Cadlantic Custom Utilities 2 Village Road Sea Girt, NJ 08750 TEL: 732-974-1711 FAX: 732-782-0253 e-mail: john.uhden@cadlantic.com Cadlantic Custom Utilities for AutoCAD are designed to help you to do your work more easily and more accurately. Most of Cadlantic programs are site licensed, which means you can install them in any or all of your computers, provided they are located at the same site. If you have offices located in other areas, you must purchase separate copies for each office. INSTALLATION procedures are described in the file "Installation.txt" (R15-R16) Cadlantic COMMAND Aliases ----------------------------------------------------------- The ACAD.PGP file is no longer used for Cadlantic aliases! Cadlantic now provides the CV_ALIAS utility for creating, editing, and saving Cadlantic command aliases. It will load automatically. Any time you want to change your aliases, just type CVA (or whatever alias you give the command), and change them on the fly. It also prevents you from creating duplicate aliases. REINIT is NOT required. The aliases are saved in your Cadlantic directory as CV_ALIAS.TXT, which you may edit with any text editor and copy to other stations. Please remove all Cadlantic aliases from your ACAD.PGP file! !!! IMPORTANT UPDATE NEWS !!! -------------------------------------------------------------- You can now choose to load Cadlantic Custom Utilities for R15+ via the APPLOAD StartUp Suite, or by the usual means of (arxload), which places an entry in your ACAD.RX file. The difference is that the APPLOAD option is profile dependent since there are separate APPLOAD settings in the registry for each profile, whereas the ACAD.RX option is independent of profiles and will load no matter what the profile. Note that if you do both, the ACAD.RX file is loaded before APPLOAD; the load will be global; and you will be warned of the duplicity via an alert. These utilities are totally compatible with R15 (2000/2000i/2002) and R16 (2004/2005), including MAP4, MAP5, MAP6, and Land Desktop R2, R3, R4, and R5. Support for R14 has been discontinued except by special request. Most routines have been upgraded to handle Land Desktop custom objects such as AECC_CONTOURs and AECC_POINTs. C_NOTE, CN_EDIT, and TAKE_OFF have been spruced up to provide associative leaders and better TAKE_OFF options. NEW NEW NEW !! -------------- * XNOTES AEC Notes are great for storing important reference information for objects in a drawing, but accessing them from objects nested in a block or xref is not a feature of Notes. XNOTES provides interactive access to AEC_TEXT_NOTEs and AEC_REF_DOCS nested at all levels in a drawing. If you can pick it, XNOTES will show you all the notes and references attached to an object and to all its parents as well, including xrefs and anonymous blocks. It will report if the reference documents are found as well as their size and last-modified date, and permit you to open them if they are associated with an application. You can even CopyClip the notes to the Windows clipboard. Many thanks to Dale Fugier at McNeel for providing the DOSLIB functions that XNOTES employs. Future versions may provide fuzzy search capabilities. * GripOpen (FREE) Shows you how many open polylines are on on a selected layer (in the current layout/cvport), with one pick, and grips them so you can see them and/or take action on them (if PICKFIRST is 1). Like GripLayer and GripPrevious this is best used if you have a wheel mouse and MBUTTONPAN turned on to transparently zoom/pan so that grips stay on. * VPLOCK (FREE) Lets you lock selected viewports in any layout (window, crossing, etc.). It reports how many are unlocked prior to selection and how many additional were locked after selection. * VPUNLOCK (FREE) Lets you unlock selected viewports in any layout (window, crossing, etc.). It reports how many are locked prior to selection and how many additional were unlocked after selection. * GripLayer and GripPrevious (FREE) Rather than isolate a layer, just select an object, find out how many objects are on the layer (in the current layout/cvport), and grip them so you can see them and/or take action on them (if PICKFIRST is 1). Or, GripPrevious will grip those objects in the previous selection set in the current layout and report how many objects were gripped. These are best used if you have a wheel mouse and MBUTTONPAN turned on to transparently zoom/pan so that grips stay on. * PUSH2K and POP2K (Saves the real AEC data back to 2K) PUSH2K exports from 2004/2005 back to 2000/2000i/2002 with Land Desktop AECC object data saved intact in the drawing for restoration by the Cadlantic "POP2K" program. V2.0+ handles objects nested in blocks, including xrefs that are to be bound. POP2K restores AECC objects intact in 2000/2000i/2002 exported from 2004/2005 by the Cadlantic "PUSH2K" program. Objects include: Countour styles (AECC_CONTOUR_STYLE) Contour objects (AECC_CONTOUR) Grading objects (AECC_GRADE) Curved Text (AEC_CURVETEXT) Cogo Points (AECC_POINT) * Horiz2Vert Creates labels in a Land Desktop profile from points picked in plan view relative to a Land Desktop alignment. Includes user options for: Station label Elevation Repeatable descriptions Choice of label orientation: Horizontal Left Horizontal Right Vertical Left Vertical Right * Vert2Horiz Lists and/or labels FG profile elevations in plan relative to a Land Desktop alignment. Includes label options for: Station and Offset Elevation adjustment (+ or -) Description prefix * QuickProfile For FG: Draws lines in a Land Desktop profile from points selected in plan relative to a Land Desktop alignment, or For EG: Writes the station/elevation out to a file to import into existing ground. * Taper: A cute utility for tapering the width of each segment of a polyline to give a little depth to those otherwise boring treelines. ** Cadlantic Custom Utilities for R15+ (2000+) now includes a toggle within the CV_ALIAS command to automatically add "Quick" to running object snaps. Using reactors, it will always add the 1024 bit to your OSNAP settings. This is extremely important when selecting 3D snap points with congruent underlying 2D objects. * VEDIT Sort of like PEDIT, provides ability to Delete, Insert, or Move the vertices of LWPolyines, Polylines and AECC_CONTOURs. As usual, it includes locked-layer checking and Undo control. Sub-commands, including Undos, are repeatable with a simple return or pick (to the extent they make sense). It includes an AutoPan feature and the option to turn on ContourStyle grips if they're off. * LDREPAIR Fixes the apparent disassociation of Leaders and MTEXT in most cases, which are due to the apparent failure of the built-in AutoCAD reactors to handle disparate elevations and distances. It will not fix associations due to differing extrusion directions, since there may be some users who like 3D leaders. * AVGRADE Reports the average grade and elevation of a 3DPolyline by both simple and distance-weighted methods. Built for use in dealing with building height computations for the Township of Holmdel, Monmouth County, New Jersey. * Set_User_Profile is under testing. Based on usage preferences, it can import and current a profile by the user's LOGINNAME, and give the option to write back to the .arg file if any profile settings have changed. Very handy in a networked environment where user's share AutoCAD workstations. * KILLDOTS is back (and free) Recovered from the archives of the Compuserve ACAD Forum by the ever jocular Tracy Lincoln, and returned to its author, we present this "New and Improved" version (02-13-02). This utility will delete all single-vertex polylines, zero-length lines/polylines, and text with empty strings or just spaces from a drawing. NOTE: It bypasses, but does not stumble on locked layers. * 3DSTAKEOUT (Land Desktop R2+ only) Automates creating offset stake-out points along 3D Polylines. Completely dialog driven, it provides options for each vertex to set from 0 to 3 points on either side (90° Back, 90° Ahead, and Bisect) with varying offsets, descriptions, and elevation adjustments. It even provides for the creation or modification of Cogo Point Groups. * 3D2PROF (Land Desktop R2+ only) Sample a 3D polyline directly into the vertical data of any LDD2 alignment. Your choice of start and end points of the polyline, and whether to merge or replace overlapping stations. Only one of its kind that can sample a profile along a variable offset from C/L. Great for existing gutters! * WLTYPES exports LINETYPE definitions from a drawing to any linetype definition file (*.LIN), either existing or new. Extremely handy for recreating lost definitions or for cloning them from others' drawing files. * ATTMOD - A little utility to provide dialog editing of attributes (Tag, Prompt, Default) within a block definition. * CHGELEV - Changes selected objects to any elevation, including any subentities such as attributes and heavy vertices. Also checks for locked layers. Similar to ZO except for the choice of elevation. * CJOIN can join Land Desktop R2 AECC_CONTOURS with options to fill in gaps, correct elevations, and close the contour. (not available in R14) * VOLBASIN calculates detention basin volumes by selecting polylines, AECC_CONTOURs, or points to extract areas and compute the incremental and total volume. It also computes percolation for each elevation. * FPLINE - Fillets the radius of multiple polyline vertices selected via the options... All/Layer/Picklayer/. It's great for making Softdesk/Land Desktop contours look smoother without bloating the file size. IMPROVED !! ----------- * PURGEALL Now provides the option to remove unused Appids, also known as Registered Applications, stored in Xdata (Extended entity data). If your drawings have been exposed to Eagle Point or other add-on applications, this option can reduce