Two commands that answer the two questions you ask a drawing most often. TALLYLEN totals the length of selected curves; TALLYAREA totals the area of selected closed objects.
What QuickTally does
Both results are formatted with rtos, so they honour the drawing’s LUNITS and LUPREC settings and read in the same units and precision as the rest of the drawing — no mental conversion between the answer and the sheet.
These commands only read the drawing. Nothing is created or modified, so neither opens an undo group and neither alters any system variable.
How to use it
- Load the routine with
APPLOAD, or put it on your support file search path. - Type
TALLYLENfor length orTALLYAREAfor area. - Select the objects.
- Read the total at the command line.
How it works
One caveat on TALLYAREA is worth knowing before you trust a total. It reports the area each object encloses — and an open polyline still has a computable area, because AutoCAD treats it as though a closing segment ran from its last vertex back to its first.
So if a boundary was never properly closed, the figure returned is the area of that implied closure rather than an error. The number looks entirely reasonable and is measuring a shape that is not on the drawing.
That is not a fault in the routine — it is how AutoCAD reports area — but it is the reason a suspiciously plausible total is worth checking against a closed boundary.
Notes and limits
- Check your boundaries are actually closed before trusting an area total.
- Results are in drawing units, at the drawing’s own precision.
- Nothing is modified, so there is no undo group and no system variable is touched.
- For a live figure on the sheet, use AREASUM or AREATOTAG instead — these print once and are done.
Download and details
| Name | QuickTally — total length or area across a selection and print the result |
| Download | QuickTally.lsp — 7.2 KB, plain AutoLISP source. Downloads directly; no zip to unpack. |
| Type | AutoCAD AutoLISP routine |
| Commands | TALLYAREA, TALLYLEN |
| Requires | the ActiveX layer (loaded automatically by the routine with vl-load-com). |
| Source size | 7.2 KB, 187 lines |
| Error handling | Yes — a *error* handler restores every system variable it changed, on cancel as well as on error. |
| Undo | Not needed — this routine only reads the drawing and changes nothing. |
| Compatibility | AutoCAD (any release with AutoLISP), BricsCAD, ZWCAD, GstarCAD, ProgeCAD and other IntelliCAD-based platforms. AutoCAD LT needs a LISP enabler. No .NET, no ObjectARX, no installer. |
| Author | YZ, August 2026 |
| Licence | Free to use, supplied “as is” with no warranty. |
References
- TAPE LISP — length totalling that reports degenerate objects separately
- AREASUM LISP — a live field instead of a one-off figure
- ZONE LISP — totals grouped by layer
- More free AutoLISP routines on this site
- Wisey’s Steel Shapes — free structural steel section drawing program