Is Kenneth L Reece available at this forum please?
My email reply to you bounced. Please contact me or Jim again.

Bjorn

I haven't looked at the forum in a while, so I missed your message earlier. I am still very much interested in getting the plotpln2 macro working. PLease advise.

Kenneth L. Reece

Kenneth,

I obtained approval from Brian B. to edit the macro for GCP run. It has been uploaded for some time.

http://www.generalcadd.com/upload.html
Go to macros section.

Note, that this is an uncompleted macro. I have made no attempt to complete it. It will run as is in GCP.

Bjorn

The plotpln2.mcr runs but does not perform correctly. The part I need the most is the annotation, label existing lines. The values obtained are not correct and are unpredictable as far as I can tell. Set the units to feet, Place a point, then po, mr, 1000,1000, draw line between points. The line label should be N45°00'00"E/1414.21'. At 1000,-1000 the label should be S45°00'00"E/1414.21'. At -1000,-1000, the label should be S45°00'00"W/1414.21'. At -1000,1000 the label should be N45°00'00"W/1414.21'. These are not the values obtained by the macro. I very much appreciate your effort thus far. Please advise as to how to proceed to get the macro to work properly. This macro is used so often in Surveying drawings that I have not switched to General Cadd because the macro does not work in General Cadd. I draw the drawings in Generic Cadd and then import them to General Cadd to print. I can see a lot of improvements in General Cadd and I would like to use it.

Larry,
You are saying that the macro does work properly in Generic Cadd. I will have a look and see if I can spot any code translation problems GC/GCP.
Bjorn

Larry,

I found a problem in the way the macro establishes the angle of a selected line:

.CALC-ANGLE;
/VPT,1,($X(1)*$R(14)),($Y(1)*$R(14));
;;;TR,=,($X(1)*$R(14)),($Y(1)*$R(14)); GET ANGLE & SET TEXT ROTATION
TR,=,$X(1),$Y(1); GET ANGLE & SET TEXT ROTATION
/VRL,0,$VAL; ANGLE OF LINE

Matt,
the line "TR,=,($X(1)*$R(14)),($Y(1)*$R(14));"
seems to work in GG, but fails in the macro.

A second problem in the putting together of the bearing text has been bug reported:

/VLC;
/VST,4,N;
/VST,0,45;
/VST,1,00;
/VST,2,00;
/VST,5,E;
/STR,C,$S(4),' ',$S(0),'° ',$S(1),'' ',$S(2),'" ',$S(5),#,/VST,3,$STR; LABEL

Comes out as : N 45° 0000" E
This should come out as : N 45° 00' 00" E

Larry,
An edited macro is uploaded, name PLOTPLAN2-edit-1.GXM which solves the first of these 2 problems by a work-around as above. The second problem will be resolved when the bug is fixed.

Bjorn

Bjorn

Hey, we're getting there and it is much appreciated. How do you attach a file to this reply? I was going to send a file with this question but don't see how.
When you import a Generic Cadd file and then use the Plotpln2.mcr the bearings are displayed to the nearest degree. The value for the minutes and seconds are always 00 no matter what they should be. You do not have that problem when starting a fresh drawing in General Cadd.
Also, I use windows xp home edition. Two times while trying this procedure of importing a Generic Cadd file into General Cadd, and using plotpln2.mcr, My computer restarted and reported a system failure error. It has never done this before. Do you think that's just coincidence or could it have something to do with what I was doing at the time?
Also, I use a hp 120nr designjet plotter. When I go to print, I choose Page setup, printer, properties, factory defaults,ok,ok,ok,. Then after the drawing is printed I usually need to return to the drawing and make some corrections, then print again. When I go back to print, I have to make all the printer selections again. It seems to me that these selections should have been saved to be the default for the next time. Is there a way to save the printer settings? It's not a big thing, It's just kind of irritating. Probably like me. Thanks.

Larry:

Upload your file to the Upload page and place a URL reference to it here. Goto http://www.generalcadd.com/upload.html

Larry,

I experimented with the DV setting (NF,D)inside Plotplan2. DV=6 gives me the values of minutes and seconds. DV=0 gives me zero values for both and degrees to nearest integer. Plotplan2 saves these settings as Global Variables, which I assume are imported with the drawing?

