Sunday

An AutoLISP program that reads point list from file and puts them into drawing

8 Comments Nov-23-2008 | Posted by Orhan Toker | Printable Version | Level |

Hello Daily AutoCAD readers,

This week, i have chosen an application came into my mind after a question from Ahmet who is studying Geodesy at Yıldız Techinal University. He came to my office and asked how he can read the output txt file of a laser coordinate instrument, that includes RGB color codes and point coordinates and use it as an input to the drawing. In this practice, I am not going to answer to the Ahmet’s question yet; I haven’t done anything about the RGB color codes. If anyone knows about this subject, please contact and assist Ahmet to resolve the issue.

Plase read my Managing basic file operations in AutoLISP article before start programming.

Let’s start with studying the txt file. Fig.1

Fig.1 The content of the txt file

Each line consists of a six digit value and corresponds to X,Y and Z coordinates of a point and the RGB color code. The space pattern between the values is irregular. The first thing to be done is to create a function that transforms the six digit values to real numbers and put them into an autolisp list. I prepared this function apart from the whole one because it can be used for any other purpose. The input parameter of the function is any line includes numerical values seperated by spaces. And as an output, it transforms the values into real numbers and put them into an autolisp list in order. The important point here is eliminating the spaces. Fig.2

Fig.2 The function that transforms the lines into a list

Examine and write down the function. Now we can proceed to the main function.

Fig.3 The main function

Write the function I showed above into the main function’s bottom. Do not forget to arrange the line that includes the path of the txt file according to your own file. This application is very useful if you do everyting correct.

Have a nice day,

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