Spirals in AutoCAD LT?

[good...@umbsky.cc.umb.edu]

Does anybody know how to draw a spiral line (2D) in either AutoCAD LT 2.0
or AutoCAD LT95?

Thanks.

Tom Goodkind (good...@umbsky.cc.umb.edu)

[Steve Wellcome]

I once drew an involute by calculating points, plotting them as
X-Y coordinates, and smoothing the curve. It was a bit tedious,
but for a one-off it wasn't too bad.

[Dennis Staley]

> Tom Goodkind (good...@umbsky.cc.umb.edu)Hi there Tom.
I've not used acad LT, but if it will do Polyline Arcs, here's something
you might try. Array a point (rectangular) in a row, spaced at the
distance you want between spirals and of a number that corresponds to the
number of turns (times 2) you want in the spiral. Then start a polyline
(arc) from an end point (give the arc a 'D'irection of 90 or 270 degrees)
and then just swing the arc over to the point on the opposite end of your
row of points, and continue on back to the second point, etc. You get
the picture. When you finish, scale it to one unit diameter and save it.
The next time you need a spiral, insert that one and scale it to the
appropriate size and remove the unwanted parts.
Sounds simple huh? Have fun.

Dennis Staley

[Dennis Staley]

[D. Wayne]

> > > Does anybody know how to draw a spiral line (2D) in either AutoCAD LT
2.0
> > > or AutoCAD LT95?

My apology Dennis. I am guilty of something I saw someone else refer to on
here a while back. That is not reading and comprehending the original post.
The original poster wasn't trying to draw a 3D spiral only a 2D.
Dee

[David Clark]

D. Wayne wrote: > > > > Does anybody know how to draw a spiral line (2D) in either AutoCAD LT > 2.0 > > > > or AutoCAD LT95? > My apology Dennis. I am guilty of something I saw someone else refer to on > here a while back. That is not reading and comprehending the original post. > The original poster wasn't trying to draw a 3D spiral only a 2D. > DeeI doubt there is a way to do it without lisp. Acad12 includes a sample lisp routine that creates 2 and 3d spirals, but you need to run it in R12 or R13. In case you know somebody nearby who has this, run the routine included here to create the lines you want, save to a dwg or dxf, and sneaker net that across to your LT. It's a bit of a hack, but it will get the job done. David Clark ANIMAZ cc PO Box 781516 Tel +27 11 706-0211 SANDTON 2146 Fax +27 11 706-0216 South Africa ;;; SPIRAL.LSP ;;; Copyright (C) 1992 by Autodesk, Inc. ;;; Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software ;;; for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided ;;; that the above copyright notice appears in all copies and that ;;; both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in ;;; all supporting documentation. ;;; THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT EXPRESS OR IMPLIED ;;; WARRANTY. ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR ;;; PURPOSE AND OF MERCHANTABILITY ARE HEREBY DISCLAIMED. ;;; --------------------------------------------------------------------------; ;;; DESCRIPTION ;;; This is a programming example. ;;; Designed and implemented by Kelvin R. Throop in January 1985 ;;; This program constructs a spiral. It can be loaded and called ;;; by typing either "spiral", "3dspiral" or the following: ;;; (cspiral <# rotations> <base point> <horiz growth per rotation> ;;; <points per circle> <start radius> ;;; <vert growth per rotation>). ;;; --------------------------------------------------------------------------; (defun myerror (s) ; If an error (such as CTRL-C) occurs ; while this command is active... (if (/= s "Function cancelled") (princ (strcat "\nError: " s)) (setvar "cmdecho" ocmd) ; Restore saved modes (setvar "blipmode" oblp) (setq *error* olderr) ; Restore old *error* handler (princ) (defun cspiral (ntimes bpoint hfac lppass strad vfac / ang dist tp ainc dhinc dvinc circle dv) (setvar "blipmode" 0) ; turn blipmode off (setvar "cmdecho" 0) ; turn cmdecho off (setq circle (* 3.141596235 2)) (setq ainc (/ circle lppass)) (setq dhinc (/ hfac lppass)) (if vfac (setq dvinc (/ vfac lppass))) (setq ang 0.0) (if vfac (setq dist strad dv 0.0) (setq dist 0.0) (if vfac (command "3dpoly") ; start spiral ... (command "pline" bpoint) ; start spiral from base point and... (repeat ntimes (repeat lppass (setq tp (polar bpoint (setq ang (+ ang ainc)) (setq dist (+ dist dhinc)) ) ) (if vfac (setq tp (list (car tp) (cadr tp) (+ dv (caddr tp))) dv (+ dv dvinc) ) ) (command tp) ; continue to the next point... ) ) (command "") ; until done. (princ) ;;; Interactive spiral generation (defun C:SPIRAL (/ olderr ocmd oblp nt bp cf lp) (setq olderr *error* *error* myerror) (setq ocmd (getvar "cmdecho")) (setq oblp (getvar "blipmode")) (setvar "cmdecho" 0) (initget 1) ; bp must not be null (setq bp (getpoint "\nCenter point: ")) (initget 7) ; nt must not be zero, neg, or null (setq nt (getint "\nNumber of rotations: ")) (initget 3) ; cf must not be zero, or null (setq cf (getdist "\nGrowth per rotation: ")) (initget 6) ; lp must not be zero or neg (setq lp (getint "\nPoints per rotation <30>: ")) (cond ((null lp) (setq lp 30))) (cspiral nt bp cf lp nil nil) (setvar "cmdecho" ocmd) (setvar "blipmode" oblp) (setq *error* olderr) ; Restore old *error* handler (princ) ;;; Interactive spiral generation (defun C:3DSPIRAL (/ olderr ocmd oblp nt bp hg vg sr lp) (setq olderr *error* *error* myerror) (setq ocmd (getvar "cmdecho")) (setq oblp (getvar "blipmode")) (setvar "cmdecho" 0) (initget 1) ; bp must not be null (setq bp (getpoint "\nCenter point: ")) (initget 7) ; nt must not be zero, neg, or null (setq nt (getint "\nNumber of rotations: ")) (initget 7) ; sr must not be zero, neg, or null (setq sr (getdist bp "\nStarting radius: ")) (initget 1) ; cf must not be zero, or null (setq hg (getdist "\nHorizontal growth per rotation: ")) (initget 3) ; cf must not be zero, or null (setq vg (getdist "\nVertical growth per rotation: ")) (initget 6) ; lp must not be zero or neg (setq lp (getint "\nPoints per rotation <30>: ")) (cond ((null lp) (setq lp 30))) (cspiral nt bp hg lp sr vg) (setvar "cmdecho" ocmd) (setvar "blipmode" oblp) (setq *error* olderr) ; Restore old *error* handler (princ) ;;; --------------------------------------------------------------------------; (princ "\n\tC:SPIRAL and C:3DSPIRAL loaded. ") (princ)

