Dynamic Block Positional Information

[TheyCallMeJohn]

Hey All,

Okay so I have s dynamic block (green in my example) that is built in the x-y plane. I can change its length, width, extend it and rotate it about the base point. Yada yada yada. Bunch of feature that the company I work for needs. When we insert it into a 3D model we position it such that the Y axis becomes the Z axis and the the X axis can be anywhere within the the X-Y plane. I am trying to create a lisp that will move it relative to a second block (red in my example). Does any know a way to get the rotational information for the dynamic blocks. I can't use the "Rotation" from the misc section since it operate in the blocks x-y plane instead of the models x-y plane.

 

I created an image below with Axis. To hopefully clarify. These aren't the actual blocks just example shapes.

 

Hopefully someone can help. I have tried a few things without success.

 

[TheyCallMeJohn]

Okay after doing some more research, I think I need to get the transformation matrix for each object. This can apparently be obtained using "nentselp" but is there a ways to use this to get a batch of transformation objects for a group of dynamic block entities? Nentselp seems to only accept points for selection.

[TheyCallMeJohn]

In case anyone wants to do something similar... This is a portion of the code I cam came up with. Hopefully it will be helpful to some one in the future. Also do to the way dynamic blocks are configured, what would be the Z axis in the dynamic block editor, become the reference for unit vector that makes up the "normal" value. So I had to rotate the unit vectors by 90 degrees around the z axis.

 

(setq pl_set (ssget '((0 . "INSERT"))))
(setq pl_set_lgth (SSLENGTH pl_set))
(setq br_item 0)
(repeat pl_set_lgth
	(setq en (SSNAME pl_set br_item))		
	(setq entvla (vlax-Ename->Vla-Object en))
	(setq unitVec (vlax-get entvla 'normal))
	(setq InsrtPnt (vlax-get entvla 'InsertionPoint))
	(if (getdynpropvalue entvla "BRCKT_ELEV X")
		(progn
			(setq brace_dist (abs (getdynpropvalue entvla "BRCKT_ELEV X")))
			(princ "\n unitVec is:") ;to be removed
			(princ unitVec) ;to be removed
			(setq i_val (car unitVec))
			(setq j_val (cadr unitVec))
			(setq i_val_n (* 1.0 j_val))
			(setq j_val_n (* -1.0 i_val))
			(setq z_rot_rad (atan j_val_n i_val_n))