Bjorn

Larry,

I found a bug in GCP which explains the zero minutes and seconds. The decimals setting DV affects the value extracted by TR in the macro. If your DV setting is 6 in the macro, then the bearing shows up correctly.

Matt,
Bug reported : $VAL for TR,=,@; is affected by the DV setting.

Bjorn

Bjorn and Larry,

Please visit "auto labeling of lines" thread in the General Cadd Wish List section of this forum. We are discussing making the ability to annotate lines as part of the program instead of using a macro. Your comments would be much appreciated.

Click Here

Eric

Eric,

Thanks, been there, done that, I support the inclusion of surveyors input in GCP, although I can scrap some pretty big macros after that has happened.

Plotplan2 is also an uncompleted macro, so a bit of a worry to have around in use.

Bjorn

Bjorn,

I was just playing around with your plotplan2 macro. That is really great! You say it is unfinished, but is there any reason why I should be cautious using it? Have you ever written a user manual for it? Although I would like to see more of this stuff written into GCP code, I feel your macro would suit a lot of us. If you could provide a user manual, and develop this macro to a "finished" state, I would be willing to purchase it! I would need three copies, just tell me where to send the money!

Thanks,
Eric

Eric & Bjorn,

I have a copy of the manual for PLOTPLAN. Copyright 1996 by Brian A. Bilodeau. Also have the disk of the (completed/compiled?) GC6 program.

Also:
Please see my 01-03-2004 message "Top 5 Wishes" in the General CADD Wish List section for related new proposed commands.

noel@cirs.com

Noel,

Whenever someone asks me what my five top wishes are I simply say, "the same as Noel Brownings"!

Is there anyway this "plotplan2" macro could be completed for general use in GCP, either by Brian B. or someone else with his permision? I feel it would be a great sample macro to include with the GCP download until the future could hopefully bring some more "built-in" functions.

Eric

Eric,

As Noel points out and as noted at the head of the macro, it is written by Brian Bilodeau. I have his permission to do with it whatever I like. However, I would still regard the copyright as Brian's property.

There are uncompleted command selections in it, but as far as I know, what does work, works correctly. It is very large though, a hefty task for anyone trying to check through and then complete it. Maybe rather take out the selections for what is not completed.

I only chased up some code that needed to be edited for it to run in GCP. I can take no responsibility for the correctness of the macro.

It is a bit to large for being a sample macro. Brian would have been selling it had not the plug been pulled on GC.

Bjorn

Thanks, Bjorn,

I will play around with it some more. As you know I would really like to see more of this stuff included into GCP but in the mean time it's nice to see these things can be done with a macro. I am still using Simplicty Systems Cogo and Draftsman programs to get what survey data I need into my drawings but time will tell how much longer they will run in future operating systems. I appreciate the work you did on the macro, and for the info too.
Thanks,
Eric

I've played around with the macro and think it has real potential, however, I cannot get it to display the minutes and seconds correctly, even when setting the DV to 6 places. I would also like the ability to pick any two points to label instead of being confined to a single object and the choice of placing a bearing and distance or just a bearing or just a distance and of course the freedom of where to place that label...above the line, below the line or both.....That's easy for me to say isn't it.

Mike

Bjorn,

The formatting problem has been fixed. Please test it out in the next version. You will need to and '/' before the single and double quote chars.

/STR,C,$S(4),' ',$S(0),'° ',$S(1),'/' ',$S(2),'/" ',$S(5),#,/VST,3,$STR; LABEL

This should be fixed as well:
TR,=,($X(1)*$R(14)),($Y(1)*$R(14));

Matt, eyes on the ball as ever.
Bjorn

Bjorn,
I don't know if you got my message under the wish list discussion so I'll repeat myself here.
The macro is leaving out the minutes symbol when I attempt to annotate an existing line. A bearing that should read N 45°15'30" E displays as N 45°1530" E. Is there a quick fix for this?

