AutoLISP Routines

RUNLENGTH measures the distance along a chain of connected objects between two points. Select a run of connected lines, arcs and polylines — a pipe route, a kerb line, a cable run — then pick two points anywhere on it. The result is the true travelled distance following the geometry, not the straight-line distance between the picks. What RunLength … [Read more...] about RUNLENGTH LISP: Measure Along a Chain Between Two Points

AutoCAD offers no strikethrough at all, and its underline is an MText formatting code that plain Text and attributes cannot use. RuleText draws the rules as real polylines instead, so every text type is supported and the result plots identically everywhere. It also works in AutoCAD LT. What RuleText does Twelve commands, six styles in two forms each. RULE1, RULE2 … [Read more...] about RULE1 LISP: Strikethrough and Underline for AutoCAD Text

The built-in WIPEOUT command only accepts a polygonal boundary, so masking a circular area — a column, a manhole, a bolt hole on a detail — normally means drawing a many-sided polygon by hand and hoping it looks round. ROUNDMASK makes it genuinely circular. What RoundMask does ROUNDMASK draws a circular wipeout from a centre and radius. CIRC2MASK … [Read more...] about ROUNDMASK LISP: Circular Wipeouts AutoCAD Cannot Draw

RISERUN places a single aligned dimension between two picked points, but overrides the measured text with the horizontal and vertical components of the run: What RiseRun does X: +1250Y:  -300 Signed values are used deliberately. The sign tells you the direction of travel from the first point to the second, which is what makes this useful for setting … [Read more...] about RISERUN LISP: Dimension the X and Y Difference in AutoCAD

Select some curves, then drag. RIPPLE offsets them live, both sides at once if you want, as many times as you want, and shows you the whole set before you commit to it. What Ripple does Where the native OFFSET asks for a distance and then a side, and does one curve at a time, Ripple does the lot in one gesture: pick the objects, drag to the outermost line, and … [Read more...] about RIPPLE LISP: Dynamic Multiple Offset in AutoCAD

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 … [Read more...] about TALLYLEN LISP: Total Length or Area Across a Selection