AutoCAD Architecture Vision Tools in AutoCAD - autocad

Question

I have both AutoCAD and AutoCAD Architecture installed on my system. AutoCAD Architecture has a tab called Vision Tools with a nifty command called Display By Layer to set the display order of objects in accordance with the layers of the drawing. Is there anyway to add this tab or use this command in AutoCAD?

Answer 1

Not sure if you're looking for a built-in feature or APIs for it.
For a built in feature, check the DRAWORDER command. For an API/programming approach, check the respective DrawOrderTable method. See below:
Update: please also check this 3rd party tool: DoByLayer.
[CommandMethod("SendToBottom")]
public void commandDrawOrderChange()
{
Document activeDoc
= Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument;
Database db = activeDoc.Database;
Editor ed = activeDoc.Editor;
PromptEntityOptions peo
= new PromptEntityOptions("Select an entity : ");
PromptEntityResult per = ed.GetEntity(peo);
if (per.Status != PromptStatus.OK)
{
return;
}
ObjectId oid = per.ObjectId;
SortedList<long, ObjectId> drawOrder
= new SortedList<long, ObjectId>();
using (Transaction tr = db.TransactionManager.StartTransaction())
{
BlockTable bt = tr.GetObject(
db.BlockTableId,
OpenMode.ForRead
) as BlockTable;
BlockTableRecord btrModelSpace =
tr.GetObject(
bt[BlockTableRecord.ModelSpace],
OpenMode.ForRead
) as BlockTableRecord;
DrawOrderTable dot =
tr.GetObject(
btrModelSpace.DrawOrderTableId,
OpenMode.ForWrite
) as DrawOrderTable;
ObjectIdCollection objToMove = new ObjectIdCollection();
objToMove.Add(oid);
dot.MoveToBottom(objToMove);
tr.Commit();
}
ed.WriteMessage("Done");
}

Answer 2

With some help from VBA it might look by this. Note i did not add fancy listbox code. I just show the worker and how to list layers. The trivial Code to add things to a listbox on a form and how to sort / rearrange listbox items can be found on any excel / VBA forum on the web . Or you just uses a predefined string like in the example. To get VBA to work download and install the acc. VBA Enabler from autocad. It is free.
'select all items on a layer by a filter
Sub selectALayer(sset As AcadSelectionSet, layername As String)
Dim filterType As Variant
Dim filterData As Variant
Dim p1(0 To 2) As Double
Dim p2(0 To 2) As Double
Dim grpCode(0) As Integer
grpCode(0) = 8
filterType = grpCode
Dim grpValue(0) As Variant
grpValue(0) = layername
filterData = grpValue
sset.Select acSelectionSetAll, p1, p2, filterType, filterData
Debug.Print "layer", layername, "Entities: " & str(sset.COUNT)
End Sub
'bring items on top
Sub OrderToTop(layername As String)
' This example creates a SortentsTable object and
' changes the draw order of selected object(s) to top.
Dim oSset As AcadSelectionSet
Dim oEnt
Dim i As Integer
Dim setName As String
setName = "$Order$"
'Make sure selection set does not exist
For i = 0 To ThisDrawing.SelectionSets.COUNT - 1
If ThisDrawing.SelectionSets.ITEM(i).NAME = setName Then
ThisDrawing.SelectionSets.ITEM(i).DELETE
Exit For
End If
Next i
setName = "tmp_" & time()
Set oSset = ThisDrawing.SelectionSets.Add(setName)
Call selectALayer(oSset, layername)
If oSset.COUNT > 0 Then
ReDim arrObj(0 To oSset.COUNT - 1) As ACADOBJECT
'Process each object
i = 0
For Each oEnt In oSset
Set arrObj(i) = oEnt
i = i + 1
Next
End If
'kills also left over selectionset by programming mistakes....
For Each selectionset In ThisDrawing.SelectionSets
selectionset.delete_by_layer_space
Next
On Error GoTo Err_Control
'Get an extension dictionary and, if necessary, add a SortentsTable object
Dim eDictionary As Object
Set eDictionary = ThisDrawing.modelspace.GetExtensionDictionary
' Prevent failed GetObject calls from throwing an exception
On Error Resume Next
Dim sentityObj As Object
Set sentityObj = eDictionary.GetObject("ACAD_SORTENTS")
On Error GoTo 0
If sentityObj Is Nothing Then
' No SortentsTable object, so add one
Set sentityObj = eDictionary.AddObject("ACAD_SORTENTS", "AcDbSortentsTable")
End If
'Move selected object(s) to the top
sentityObj.MoveToTop arrObj
applicaTION.UPDATE
Exit Sub
Err_Control:
If ERR.NUMBER > 0 Then MsgBox ERR.DESCRIPTION
End Sub
Sub bringtofrontbylist()
Dim lnames As String
'predefined layer names
layer_names = "foundation bridge road"
Dim h() As String
h = split(layernames)
For i = 0 To UBound(h)
Call OrderToTop(h(i))
Next
End Sub
'in case you want a fancy form here is how to get list / all layers
Sub list_layers()
Dim LAYER As AcadLayer
For Each LAYER In ThisDrawing.LAYERS
Debug.Print LAYER.NAME
Next
End Sub
to make it run put the cursor inside the VBA IDE inside the code of list_layers andpress F5 or choose it from the VBA Macro list.