XRAY dumps every ActiveX property and method of a picked object to the text window. This is the single most useful tool there is when writing your own routines.
What XRay does
When you need to know what a piece of geometry actually exposes — what a dynamic block calls its parameters, whether a leader stores its landing point as a property or a DXF group, what an object’s real class name is — you point this at it and read the answer, instead of guessing.
Two commands, one difference. XRAY inspects the top-level object you pick, so picking anything inside a block reports the block reference itself. XRAYN inspects the nested object, so picking inside a block or xref reports the individual line, arc or text you actually clicked, not its container.
How to use it
- Load the routine with
APPLOAD, or put it on your support file search path. - Type
XRAY, orXRAYNto look inside a block. - Pick the object.
- Press
F2if the text window is not already visible.
How it works
The routine walks the object’s ActiveX interface and reports every property name it exposes along with its current value, plus the methods available on it.
It is read-only, and deliberately so. It inspects and reports, and never modifies the drawing — so it changes no system variables and opens no undo group. There is nothing to undo, and an empty undo entry would only get in the user’s way when they pressed U expecting to reverse whatever they were actually working on.
Several routines in this library are configured by editing a list of ActiveX property names — ATTCLONE, TEXTCLONE and FIELDSTAMP among them. This is how you find the names to put in them.
Notes and limits
- Use XRAYN inside blocks and xrefs. Plain
XRAYreports the container. - Output goes to the text window. Press
F2. - It changes nothing — no system variables, no undo entry.
- Not every listed property is writable. The dump tells you what exists, not what can be set.
Download and details
| Name | XRay — dump every ActiveX property and method of a picked object |
| Download | XRay.lsp — 5.3 KB, plain AutoLISP source. Downloads directly; no zip to unpack. |
| Type | AutoCAD AutoLISP routine |
| Commands | XRAY, XRAYN |
| Requires | the ActiveX layer (loaded automatically by the routine with vl-load-com). |
| Source size | 5.3 KB, 131 lines |
| Error handling | Yes — a *error* handler restores every system variable it changed, on cancel as well as on error. |
| Undo | Not needed — this routine only reads the drawing and changes nothing. |
| Compatibility | AutoCAD (any release with AutoLISP), BricsCAD, ZWCAD, GstarCAD, ProgeCAD and other IntelliCAD-based platforms. AutoCAD LT needs a LISP enabler. No .NET, no ObjectARX, no installer. |
| Author | YZ, August 2026 |
| Licence | Free to use, supplied “as is” with no warranty. |
References
- SPYGLASS LISP — hover-to-inspect, for looking at many objects quickly
- ATTCLONE LISP — one of the routines configured by a property name list
- AREASTAMP LISP — building field commands from property names
- More free AutoLISP routines on this site
- Wisey’s Steel Shapes — free structural steel section drawing program