Short description
- Displays a filterable layer selection dialog and then zooms the view to the extents of all objects on the chosen layer.
- Supports picking a layer directly from a selected object in the drawing and remembers the last filter used.
Command:
- Command: Zoom2Layer
Description:
- Builds a list of layers that are visible and unfrozen, then shows a temporary DCL popup where the user can filter and select a layer.
- The filter field supports wildcards * and ? and is restored from the environment variable CHLAY-LAST-FILTER (defaults to *).
- After a layer is selected, the command gathers all entities on that layer and computes a combined bounding rectangle, then performs a window zoom to that area.
Helper function: (if any)
- LayerList-popup creates and manages the layer selection dialog and returns the chosen layer name when confirmed.
- Drawing-Visible-Layers-lst iterates layer records via tblnext and keeps only layers that are not off and not frozen by checking flag bits in group code 70.
- Update-List filters the full layer list using wcmatch against the current filter pattern and repopulates the list box.
- Highlight-Layer attempts to locate a layer inside the filtered list and sets the list box selection to it.
- Show-Dialog loads the temporary DCL file, wires dialog actions, returns the dialog exit code, and supports a special return value for the pick-from-drawing workflow.
- c:Zoom2Layer selects all entities on the chosen layer, aggregates bounding boxes via ActiveX GetBoundingBox, and executes ZoomWindow.
Functionalities:
- • Layer filtering with wildcard patterns entered in the dialog filter box.
- • Layer list scope includes only layers that are not off and not frozen (visible/unfrozen set).
- • Pick Layer from Drawing button temporarily exits the dialog so the user can select an object and adopt that object’s layer as the new filter, then reopens the dialog.
- • Persisted filter stored in CHLAY-LAST-FILTER and restored on next run.
- • Zoom-to-layer extents by collecting all objects on the selected layer and computing min/max XY bounds from each entity’s bounding box.
- • Robustness uses guarded ActiveX calls and skips entities that do not support GetBoundingBox.
Result:
- If the user confirms a layer selection, the view zooms to the combined extents of entities on that layer.
- If no objects exist on the selected layer, prints No objects found on layer for that layer.
- If objects exist but none provide a valid bounding box, prints No valid geometry to zoom to for that layer.
- If the user cancels or no layer is selected, prints No layer selected or cancelled and performs no zoom.
Images, animations etc.
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XAML code:
<ResourceDictionary
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:src="clr-namespace:Autodesk.Windows;assembly=AdWindows">
<src:RibbonToolTip x:Key="Zoom2Layer">
<src:RibbonToolTip.ExpandedContent>
<StackPanel>
<TextBlock Background="AntiqueWhite" TextAlignment="Zoom2Layer">
<Bold>Function Syntax: Command</Bold>
<LineBreak/>
<Bold>Version: 1 Date: 23.12.2025</Bold>
<LineBreak/>
<LineBreak/>
<Hyperlink>AI</Hyperlink>
<LineBreak/>
<Bold>Summary Description</Bold><LineBreak/>
<Run>This program provides a layer-selection dialog and a zoom-to-layer command for AutoCAD.</Run><LineBreak/>
<Run Foreground="DarkRed">Primary command:</Run><Run> </Run><Bold><Run Foreground="DarkRed">Zoom2Layer</Run></Bold><Run> (runs the workflow end to end).</Run><LineBreak/>
<Bold>What the user will do</Bold><LineBreak/>
<Run>1. Run the command </Run><Bold><Run Foreground="DarkRed">Zoom2Layer</Run></Bold><Run>.</Run><LineBreak/>
<Run>2. In the dialog, choose a target layer from a filtered list (visible and unfrozen layers only).</Run><LineBreak/>
<Run>3. Optionally, press </Run><Bold><Run Foreground="DarkRed">Pick Layer from Drawing</Run></Bold><Run> and select an object in the drawing to auto-set the target layer.</Run><LineBreak/>
