ADDLINES

Adds up total length of selected linear objects (line / lwpolyline / 3dpolyline / arc / circle / spline / ellipse), provides a count summary of each length, Also adds length and bearing notations to individual objects.

INTRODUCTION

Sometimes engineers, surveyors or quantity surveyors need

    • calculate the total length of individual lines or arcs representing pipes, cables, etc., or

    • count lines in the same length, or

    • add distance and bearing notation to each segment of the boundary

It is a time consuming task to get the length and bearing information and add them up one by one.
Now just use ADDLINES to complete the hard work in one second.

Command: ADDLINES
Select objects:

It prints the result in the command line window so it can be copied to the clipboard.

Object lengths summary:
1 length at 218.978
1 length at 283.444
2 lengths at 467.205
4 linear objects selected.
Total length is 1436.832

The length summary use current linear units and precision.
For example, if the precision setting is 0.000, then two lines in length of 123.4567 and 123.4569 are classified in the same length category of 123.457.

After that, it asks:

Add annotation to objects [Yes/No] <Y>:

Enter "N" to end the command.
Press Enter or "Y" to get the dialogue below:

Options:

  • Model height / Paper height
    Depending on the annotative status of current text style, if current text style is annotative, it shows "Paper height", otherwise shows "Model height". The default value is the fixed text height of current text style. If the fixed text height is 0, it shows the default text height in system variable "textsize".

  • Gap between text and object
    Texts are inserted near the object middle point. Their alignment is Bottom-Center (BC). "The gap between text and object" is the distance from the middle point of the object to the insert point of the text at the Bottom-Center. When "Show bearing" is selected, the notation of ARC objects will be Mtext and their alignment is Bottom-Left (BL). "The gap between text and object" is the distance from the middle point of the object to the insert point of the Mtext at the Bottom-Left. The default value is half height of the text height or the height defined in the "ADDLINES Annotation Setting" dialogue at last time.

  • Length unit suffix symbol
    This option is available when Length Unit is set to "Decimal". You can add foot symbol " ' "or meter symbol "m" here and ADDLINES will use it as the unit suffix of segment lengths.

  • Orientation
    The text orientation is relative to current UCS.

    • Aligned
      Texts aligned with related objects.

    • Horizontal
      All texts are horizontal (text rotation is 0 degree)

  • Annotative
    If current text style is not annotative, it sets all new texts as annotative without changing the text style.If current text style is annotative, this option is selected and unalbe to be changed.This option is selected by default.

  • Show bearing
    Select this option to add bearing notations, valid objects are lines and arcs, includes line and arc segments of a polyline if "Pline segment" is selected. Bearing notation is in a format like "N78°16'W", in front of the distance notation.

The bearing notation of an arc object includes:

    • D = angle of the arc inclusive

    • R = radius of the arc

    • L = arc length

    • CB = chord bearing

    • CD = chord distance

You can use FIND command late on to replace these abbreviations.
See Note 4 below as well.

  • Space separator
    Select this option to add a space between the orientation letter and the angle number.
    For example, "N78°16'W" becomes "N 78°16' W".

  • Pline segment
    Select this option to add length notations to every segments of a selected polyline, instead of treating the polyline as a whole.This option is not selected by default.
    De-select this option will disable "Segment number" option.

  • Segment number
    Select this option to add a sequence number in front of the notation of polyline segment. The first number is "(1)" which from the first segment of selected polyline.
    See Tip 3 below as well.

EXAMPLE

Add length and bearing notations to objects below, including a Spline, a polyline with "Fit" modification, a polyline with "Spline" modification, a closed polyline with an arc segment and a few line segments, a ellipse, and a circle.

BEFORE

AFTER

TIPS

1. Lines, LwPolylines, 3dpolylines, arcs, circles, splines, and ellipses are all valid for the calculation.

2. The unit format and precision of the result are as same as the settings in current drawing. eg. if current drawing is in imperial units, the result will be feet and inches.

3. Use command FIND to replace "(" and/or ")" in the segment number to preferable characters.

4. To create a full list of all segment sequence numbers, lengths, bearings etc in Excel, please use AutoCAD command DATAEXTRACTION, select all text, tick "Value" and output the data to a txt file. Then open it in Excel, use "space" as the delimiter, set all column types as "Text", then replace "%%d" with a proper degree symbol if necessary.

5. The user input at prompt "Add annotation to objects [Yes/No]" is remained as the next default prompt.

NOTES

1. There is another tool LASTC included in ADDLINE.vlx.

2. It uses current AutoCAD text style as text style of the new notations.

3. It uses current AutoCAD unit format and precision as the length and angle notation unit and precision. Use command UNITS to change the settings. For example, if the bearing only show degrees and minutes, but not seconds, you can increase Angle Precision to 0.000.

4. It uses current UCS as the orietatoin reference. Y axis in current UCS is the north of the bearing. So change UCS to get correct bearing.

5. New notations are in current layer, current color, current linetype, and current lineweight.

TRIAL RESTRICTION

In trial version, only 5 objects can be added length and bearing notations.

Please contact liugesen@126.com to get a free Registration Code.

DISCUSSIONS

UPDATES

17 July 2022 Use MS Edge to open webpage when pressing help button.
19/08/2020, new option "Length unit suffix symbol" and "Space separator" added.
13/12/2012, the user input at prompt "Add annotation to objects [Yes/No]" is remained as the next default prompt.
No regen process if no annotation is required or current pdmode has been set to 1.
09/09/2012, resolved an issue affects the compatibility in AutoCAD 2007 and early version.
16/03/2012, use current precision to summarize number of lines in the same length.
05/01/2012, new option "Segment number" added.
04/01/2012, resovled an issue that the notation setting dialogue isn't loaded.
02/01/2012, able to add length and bearing notation to selected objects.
08/12/2011, resolved an issue when calculate polylines with "F" or "S" modification
27/11/2011, same length count summary added.
30/09/2010, updated
09/08/2010, updated