AutoCAD Core Console for batch files

This is an update of the batch processing unit for the CAD Management class at Southern Maine Community College.

There is a function in AutoCAD known as the Core Console that runs AutoCAD without the graphical user interface. When it was first introduced, it was a great way to run this batch process, but then stopped working a few releases later, so I stopped using it. I went back to it this semester and was able to modify my batch files and script files in such a way that it now works as it should (and once did).  

When I tested it using the Block Out project the difference was dramatic. Opening AutoCAD's GUI took 102 seconds to run through. Using the Core Console took 9 seconds to do the same thing. That is 11 times faster or a 92% reduction in time. I've never tried doing the whole process manually, but I opened one of the five drawings and created drawings from 10 of the blocks in that drawing, then closed it. That took 132 seconds. Since there were 101 blocks created by the program, my estimate would be that it would take 1320 seconds, or 22 minutes to do this manually. So using the Core console would do the job in 0.7% of the time it would take manually.