GeoTools->Miscellaneous

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The Miscellaneous  perform a wide variety of miscellaneous AutoCAD / Bricscad tasks.


Toolbar : Miscellaneous   
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Scan selected image files and build image boundary list 
Command line : GT_IMAGESCAN
The GT_IMAGESCAN command is a pre-processor command which scans multiple image files and their corresponding world files and builds an in-memory list of image-name and their positioning information (insertion point, extents etc) which will be used by the next command, GT_IMAGESEARCH.


The following image formats are supported: tif, jpg, bmp and png. Their corresponding world files must have the extension tfw, jpw, bmw and pgw respectively.




Toolbar : Miscellaneous   
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Insert geo-referenced image corresponding to selected AOI
Command line : GT_IMAGESEARCH
GT_IMAGESEARCH asks the user to specify an area of interest (rectangular boundary) and will search the scanned images in memory (created using the GT_IMAGESCAN command) and attach the image corresponding to the specified Area of interest.

 

Toolbar : Miscellaneous
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  DWG browser, with thumbnail preview
Command line : GT_DWGBROWSER
The GT_DWGBROWSER command is used to browse DWG files from multiple folders with an option to view a thumbnail image of each file inside a preview window. The selected file can then be inserted into the current drawing. You can specify a set of your favourite folders, give them a description each and store the settings in an ASCII INI file for subsequent retreival. By default, the file will be called DWGBROWSER.INI and will reside (or be created) in your current drawing folder. Additional block insert parameters like x, y scale factors and rotation angles can be pre-set or specified on-screen as desired.

 

Toolbar : Miscellaneous 
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Import (read) a MINEX coal reserves data file
Command line : GT_MINEX2DWG



The GT_MINEX2DWG command allows to import coal bed reserves data from MINEX, a popular stratified mining program from GemCom software.

 


Toolbar : Miscellaneous   
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Insert GEO-Referenced images
Command line : GT_GEO_INS 
The GT_GEO_INS command can be used to insert geo-referenced image files. These image files can be either in the TIF, BMP or JPG format and they MUST be accompanied by their world files as well. The World files have an extension of TFW, BPW or JGW respectively. This command DOES NOT import GeoTIFF files in which the geo-referencing information is stored in the file header.



Toolbar : Miscellaneous   
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Chop objects into equal linear divisions or segments 
Command line : GT_CHOP

The CHOP command chops lines and polylines into a specified number of divisions or creates chops of a specified lengths 



Tech Info: CHOP only works with line and polylines objects. They must be de-curved (not fitted or splined) and must not have any arc segments in them. 




Toolbar : Miscellaneous   
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Automatic Dimensions 
Command line :
GT_AUTODIM
This command automatically creates inclined dimensions between the intersections points of a line joining two picked points and all other lines crossing this line.




Toolbar : Miscellaneous   
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Create drawings for every layers.
Command line : GT_LYRS2DWG 

This program exports the contents of each layer into a drawing by WBLOCKing them into their own DWG file and whose filename is the same as the layer name. 

Layers to Drawing dialog box

 

Toolbar : Miscellaneous   
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Match object properties 
Command line : GT_MATCH

The GT_MATCH command matches properties of source and target objects. You can select the properties you want copied (or set) from the source to target object(s). Target object selection can be a single or multiple objects as specified in the dialog box

Match Properties dialog box

AutoCAD command: MATCH (for setting properties), MA (to start the command) 

GT_MATCH Tutorial

 

 

Toolbar : Miscellaneous   
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Roughen a linear object
Command line :
GT_ROUGHEN
Pick a linear object (line or polyline) and roughen it. The roughened line contains randomly created zig-zags on either side of the center line

 

Toolbar : Miscellaneous   
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Compute surface area of 3DFaces
Command line : GT_SURFAREA 

Computes the surface area as well as horizontally projected area of selected 3DFACE objects.

