Automated plotting in AutoCAD
Overview
Visual aids are important for developing an user-friendly design manual. The design team has manually created AutoCAD images to help users understand the designs of water cleaning systems. One major problem of this task is, however, that the developers need to regenerate the AutoCAD plots when they change a design of a single object in the system. The major goal of this project is to automate the process of creating plots in AutoCAD. A few lines added in the Mathcad scripts generate desired plots after a system is designed in AutoCAD. Furthermore, the plots include not only images but also such critical information as dimensions. The automation is based on AutoCAD features such as layout, paper space, view ports, and dimensions. MtoATranslator is updated; new AutoCAD commands are added in the script. The other AutoCAD design scripts will be renewed according to the updated MtoATranslator.
What are model space and paper space in AutoCAD?
Model space is the drawing space in AutoCAD in which users can model and design an object. The screen appears when AutoCAD is loaded is the model space.
The paper space, also known as the layout space, is the plotting environment in which users can plot and print the object drawn in the model space. This space can be loaded by using layout commands.
Tasks
Updating MtoATranslator
To automate the layout creating process, updating MtoATranslator is necessary. The old MtoATranslator includes basic design commands but layout creating commands. The new commands that will be included in the translator are:
layout, vplayer, plot