autocad lisp draw contours from 3d polylines

March 07, 2022 Post a Comment

CadTools , free 3D and surface utility for AutoCad, ZWCAD 2018-2021 and BricsCAD

Design your civil work in real 3D with this handy tool!

Latest update: twenty 22 -02-08 Build 751

CadTools (ToolBox) is adult for Civil Engineers using AutoCAD. At that place are a number of corking software on the market supporting the pattern process of roads, rails etc. For small design work CadTools tin can be very useful, it contains more than than 50 commands more often than not in real 3D to support your work.

Past combining carve up commands through the work process you tin can achieve almost anything yous desire. When I developed the commands I certainly had some situations in heed merely every command can be used in a variety of situations not but in civil work design.

With CadTools you lot can create your own surface models based on objects in the drawing or import triangles from DWG (other civil software). You lot tin can create profiles and cross-sections of multiple surfaces, calculate volumes and plot contours.
It'south like shooting fish in a barrel and fun creating real 3D models with CadTools commands, some of these commands tin only be found in software that yous have to pay coin for.
I work as a civil designer at ane of Sweden'due south leading consulting companies. Ky primary tool for civil blueprint is Bentley InRoads/RailTrack, one of the best software I've seen. Sometimes you need something less complicated so I started developing CadTools while traveling to work by train.

Afterwards more 5 years and thousands of hours of developing this software now is a powerful tool style across my starting time intentions. Honestly I can't be without it, hope you volition feel the same.

CadTools is an out of process software and supports AutoCAD versions: 2001-20 22 . (vanilla and verticals i.e. Civil 3D). It too supports ZWCAD+ (2014-2015 and 2018-2022) and BricsCAD

Major C ommands in CadTools are listed beneath. CadTools has a complete helpfile with images of command results.

Text
Insert or remove characters to single line text.
Align text to UCS and calibration it.
Align Text to Left.
Send selected text to Excel
Line Aligned Text
Capitalize/Uncapitalize text

Lines
Area adding of polylines based on color or layer. Results tin be exported to Excel
Export polyline coordinates to Excel
Length calculate of polylines based on color or layer. Results can be exported to Excel
Contrary polyline
Point section and offset from polyline
Draw slopemarks from polylines
Kickoff 3DPolylines
Create cylinders (pipes) from polylines/lines.
Contour 3DPolyline
Create road signs and markings
Level out 3Dpolyline
Transverse 3D lines between 3D Polylines (3D Gradient signs)
Join 3D Polylines
Draw Gradient Arrows for 3Dpolylines (Ditch bottom gradient management)
Stationing Polyline
Line Aligned Text
Edit Polyline Acme and slope (In table )
Create 3D alignment from program and profile
All-time fit, 3D-polyline regression.
Simplify command for 3D-polylines
Gear up polyline peak by nearest text, fixes contours with no peak but text!
Lines/Polylines to EPANET INP-file

Layers

All layers on
All layers off but selected
All layers off merely current
Layer off by object
Xref layer freeze by unmarried object
Motion to layer past object
Set electric current layer past object
Delete layer

Draw
Draw polylines, circles and blocks from coordinates. Paste from Excel to CadTools

Surface
Generate longitudinal features (ditch bottom, surface interception) with cut/fill tick marks.
Import Triangulated Surface from Graphic (from other software)
Triangle Volume and color cut/fill up areas in plan.
Triangulate objects (create surface models)
Mantle surface with objects and lines
Selection and annotate elevation from surface
Create wireframe surface
Cutting & Fill areas in cross-sections
Create Surface Profiles
Create Surface Cross Section
View Surface Gradient and Directio north
View Perimeter for apartment (or any slope interval) Surface Areas
Choice and annotate Gradient vector from surface
Constrained triangulation (breaklines)
Surface Contours
Trickle, traces the path of a drop of water downwardly a selected surface.
Volume past Elevation, triangle volumes at intervals
Trickle All, evaluate surface water paths.

Convert
Convert 3DPolylines to 2Dpolylines
Convert 3DFaces to 3Dpolylines
Convert arc to 3Dpolyline
Create coordinate filigree
Place sloped text

Convert Circumvolve to 3Dpolyline

Xref
Open up Xref past Object
Disassemble Xref past Object
Save/Load Xref-settings to/from file Block
Edit block attribute text
Annotate block superlative
Drainage network evaluation, evaluation of block (manholes) and Lines (pipes). Result in Excel
Export block data to Excel (coordinates, attribute values) Hatch
Export Hatch area to Excel Miscellaneous
Vehicle Turning Simulation (Vehicle Tracking)

Drafting
Annotate Profiles/Cantankerous sections

Vehicle Turning Simulation (Swept path assay). Configure vehicles of your own and do analysis in the drawing. Much faster design than using turning templates.