Mike

Mike,

When Bjorn wakes up he should be able to fix the formatting string (add / before ' and " chars) and along with v2.1.14, it should work.

Mike, Matt,

PLOTPLAN2-EDIT-2.GXM uploaded with the fix.
Mike, can you test it, please.
Better in your hands than mine.

Bjorn

Thanks Bjorn,
That fixed the minutes and seconds display. I'll play around with the macro to make sure all the other stuff works correctly.

Mike

Just an observation... I've been using another program for years to label my drawings with bearings and it's just my opinion, but they look a whole lot better without the spaces in between the degrees, minutes, and seconds. Take a look, maybe its just the font I use. Could that be something that could be changed in the plotplan2 macro.

Eric

Eric,

That's the kind of edits to your own copy that you can do within copyright provisions.

PLOTPLAN2-EDIT-2a.GXM uploaded.
Writes N33°33"33'E.

Bjorn

Thank You, Bjorn! I appreciate that!

Eric

Bjorn and Tassos,
Just a few thoughts on the PLOTPLAN2 macro:

1. The DV will sometimes default back to 0. I've been unable to pinpoint what I'm doing to cause that to happen.

2. The user needs the ability to place a bearing only or a distance only. This comes into play when you have a long line with several points located on it. The user may want to place the bearing and total distance above the line and individual sub-distances between each point
below the line.

3. The user needs the ability to label a bearing and/or distance by choosing two points, not just picking a line, for the same reason as stated in number 2 above.

Mike

Bjorn,
When you load plotplan within a drawing for the first time the macro asks you to define certain settings, the first of which is the decimal precision which you wish to display. This affects the number of places displayed in the distance part of the call. Setting the decimal precision to 2 on a call of N23°45'32"E/543.21' should result in the distance part of the call being displayed 543.21'. This is not working properly in General Cadd. The distance labeled in General Cadd is 543. If you come back to the settings and make the decimal precision 2 then the labeling is correct. The first time it doesn't take. Also the macro asks you to define whether you want to display the units in the label, "Show Units in Labels?". In the example of 543.21', the "'" (foot mark) is the unit label. This is not being displayed no matter what you do. The macro also asks you to define North. In setting this setting in Generic Cadd the macro at this point turns OR on which makes it easy to define a vertical line as the North line. In General Cadd the OR is turned off and also the Ctrl key nor any other key I have discovered will cause an exact vertical or horizontal line to be drawn. This forces you to remember to have two points already placed before you start the macro. The macro either needs to turn OR on let you do it. Also the degree symbol needs to line up with the minute and second symbol. Try the Couri font in Generic Cadd, run plotplan, annotate a line and look at the degree symbol. It's out of place in General Cadd. Sorry to be a bother, but we're almost there. Thanks.

Larry,

1. You hit a bug in the /SGL command not accepting ENTER for default. Bug reported.
2. PLOTPLAN2-edit-2b uploaded. Same problem with '''. Now edited to '/''.
3. The code in PLOTPLAN2 uses the nested "A" to record the angle "/SGL,R,0,A,@,@;". GCP at the moment ignores the OR,++; issued just before it executes the "A" and is not reacting to a CTRL constraint. A first point may be entered, then TK,L constrains the cursor to ORTHO.

Matt, I suppose you are reading this?

.SETNORTH;
OR,++;
/IF,$GI(0)[NE]1,/SGL,R,0,90;
/PMT,3,'^^(show by example - pick ^M2^^ points)',#;
/PMT,1,'^^Show North direction or known bearing >___',#;
RB,++;
/VRL,0,A,@,@; *edit by Bho 2003 - GCP failure*
/SGL,R,0,$VAL;
;;;/SGL,R,0,A,@,@; *edit by Bho 2003 - GCP failure*

4. Using ROMANS I get the text in the pic. Looks to me that it is the " that does not line up. Does it depend on fonts?


Bjorn

Mike,

1. See response to Larry.
2. & 3. These requests would mean changing functionality in the macro and an infringement of copyright. I am unwilling to that. I would also rather spend time on setting up a new fresh surveyors macro.

