Text blocks to 3D loci

[Francois Levy]

A surveyor has provided me with an incomplete file (and of course I'm in a rush) with 914 points identified. They've imported as groups with a text object adjacent. I'd like to automate placing a 3D locus with the correct Z coordinate (given in the adjacent text). Obviosuly what I'm after is data for a DTM. Any suggestions? Manually placing 914 3D loci and assigning their Z's would be tedious.

[islandmon]

Whenever faced with this situation my first approach is to export the file as text and then try to >find&replace in order to create a simple vss file . Or I use excel to do the same thing. Download for an example of the process:

http://www.fractalnet.org/CAD/VSS_SRVY_DATUM.zip

[Francois Levy]

Thanks! That's very helpful. Here's what I ended up doing--a bit more simple-minded I admit, but I couldn't have done it without seeing your examples first:

--I copied all my text objects and pasted them into a clean file

--Exported as a VectorScript file

--In a text editor, I did a series of find/replace, replacing first

TextOrigin

with

Locus3D

then (at the end of the x,y for the text object) replacing

);

BeginText;

'

with

,

finally, I replaced

'' (at the end of the line with the text object's value)

with

)

This had the effect of changing each text object with an x,y and value into a 3D locus with an x,y, and z, using the text object's value for the z.

--I then saved the text file as MyFile.vss, then imported into VectorWorks as a VectorScript.

Seems to have worked like a charm. Thanks again!!