[good...@umbsky.cc.umb.edu]

To everyone who replied to my question about 2D spirals in ACAD LT,
thank you! Fortunately, I just found someone who has AutoCAD 13, which
has a "SPIRAL.LSP" routine that does exactly what I need, but when I get
a little time I'm going to try out everyone else's suggestions just to see
how they work.

Tom Goodkind

[Dennis Staley]

So, are you going to try them in ACAD LT, or in
your freshly-pirated copy of R13?

Dennis Staley

[D. Wayne]

This post has been around so long that some confusion has been introduced
to the posts partly because of the way I structured my response. I was not
the original poster seeking to draw a 2D spiral in AutocadLT. But at any
rate David Thanks for your concern. This question has since been resolved
for the original poster.

Dee

David Clark <ani...@global.co.za> wrote in article
<33244D...@global.co.za>...

> D. Wayne wrote:
> >
> > > > > Does anybody know how to draw a spiral line (2D) in either
AutoCAD LT
> > 2.0
> > > > > or AutoCAD LT95?
> >
> > My apology Dennis. I am guilty of something I saw someone else refer to
on
> > here a while back. That is not reading and comprehending the original
post.
> > The original poster wasn't trying to draw a 3D spiral only a 2D.
> > DeeI doubt there is a way to do
it without lisp. Acad12 includes a sample
> lisp routine that creates 2 and 3d spirals, but you need to run it in R12

> or R13. In case you know somebody nearby who has this, run the routine
> included here to create the lines you want, save to a dwg or dxf, and
> sneaker net that across to your LT. It's a bit of a hack, but it will get

> the job done.
> --

[virt...@aol.com]

In article <33244D...@global.co.za>, David Clark <ani...@global.co.za> writes:

>;;; SPIRAL.LSP
>;;; Copyright (C) 1992 by Autodesk, Inc.
>;;;

I tried it.....

Copied and pasted it into notepad and saved it to my r13\com\support directory.
Issued appload and got this message:

Error: invalid dotted pair*Cancel*

Whuzzzup?

[virt...@aol.com]

In article <3325C7...@qualcomm.com>, Dennis Staley <dst...@qualcomm.com> writes:

>,
>> thank you! Fortunately, I just found someone who has AutoCAD 13, which
>> has a "SPIRAL.LSP" routine that does exactly what I need, but when I get

HMMMM.... that is not in the acadr13 I work with! Either I got stiffed or he got the file from somewhere else.