<Run>4. Click </Run><Bold><Run Foreground="DarkRed">OK</Run></Bold><Run> to zoom to all objects found on that layer, or </Run><Bold><Run Foreground="DarkRed">Cancel</Run></Bold><Run> to exit.</Run><LineBreak/>
<Bold>Dialog and selection behavior</Bold><LineBreak/>
<Run Foreground="DarkBlue">Filter field:</Run><Run> Supports wildcard patterns using </Run><Bold><Run Foreground="DarkRed"></Run></Bold><Run> and </Run><Bold><Run Foreground="DarkRed">?</Run></Bold><Run> to narrow the list of layers.</Run><LineBreak/>
<Run Foreground="DarkBlue">Layer list contents:</Run><Run> Only layers that are </Run><Bold><Run Foreground="DarkRed">not Off</Run></Bold><Run> and </Run><Bold><Run Foreground="DarkRed">not Frozen</Run></Bold><Run> are displayed.</Run><LineBreak/>
<Run Foreground="DarkBlue">Default behavior:</Run><Run> If the filter is empty, it is treated as </Run><Bold><Run Foreground="DarkRed"></Run></Bold><Run>. If the filtered list is not empty, the first item is selected by default.</Run><LineBreak/>
<Run Foreground="DarkBlue">Pick from drawing:</Run><Run> Selecting an object reads its layer (DXF group </Run><Bold><Run Foreground="DarkRed">8</Run></Bold><Run>) and uses that layer name as the current filter target.</Run><LineBreak/>
<Run Foreground="DarkBlue">Persistence:</Run><Run> The last-used filter is saved to the environment variable </Run><Bold><Run Foreground="DarkRed">CHLAY-LAST-FILTER</Run></Bold><Run> and restored on the next run.</Run><LineBreak/>
<Bold>Zoom operation</Bold><LineBreak/>
<Run Foreground="DarkGreen">Selection set:</Run><Run> The program gathers all entities on the chosen layer using a global selection (equivalent to selecting the entire drawing filtered by layer).</Run><LineBreak/>
<Run Foreground="DarkGreen">Extents calculation:</Run><Run> It computes a combined bounding window by iterating entities that support </Run><Bold><Run Foreground="DarkRed">GetBoundingBox</Run></Bold><Run> and expanding the min and max corners.</Run><LineBreak/>
<Run Foreground="DarkGreen">Zoom execution:</Run><Run> It zooms to the computed window using </Run><Bold><Run Foreground="DarkRed">ZoomWindow</Run></Bold><Run>.</Run><LineBreak/>
<Bold>Functionalities (bullet list)</Bold><LineBreak/>
<Run>• </Run><Bold><Run Foreground="DarkRed">Layer picker dialog</Run></Bold><Run> with searchable filtering using wildcard patterns.</Run><LineBreak/>
<Run>• Lists only </Run><Bold><Run Foreground="DarkRed">visible</Run></Bold><Run> and </Run><Bold><Run Foreground="DarkRed">unfrozen</Run></Bold><Run> layers for practical selection.</Run><LineBreak/>
<Run>• </Run><Bold><Run Foreground="DarkRed">Pick Layer from Drawing</Run></Bold><Run> to capture a layer name directly from a selected object.</Run><LineBreak/>
<Run>• Remembers the last filter via </Run><Bold><Run Foreground="DarkRed">CHLAY-LAST-FILTER</Run></Bold><Run> to speed up repeated use.</Run><LineBreak/>
<Run>• Finds all objects on the selected layer and </Run><Bold><Run Foreground="DarkRed">zooms to their combined extents</Run></Bold><Run>.</Run><LineBreak/>
<Bold>Outputs and edge cases</Bold><LineBreak/>
<Run>• If the user cancels or selects nothing, the command ends with the message </Run><Bold><Run Foreground="DarkRed">No layer selected or cancelled</Run></Bold><Run>.</Run><LineBreak/>
<Run>• If no objects exist on the chosen layer, it reports </Run><Bold><Run Foreground="DarkRed">No objects found on layer</Run></Bold><Run>.</Run><LineBreak/>
<Run>• If objects exist but none provide valid geometry for bounding boxes, it reports </Run><Bold><Run Foreground="DarkRed">No valid geometry to zoom to</Run></Bold><Run>.</Run><LineBreak/>
</TextBlock>
<Grid>
<Image Source="PNG" Stretch="Uniform"/>
</Grid>
<Grid>
<MediaElement
Source="GIF"
Stretch="Uniform"
Visibility="Visible"/>
</Grid>
</StackPanel>
</src:RibbonToolTip.ExpandedContent>
</src:RibbonToolTip>
</ResourceDictionary>
Additional info:
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