in this issue
Sorry for the Glitch!
I apologize to all those who tried to email me or access
the mossdesigns.com website in the last couple of
weeks. I have been caught in domain renewal hell.
My domain name, www.mossdesigns.com, registration
expired on June 30. I found out about the impending
expiration on June 27. I immediately tried to renew.
However, I hit a snag. When I first registered my
domain name, I used a small outfit called
valueweb.net. I like using small webhosts...they are
usually cheaper, more attentive, and more eager to
work with you.
However, valueweb.net got bought by a bigger fish
called Affinity.com. Now, Affinity is one of the top
three spam generators in the world. They sell their
customer list to all the spammers and spammers like to
use them as a webhost. A lot of my colleague's servers
automatically blocked email I sent out because it was
coming thru Affinity's server. And, the amount of spam
I was getting went way up. So, I terminated my
relationship with Affinity.com last December and moved
to another small webhost called ipowerweb.com.
So, I contacted ipowerweb.com and asked them to
renew my domain. Turns out they never transferred my
domain registration over...yes, they were hosting my
site, but they were not the registrar of record. Back to
Network Solutions. They said I had to renew through
Affinity. Back to Affinity. Affinity said they would not
renew me because I was no longer a customer. Back
to ipowerweb.com. They said they couldn't transfer
the registration because I was too close to expiration.
Back to Network Solutions, who finally agreed to renew
my domain if I transferred the registration over to
them. However (you knew there was a 'however',
didn't ya?), I needed to fill out a FOUR PAGE form in
order to accomplish the transfer and it would take them
3-4 days to process the transfer and then another 3-4
days for the renewal. Well, between all the going back
and forth, etc. my website and email went dark while it
all got resolved. The good news is that my site and
email should be stable for at least one more year. Let's
hope Affinity doesn't buy ipowerweb.com.
Quick Links...
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Greetings!
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Free Lisp Training in Oakland
If you want to learn more about how to LISP and how
to customize your AutoCAD software, Steve Wells and
Dale Kopp are organizing a LISP SIG to take place in
Oakland on July 28 at 6 pm.
This is a great opportunity as there aren't many
resellers, colleges, or even private places to go to learn
how to LISP, so if you are in the bay area and want to
learn how to lisp or improve your code...this is the
place to go.
Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend as Priscilla
Mills, past prez of the Marin AutoCAD Users Group, and
I have planned a kayak trip down the Russian River and
we will be on the road that night, heading for our resort.
For more info... »
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Inserting a Block and Then Plotting
Keith D. Rodebush , from Texas, emailed wanting a lisp
routine that would insert an architect's seal, plot a
layout and then close the layout without saving.
My big hurdle was the close without saving part.
Anytime you make a change to a drawing, AutoCAD
keeps track of it, so when you try to close, you will get
prompted to save. I didn't want that prompt to come
up and simply using -close didn't work.
Enter two Autolisp functions, acad-push-dbmod and
acad-pop-dbmod. acad-push-dbmod pushes the value
of the system variable AutoCAD uses to track changes
made. acad-pop-dbmod restores the system variable
to the value it held before the push.
You simply precede any program actions that you do
not want to be saved with the line (acad-push-dbmod)
and then right before you issue the close command
issue the line (acad-pop-dbmod). Problem solved.
If you opt to download the program, be aware that I
hardcoded the block name, pagesetup, and pagelayout
names. You will want to modify those values to have
to program work properly for you.
Download the routine... »
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A more interesting Lisp Problem
Bharath Gowda, from Marina del Rey, CA, emailed me
the following problem. He wanted a lisp routine similar
to my ali.lsp routine that would allow him to align the
side of one triangle with another triangle. Now,
Bharath's an architect, but I still am not sure how he
would use the routine.
Anyway, this is a basic transform problem...you need to
move and rotate in a smooth transition. I played
around with the lisp, but there was no way I could
avoid prompting the user for several datum. First, I
needed to prompt for what was going to be
moved...after all, it might not always be a triangle.
Sometimes it could be some odd polygon.
Second, I needed to prompt for the move...from which
point to which point. Finally, I needed to determine the
angle of rotation...after all, if we were going polygon to
polygon...either rotation direction might work.
So, there are a total of five prompts...and I couldn't
figure any method to reduce the number of prompts.
Of course, if you have a better idea, I am all ears!
Download the routine... »
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Open AutoCAD without a new drawing
Problem: You do not want a new drawing to open when
you start AutoCAD software.
You cannot prevent a new drawing from opening when
you start AutoCAD.
However, you can close the new drawing that is always
present when AutoCAD opens.
In Notepad or a similar text editor, create a text file
that has the word "close" and a single carriage return.
In the root of the AutoCAD install directory (the default
location is C:\Program Files\AutoCAD 2002), save the
file with a .scr file extension, for example, close.scr.
Edit the target field properties of the shortcut you use
to start AutoCAD, so that it includes /b close. This will
load the script file that closes the drawing.
Example: "C:\Program Files\AutoCAD 2002\acad.exe" /b
close
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