LISP / DCL Thumbnail Preview of file

[Steven P]

Good afternoon,

And apologies if this has been asked before, I didn't find anything.

 

 

Is it possible to create a dialogue box with several file preview thumbnails which can be selected and so to insert this file into a drawing?

 

 

Much like adding emoticons into texts here where if I select one of them the smiling face appears in the text box. If I had a selection of block thumbnails I could select one to insert into a drawing?

 

 

 

 

 

 

My thought / aim is a sort of block library dialogue box, with a drop down box to select a discipline (say mechanical, electrical, civil), then blocks specific to them are displayed and can be selected.

 

 

I am not really looking for all the code (though that would be nice) but whether this is possible and maybe some guidance of what to look at using / routines to look at to help me.

 

 

 

 

I've seen this which sort of works:

(getfiled "SELECT A BLOCK" "C:\\Program Files\\AutoCAD 2005\\Sample\\" "dwg" 2)

 

 

 

 

Thanks

[marko_ribar]

INSERT command dialog box in A2017 can be stretchable to make thumbnail larger, but it can't display many thumbs at the same time... I say this as I saw new features of A2017, I actually use A2014 and rarely A2016....

[maratovich]

Steven P

There is a tool that can be useful to you

[Steven P]

They sort of work but aren't quite what I am looking to do. The standard tools will show you 1 preview at a time when you select the file name from the drop down list

 

 

I am looking for something where there could be several thumbnail images at a time on the dialogue box for different kinds of similar items.

 

 

For example, 'Door' could have drawing title Door1, Door2, Door3, Door4 etc. for single door top view, single door front view, double door top view, double door front view.

 

 

It would be easier I think to use the thumbnails to select the file rather than scrolling down a list of file names to get the preview one at a time to see which to use.

 

 

 

 

None of the standard tools I have seen so far can do this so I am thinking to make a tool to do it myself - and back to my question, is it possible to have a dialogue box (DCL?) which when opened will display several thumbnails that can be selected to open / insert that file.

[Roy_043]

This is possible with DCL, but you have to create a slide for every dwg. If you do not want to do that try switching to OpenDCL.

[Steven P]

Thanks Roy,

 

 

I will put this to one side for now than and read up on openDCL, I'll probably come back and ask more question and for help later

[BIGAL]

Like Roy_043 you can do slides displayed in menus this is the very old method nice thing is you dont write dcl code but rather menu code which is much simpler. I can hear the chorus in back ground look at Tool Palettes. You can automate the making of slides so can make a few hundred very fast.

 

***POP19
**CADLIB
            [LIBRARY]
            [->Stddwgs]
            [TRENCH]$I=COGGSTDS.TRENCH $I=*
            [PIPES]$I=COGGSTDS.PIPES $I=*
            [PITS]$I=COGGSTDS.PITS $I=*
            [KERBS]$I=COGGSTDS.IDMKERBS $I=*
***image
**TRENCH
[TRENCH]
**KERBS
[KERBS]
[COGGSLD(SD401,B1 KERB)]^C^C(openblk "P:/ACADSTDS/CIVIL STANDARDS/SD401") 
[COGGSLD(SD402,B2 KERB)]^C^C(openblk "P:/ACADSTDS/CIVIL STANDARDS/SD402") 
[COGGSLD(SD403,B3 KERB)]^C^C(openblk "P:/ACADSTDS/CIVIL STANDARDS/SD403") 
[COGGSLD(SD404,LAYBACK B2-3)]^C^C(openblk "P:/ACADSTDS/CIVIL STANDARDS/SD404") 

[rlx]

maybe this one can fulfill your needs :

 

 

http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?95094-RlxPaste

 

 

gr.R.

[Steven P]

Big Al, that is almost exactly what I thought might be useful for me - I will have a look, thanks

[BIGAL]

Its old fashioned but easy to do. Just post if you need help, do you have makslb.exe it should be in c:\Autocad etc. Slidemgr is another.

 

Make a list of dwgs

Dir *.dwg > sldlst.txt /b

 

lisp code

; lisp code to make slides called from a script
(setvar 'catb "Model")
(command "zoom" "E" "zoom" "0.9xp")
(setq ans2 (strcat "C:\\temp\\slides\\" (getvar "dwgname")))
(command "mslide" ans2 "")

 

script

open dwg1 (load "mslide") close N
open dwg2 (load "mslide") close N
open dwg3 (load "mslide") close N

[maratovich]

Today I made a tool for inserting blocks.

Perhaps this is what the author is looking for.

This is the beta version of the program.

Example video use:

[Terry Cadd]

Block Library is compatible with Dynamic Blocks. It is a utility for managing blocks by storing blocks and block slides images in Block Library folders. The library of block slide images can be viewed quickly in the Block Libraries, before inserting a block into a drawing. The Match Slide Game is included with Block Library. Block Library can be downloaded from https://autolisp-exchange.com