Arkance Systems Node Library Feedback Thread

[Anton_Huizinga]

Here it is: a brand new node library for Civil 3D Dynamo! Developed since 2019 for internal use under the not so exciting name of the company I work for (‘Arkance systems’) and now it’s made public.

A little information can be found here:

Arkance Systems Node Library for Civil 3D Dynamo

The package adds over 500 nodes to the main library. There might be some overlap with Camber or Civil3DToolkit, that is inevitable, but there is still a lot of exciting and useful functionality. A PDF file with the description of each node is available.

Most input parameters are by default (current layer or current space, current text size or units). I tried to made the use of the nodes as simple as it could. Some nodes read settings from the Registry which can be set via the menu Packages > Arkance Systems Settings dialog:

Contents of the package

There are several nodes for annotation in AutoCAD like dimensions:

result in:

or read and write tables:

Document functions contain tens of dropdowns for layers, blocks, styles, UCSs, layouts. You can create, add, remove or cleanup annotation scales, manage colors, layers (even viewport overrides), layouts or UCSs.

GeoLocation stuff like converting from and to lat/lon.

Setting or getting variables is easy. Some new AutoCAD objects are available like DBPoints and Splines. A funny one is the possibility of creating Transient objects in AutoCAD that don’t actually exist. They are removed when the REGEN command has run or when the drawing is closed. Very handy as markup tool.

Geometry in Dynamo can be manipulated or requested. There is a node that finds the true centroid:

Also Civil 3D objects can be created, manipulated or examined. Alignments, CogoPoints and the User Defined Properties, FeatureLines, Parcels, Profiles and ProfileViews. It is very easy to create Layout or Surface Profiles, get a PolyCurve of an Alignment, a Parcel, FeatureLine or Profile.

Ever needed importing Open Streetmap files or KML files? There are nodes that read the files so you can convert the geometry and data to AutoCAD objects.

Very modern is using QR codes for everything and more. You can create these now as images or straight into the drawing as Image Reference. Ideal for project drawings.

I probably forget to mention a lot of other exciting stuff but you can find out yourself. This topic is meant for feedback, so do not hesitate to ask questions. If you can’t find the use for a node, or if you miss some functionality. In case of spelling mistakes, don’t forget English is not my native language, but when you inform me I can improve it

And there might be some bugs as well. Don’t worry, describe it here and I’ll kill them.

Have fun!

[Daan]

Hi @Anton_Huizinga ,

I’ve been working with your package this morning to change the layer visibility in viewports.
(which work WONDERS!! & even when on another PaperSpace!). By working with these nodes, I have run into some limitations/bugs. PS: Maybe it’s just me

The bugs/ limitations I have encountered:

1. The AutoCADLayer.HasOverrides node returns a false for all my layers, even when I am sure that there are Overrides in my drawing, the two nodes with the checkmarks just set layer-overrides . (Or is the HasLayerOverrides variable used for something else?)
   

   

2. When using the Viewport.FreezeLayers or the Viewport.ThawLayers node the output returns all the layers in my current drawing, not only the layers I gave as input. I would assume that the output would be 4 x 52 items in my output (of the Viewport.ThawLayers node), but the node returns 4 x 3870 items. See below:
   

   

These are the only bugs I encountered thus far, if I find anything else I’ll keep you updated

[mzjensen]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing, Anton!

[Anton_Huizinga]

I’m not sure what it is with HasLayerOverrides. You check the overrides of the layers before they are overriden in the viewport. If you lace the HasOverrides to the output of FreezeLayers, does it show true?

The second issue I have to examin.

Thanks for testing

[Anton_Huizinga]

Thank you!

[Anton_Huizinga]

@Daan

The AutoCADLayer.HasOverrides node returns a false for all my layers

It is a bit complex but VP Freeze is not a Layer Override. Only color, linetype, lineweight, transparency, and plottability are overrides. There is another node dat shows if a layer is frozen in a viewport. It confused me too when I was working on these nodes but that is how it works.

@Daan

the Viewport.ThawLayers node the output returns all the layers

Actually it returns the layers that are still frozen

[Daan]

Oh I see! Thanks for the quick response Anton.
I just checked and I now indeed see that both nodes returns the layers which are frozen in the specified Viewport.

[patrick.ericson]

Wow!!
Great work @Anton_Huizinga
What a great week! First I start using Data-Shapes, then Camber v3.0.0 and now you release your Dynamo package!
Thanks for all your work!
/Patrick

[WrightEngineering]

Amazing!!!

