March 22, 2022 By Dennis Collin
AutoCAD gets used by many disciplines who need the software to perform a wide range of tasks. I was recently asked about how I would go about creating geometry from a list of XYZ coordinates. These points could be boundary markers or survey stations, but if there are many points to place, this can be quite a tedious and error prone process.
Fortunately, AutoCAD has a very flexible API with a range of environments, LISP is an old language but still has a place in performing routine tasks. I noticed a useful free Lisp routine that does precisely this task of inputting points from a text file, as either point entities, geometry or attributed blocks.
These routines can be loaded into AutoCAD start-up suite of bespoke commands. I have discussed this process in a previous post here:
Once loaded via Appload, the command INPUTXYZ becomes available to AutoCAD for the reading in of survey data from a compatible file. INPUTXYZ routine is a free download at https://JefferyPsanders.com. This routine allows the selection of a suitable file format such as XLS, TXT, CSV or similar. The routine also has a, get data function that allows for format checking and then a user defined option of how that data should be shown within a drawing.
Once imported other routines could be used to connect them with lines, place on layers and be used to create surfaces.
