GeoTools->Inquiry Tools

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The Inquiry tools are a set of tools used for general and miscellaneous AutoCAD inquiry and information functions.

Inquiry Toolbar




Toolbar : Inquiry Tools  
      Menu : GeoTools Inquiry Tools Display angle between two lines.
Command line : GT_ANGLE 
This command determines the two angles (acute and obtuse) between two selected lines. The lines can either be Line objects or segments from polylines. The computed angle is displayed on the screen. 

Select first line: (select the first line segment)
Select second line: (select the second line segment)
The two angles between the line segments are 26.54 degs and 153.46 degs



Toolbar : Inquiry Tools  
     
Menu : GeoTools Inquiry Tools Compute and display bulge in polyline (arc / fitted) segments
Command line :
GT_BULGE 
Polylines that have arc segments in them and those which are curved fitted use bulge value to represent their curvature. These bulge values are stored in the polyline object itself. The GT_BULGE command helps to print out the bulge values at each of the vertex. This can be useful in various debugging situations.

Command: bulge
Select a polyline:
Bulge at vertex 1 is 0.0894 and Radius is 324.302
Bulge at vertex 2 is 0.1412 and Radius is 133.308
Bulge at vertex 3 is 0.0910 and Radius is 262.438
Bulge at vertex 4 is -0.0778 and Radius is 356.879
Bulge at vertex 5 is -0.0477 and Radius is 448.144
Bulge at vertex 6 is -0.0398 and Radius is 642.951


The GT_BULGE command creates POINT objects at each bulge location, in a temporary layer.




Toolbar : Inquiry Tools  
     
Menu : GeoTools Inquiry Tools Find center of gravity.
Command line : GT_CGRAV 
This command computes center of gravity of masses. The objects that you select should be polyline objects and they should define closed areas. The coordinates of the center of gravity are printed on screen and a point object is created at the CG location.



Toolbar : Inquiry Tools  
     
Menu : GeoTools Inquiry Tools Drawing Statistics
Command line : GT_DWG_STAT 

Drawing Statistics

GT_DWG_STAT gives detailed statistics of the current drawing. It lists the various object types, layers, number of objects in them, blocks, styles etc. Only the selected options will be taken for statistics computation. The statistics information is written into a TEXT file.

GT_DWG_STAT Tutorial


Toolbar : Inquiry Tools  
      Menu : GeoTools Inquiry Tools Compute running distance / perimeter and areas.
Command line : GT_PERIMETR 
This command can be used to compute perimeter and area from picked points or from objects like lines, polylines and circles. The perimeter and area are displayed on the screen as the user picks the points. The enclosing polygon area is displayed at the end of the command.

The last computed perimeter is stored in memory and can be used in subsequent runs of this command.

[CumP = 0.00] Reset/Object <first point>:
[CumP = 0.00] Area/Reset/Object <next point>:
[CumP = 667.93] Area/Reset/Object <next point>:
[CumP = 1269.29] Area/Reset/Object <next point>:
[CumP = 1873.78] Area/Reset/Object <next point>:
[CumP = 2521.90] Area/Reset/Object <next point>:
[CumP = 3260.02] Area/Reset/Object <next point>:
[CumP = 4179.80] Area/Reset/ Object <next point>:



Toolbar : Inquiry Tools  
      Menu : GeoTools Inquiry Tools Calculate summed areas of closed area objects.
Command line : GT_CALCAREA 



The GT_CALCAREA command sums up the areas of all closed polylines, splines and circles. The area report uses the current unit settings as set in the Area Annotation Settings (see below). The area can also be annotated at the centroidal locations in the form of text objects.


Annotation parameters:

Create area annotation: This option enables creation of area annotation text.

Create annotation at each centroid: This option creates each polyline area annotation at its individual centroid position.

Text Height: Specify the required text height.

Area Annotation Settings:

DWG units: Specify the AutoCAD drawing units here. The options available are in, cm, ft, meters and yards.

Area Units: Specify the units in which the area must be reported. Available options are dwg, sq.cm, sq.in, sq.ft, sq.m, sq.yards, acres and hectares.

Annotation Layer: Specify the layer in which the annotation is to be created.

Select: Clicking on the Select... button pops-up the select layer dialog box.


GT_CALCAREA Tutorial




Toolbar : Inquiry Tools  
     
Menu : GeoTools Inquiry Tools Visit (Interactive pan) selected objects.
Command line : GT_VISIT 

The GT_VISIT command is an interactive pan through a selection of objects. It allows to visit (by panning each object in the selection to the screen center) all elements of a selection set. This can be a useful tool in quality control and error checking situations when you wish to step through a selection of objects and examine them one by one. The command offers sub-options like Next, Previous and GoTo to navigate through the selection set sequentially or randomly. There are also options to set the current zoom factors and highlight color. The GT_VISIT command maintains an internal pointer to the current object being visited (or borwsed through), so it is possible to resume the browsing at any point even after the main command has been exited. To achieve this purpose, two more related commands, GT_NEXT and GT_PREV are provided to enable an forward and reverse browse through the selection from the current object position. 

Note: GT_NEXT and GT_PREV commands cannot be used independently without running GT_VISIT command cause they are related only to GT_VISIT command. 

On starting the command, the following sub-options are displayed:

[ First/Last/Goto/Next/Previous/Select/Update/Zoom/SETtings/Xit ] <Zoom>:

First - Navigates to the first object in selection set

Last
- Navigates to the last object in selection set

Goto
- Jumps to the specified location in the current selection.

Next
-  Navigates to the next object in selection set.

Previous
- Navigates to the previous object in selection set.

Update
- Updates the internal pointer in the current selection set

Zoom
- Allows to zoom while viewing the objects in the selection set.

SETtings
- Allows to include linear objects to pan through.

Xit
- Exits the command. 



Toolbar : Inquiry Tools  
      Menu : GeoTools Inquiry Tools Quick display of entity elevation
Command line : GT_QUERY 

The GT_QUERY command displays the elevation of the object at the location of the picked point.

Note:  GT_Query command is by default not enabled, for making it enable type GT_Defmacros at the command prompt.



Toolbar : Inquiry Tools  
     
Menu : GeoTools Inquiry Tools Display horizontal and vertical projected distances.
Command line : GT_DXY 

The GT_DXY command is an extension to the AutoCAD DIST command. In addition to the information given by the DIST command, GT_DXY also displays the horizontal projected distance between the two picked points, in case of 3D points.

Note:  GT_DXY command is by default not enabled, for making it enable type GT_Defmacros at the command prompt.



Toolbar : Inquiry Tools  
     
Menu : GeoTools Inquiry Tools Determine direction of polyline
Command line : GT_PL_DIR 
See under Polyline Tool Set 2



Toolbar : Inquiry Tools  
     
Menu : GeoTools Inquiry Tools Provide detailed polyline statistics
Command line : GT_PL_STAT 
See under Polyline Tool Set 2



Toolbar : Inquiry Tools  
     
Menu : GeoTools Inquiry Tools Identify objects with vertex elevation differences
Command line :
GT_VXDROP 
See under Polyline Tool Set 3



Toolbar : Inquiry Tools  
      Menu : GeoTools Inquiry Tools List object table data
Command line : GT_OD_List 
See under AutoDesk Map Tools



Toolbar : Inquiry Tools  
     
Menu : GeoTools Inquiry Tools Compute summed areas of polylines in selected layers.
Command line : GT_LAYERAREA 
See under Polyline Tool Set 3

GT_LAYERAREA Tutorial


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