AutoLISP Routines

PNEUMLINE draws the signal lines used on process and instrument diagrams, where the marks along a line say what kind of signal it carries. What PneumaticLine does Pneumatic takes double cross-hatch ticks. Electric takes single dashes across. Capillary takes crossed X marks. Data takes small circles. Pick a route and the line is drawn with its marks evenly … [Read more...] about PNEUMLINE LISP: Draw Instrument and Signal Lines

Type what you want in ordinary words and watch AutoCAD do it: draw three circles, hide the lines, count the circles, that will do, quit. What PlainSpeak does It is a demonstration rather than a tool. But the thing it demonstrates is worth understanding, because the same machinery is useful anywhere a routine has to make sense of text it did not write — a … [Read more...] about PLAINSPEAK LISP: Drive AutoCAD by Typing English

PITCHMARK measures the slope of a line and draws the standard pitch triangle beside it: a small right-angled triangle whose hypotenuse lies parallel to the roof, with the run written along the horizontal leg and the rise along the vertical one. What PitchMark does It can also report the same slope as an angle in degrees, as a percentage grade, or as a ratio … [Read more...] about PITCHMARK LISP: Draw the Roof Pitch Rise-Over-Run Symbol

PARTWEIGHT works out what a cut plate part will weigh: select its outline, give a thickness and a material, and it reports the area, the volume and the weight. Select several outlines and it totals them. What PartWeight does This is the number that goes on a cutting list, prices a job, and decides whether two people can lift it. The area is measured … [Read more...] about PARTWEIGHT LISP: Weigh a Flat Part From Its Outline

Every practice has a master list of notes — the hundred-odd paragraphs that appear on drawing after drawing. Retyping them invites typos; copying them from the last job propagates whatever was wrong on the last job. NOTEBOOK reads them from one file that one person maintains. What NoteBook does The notes file is plain text. A line beginning with a dollar … [Read more...] about NOTEBOOK LISP: Standard Notes Library for AutoCAD

Draw the same shape twice — once as it starts, once as it ends — on two different layers. MORPH walks one into the other over as many frames as you ask for, snapping a slide at each step and writing a script that plays them back. What MorphFrames does Classic tweening: you draw the two extremes and the machine draws everything in between. Useful for a … [Read more...] about MORPH LISP: Tweened Animation Between Two Line Drawings