your drawing size (and crashes) considerably. * EDITNUM: Added capability to edit Attributes. * CHGELEV now includes the ability to change elevations by a relative distance. * LPPROP, LPFREEZE, LPOFF, and VPLFREEZE: Now include the ability to select layers within nested objects and when nested more than once provide a dialog indicating the object's layer and all its parent's layer and names. Plus "N" or "O" toggles for nested ON vs. OFF, and "Add" or "Remove" toggles for adding or removing layers from the list. * SPOT for R15+ now includes a SPOT editor to change elevation, precision, and insertion at actual elevation or zero. And includes option to edit existing "SPOT" insertions (single or multiple), plus options to set SPOTs at relative distances and elevations based on options for Difference, Grade, and Slope, including direct distance entry capability. * XOFFSET can now clone objects via an offset distance of 0! Plus there are entity creation options for Layer, Color, Elevation, Linetype, LTScale, and Thickness via four (4) methods: "Original" "Current" "Constant" and "Prompt." * BKEEPER now provides SEARCH capabilities to help you find the block you want within all your BKEEPER lists! Plus you can now RENAME lists and use longer names. * LSTAT = The BEST layer manager. Saves and restores NAMED LAYER STATUSES... (Clayer/Color/Frozen/Locked/Xref/LWeights/PlotStyles/NoPlot) kept as invisible attributes IN THE DRAWING. It can even restore statuses embedded in XRefs, allow you to view any status, report on all statuses, write them out as blocks, and create script files. Now keeps track of CREATED and MODIFIED dates! Script files can now load missing linetypes. * VPLSTAT - Dialog driven program saves and restores NAMED Viewport LAYER STATUSES (Frozen/Thawed) kept as invisible attributes IN THE DRAWING. They can be restored either selectively or for all Viewports. It can even restore LSTAT statuses from the current drawing, even if embedded in XRefs! BONUS !! -------- Cadlantic Utilities automatically clean up the troublesome ADCADD_ZZ fiasco in S8/LDD/LDD2+ where the block either "gets lost" or gets proliferated by creation of new layouts. Cooked To Perfection !! ----------------------- * LABEL_IT Cadlantic Bearing, Distance, Arc Labeler (Enhanced Version) LABEL_IT is the ultimate solution to labeling bearings, distances, arc information (including chord bearing and distance) for anyone using AutoCAD R15 or R16, especially with Softdesk/Land Development. It offers astounding bearing and arc labeling features including automatic stacking, associative leaders, intelligent renumberable tags, and your own label style and table style manager (layers, colors, precision, text styles, leader types, etc.) In one command you can change the label style "on the fly", and label lines, arcs, polyline segments, and entire polylines... !!! EVEN IF NESTED IN A BLOCK OR XREF !!! You can create and save any number of custom label styles and table styles, and create tables with the tags you want in any order you want. LABEL_IT provides a unique "tracking" mode for most labeling tasks that shows you the endpoints of the segment you want to label, or the grip points of a polyline as you pass your cursor over the screen. The best part is it correctly reads the AEC base point and north rotation (even if the UCS isn't World), and will align labels with the current Viewtwist. * XOFFSET offsets ARCs, CIRCLEs, ELLIPSEs, LINEs, LWPOLYLINEs, 2D POLYLINEs, RAYs, SPLINEs, and XLINEs... !!! EVEN IF NESTED IN A BLOCK OR XREF !!! Provides the option to offset individual polyline segments as lines or arcs, or just CLONE nested objects in place! Unlike the standard OFFSET command, XOFFSET allows you to offset objects on locked layers. Will even clone XRef layers, colors, linetypes, and linetype scales. This can safely be used instead of the standard OFFSET command. * MTLEADER lets you add associative leaders to existing MTEXT with your choice of dimension style and leader shape. * 3DEDIT lets you edit the elevations of 3D polylines one at a time and lets you transition elevations to form a constant slope though multiple vertices. * POINT_Z Program finds all Softdesk "POINT" blocks selected by Layer, Picking a layer, Manually, or All, and adusts each insertion elevation either to Zero or according to the value of the "ELEV" attribute. * Z0 Changes selected objects to elevation 0, including any subentities such as attributes and heavy vertices. Also checks for locked layers. * ATEXT Rotates selected TEXT and MTEXT objects to align with selected objects (lines, polyline segments, text, etc.) * HTEXT Rotates selected TEXT and MTEXT objects to align with the drawing's current viewtwist angle. * Layer Order DRAWORDER, while a valiant effort, has unmanageable limitations, the most significant of which is its failure to respect spatial indices within external references (xrefs). Layer