01.20.93

QDIM was written to help our AutoCAD users draw dimensions without
having to worry about all those sticky dimvars.  We just set up a few
aptly named dimstyles, and off they went.  It started life over a year
ago as a short little program to draw guidelines while dimensioning and set
dimstyles.  Release 12 now "ghosts" in dimensions while you draw, so I've had 
to keep up with the times.  It has since turned into the behemoth you now 
possess.

Thus, I submit this to the public realm primarily for its (hopeful)
usefulness, but also to invite comment and criticism.  Not having had any
formal programming instruction, I am curious to know how I might write
more "elegant" and efficient code.

I have not included any "manual" as such, but the concept is this:
Pick two points, just like a normal DIM command.  Then, based upon the
location of the third point, a VERTical, HORizontal or ALIgned dimension
is drawn.  At any point during this process, pressing button 1 (a white
button for us) brings up a dialog box to select layer, dimstyle, and a few
other things.  Button 2 brings up the standard osnap selections.

For layer selection, only the current layer and layers containing 'DIM' in
their names are presented as choices.  This can, of course, be changed.  A
"baseline" feature is included, which works like this:  when a dimension is
specified, an imaginary line is established through the dimension line.
During subsequent QDIMs, moving near this imaginary line snaps the cursor to
it.  This makes strings of dimensions easier to draw.  Dimensions can be
specifed as baselines by noun/verb QDIMing, or by using the PICK button within
the dialogue box, or...the "follow" feature re-establishes this line each time
QDIM is used.

Bear in mind that this was written for an architectural firm, and may
required some modification for use with other disciplines.  For us
architects it converts anything less than 4'-0" into inches, and it adds
"CLR." to the end of 44"...it's a Title 24 thing.  It also offers MIN.,
CLR. and EQ. to modify the dimension string.  All of this can be changed
with a little programming.

I have commented out a few lines toward the end of the main C:qdim function,
which set text style just prior to drawing the dimension.  Change these to
your own text style, and uncomment them.  I make references to white and blue 
buttons, which you may wish to change to suit your pointing device.  Also, QDIM 
reads your menu file to determine your POP0 configuration.  If your osnaps
aren't there, you may wish to alter the portion of code in (setup) to match
your menu file, or just hard-code the variable 'snlist' to match your osnaps,
e.g. (setq snlist (list "NEA" "PER" "INT" ...))

At the tail end of the file is an auto-run feature.  My acad.lsp file includes
the following:

(defun C:qdim ()
    (setq AUTO_RUN T)
    (load "qdim")
);defun

so that QDIM is always available as a command.


I hope this proves useful to someone out there.  Please feel free to comment:

Raymond Bradley, CIS 71165,2764
c/o Fitschen & Associates
1855 Gateway Blvd., Ste 370
Concord, CA  94520