Obmiar - AutoCAD addon helping with getting ducts and pipes quantities from drawings

What is this?

The idea behind this project is to aid the process of measuring quantities of ventilation ducts and all kinds of pipes.

What it does?

The process is all about drawing polylines along the measured installations. Polylines are assigned to automatically created layers which names contain needed info (system name, material, diameter, insulation details etc.) Drawn polyline lengths are then exported to .sdf format which can be opened in MS Excel. Then you can join the data from multiple drawings and get pivot table report of all the measured installations.

What is the difference

Ease of use

The main advantage of this method is the ease of use. You don't waste time on creating layers, copying and pasting layer names etc.

No monotony and errors

The script calculates lengths so it eliminates possibility of human error. It also helps in case of documentation revisions - you change the revised part of the drawing only and export the data again.

Keeping it clean

By using this add-on in your team you can easily keep layer naming scheme and order, making it easy to take over someone elses measurements.

How to use

• download ObmiarPW.dll (will be available for download soon with corresponding Excel template files)
• open AutoCAD and use NETLOAD command to load the .dll file
• use APPLOAD command to load dependencies (listed in section below)
• now you can use OBMIAR command to show the add-on palette

TO-DO and ideas

• color grade lines based on diameter of pipe
• draw measured polylines with corresponding system name (line style)
• multilanguage version
• better screen space use
• ...

Caveats

• Pay attention to drawing scale, in case of differences in scale it's best to rescale all the drawings to corresponding scale.
• If you use object snap while measuring be careful with the Z axis (especially on ventilations drawings). AutoCAD can snap one end of polyline on different Z-coordinate than the other end. It looks like there is no problem from the top view but results in wrong length calculation.

Dependencies

• LOS.lsp https://www.theswamp.org/index.php?topic=53844.0
• TLEN.lsp http://www.lee-mac.com/totallengthandarea.html
• ADDLEN.vlx https://www.cadforum.cz/cadforum_en/download.asp?fileID=1013

Used and modified code

• Creating a docking palette: https://forums.autodesk.com/autodesk/attachments/autodesk/152/26712/1/CP205-2_Mike_Tuersley.pdf
• Layer creation and assignment: https://through-the-interface.typepad.com