Order's purpose is to rebuild the order of objects in the current drawing's database based on the layers in which they reside. This is done by "updating" (copying objects in place, and deleting the original). It provides a straightforward dialog for building, saving, reading, and manipulating lists of layers (including wildcards) in a user-specified order for processing, and comes with extensive on-line help. * NEDIFF helps you label the Northing and Easting difference between a reference point and another point, with choice of informative text. * PNTMERGE merges two ASCII point files (or checks one) to notify, correct, or renumber mismatches, and even delete exact matches. Completely dialog driven. * RVIEW and WVIEW Read and write named views to/from an external .AVF (AutoCAD View File). R13 or higher. * SPRING Create a 3D Polyline spring form with choice of up to four (4) growth segments and number of turns per segment. R13 or higher. * RPOLY reverses the direction of any polyline. * 3D-FLT takes 3D polylines or lines and writes them as fault data to a Softdesk .FLT file, converting odd extrusions caused by MicroStation, and providing optional weeding parameters. * DDMTEXT imports ASCII files as either TEXT or MTEXT with tab conversion and numerous options for justification, layer, color, height, width factor, obliquing angle, and even character spacing. (Replaces TXTFRFIL.) * DETAILS has finally been overhauled to do what it should... focus on your details directory structure, allow you to pick any drawing, and show you a slide, text description file, and status in the drawing all in one dialog. (ISDETAIL has been discontinued.) * SPOTTXT lets you iteratively pick two Softdesk points and replace them with a simple leader with the description and elevation for the first above, and the second below. * PTIMPORT lets you import an ASCII point file as Softdesk points without Softdesk. * PDRAW lets you draw lines or plines by Softdesk point number in any order ascending or descending or a combination of both, without Softdesk. * DDTEXT simplifies the DTEXT command via dialog box selection of text style and justification. * 3DF-3DL replaces Softdesk 3D Road Grid (3D Faces) with 3D Lines, for use in making DTM fault data. * VSEARCH finds overlapping, intersecting, and duplicate polyline vertices that would otherwise cause Softdesk's DTM creator to crash. Selection options are All/Layer/Picklayer/. * CHGPTCOL changes the color of every entity in a Softdesk point insertion to a single selected color. Selection options are All/Layer/Picklayer/. * M3D now handles arcs and will add vertices along arc segments. Great to use with 3DEDIT! * MOVEXLBL lets you move all those cross-section station labels to just where you want (you know... under the section) with 2 easy picks. * STASTRIP converts a Point Output report from (Point, Station, Offset, Elevation, Description) to just Station / Elevation, ready to read into a vertical alignment. * VPPICK - This clever utility allows you to turn viewports ON or OFF just by pointing inside them, even if they are on frozen layers. It is dialog driven with a color-coded report of the total viewport status, and on-line help giving you the SECRETS OF SUCCESS. * PCONNECT is awesome! You can connect Softdesk/Land Desktop points by description with both 2D and 3D polylines... including intelligent creation of arcs, closing, choice of layer, and more. COMPLETE ON_LINE HELP! PLUS, you can read the point data from the drawing OR an ASCII point file. AND you can now use suffixes to recall a point and terminate at another point. Definitely more cost effective than buying a SOKKIA collector. * PNT2SPOT now provides a dialog driven plethora of choices for converting Softdesk points to "SPOT" labels. All Cadlantic routines include LOCKED LAYER detection and control. Thanks to the requests of Danny Seymour and John Cooke, you can create a new layer on the fly in most of the utilities that change entities to your choice of layer. C_NOTE Environment --------------------------------------------------- If you have purchased C_NOTE, you must set the C_NOTE directory environment in your AUTOEXEC.BAT or whatever batch routines you use to invoke AutoCAD. Edit your batch routines or login script to set the C_NOTE environmental variable to indicate the path where the C_NOTE data files are stored, eg.: SET C_NOTEDIR=\C_NOTE The may be any logical drive including a network drive. The C_NOTE directory will be created on the drive where you have installed the Cadlantic Utilities. It will contain sample data files. If you copy the C_NOTE data files to a network drive, you must be certain to allow users the rights to READ from the directory. None of the programs writes any data to the C_NOTE directory, so if security is an issue, you may limit WRITE access to supervisors or group managers. ------------------------- End of File --------------------------