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The ABC’s of AutoLISP by George Omura1

Copyright © 2001 George Omura,,World rights reserved

Introduction

One of AutoCAD's greatest assets is its adaptability. You can control just about every aspect of AutoCAD's operations from the appearance of its drawing editor to its variety of menus. A keyelement of this adaptability is its built-in programming language, AutoLISP. With AutoLISP,you can virtually write your own commands or redefine others.You can think of AutoLISP as a very sophisticated macro-building facility. (Simple macros arelike scripts that automate repetitive keystrokes.) You don't need to be a programmer to useAutoLISP. In fact, AutoLISP is designed so that everyday users of AutoCAD can start to use itafter a minimum of training. This book makes AutoLISP accessible to AutoCAD users who arelooking for a way to enhance and extend their use of AutoCAD.



W

ho should read this book

This book introduces nonprogrammers to the use of AutoLISP. If you are an intermediate levelAutoCAD user, interested in learning about this powerful tool, then this is the book for you. If you are just beginning to learn AutoCAD, then you should probably become a bit more familiar with AutoCAD before attempting to learn AutoLISP. This book assumes that you have at leastan intermediate level of expertise with AutoCAD and are acquainted with simple Windowsoperations.

H

ow This Book Is Organized

The book is divided into 11 chapters. The first three chapters give you an introduction to programming in AutoLISP. The Chapter 1 introduces you to AutoLISP by showing you how touse it directly from the AutoCAD command prompt. The Chapter 2 shows you how to create andsave programs in a file. Chapter 3 discusses ways of organizing your programming projects andhow to manage your computers' memory.The next four chapters show you how to use AutoLISP to do a variety of editing tasks. Chapter 4discusses the functions that allow you to ask the user for input. Chapter 5 explains how to builddecision-making capabilities into your programs. Chapter 6 shows you how to deal with geometric problems using AutoCAD. Chapter 7 discusses the manipulation of text.The last four chapters show you how AutoCAD and AutoLISP interact. In Chapter 8, you willsee how you can control many facets of AutoCAD through AutoLISP. Chapter 9 delves intolists, a fundamental component of all AutoLISP programs. Chapter 10 shows you ways of modifying AutoCAD objects by directly accessing the AutoCAD drawing database. And finally,Chapter 11 looks at ways to dig deeper into the drawing database to get information on complexdrawing objects like polylines and block attributes.In addition, five appendices are included as reference material to the book. In the original versionof this book, these appendices contained the resources indicated by their title. In this electronicversion, these appendices offer directions on how to find information in the AutoCAD helpsystem. The first three show you how to find information on the AutoCAD menu structure,AutoLISP error messages, and AutoCAD group codes. The fourth appendix describes how to find informaton on the standard AutoCAD dimension variables and system variables. The fifthappendix describes how to find informaton on the Table group codes.



H

ow to Use This Book

Each chapter offers exercises and sample programs that demonstrate some general conceptregarding AutoLISP. Through these exercises, the book shows you how programs develop fromideas into finished, running programs. Also, the information you learn in one chapter will buildon what you learned in the previous chapter. This way, your knowledge of AutoLISP will beintegrated and cohesive, rather than fragmented. For this reason, the best way to use this book isto read each chapter in order and do all of the exercises. Since the topics are oriented towardaccomplishing tasks rather than simply focusing on individual functions, you will have a goodgrasp of how to use AutoLISP in real world situations by the end of this book.

W

here to Find the LISP Programs

As you read the chapters and do the exercise, you will be asked to enter program code into a file.If you are in a hurry, you can cut and paste the code directly from the chapter you are reading.This will save a good deal of time, but make sure you study the code that you cut and paste.

This book was originally published in 1990 by Sybex Inc. It has been reproduced here in an electronic format by the Author for the benefit of Mastering AutoCAD readers everywhere. Enjoy....

Copyright © 2001 George Omura,,World rights reserved. No part of this publication maybe stored in a retieval system, transmitted, or reproduced in any way, including but not limited to photocopy, photograph, magnetic or other record, without the prior agreement and written permission of the author.