By Martin Phelps
As an alternative to creating a “Rectangular” or “Non-Rectangular” “Count” area, described in the previous blogs, an “Object” in the drawing can also be selected and used as the “Count” boundary.
Note: - Only items completely inside the selected “Object” will be counted.
Currently, for best results, the drawn “Object” must be a closed “Polyline”, comprising only of line segments, so NO ARCS, and the “Polyline” must not intersect itself.
Good practice would be to place the “Polyline” on a separate “Layer” with a unique name and a suitable colour, a “Lineweight” could also be applied to highlight the “Object” further, as shown in Figure 1.
Depending on user preferences this “Layer” may also be set to “Non-Plot”, so that the “Polylines” defining the “Count” areas do not appear on any prints, whether it be a hard copy or PDF.
Access the “Count” command, and select “Object” from either the “Command Line”, the “Right-Click Menu”, or type “O” and press enter, then select the relevant “Polyline”, currently only one “Polyline” can be selected.
Press enter to use the default “List All Blocks”, this will list all the “Blocks” within the selected “Polyline”.
The “Count” pallet is now displayed, listing all the “Blocks” within the selected “Polyline”. A “Table” comprising of all the “Blocks” in the list can now be inserted into the drawing.
The above can be repeated for the other “Polyline Objects”, so it would be possible for each room to have its own contents table, as shown in Figure 2.
Note: - A possible advantage of using the above method, would enable each defined “Polyline” to also be linked to a “Table”. Properties of the “Polyline, for example “Area”, “Length”, which in this case would be the perimeter of the room, “Layer” etc., could all be linked to data cells within the table. This table could then be exported to a *.CSV file.