[KirkWM]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing!

[JowennLua]

Hi @Anton_Huizinga awesome work and thank you for sharing.

[Christhian]

great, thank you very much for sharing with the community

[stabouw]

Hello Anton,

Exciting to see so many new nodes for Civil 3D. However, I think I found a bug. This has to do with the menu item “Arkance System Settings”. When this menu item is active, all others disappear.

This how I currently see it. I know that Data-Shapes also provides it’s own menu dropdown bar, but this is not visible when Arkance Systems is active.

If I temporarily delete the Arkance Systems and reboot C3D these menu items reappear again (i.e. Data-Shapes & Monocle). It appears that Arkance System is somehow conflicting with other menu items.

Strangely enough if a Z is added to the name of the folder wherefrom the package is loaded also fixes the issue . Arkance System is thus put last by alphabet in the folder of custom packages, this package is then loaded as last, and no conflicts occur.

Folder wherefrom custom packages are loaded with adjusted title:

Dynamo UI when this setup is used, it works together:

I’m currently running C3D 2022 & Dynamo Core 2.12.0.5650 & Dynamo Civil 3D 2.12.0.1339 & Arkance Systems 5.0.0. This problem also occurs with a collegue with C3D 2021.

Any opportunity that you can look into this issue? This currently limits the usage of Arkance Systems for us, eventhough is it a great package to have.

Groetjes,
Stan

[Anton_Huizinga]

Hey Stan, thanks for testing it so thoroughly. It is a bit strange, I’ve tested it in 2023 and there it works without any problem:

As you can see the Monocle menu is loaded besides the Arkance Systems menu.

I’ve tested it in 2022 too:

Monocle menu is not visible, though it is installed. If Arkance Systems Library is loaded after the other packages, there is no problem.

Because it is not an issue in 2023, I assume the issue is out of my scope and is fixed in the latest version, but I’ll have a look if it can be fixed. So far it is a good workaround to rename the folder or to delete the ‘ArkanceSystems.Menu_ViewExtensionDefinition.xml’ file.

You have no other issues, missing libraries or nodes?

[stabouw]

As far as I’m aware I am not missing any libraries or any disfunctional nodes .

[Assem.Daaboul]

Seems very interesting, I’m sure I’ll use the annotation and layout capabilities. Thanks for sharing.

[WrightEngineering]

Noticed today that the alignment selection in arkance is the way to go. Really nice that it returns a single polycurve rather than arc, curves and nulls that need cleaning!

[Anton_Huizinga]

Keep in mind that spirals are not processed and ignored. In one of the upcoming releases I will add this too (as a series of short straights).

[Anton_Huizinga]

Today Arkance Systems Node Library version 6.0 is published. About 70 new nodes and several improvements were made.

What’s new:

Offset Alignments and widenings:

result in:

Read data from a Civil 3D Table:

The Profile View category has a few great new nodes like placement of Station and Elevation Labels:

Also new nodes to get the exaggeration, a point based on station and elevation and a station and elevation based on a point inside the Profile View.

The Profile category contains new nodes to get the top view and side view geometry, the visibility and style override in a Profile View.

Rectangular polycurves can be created with ease, also drawn at an angle:

Placing Images References in the drawing is quite easy, a filename or a bitmap object, a location and scale is enough.

Named Views is a complete new section. New Views can be created by two points, a centerpoint and radius, or by UCS.
Zoom to objects, a window or a Named View is new.
And new nodes to create screenshots from parts of the drawing is now possible too:

Could be interesting to create shots of each junction, parcel, pipeline hub or you name it, to create documentation screenshots.

What’s improved:

Several improvements were made to the Layer Create nodes (had some issues), blocks/tables/texts/points and QR codes can be placed on a Layout if desired. Spirals in Alignments result in short straights when converting them to PolyCurves and Surface and Profile View Labels are now placed on the layer as set in the drawing settings.

A few nodes are moved to other categories, so if you miss some, it is probably moved to a better category.

Enjoy the new version!

[WrightEngineering]

Anton,

Is it possible to set viewport freeze and thaw statuses of xref layers? I am testing out utilizing the freeze and thaw nodes across several viewports but I only seem to be able to select set the overrides for layers inside the active document. I tried using camber to get the external reference layers but I don’t believe I can input this into the arkance freeze and thaw nodes.

Thoughts?