in a shp file of polygon objects and their associated object data. When you import the data in this way, you can also choose to convert all of the polygon entities to closed polylines.

Once the data is in AutoCAD, you can then use the Create Centroids command on either selected entities or on all closed objects within the drawing. This will create a point entity at the centre of each polygon that also contains the associated object data. Once the centroids have been created, save and close the drawing and start up a new drawing in which to run a Report Query in order to output the point data coordinates to a text file.

Select the MAP->Define query command and use the Drawings button to attach the drawing created above. Under the Query type, click the Location button and set the Boundary Type to All. Then click the Property button, select the Object Type radio button, make sure the Operator is set as '=' and click the Values button to choose the POINT object type. This will ensure that only the point objects representing the centres of the polygons will be included in the output.

Back in the Define Query dialog, set the Query Mode to Report and click the Options button to access the Report Options dialog. Click the Expression button, expand the Object Data folder to select the required Object Data field and click OK to return to the Report Options Dialog and click the Add button to add the expression to the Report Template list. Repeat the above steps for any other object data fields you want included in the listing. To include the Eastings and Northings in the Listing, again use the Expression button, but this time expand the 'Properties' folder and select X1. Press OK and then use the Add button to include it in the template. This gives the Eastings of the point objects so repeat the operation to select Y1 to add the Northings to the Listing.

Once the Report Template is set up as required, use the Browse button to define the output name and location for the listing and press OK to return to the main Define Query Dialog.

Finally, click the Execute Query button to generate the report. The data will be output as a comma delimited file that can be opened in Excel.

The entire process is illustrated in the video below:

Listing the coordinates of Polygons in ArcGIS

So far all of my Blog posts have been about AutoCAD and AutoChart (primarily because these are what I spend the majority of my time dealing with) but Wish Software are also involved in producing and working with GIS deliverables, so today I'm going to add a tip about working in ArcGIS.

If you have a Polygon feature set, it may not be immediately obvious as to how to produce a listing of the centre coordinates of those polygons. Whilst the polygons are displayed in their 'Real-World' position, accessing their actual coordinate values involves a couple of steps.

1. Firstly, you have to add two fields to hold the X and Y coordinate values, so open the Attribute table in ArcGIS and use Options to Add a Field 'Easting' and a Field 'Northing', both of type Double.
2. Right click on the Easting Field and use the Calculate Geometry option to add the X-coordinate of each polygon centroid. Repeat Calculate Geometry with the Northing Field to add the Y-coordinate of the centroid and you'll then have the E/N coordinates for the centre of each polygon stored within the Attribute table.
3. If you want to produce this information as a listing, you can then just use the Export option from the Attribute Table to output to a Text File.

All of the steps above are illustrated in the following video:

5 Useful new features in AutoCAD 2011

AutoCAD 2011 has now been released and so we’ll shortly be issuing a new AutoChart install that is compatible with the new 2011 platform. In the mean time, here is a brief overview of 5 new features of AutoCAD 2011 that could prove to be useful when dealing with Charts and charting data:

1. Transparency

Potentially one of the most useful features is that entities can now have a transparency property, allowing objects behind a transparent entity to show through. The transparency value can be set as a percentage and can be applied to a Layer, Block or individual entity.

This functionality could mean for example that seabed feature sediment hatching can overlay an image but such that the underlying data can still be seen:

2. Selection Cycling
If you’ve ever run into the problem of trying to select a particular object that is coincident with other object then the Selection Cycling functionality should help by presenting a dialog of the coincident objects from which the required one can be selected:

3. Xref Selection Highlighting in the Xref Palette

When you now select an xref with the cursor, it is highlighted within the Xref Palette (xref manager). This allows you to easily identify the name and location of the source xref simply by selecting an object.

4.  Polyline Vertex Grip Editing

Editing of polylines has become easier as you can use the polyline grips to add, remove or move (stretch) a vertex. Additionally you can convert a chord in the polyline to an arc. This functionality is accessed simply by selecting a polyline and hovering the cursor over the grip to be edited.

5. Hatch Enhancements

The Hatch command now asks you to first select an entity or objects to hatch rather than presenting the Hatch properties dialog (it retains the properties of the last hatch) and allows automatic previewing of the hatch by hovering the cursor within a closed area. The Hatch properties dialog can be accessed from the command line before specifying the object/area to hatch if required. A background colour can now be added to a patterned hatch. A HATCHTOBACK command has been added which changes the DrawOrder of all hatch objects within the current drawing so that they are at the back.

The above examples are just an overview of the AutoCAD 2011 features that I could find useful myself. There are numerous other enhancements and changes that have been introduced and there are a number of sources of information on the web that provide more details. See the links below for a few other blogs and websites that discuss some of the changes within AutoCAD 2011.

http://resources.autodesk.com/autocad

http://www.jtbworld.com/autocad2011.htm

http://cadpanacea.com/node/202

http://lynn.blogs.com/lynn_allens_blog/2010/04/autocad-2011-tips-and-tricks-booklet.html

http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/2010/03/autocad-2011-system-requirements.html

Creating Descending KP Charts

There can sometimes seem to be some confusion amongst some of our users when it comes to making Charts in that have the route KPs running from right to left on the chart. Maybe the process isn't as clear as it could be until you are aware of the options available in AutoChart, so hopefully this article will go some way to clearing up any confusion.

If your route runs in a predominantly East-West direction, you run into the situation that with the KPs running from Left to Right on the Chart, the Plan view box ends up having North pointing towards the bottom of the page. If you want the Plan view box to have North pointing upwards (generally the preferred option) then you need to make the KPs run from Right to Left on the chart. In AutoChart this is achieved by creating 'Descending KP' Charts.