Bjorn

Fixed. Good find. If you can't wait we could post a special version for you guys. Let us know.

Larry,

The positions of ° and of " vary with different fonts. PLOTPLN2.MCR uses the character ø for degrees. This actually prints as °. I inadvertently interchanged them in my edits. Also the " is erratic while '' is consistent.

Latest uploads:
PLOTPLAN2-edit-3.GXM for N 30ø 00' 00" E
PLOTPLAN2-edit-3a.GXM for N30ø00'00"E

I am getting into a fix here with these alternatives.

Test out using 2 single quotes for minutes instead of double quotation mark. If you want that the code /" would change to /'/'.

Bjorn

Bjorn,

The font problem comes from converting DOS fonts to Windows fonts. For example Alt+248 becomes Alt+0248. Visual CADD has the same problem.

When I get time I will revise my two old fonts (AEC_Tech and Antique) that I created in Generic and move the degree, diameter, delta, etc. symbols to their more common Windows addresses.

Noel

Hey Guys,

That sounds like just one more reason to get this kind of command written into code instead of a macro. Im not talking about the whole macro, but at least some of it's capabilities. Firstly, Being able to give an assigned cadd direction to call North and then being able to enter bearings directly at the command line to give a direction.
And secondly, being able to pick a line and label it's bearing and distance, and pick a curve and label it's arc length, central angle, radius, chord length and bearing. That's it, those two commands would make any surveyor more than happy.

Eric

While I was browsing the Upload section to find Cad2cogo, I was pleased to see the Plotplan2 postings. I downloaded the most recent version to give it a try and found that it almost works.

I drew a 4 sided, closed figure and annotated the 4 lines using Plotplan2. The lines were all annotated with bearings and distances, but all the bearings were wrong.

Does anyone know the status of this macro?

Thanks, Ed

Ed,

PlotPlan2 sets the North Dirction and saves it in Global Real Variable number 0. All bearings calulated are adjusted for that value. Did you get that value right? You can check it by typing /SGL then R then 0. Note that the value is saved as the corresponding cadd angle (N000000E = 90).

You may have missed it because of a bug in GCP.

.SETNORTH;
OR,++;
/IF,$GI(0)[NE]1,/SGL,R,0,90;
/PMT,3,'^^(show by example - pick ^M2^^ points)',#;
/PMT,1,'^^Show North direction or known bearing >___',#;
RB,++;
/VRL,0,A,@,@; *edit by Bho 2003 - GCP failure*
/SGL,R,0,$VAL; *edit by Bho 2003 - GCP failure*

The highlighted line above, which includes "A", takes over the prompt lines, both PMT,1 and PMT,2 deleting the message of the macro.

In GC the line:
/VRL,0,A,@,@; is handled under the /MSP,++; cover and the macro prompts stay on.
/VRL,0,~; allows the input of "D","A" & "V". Here GC takes over PMT lines 2 & 3 but leaves the macro PMT,1 intact.

Bjorn

Bjorn,

What a valuable clue!! Thank you. I have no idea what /SGL is about, but the "Double Var Set Angle" option under "Settings" is not in the version of Plotplan2 I've been using forever. Once I figured out what that option did, first test has all the lines being annotated correctly to the even second!!

Ed

I discovered today that when trying to draw lines with Plotplan2 by entering bearings and distances, after I input the settings and am ready to draw the lines, the cursor disappears from the screen! Anyone else experiencing this problem?

This is my first attempt at using Plotplan2 to draw lines in GCP by B&D input. The program annotates lines beautifully.

Ed

Ed,

Works OK in my system. You have two choices :

Bearing/distance. The line is drawn automatically after input of first Bearing then Distance on next prompt.

DraW lines/calc bearing. You draw the line, macro calculates the resulting bearing/distance.

Are you using the latest edit? PLOTPLAN2-edit3 or 3a. (edit-3a omits spaces in N33°00'00"E).

Bjorn

Thanks Bjorn,

I discovered today that after entering the bearing and distance, the cursor becomes available.

Ed