 

 

Toolbar : Miscellaneous   
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Align objects to a justification 
Command line : GT_OBJALIGN

The GT_OBJALIGN command helps to align a selection of objects to a justification. GeoTools applies an "extents" computation of the objects and based on these extents, the objects are moved (aligned) to share a common datum. The justifications that can be applied are the nine positions of text alignment viz, Top Left/Center/Right, Middle Left/Center/Right and Bottom Left/Center/Right.

The alignment operation can be applied on the whole selection as a single unit or on each object in the selection set individually.

 

Toolbar : Miscellaneous   
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Control direction of 3DFace normals
Command line : GT_FACENORMAL

Control & Draw direction of face normals

The GT_FACENORMAL command allows control of direction of 3dface normals. If the vertices of the 3dface are in clockwise direction, then the normal is pointing downwards from the plane of the 3dface else if they are in counter-clockwise direction, the normal is pointing upwards from the plane of the 3dface. This command helps to control the normal direction in three ways:

Flip: Flips (reverses) the direction of the face normal

Align to an elevation: Aligns the face normals so as to point in the direction of a specified Z value. What this means is that if the target Z value specified is greater than the maximum Z of all 3dface vertices, the normal will be flipped if necessary so as to point towards the target elevation. This option can be used to make all normals of selected 3dfaces point to a common high or low elevation so that all faces can be made to point inwards or outwards.

Draw: Draws the face normal as it is. No flipping or checking is done. The face normal starts from a point in the plane of the 3dface at the centroid position and is drawn to the specified length in the direction of the normal.

 

 

Toolbar : Miscellaneous   
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Extract from Xrefs and Blocks
Command line : GT_XTRACT

The GT_XTRACT command is used to extract an object from an XREF and import it into the current drawing. The GT_XTRACT command works correctly only in XREFs which are inserted at 0.0,0.0,0.0. Other insertion points may produce incorrect results.

The GT_XTRACT command will only allow the extraction of LINE, POINT, ARC, SHAPE, POLYLINE and ATTRIBUTE objects.

 

 


Toolbar : Miscellaneous   
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Multiple drawings Xref
Command line : GT_MXREF

Attach multiple drawings at once as XREF

The GT_MXREF command is used to attach multiple DWG files at once as external reference (XREF)

 

Toolbar : Miscellaneous 
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Sort ASCII text files
Command line : GT_FILESORT

 


The GT_FILESORT command allows an ASCII file to be sorted based on data that can be defined either as a field number (separated by a delimiter) or based on start and end column numbers. The sort type can numeric or character.

 

 

Toolbar : Miscellaneous   
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Round off values from object co-ordinates 
Command line : GT_ROUNDOFF

The GT_ROUNDOFF command allows points, lines, polylines, blocks, text and shape objects to have their co-ordinates rounded off to the desired number of decimal places.

RoundOff object coordinates to the desired number of decimal places

See Also: GT_SCALE_Z under Conversion Tools

 

 


Toolbar : Miscellaneous   
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Multiple DWG inserts 
Command line : GT_MULTINS

Multiple Drawing Inserts

The GT_MULTINS command is used to select at once multiple DWG files from one or more folders and insert them all into the current drawing.

The Remove All option clears the current selection of all drawings.
The Explode option allows each inserted drawing to be exploded upon insert into the current drawing.

 

 

Toolbar : Miscellaneous   
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Split a drawing into smaller parts
Command line : GT_DWGSPLIT

The GT_DWGSPLIT command uses the WBLOCK command to split a given selection of objects into smaller drawing units. The drawing can be split either into a number of equal parts or containing a specified number of objects.


 

Toolbar : Miscellaneous   
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Re-Create hatch boundaries from HATCH object.
  Command line : GT_HATCHBOUND

The GT_HATCHBOUND re-creates the boundaries from a HATCH object. This can be used as a handy tool to modify the hatch when the comprising boundary objects are not available.

 

 

Toolbar : Miscellaneous   
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Layer names editor 
Command line :
GT_LAYERMAN

The GT_LAYERMAN command is used to globally edit layer names in the current drawing.

