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Building LISP Collection: Doors and Windows for AutoCAD

September 18, 2020

Last updated July 28, 2026

Four routines for the openings in a wall: two door types and two window types, each drawn parametrically from a width you type rather than inserted as a block. They are credited to Tom Stoeckel.

The appeal of a parametric opening over a block library is that there is no library to maintain. A block set needs a symbol for every width you use; these draw whatever width you ask for, at whatever angle, with the jamb breaks and swing arcs worked out to suit.

The four commands

  • DOOR — a single door with its swing.
  • DDOOR — a double door. The largest of the four files, which is what you would expect: two leaves, two swings and a meeting point to work out.
  • CWIND — a casement window.
  • EWIND — the other window type in the set. CWIND and EWIND are the same size to the byte, which suggests one was written by copying the other and changing the geometry.

Each command lives in its own file, so you can load only the ones you want — useful given the name clash described below.

DOOR is the fourth one in this library

This is the practical thing to plan for. A command called DOOR now appears in four separate downloads on this site: this collection, the standalone door routine, the Civil package which has one bundled in unmentioned, and the WALLS suite.

They are all different routines with different prompts and different output. Load two of them and whichever came last silently replaces the other, with no warning and nothing to tell you which one you are about to run.

If you are collecting door routines to compare, load them one at a time in a scratch drawing, or rename the command in three of the four files. The rename is a single word at the top of each file.

Where it came from

The archive includes a small advertisement file from the Australian bulletin board this was distributed through in the 1990s — the same board whose details turn up in the standalone door routine and the batt insulation routine. It specialised in CAD and computer graphics and ran a shareware library.

The file is not needed for anything — it is a text advertisement — but it is a small piece of Australian CAD history, and it tells you how this collection reached the country.

How to load it

Unzip the download and load whichever of the four .LSP files you want with APPLOAD. There are no dependencies between them and no support files. Our AutoLISP guide covers loading.

Step-by-step usage

  1. Load the file for the opening you want, and check nothing else you have loaded uses the same command name.
  2. Type the command — DOOR, DDOOR, CWIND or EWIND.
  3. Give the width and follow the placement prompts to set the position and which way it faces.
  4. The opening is drawn into the wall.

Draw one of each in a scratch drawing at a known width first. With four routines and a name clash to watch, five minutes finding out what each one produces saves confusion later.

Compatibility notes

No dates in the files; the bulletin board packaging places distribution in the 1990s. Written-for rather than tested-on. These are small parametric routines using standard point and angle functions with AutoCAD’s own drawing commands, which is the kind of code that tends to keep working.

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 them. See what runs on AutoCAD LT.

Download

Name: Building Lisp Collection
Description: A series of lisp routines that draw building entities such as doors and windows.
Type: AutoCAD AutoLISP Routine
Author: Tom Stoeckel
File Size: 4 Kb
Cost: Free
Worked on: AutoCAD
Download File: Building Lisp Collection.zip

Related routines

  • ArchLisp — eleven routines covering four door swing types plus stairs and a ceiling grid.
  • Door LISP routine — the standalone one, from the same bulletin board.
  • WALLS — wall generation, with its own door and window commands.

References

  • AutoLISP: the complete guide
  • Free LISP routines library
  • AutoLISP on AutoCAD LT

Filed Under: AutoLISP Routines

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