Last updated July 28, 2026
AL draws a leader with a squiggly line instead of a straight one — the wavy pointer used on presentation drawings and sketch-style architectural work, where a ruled leader would look too mechanical against hand-drawn linework.
It is by Glen Nevill, with a note in the header that the arrow was reworked by somebody signing as LJL on 21 March 1992.
It asks for your drawing scale once
The first time you run it in a session it asks for the drawing scale, and then remembers it. Every run after that uses the same figure without asking again.
That is the right behaviour for a leader tool — you place a lot of them and you do not want to answer the same question each time. The scale controls the arrow size, so the leaders come out consistent across the drawing.
The catch is that there is no way to change your mind. Once the value is set it persists for the whole drawing session, and the routine never offers to update it. If you gave it the wrong scale, or you move to a drawing at a different scale without restarting AutoCAD, you are stuck with the first answer. The value lives in a variable called scl, so setting that back to nil at the command line will make it ask again.
How the squiggle is made
Worth understanding, because it explains the one setting the routine changes.
The wavy line is a curve-fitted polyline. The routine builds a leader from a handful of computed points — the arrow position, the text position, and offsets to either side of the line between them — then lets AutoCAD smooth that into a curve. The number of segments in the smoothing is set to eight before it draws, which is what gives the wave its particular looseness.
If the result is too tight or too loose for your taste, that number is the thing to change. It appears once near the top of the file.
Command reference
The command is AL. Two letters, and one worth checking against your own aliases before loading.
The LLP Suite on this site also defines a command called AL, doing something different. Load both and whichever came last wins, silently. Load one or rename the other.
How to load it
Unzip AL2.zip and load AL2.LSP with APPLOAD, or add it to the Startup Suite if you do presentation work regularly. No support files. Our AutoLISP guide covers loading.
Step-by-step usage
- Type AL.
- On the first run only, give it the drawing scale.
- At “Arrow location:” pick the point the leader should point at.
- At “Text location:” pick where the annotation will sit. The squiggly leader is drawn between them.
The routine draws the leader only, not the text — place your note separately at the point you nominated.
Compatibility notes
1992 for the arrow revision, so written-for rather than tested-on. It uses point and angle arithmetic with the PLINE command and a curve fit, none of which has changed.
Plain AutoLISP with no dialog boxes and no Express Tools calls, so nothing requires the full product; LT users on LT 2024 or later, the release that brought AutoLISP to LT, should be able to run it. See what runs on AutoCAD LT. Note that it changes the curve-smoothing setting and does not put it back, so check that variable afterwards if you use curve fitting elsewhere.
Download
| Name: | AL |
| Description: | This program creates leaders with squiggly lines. |
| Type: | AutoCAD AutoLISP Routine |
| Author: | Glen Nevill |
| File Size: | 1 Kb |
| Cost: | Free |
| Worked on: | AutoCAD |
| Download File: | AL2.zip |
Related routines
- Freehand — the same hand-drawn effect applied to ordinary linework.
- ROUGHEN — irregular zigzag lines for surfaces.
- Delete All Leaders — note that this routine’s output is a polyline, not a leader object, so that stripper will not remove it.