TERMSTRIP draws a terminal block — a ladder of numbered terminals at an even pitch, at any angle, with a prefix and suffix on the numbers.
What TerminalStrip does
For control panel drawings, junction boxes and marshalling cabinets: anywhere a row of numbered connections has to be drawn and labelled.
Numbers can count up or down, in any step, so a strip wired from the far end reads correctly.
How to use it
- Load the routine with
APPLOAD, or put it on your support file search path. - Type
TERMSTRIP. - Give the pitch, the number of terminals, the start number and step, and any prefix or suffix.
- Pick the start point and the direction.
How it works
Labels are strings, not integers. Building the terminal number with itoa restricts a strip to whole numbers — no 1A, 1B, no 101.1, which are the numbers real panel schedules are full of.
A fixed-height text style is a perfectly ordinary way to set a drawing up, and is treated as one. Text height comes from DIMTXT × DIMSCALE unless the style has a fixed height, in which case the style wins — without comment.
An interrupted strip backs out in one step. Without an error handler and an undo group, cancelling half way leaves however many terminals were drawn, each needing its own U.
Notes and limits
- Any angle — the strip does not have to run horizontally.
- Count up or down, in any step.
- Prefix and suffix wrap the number, so
X1-gives X1-1, X1-2. - One undo group covers the strip.
Download and details
| Name | TerminalStrip — draw a numbered terminal strip |
| Download | TerminalStrip.lsp — 7.5 KB, plain AutoLISP source. Downloads directly; no zip to unpack. |
| Type | AutoCAD AutoLISP routine |
| Command | TERMSTRIP |
| Requires | nothing beyond a CAD platform with AutoLISP. |
| Source size | 7.5 KB, 179 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
- SERIALTAG LISP — the same counting, placed by hand where you want it
- PNEUMATICLINE LISP — the other panel-drawing routine in this set
- TAGBATCH LISP — numbering a whole run of blocks at once
- More free AutoLISP routines on this site
- Wisey’s Steel Shapes — free structural steel section drawing program