Global Layer Names Editor


Merge into existing layers: If the new resulting layer name already exists in the drawing, the program can either copy all objects from source layer and merge to destination layer or just abort the operation and do nothing. This behavior is controlled by checking this option.

 

Toolbar : Miscellaneous   
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Export 3DFace objects as SMS 2DM files 
Command line :
GT_3DF2DM

The Surface Water Modeling System (SMS) is a comprehensive environment for one-, two-, and three-dimensional hydrodynamic modeling. See http://www.ems-i.com for more info on this product. The 2DM file format is used by this software 

GeoTools provides the GT_3DF2DM command as a tool to quickly export 3dfaces from AutoCAD / Bricscad into the SMS 2DM file, which can then be imported into SMS.



 

Toolbar : Miscellaneous   
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Import a 2DM files as 3DFaces 
Command line :
GT_IMPORT2DM

The GT_IMPORT2DM command is used to import an Surface Water Modeling System (SMS) 2DM file into AutoCAD / Bricscad and create 3dfaces out of them.

 


Toolbar : Miscellaneous   
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Explode objects - Retain object table and extended entity data 
Command line : GT_XP_RETDAT

Explode objects - retail extended entity data and object data

The GT_XP_RETDAT command is used to explode polylines, blocks, hatches, regions and mulitple polygon and retain the extended entity and object table data. contained in them 



Toolbar : Miscellaneous     
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Select multiple DWG files for Script processing
  Command line :
GT_BATCHPROCESS

The GT_BATCHPROCESS command is used to select multiple DWG files and create a BATch file to load each one into AutoCAD / Bricscad and optionally perform automated script processing with as SCR file. The script file must already exist (if checked) while the batch file is created by this command based on the selected DWG files. The AutoCAD / Bricscad profile and the script file.

 

 

Toolbar : Miscellaneous   
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Contour spacing distance tool 
Command line : GT_CONTDIST

The GT_CONTDIST command is an intra-contour spacing checker and contour breaking tool. Often, when the distance or spacing between two adjacent contours is too small, it is difficult to either view the contours clearly or to create un-cluttered labels to depict the contours. In such situations, it is useful to break the contours at locations where the distance between the contour and the adjacent contours on either side is less than a specified Distance Tolerance.

The GT_CONTDIST command measures from each vertex of the contour polyline, the distance on either sides of the contour being processed, and if the distance is less then the specified Distance Tolerance then that point is marked in memory for breaking. In this manner, the whole contour polyline is checked and the segments that are within the Tolerance distance from the adjacent contours are broken.

 

The contours can be checked for proximity at each vertex or at a fixed regular interval along its length.

Exclude major / special contours from breaking: Checking this box allows to exclude major contours and specified exclusion contour elevations from breaking.

 

 

 

Toolbar : Miscellaneous   
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Break/Split objects along a polyline
Command line : GT_CONTBREAK

The GT_CONTBREAK command is a general purpose command to break a drawing along a boundary. The boundary can be open or closed and must be defined as a polyline.

 

In the above illustration, you see a screenshot of a very dense contour drawing. By setting up appropriate closed polyline cutting edges (blue lines in the figure above), it is possible to break the contours easily at the boundary of these polygons. Once broken, each part can be exported into it own DWG using the GeoTools GT_ESELECT and the WBLOCK command.

 

 


Toolbar : Miscellaneous   
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Zoom to extent of selected object(s) (with 5% margin)
  Command line :
GT_ZOOMENT
The GT_ZOOMENT command zooms to the extents of selected objects with a margin of 5% border on the sides of the current viewport.

 

 

Toolbar : Miscellaneous   
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Scale objects (unequally) in X, Y and Z directions 
Command line :
GT_XYZSCL  
The GT_XYZSCL command performs non-uniform scaling of objects with specified X, Y and Z scale factors and a user-specified base point. This is similar to the SCALE command except that you can specify unequal scale factors in X, Y and Z directions.

