GRAPHGRID draws a ruled grid with both axes numbered — the background for a section through a road or drain, a settlement plot, a load curve, a pressure test, anything read off rather than dimensioned.
What GraphGrid does
Each axis takes a starting value, how much each square is worth, and how often to write a number. So a chainage axis can run 0, 25, 50 in squares of 5, and the level axis alongside it can run in metres.
How to use it
- Load the routine with
APPLOAD, or put it on your support file search path. - Type
GRAPHGRID. - Pick the origin corner.
- For each axis: the starting value, the value per square, how many squares, and how often to label.
How it works
Labels keep their decimals. Rounding each one down to a whole number is the failure that makes the whole grid useless: an axis in increments of 0.5 comes out labelled 0, 0, 1, 1, 2, 2, and an axis running in tenths comes out as a column of zeros.
The grid is built directly rather than by arraying a line. Arraying works, and leaves the result as loose objects with nothing to distinguish the grid from the plot you are about to draw on it.
Notes and limits
- Fractional increments work, and are labelled as such.
- The two axes are set independently — different value per square, different label frequency.
- CMDECHO and BLIPMODE are restored to what they were.
- One undo group covers the grid.
Download and details
| Name | GraphGrid — a ruled graph grid with both axes numbered |
| Download | GraphGrid.lsp — 7.4 KB, plain AutoLISP source. Downloads directly; no zip to unpack. |
| Type | AutoCAD AutoLISP routine |
| Command | GRAPHGRID |
| Requires | nothing beyond a CAD platform with AutoLISP. |
| Source size | 7.4 KB, 186 lines |
| Error handling | Yes — a *error* handler restores every system variable it changed, on cancel as well as on error. |
| Undo | The whole operation is wrapped in a single undo group, so one U reverses all of it. |
| 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
- GANTTCHART LISP — a programme bar chart on the same principle
- SURFACEPLOT LISP — plotting a surface rather than a curve
- GRIDREF LISP — a coordinate grid over a site plan
- More free AutoLISP routines on this site
- Wisey’s Steel Shapes — free structural steel section drawing program