AutoLISP Routines

The standard OFFSET command works on a whole object. When you only want to offset the middle stretch of a long polyline — to show a widening, a crossing, or a section of kerb build-out — you normally have to break the polyline, offset the fragment and then repair the original. PARTOFFSET does it without touching the source polyline at all. What PartOffset … [Read more...] about PARTOFFSET LISP: Offset Part of a Polyline to Both Sides

LEVELTAG places elevation markers. It prompts repeatedly until you press Enter, drawing a tapered triangular pointer with the point’s UCS Y-coordinate as the text above it. What LevelTag does The level is read from where you pick rather than typed, which is the whole point — on a section drawn to true height, the marker cannot disagree with the … [Read more...] about LEVELTAG LISP: Place Elevation Markers in AutoCAD

LENGTHTOTAG pushes a length — or the sum of several lengths — into a block attribute as a live field. Select the objects to measure, pick the attribute, and it is populated with a field showing the total. Editing the geometry updates the attribute automatically. What LengthToTag does This is the companion to AREATOTAG, for anything measured by run … [Read more...] about LENGTHTOTAG LISP: Put a Live Length Field Into an Attribute

LAYWRAP adds or removes a prefix and/or suffix on layer names, in bulk. The usual reason is a merge: you are bringing another consultant’s drawing into yours and their layer names would collide with your own, so every incoming layer gets stamped with an identifying prefix. What LayerWrap does LAYWRAP adds the prefix and suffix; LAYUNWRAP removes them again, … [Read more...] about LAYWRAP LISP: Add or Remove a Prefix on Layer Names

AutoCAD’s DRAWORDER command works on selected objects. That is no use when the rule you actually want is “hatching behind everything, text in front of everything, survey base at the very back” — a rule about layers, not about particular objects. LAYERSTACK works the way the rule does. What LayerStack does A two-pane dialog: all layers on … [Read more...] about LAYERSTACK LISP: Set AutoCAD Draw Order by Layer

LAYERSPLIT exports the contents of every layer to its own separate drawing file. You choose an output folder and one DWG is written per layer, named <sourceDrawing>_<layerName>.dwg. Empty layers are reported and skipped. What LayerSplit does Typical uses are splitting a combined model out for individual consultants, extracting a single discipline from … [Read more...] about LAYERSPLIT LISP: Export Every Layer to Its Own Drawing