Tech Info: The command does not work with blocks containing 3DSOLID objects because of an AutoCAD / Bricscad limitation.

 

Toolbar : Miscellaneous   
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Create a mean (averaged) point from cluster of points. 
Command line : GT_MEANPOINT
The GT_MEANPOINT command creates a mean point from selected multiple points and provides an option of connecting each point with the mean point by a line

 

  

Toolbar : Miscellaneous 
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Enter the co-ordinates of point in geographic format [Lat-Long]. 
Command line : (GEO)
(geo) is not a GeoTools command that can be run off the command line. Instead, it is a transparent function which can be called at any point when AutoCAD / Bricscad is expecting a point input. The (geo) function helps to input coordinates in geographic coordinates (Latitudes and Longitudes) in degree-minute-second format (for example, 33° 01' 53.8739",18° 01' 11.2246",480.0 is a Latitude of 33° 01' 53.8739" and a Longitude of 18° 01' 11.2246" and a height of 480.0

Note: 1) You have to run (GEO) function by typing in PARENTHESES without which it will not run.
         2) The (geo) function can be called ONLY when an AutoCAD / Bricscad command (and not a GeoTools command) is expecting for a point entry.



Toolbar : Miscellaneous 
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Flip (reverse) elevations (z) from selected objects. 
Command line : GT_FLIPZ
The GT_FLIPZ command will reverse the z value sign of selected lines, polylines, point, text, 3dfaces, solids etc. So, an elevation of +2 would become -2 and vice-versa

 

 

 

Toolbar : Miscellaneous   
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Classify elevation contours in different layers
Command line: GT_CONTCLASS 


This command places objects representing contours (polylines or LDDT contour objects) into different layers according to their contour interval.


Classify your contours into different layers and present your data better

You can select a maximum of five contour intervals and specify a layer name for each of these contour intervals. The selected contour objects are then placed in their allotted layers. You can select polyline objects or LDDT contour objects.

Tip: GT_CONTCLASS can be used as a terrain analysis tool or for creating map output showing contours of specific elevations only.

See Also: GT_CONTLABEL

 


Toolbar : Miscellaneous  (Bricscad only)
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  Wblock and preserve AutoCAD Map objects
Command line: GT_WBLOCKBC

GT_WBLOCKBC is a command which should be used in Bricscad when you want to do a WBLOCK (Save Block) on AutoCAD Map drawings containing object data. This is a workaround command to overcome a bug in Bricscad and prevent losing object data when doing a WBLOCK from Bricscad on drawings saved in AutoCAD Map.

 

 

Toolbar : Miscellaneous (Bricscad only)
      Menu : GeoTools Miscellaneous  TABLE Edit / Explode, Bricscad only
Command line: GT_TABLEEDIT
The GT_TABLEEDIT command can be used to edit or explode an AutoCAD TABLE object (ACAD_TABLE).

Background: An AutoCAD TABLE object when imported into Bricscad becomes an anonymous block (if DXF'ed) or an un-explodable, un-editable ACAD_TABLE object (if saved as DWG). The GT_TABLEEDIT command is an attempt to bring this TABLE back to life in Bricscad and make it usable. The command offers two possibilities - to explode the TABLE or convert it into a block with attributes so that you can edit it further. When you explode the TABLE, it becomes lines and MTEXT. When you convert it into a attributed block, each cell of the table becomes an attribute which you can then edit using block attribute editor.

Known limitations:
- If the original TABLE is rotated, the resulting TABLE may get created horizontally (angle=0)
- Sometimes, the resulting table may get created at a slightly different (offsetted) location. You may need to move it to your desired location.
- The cell text may sometimes show up slightly ofsetted with improper justification. This will need manual correction.

 

Command line : GT_LD 
      Menu : GeoTools Load AutoLISP program 
Loads an AutoLisp program. The program name can be typed at the prompt or can be browsed through by typing "?" or the "~".

