At the end of the thread CADDapult writes out some code that seems to do what I want. Question is... how to do enter/use this code. I have not used code in autocad before (have done a small bit in excel).
In order to load lisp files, you have to issue the Appload command at the command line or in the Tools Menu, Load Application, and then in the command line again, type the command BlkXplode. In order to use other lisp files, you have to inspect the file for functions with the pattern: (defun C:SomeNameHere()...) They are Autolisp defined commands.
If there are any nested Blocks as ingredients in the definitions of other Blocks, and you want all of those also Exploded, you would want to run that several times. Or you could alter it to run itself as many times as it continues to find Blocks. In simplest terms:
However, that [and gasty's original] would also find Xrefs [and, if you ever use them, Windows Metafiles] that can't be Exploded. So really, it ought to run through each item in a selection set, and only if it's an Explodable kind of Insert object, Explode it. [Also, doing it that way (Exploding only one at a time), no messing with the QAFLAGS System Variable is necessary.] There should also be some kind of marker so it will know once it has encountered a selection set that contains no ordinary Blocks among the Insert objects it found, and stop checking -- otherwise it would get into an endless loop. I would bet that there's something out there already that will do something like that, but if you don't find it, it wouldn't be hard to work out.
The following program will recursively explode all primary & nested block references (nested to any depth) excluding xrefs, in all drawing layouts (the EXPLODE command will ignore objects in inactive drawing layouts):
Gaston's initial response did what I initally needed (although as Kent mentioned, does need to be rerun for nested blocks). I therefore marked it as the solution. However, Lee's solution is super sweet as it takes the repeat running out of it.
The loft itself works, but if I try to use polyline guides, it fails (with the error code 98037 - not that there's any way of telling what that means!). I've redrawn the guides three or four times in different ways, but they fail each time. I'm absolutely certain the guides intersect the profiles (although I've been wrong before!), but now they've taken error messages out of CAD 2018, tracking down the problem is nigh on impossible...
I've had a play with the paths and different ways of creating them - the weird looping path seems to be the result of joining a 2d polyline and a 3d polyline. I've attached another version of the file with one path I've re-drawn. This time, I've created the path as a polyline in two parts, to see if I could get half the shape to loft, but still no luck...
Went back to the original file and split the yellow profiles in half. This seemed to work for the part I lofted with guides. It doesn't seem to work all the pieces however. Is this intended to be symmetrical? Perhaps constructing a top and then a bottom in pieces might work better.
I tried repeating what you did and breaking the profiles into quarters, then lofting to create surfaces, but I can't even get it to do that! The lofting works, but any sort of guide line I use throws the same 98037 error.
...actually, despite my despairing of CAD's 3d abilities, I couldn't close the file for good and walk away without trying one last thing. My original guide lines running forward from the mid-section profile were formed from a straight line, a spline and then a tighter spline to get the required radius at the front of the object, all joined together. Although it changes the shape of the object slightly (the front radius is larger), a re-drew the guides with only one spline at the front instead of two and all the guides now work - I've attached a revised drawing.
I can't find a reference for the error code numbers anywhere. Is there a way to increase the error message verbosity? Previous versions of AutoCAD generated descriptive error messages, not just error code numbers. Fixing modelling errors with a descriptive guide to the problem is only achievable through trial and error...
I too wish I had access to a definitive list of what the error codes identify. Apparently they are only helpful to the Dev team. Do you have a model you want me to take a look at to see if I can figure out what might be failing?
I've centred the view on the lofting operation I'm trying to get working - there are two profiles - a 6-sided polygon and a 4-sided, long thin rectangle, joined by six polylines I'm trying to use as guides. Selecting any of the guides during the loft causes a modelling error.
I took a look at your model and found that if I zoomed in very tight, many of the lines did not connect at all. I rebuilt much of the geometry and then lofted parts together, ran SURFSCULPT and ended up with this 3D solid.
I've always trued to avoid generating/using surfaces - I tend to only encounter them when a 3d modelling operation (like loft or extrude) goes wrong - I'll certainly review their usefulness based on what you say.
I was having problems with some Blocks being away from the recorded insertion points. In rectifying this, I can no longer recall how to insert a block into a new code which requires two or three points to be recorded.
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