Create surface cross-sections as 2D or 3D . Display crossing reference lines

Surface Contours

View Surface slope and management. Hands detect flat areas. Perimeter of areas with userdefined slopes.	Create existent 3D cut and fill by applying end-conditions to 3Dpolylines. Very uncomplicated and powerful step past step process.
Create Give Manner	Create Chevrons

Limitations:
CadTools does not work with AutoCadLT . Some features are express for unregistered users.

Windows Vista users! Problems running CadTools? Probably information technology's Vista's UAC dabbling, try to launch CadTools as an Ambassador. Simply discover the shortcut for CadTools, right click on it and then in the Compatibility tab select the option that say: Run this plan as an Administrator.

If you are using Bricscad you lot will notice the Vehicle Turning in BricsTurn . The Vehicle Turning is also available as a freeware for Microstation V8. MSTurn Downloads
Download (MSI-file, ca 7,2 Mb), Concluding updated twenty2 2 -02-08 Build 75 ane
Culling download (ca 13,v Mb Cypher-file containing complete installation and update plus reference manual)
Update for CadTools (ca three,8 Mb), Last updated 202 2 - 02-08 Build seven 51
Download update just. If you already installed CadTools and only need the update, employ this link . Boosted downloads
Reference Manual English (ca ii,6 Mb) (PDF document, printed documentation 112 pages, updated 2014-06-20)
Reference Manual Italian (Translated by Gennaro Bellaiuto)
Video Samples (Collection of video demonstrations)
Default Vehicle library (metric) Vehicle samples in metric units
Default Vehicle library (regal, 2013-05-13) Vehicle samples in imperial units
Portable version of Build 7
48
CadToolsPortable (ca 47 Mb) Run CadTools from a USB stick (Virtualized)

CadTools Forum

Online discussion site for CadTools.

How much should I donate? There is no right answer to that, the result is always the aforementioned no thing how much or picayune you lot donate.
Received donations are used for paying Server, Domain and Software fees.

Please note that donation notifications are sent to me from PayPal by e-mail and I manually ship you a registration email as shortly as possible.
Mostly I answer same mean solar day. If you lot haven't received a responding email in a couple of days, bank check your spam filter or post a bulletin to me in CadTools forum. lars.karlsson@glamsen.se

Latest update ( xx22-02 -08 Build 751 )
Bugfix: Exporting MText to Excel resulted in missing character (last character)

Update ( 2021-10 -30 Build 750 )
Bugfix: View Surface Slope Direction, when using a calibration factor arrows pointing in wrong direction (up)
Added: User setting for number of decimal places for contour annotations (Surface Contours command)

U pdate ( twenty21-09 -12 Build vii4 9 )
Option to plot cross-sections in reverse direction .

Update ( xx21-08 -09 Build 74 8 )
Added support for AutoCAD 2022 and BricsCAD .

Update ( 2021-07 -x Build 74 vii )
Changed behavior of notation offset parameter in stationing command, zilch offset at present put the note text (insertion indicate) aligned to the alignment.

Update ( 2021-06- 22 Build 74 6 )
F ixed bug while exporting to SpreadSheet (Lines/Area/Block/volume). This is but when you don't have Excel installed

Update ( xx2 i -05- iii 1 Build 74 five )
Added back up for AutoCAD 2022

Update ( 20twenty-12- 11 Build 74 4 )
CadTools internal Spread Canvass had issues with copying. Copy All worked but not Copy Selected. This is now stock-still.

Update ( 2020-12- 03 Build vii4 iii )
The preview window in "Create Longitudinal Features" didn't bear witness up.

Update ( xx20-11- 24 Build viifour ii )
Exporting to spreadsheet with setting "Excel is non installed on this estimator" did non showed CadTools internal SpreadSheet.

Update ( twenty20-11- 06 Build vii4 one )
Added support for ZWCAD 2021

Update ( 2020-10- 2 7 Build 740 )
Fixed a delivery problems in previous update, I missed to exclude test code.

Update ( 2020-10- 26 Build 739 )
Extended "Depict from Coordinates" with "Multiple Block insert" type and Layer overrides for blazon "Text at Point"