Note:
 LD command is by default not enabled, use GT_Defmacros command to enable it.





Command line :
GT_LDX 
      Menu : GeoTools Load an ARX program 
Loads an Object ARX application. The program name can be typed at the prompt or can be browsed through by typing "?" or the "~".

Note: LDX command is by default not enabled, use GT_Defmacros command to enable it.


 

Toolbar : Other Functions   ( Bricscad only)
      Menu : GeoTools Application Loader with Startupsuite 
Command line : GT_APPLOAD

The GT_APPLOAD command extends the functionality of the APPLOAD command provided by Bricscad.  The main addition is that of a startup-suite, where you can add/remove applications that will be  automatically loaded at startup.

 

 




Toolbar : Other Functions  
      Menu : GeoTools
Load GeoTools command macros (shortcuts) 
Command line : GT_DEFMACROS
The GT_DEFMACROS command is used to enable the command macros (shortcuts).




Toolbar : Other Functions  
      Menu : GeoTools Settings 
Command line :
GT_GENSET 
The GT_GENSET command allows the setting and editing of default GeoTools operational parameters. The parameters set here are used by GeoTools unless explicitly set by the command in their own dialog boxes. The distance values shown here are in DWG units. angular values are in degrees and precision units are integers. 



Fuzzy search tolerance around points of interest: This is a value to indicate a very small search distance around a point. When working with units like meters and feet, a value like 0.0001 may be appropriate but when working with geographic units (Lat-Long). A very small vale would be something like 0.00000001. Set this parameter accordingly to produce correct result from Geoools.
Default Value: 0.00

  Maximum Selection set length to store: Specify the maximum number of objects to store in a selection set produced by GeoTools. Higher the value, larger the memory and  disk space required. During the processing of extremely large selection sets. It is recommended to set this value low so that the overhead of "remembering" the selection set is avoided. Please be ware that setting a lower value may mean that selection sets larger than this value cannot be accessed with the "previous" command in AutoCAD / Bricscad.
Default Value: 1000


Display command line options:
Checking this option will cause GeoTools command to operate on the command-line (no dialog box)
Default Value: Disabled

 

 

Toolbar : Other Functions  
      Menu : GeoTools Help 
Command line : HELP  
Displays GeoTools help.

 

 

Toolbar : Other Functions  
      Menu : GeoTools Load GeoTools
Command line : GT_LOAD

If GeoTools has not been automatically loaded during startup, use this command to load GeoTools in your current drawing.


 

Toolbar : Other Functions  
      Menu : GeoTools Unload- GeoTools
Command line : GT_UNLOAD

Unload GeoTools from memory.

 

Command line : GT_REGRESET - Reset GeoTools command defaults in registry

The GT_REGRESET command is used to reset or clear the registry entry (default value) that is made for each GeoTools command


Tech Info: All GeoTools operating defaults are stored in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Four Dimension Technologies\GeoTools

 

Toolbar : Other Functions  
      Menu : GeoTools About GeoTools
Command line : GT_ABOUTGEOT  
Displays information about the GeoTools software.


Toolbar : Other Functions
      Menu : GeoTools ReadMe and Installation  
Command line : READMEINS

Displays information from the GeoToolsReadMe.txt file.




Toolbar : Other Functions
      Menu : GeoTools Display GeoTools license information
Command line :
DISPLAYLICENSEINFO  
Displays the current  GeoTools license information.




Toolbar : Other Functions  
      Menu : GeoTools Information about purchasing GeoTools 
Command line : ORDERGEOTOOLS

Ordering and purchase information

 


Toolbar : Other Functions  
     
Menú: GeoTools
Tutorials 
 Command line : GT_GeoToolsTutorial  
Displays GeoTools tutorial

 


 Toolbar : Other Functions  
     
Menú: GeoTools
 Display Application Key 
 Command line: GTAppKey  
Displays GeoTools application key for computer

 

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