Unexplode Leaders/Dimensions

[s2steeda]

I am wondering if there is a command to take exploded leaders and 'unexplode' them. I was certain that I've used a command sometime in the past that would take exploded leaders/dimensions and reverse the explode command thus making them leaders/dimensions again.

 

I am not talking about the reassociate dimension command 'nor' the qleader command that takes the text and 'relinks' it to the leader.

 

Basically I have a drawing that someone has gone and exploded the leaders on, text is already on a different layer so mostly stand alone leaders, the arrow is now a 'solid' entity, the leader lines are now typical lines in AutoCAD, etc.

 

The drawing is massive and there isn't time to go through it all and recreate the leaders manually.

 

Any idea on what I can do? Suggestions?

 

Thanks in advance......

[LCE]

Sorry man, short of kicking their bottom...I can't think of anything else.

I can't say that I have ever seen anything that works like this.

Is there a chance you could go to a backup of the drawing to a date before this so'n'so exploded everything, then just copy and paste between the 2?

[s2steeda]

I thought about that but no, the drawing is from a company we are consulted out to, basically it's a site drawing that has been constantly updated probably since AutoCAD first came out.....

 

We only work on 'regions' of it though, so worst case, I'll have to just go in manually and move them to another layer, recreate if required, etc. Typically we just shut them all off, and use their plan as a 'baseplan' for our new projects but of course, all the linework and notation is on the same layer, all exploded (typical thing I'm sure we've all seen at some time).

 

- on a side note -

Basically I've wrote a script that goes through their entire drawing, moves things to proper layers, colors, linetypes, etc. etc. basically cleans up their drawing into a new useable baseplan for our projects. I'm currently scripting in code to move the text to a separate layer away from the linework, including the leaders but using the SSX command, the leaders are now 'lines' thus what happens is it includes them, as well as the actual linework into a selection set, which isn't what I want, I was hoping to re-link the leaders to themselves, then use the SSX command to move them to a 'text' layer..... oh well......

 

Thanks for the information.......

[Hoozin]

I suppose you could block all of the leaders/dims and then it wouldn't be treated as linework by your script. Explode the block when you're done.

 

I'll be honest though, I didn't follow your last paragraph real well, so ignore me if this sounds stupid.

[s2steeda]

Yeah I do understand what your getting at. That would work actually but I think all the extra coding isn't worth the time (in my case). If anything, once I run my script to clean the drawing, etc... I can just go in and manually move those exploded leaders to a text layer (that I already created in the script) and just call it a day. Since we use only portions of the entire plan, it won't be that huge of a deal to move a few dozen leaders after the script has ran.

 

Thanks though, definitely gave me another idea I didn't think of.....

[uddfl]

A few months back I was trying to write an AutoLISP code to "unexplode" leaders (replace an exploded leader with a new one) in AutoCAD. I did not get it to work so I'm gonna try again.

 

One of the problems is that the arrowhead could be anything. However, most of the drawings I deal with use either the "closed filled" arrow for leader style, so I decided to worry about the different scenarios later and assume that the arrowhead was a "closed filled".

 

Obtaining the point locations is where I'm having trouble. It's probably no big deal and it's just me making it complicate. The lines of the exploded leader could either be lines or a polyline, so to obtain the point locations there are two options: to check that the leader is exploded to line entities (if a polyline, explode), or to check that the leader is a polyline (if it's lines, join via PEDIT)? I initially tried to use the latter option but I got stuck so I'll try the former one next. What do you LISP gurus think would be easier/safer? (of course, if anyone already has a routine to this effect and is willing to share, please do). Any ideas will be most appreciated.

[CADDict]

That is a fireable offense in my company. I can't stand when people do that.

[uddfl]

That is a fireable offense in my company. I can't stand when people do that.

Agreed. But you wouldn't believe how many times I've seen it at my workplace. Actually, you wouldn't believe how much time and effort I've invested in creating LISP routines and methods to fix the problems that other users constantly create in drawings, instead of making LISPs that actually create new stuff and are productive. But I suppose there is always a place for all circumstances in the AutoCAD world.

/rant

[kevinp]

Same boat as you guys. Much time is lost in older drawings due to detail bubbles being exploded, and we have to recreate them all. This gets very time consuming when you have 40-50 drawings in a set, and every drawing has about 6 leaders/detail callouts.

 

*is working on a drawing right now with exploded leaders >_