Installing CadManager Tools

Note to myself I recently downloaded the free layer, block and linetype management tools from the CadManagerTools website. They installed and ran ok in 2018. But in 2016 they needed the location of the folder of the installed .dll added to the trusted locations. As per the images below

Mapping Project Xref’s and Dref’s

Ok i have progressed my workflow for mapping the xref relationships within a project folder a bit further and have been able to add the layout name and thumbnail image to the chart as discussed a bit in this forum post.

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/visual-lisp-autolisp-and-general/lisp-to-list-layer-xrefs-inserted-on/td-p/8163801/page/2

To get the layer names I have been able to modify the list code. For the thumbnail images I have still not been able to automate the process but that is not a kill as just makes the chart look nice.

I did however find a tool by CadManagerTools  called BatchinEditor that has tools built in for exporting preview images to files of different image formats. If you look at around the 7:30min mark in this youtube view you will see the process in action. As the tools is reasonably price and has I lot od additional functions I will most likely purchase a licence to give it a try.

The next step will be to map the dref relationships it looks like it is achievable from this post but may need to be done with .net and not lisp to get the text file.

http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?157034-NET-API-functions-to-interrogated-Civil-3D-drawings-for-possible-data-shortcut-dependencies

Mapping Project xrefs in a social network chart

At the end of last year I had the thought that maybe it would be helpful to map all the xrefs of a project into a social network chart to see how a project had been put together using external references. I thought it would let you quickly see visually how  someone had set up the files and newbies would be able to see how I had put projects together in the past.

I posted a request in the forums to see if anyone had seen a tool along these lines, but the post received no replies. So I figured out away to do it reasonably quickly with some free lsp code available here and the social networking chart tool for Excel called Nodexl. The process is not as slick as i would of like but you get the idea.  Here is the workflow i used.

1. Copy and paste the lsp code from this forum post into notepad and then name the file something and add the .lsp extension.

2. Open cad and then type “appload” and browse and load the lisp file created in step 1. Type “Batchfindxref” to start the lisp program. Go to the project folder where you have all the dwg files for the project stored. How wait for the program to export a .csv file of the xrefs found in each file.

You should see something like this:-

3. Now go to the Nodexl website and download the free basic version. Once installed start the Nodexl template by going to start and type Nodexl. Now copy column A and B from the csv file into column A and B in the Edges tab of the Nodexl Template. You can now press the refresh button and the graph will update showing the relationships but with no labels on the nodes. To add labels to the Vertices go to the Vertices Tab and in column H add the name to be used. Now refresh the graph again and the labels will be added.

 

There are various options for the graph style you can try different types and re lay out the graph various times to get some thing that looks ok. You can then manually move the vertices to make the graph clear. Once you are happy you can right click on the graph and save an image file of the graph.

The graph is not the clearest with you have long file names and I have not found a way to rotate the text that would help with the overlapping labels.

I think it would be possible to program something up in cad (but do not have the time) that would do a similar thing with say multi leaders that are linked together and contains the xref name, layer , file path and hyperlinks to the file and maybe a thumb nail preview of what is in the file.

Reinstalling Livewriter and Clipboard Live

As I have previously mentioned I got use to using MS Live writer with the addin Clipboard Live. Having just upgraded PC to a laptop, I needed to reinstall the programs again so to trick live writer to install I had to set up a blank wordpress blog as blogger and Live writer do not work together any more and once Live writer was installed I had to download the code for the clipboard live addon from the link given in the post here 

Once the zip file was downloaded i had to browse to the Release folder to find a copy of the compiled .dll for the addin and then

paste the addin .dll to the plugins folder of livewriter

Then on restarting livewriter, I how have the ClipBoard Live Icon back and can past images into blog post as quick as ever.

Culvert Design

Currently we are designing a number of culverts that transverse down some steep banks and required special energy dissipators. An associate from another company put me onto the HEC14 documentation for the design of these.
In reviewing these documents I also found this very helpful series of training videos that refer to the HY-8 software that can be used to design culverts and outlet structures in accordance with HEC14.
1. Open-Channel flow concepts.
2. Grate Inlets
3. Culvert hydraulic concepts
4. Hydraulic effects of culvert liners
5. Aquatic organism passage design concepts
6. Energy dissipators for culverts
HY-8 Software download page
Also looking at designing some Hydraulic Dynamic Separators and follow some helpful information on this page.

Creating Blog Posts in Windows Live Writer and uploading with Open Live Writer to Blogger

 

It has almost been a year since I last posted something, the reasons being work has been very busy and Windows Live Writer that i use to write my posts stopped working with Blogger about November last year.

For I couple of posts i did use Open Live Writer which is an open source version of Windows Live Writer. However Open Live Writer does not support the apps that Windows Live Writer did yet and I really loved an app called Clipboard Live that yet you use shortcut keys to cut and paste images into your blog posts quickly.

Anyway to cut along story short last night after thinking it has been a long time between posts, I thought hey maybe I can still write my posts in Windows Live Writer save them as local drafts and then open the drafts in Open Live Writer and post them to my blogger account. So I gave it a try and it seems to work and will do for a work around until Open Live Writer gets app support.

Here is how you do it

Once you have written your post in Windows Live Writer save a draft as per the image below

Once the draft is saved browse to the My Webblog Post folder in your My Documents folder (some people set up links to have dropbox sync local draft folders which I may look into)

Open the draft in Open Writer and post to your blogger account.

To set Open Live Writer to be the default app to open the drafts browse to the exe found here.

Hope you find this work around helpful

New Shotover Canyon Swing Flying Fox Attraction

Last week as a team building exercise the guys from the office and myself went to check out the new flying fox that the strucutural guys have been working on.

Click the image below for a video of me hanging on for dear life and being launched across the Shotover Canyon 220m metres in the air with 15 metres of free fall and getting up to 70 km/hr.