AutoLISP Routines

CROSSHAIR draws a crossed pair of centrelines through an arc, circle or ellipse, at a length and rotation you drag out. It is a small routine and it does one thing, which is most of the point. What CrossHair does DIMCENTER will centre-mark a circle, but the size comes from DIMCEN and the marks are always orthogonal to the current UCS. When you want the centrelines … [Read more...] about CROSSHAIR LISP: Centre-Mark a Circle, Arc or Ellipse

Draw one parking bay labelled BAY 01, array it fifteen times, and an ordinary array gives you fifteen copies of BAY 01. COUNTARRAY gives you BAY 02 through BAY 16. What CountArray does The same applies to grid references, pile numbers, column marks, drainage manholes — anything that runs in sequence and would otherwise be renumbered by hand … [Read more...] about COUNTARRAY LISP: Array Objects and Increment the Numbers

AutoCAD gives you window and crossing selection, but both are rectangles. When the boundary you care about is an irregular site outline, a room, a zone or a circle, you are reduced to a fence or a lot of shift-clicking. CORRAL traces the boundary you point at and builds a WPolygon selection from it. What Corral does Two ways to use it. Type CORRAL at the command … [Read more...] about CORRAL LISP: Select Everything Inside a Polyline or Circle

CMDSCOUT lists every custom command defined by a LISP file without loading it. This becomes indispensable the moment a library passes about fifty routines — you are handed a .lsp file and you need to know what commands it would add before you commit to loading it. What CommandScout does Loading an unknown file has two risks. It might redefine a command you … [Read more...] about CMDSCOUT LISP: List a LISP File’s Commands Without Loading

Point BORROW at any drawing or template and it lists everything that drawing contains and this one does not. Tick what you want and it is copied across. This is the answer to “that drawing has the right title block, layer standard and dimension style, and mine does not”. What Borrow does Nineteen kinds of thing can be borrowed: blocks, layers, … [Read more...] about BORROW LISP: Import Layers, Blocks and Styles From a DWG

BLOCKTALLY counts every block in the drawing, or just the ones you select, and delivers the result as a real AutoCAD table, a text file, a CSV spreadsheet, or a listing at the command line. This is the door schedule, the fixture count and the furniture list — without selecting each symbol type in turn and reading numbers off the status bar. What BlockTally … [Read more...] about BLOCKTALLY LISP: Count Blocks and Build a Schedule