Part 2 - A few useful AutoCAD Drawing variables

In my last article, I discussed a number of variables that take effect over the AutoCAD application itself, this time I’m going to cover a few of the common Drawing specific variables – i.e. those settings that apply to the individual dwg files rather than globally. I’ve covered a couple of the important ones previously, so also be sure to check out the previous posts on INSUNITS and VISRETAIN.

There are numerous variables available to control all manner of settings within the AutoCAD drawing environment, those shown below are just a few examples that may be encountered during a typical charting project. Further details can be found in the AutoCAD Help documentation.

FRAME – The Frame variable turns the display of frames on and off for all external references, images, and DWF, DWFx, PDF and DGN underlays. When you insert an Image, an underlay or perform an XCLIP around an external reference, the border around that object can optionally be displayed. The Frame setting overrides the individual IMAGEFRAME, DWFFRAME, PDFFRAME, DGNFRAME and XCLIPFRAME settings and can have the following values:

0 - The frame is not visible and it is not plotted

1 - Displays the frame and allows it to be plotted

2 - Displays the frame but keeps it from being plotted

3 - The individual setting varies for all underlays in the current drawing

(i.e. external references, images, and DWF, DWFx, PDF underlays all have different frame settings).

Note this value is used internally by AutoCAD, so the FRAME variable cannot be set to 3 by the User.

IMAGEFRAME, XCLIPFRAME, DWFFRAME, PDFFRAME and DGNFRAME can be set individually to a value of 0, 1 or 2 following the same conventions as per the FRAME variable above.

LWDISPLAY – Controls whether the lineweights of objects are displayed and can be set to either ON or OFF. Note that the setting is controlled separately for model space and all paper space layouts.

LAYEREVAL – Specifies whether the layer list is evaluated for new layers when added to the drawing or to the attached xrefs. Setting LAYEREVAL to 0 turns it off, 1 detects when new xref layers have been added in the drawing and 2 detects when new layers have been added in the drawing and xrefs.

LAYERNOTIFY – Specifies when an alert displays when unreconciled new layers are found and can be set to a bitcode value consisting of the following:

0   - Off
1   - Plot
2   - Open
4   - Load/Reload/Attach for xrefs
8   - Restore layer state
16 - Save
32 - Insert

Note: LAYEREVALCTL overrides the LAYEREVAL and LAYERNOTIFY setvars. When LAYEREVALCTL = 0 it acts like a global off (but not a global on). There is no effect even if LAYEREVALCTL is turned on if LAYERNOTIFY = 0 or LAYEREVAL = 0. LAYEREVALCTL must be set to 1 for LAYERNOTIFY and LAYEREVAL to function correctly.

As explained in the previous article,you can display a Dialog box showing the numerous AutoCAD variables available and their current settings using the System Variable Editor Express Tool.

A few useful AutoCAD system variables

AutoCAD has a number of system variables controlling all manner of options within the AutoCAD environment. Some variables act on a ‘per drawing’ basis whilst others affect the AutoCAD application itself. Today I’m going to run through a few of the common System-wide variables (i.e. those that affect the options within AutoCAD itself).

You can display a Dialog box showing the numerous system variables available and their current settings using the System Variable Editor Express Tool:

Generally most users will want to keep the system variables set to their default values but occasionally (particularly following a fatal crash) the variable may be left in an altered state and needs to be reset to a different value. The System Variable Editor can prove a useful resource to find out what the initial value of a variable would be and reset if required.

The following are just a few of the Registry variables that may need to be accessed and changed if the current value causes AutoCAD/AutoChart to not behave as expected.

Ever find your blocks or xrefs are inserting in the wrong place or at the wrong scale?

It seems to be a fairly common support query we get from a number of our customers – “I’m using the AutoChart Xref Data command and my Xrefs aren’t showing in my charts”. If this has happened to you, the chances are that you’ve run into the dreaded curse of the INSUNITS variable in AutoCAD – you are not alone!

Prior to AutoCAD 2006 the setting used for this variable had little effect on most users and consequently, most people didn’t pay it any attention or even know of its existence. However, from 2006 onwards Autodesk introduced a feature to automatically scale inserts and blocks according to the value set in the INSUNITS variable. All very nice and I’m sure it’s an extremely useful function for numerous AutoCAD users, unfortunately, if you’re unaware of what it does, mixing INSUNITS between drawings can lead to problems when inserting blocks and Xrefs.

To better understand what effect the variable can have, first we can take a look at its entry in the AutoCAD Help File:

Source: AutoCAD MAP 2010 Help Documentation

So you can see there are numerous settings relating to the distance units used within a drawing. When AutoCAD is installed the default template is normally acad.dwt (or map2d.dwt for AutoCAD MAP). If you inspect the value of INSUNITS for this template (by typing ‘insunits’ at the AutoCAD command line) you’ll see (assuming it hasn’t already been changed since installation) that it is set to 1 (or, according to the table above ‘inches’).

Using a Block ini file in Import Block

The AutoChart Import Block command is a useful way to import ascii data to symbolize data (such as core or CPT locations), but in its simplest form, it is limited to a single block definition for every data point in the file. This means that if you have to display different types of data, you have to run the command multiple times, changing the data file and the block symbol each time. There is however an easy way to use the command in a single operation and create different symbols for different types of data. It is also makes it possible to control which Layers are used for different symbols. To use this functionality, you need to define a Block Ini file and ensure that each different type of data has a unique identifier as the first attribute in the data file.

For example, the data file may contain all of the As-Laid Events for a Cable Route:

The values in the 3rd column provide an identifier that links to the block name to use with the symbol settings held in the Block Ini file: