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A blog for developers programming with AutoCAD and other Autodesk platforms.

June 24, 2009

Batch-processing AutoCAD drawings from LISP without SDI (take 2)
In this recent post (http://through-the-interface.typepad.com/through_the_interface/2009/06/batch-processing-
autocad-drawings-from-lisp-without-sdi.html) we looked at an approach combining AutoLISP with a script generated on-
the-fly to get around the fact that (command "_.OPEN" …) does nothing when SDI == 0. As mentioned in a comment in the
post, I realised that the approach of using a single master script to do this is more prone to failure: a number of commands
can cause scripts to stop executing, for instance, so it would be better practice to minimise the operations contained in a
particular script to increase the application’s fault tolerance.

This modified approach was suggested by a member of our Engineering team in a recent thread (one that I came across
after Monday’s post). It uses a data file to store a list of the drawings to process and only creates a script to load – and
launch processing on – the next drawing in that list:
(defun C:BATCH(/ dwgs lsp-name data-name)
(setq dwgs '("C:/A.DWG" "C:/B.DWG" "C:/C.DWG" "C:/D.DWG")
lsp-name "c:/tmp.lsp"
data-name "c:/dwgs.tmp"
)
(create-drawing-list data-name dwgs)
(process-next-drawing data-name lsp-name "(create-circle)" T T)
(princ)
)

(defun create-circle()
(command "_.CIRCLE" "10,10,0" "5")
)

(defun create-drawing-list(data dwgs / f dwg)

;; Create data file containing the DWG names

(setq f (open data-name "w"))

(foreach dwg dwgs
(write-line dwg f)
)
(close f)
)

;; Get the first drawing from the list, removing it

(defun get-next-drawing(data / dwg dwgs f)

;; Read in the whole list of DWGs

(setq f (open data "r")

dwgs '()
)
(while (setq dwg (read-line f))
(setq dwgs (cons dwg dwgs))
)
(close f)

1
 ;; Reverse the list, take the head and write
;; back the remainder to the file

(if (> (length dwgs) 0)

(progn
(setq dwgs (reverse dwgs)
dwg (car dwgs)
dwgs (cdr dwgs)
)

(setq f (open data "w"))

(foreach dwg dwgs
(write-line dwg f)
)
(close f)
)
)
dwg
)

;; Process the current drawing and use a script to open

;; the next one in the list

(defun process-next-drawing(data lsp func save first / scr)

(setq scr "c:/tmp.scr")

;; We only want to run the function if not the first

;; time called... the same for save

(if (not first)

(progn
(eval (read func))
(if save
(command "_.QSAVE")
)
)
)

;; Get the next DWG name from the file

(setq dwg (get-next-drawing data))

;; If there is one, create a script to open it, reload

;; the application and process our function

(if dwg
(progn
(create-script scr data dwg lsp save first)
(command "_.SCRIPT" scr)
)

;; For the last drawing we simply close it and

;; delete the now-empty data file

(progn
(vl-file-delete data)
(vl-file-delete scr)
(command "_.CLOSE")
)
)
)

;; Create a script to close the current drawing and

;; open the next, calling back to our process function
;; (after having loaded the file that defines it)

(defun create-script(scr data dwg lsp save first / f)

(setq f (open scr "w"))
(if (not first)
(write-line "_.CLOSE" f)
)
(write-line

2
 (strcat "_.OPEN \"" dwg "\"") f
)
(write-line
(strcat "(load \"" lsp "\")") f
)
(write-line
(strcat
"(process-next-drawing \""
data "\" \"" lsp "\" \"" func "\" "
(if save "T" "nil") " nil)"
)
f
)
(close f)
(princ)
)
I hope this is useful to people – as mentioned before, please do provide feedback on how/whether this works for you…

Posted on June 24, 2009 at 02:10 PM in AutoCAD (http://through-the-

interface.typepad.com/through_the_interface/autocad/), AutoLISP / Visual LISP (http://through-the-
interface.typepad.com/through_the_interface/visual_lisp/), Batch processing (http://through-the-
interface.typepad.com/through_the_interface/batch_processing/) | Permalink (http://through-the-
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take-2.html)

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17 Comments 
1

HJohn •

Kean,
Do you have any plans for a blog on batch processing for .NET? I have been hopping for one on
that topic for a long time.
• •

Kean Walmsley •

HJohn,

These posts should help (and, more specifically, this one).

Or is there something else you're looking for?

Kean
• •

Stephan Bartl •

Hi Kean!

I would like to automatically continue my lisp-program (in the original drawing, which triggered the
script) after the execution of the script (or at least (re)start a lisp in that original dwg automatically).

3
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