The idea behind this project is to aid the process of measuring quantities of ventilation ducts and all kinds of pipes.
The process is all about drawing polylines along the measured installations. Polylines are assigned to automatically created layers which names contain needed info (system name, material, diameter, insulation details etc.) Drawn polyline lengths are then exported to .sdf format which can be opened in MS Excel. Then you can join the data from multiple drawings and get pivot table report of all the measured installations.
The main advantage of this method is the ease of use. You don't waste time on creating layers, copying and pasting layer names etc.
The script calculates lengths so it eliminates possibility of human error. It also helps in case of documentation revisions - you change the revised part of the drawing only and export the data again.
By using this add-on in your team you can easily keep layer naming scheme and order, making it easy to take over someone elses measurements.
- download ObmiarPW.dll (will be available for download soon with corresponding Excel template files)
- open AutoCAD and use
NETLOAD
command to load the .dll file - use
APPLOAD
command to load dependencies (listed in section below) - now you can use
OBMIAR
command to show the add-on palette
- color grade lines based on diameter of pipe
- draw measured polylines with corresponding system name (line style)
- multilanguage version
- better screen space use
- ...
- Pay attention to drawing scale, in case of differences in scale it's best to rescale all the drawings to corresponding scale.
- If you use object snap while measuring be careful with the Z axis (especially on ventilations drawings). AutoCAD can snap one end of polyline on different Z-coordinate than the other end. It looks like there is no problem from the top view but results in wrong length calculation.
- LOS.lsp https://www.theswamp.org/index.php?topic=53844.0
- TLEN.lsp http://www.lee-mac.com/totallengthandarea.html
- ADDLEN.vlx https://www.cadforum.cz/cadforum_en/download.asp?fileID=1013
- Creating a docking palette: https://forums.autodesk.com/autodesk/attachments/autodesk/152/26712/1/CP205-2_Mike_Tuersley.pdf
- Layer creation and assignment: https://through-the-interface.typepad.com