Introduction xix
Chapter 1 ? Quick Start for New AutoLISP Programmers
1
Working with AutoLISP Expressions 1
Working with Commands and Input 3
Conditionalizing and Repeating Expressions 5
Grouping Expressions 7
Storing and Loading AutoLISP Expressions 9
Chapter 2 ? Understanding AutoLISP 15
Getting Started with AutoLISP 15
Understanding the Syntax of an Expression 16
Executing Expressions 18
Accessing the AutoLISP Documentation 19
Storing and Retrieving Values 19
Setting and Using Variables 21
Working with System Variables 25
Accessing Environment Variables 26
Exploring Data Types 28
Leveraging AutoCAD and Third-Party Commands 30
Using the command Function 31
Using the command-s Function 32
Working with Commands That Display a Dialog Box 33
Defining and Using Custom Functions 33
Defining a Custom Function 34
Using a Custom Function 35
Example: Drawing a Rectangle 36
Chapter 3 ? Calculating and Working with
Values 39
Calculating Values with Math Functions 39
Performing Basic Math Calculations 39
Performing Advanced Math Calculations 43
Working with Bitwise Operations 44
Manipulating Strings 48
Concatenating Strings 49
Getting the Length of and Searching for Strings 49
Replacing and Trimming Strings 51
Changing the Case of a String 55
Evaluating Values to Strings 56
Converting Data Types 57
Converting Numeric Values to Strings 57
Converting Strings to Numeric Values 58
Converting Numeric Values to Other Number Types 60
Returning a Value from a Custom Function 61
Exercise: Drawing a Rectangle (Revisited) 63
Creating the drawplatelsp File 64
Revising the drawplate Function 65
Adding the Revised drawplate Function to drawplatelsp 66
Creating the utilitylsp File 67
Loading the LSP Files into AutoCAD 68
Chapter 4 ? Working with Lists 71
What Are Lists? 71
Creating a List 73
Getting an Element from a List 74
Retrieving a Specifi c Element 75
Stepping Through a List 78
Appending, Substituting, and Removing Elements 79
Appending Elements 79
Substituting Elements 81
Removing Elements 81
Determining Whether an Item Exists in a List 82
Sorting the Elements of a List 84
Using Point Lists to Calculate Geometric Values 84
Measuring Angular and Distance Values 85
Calculating Points 86
Finding and Snapping to Points 86
Translating Points 88
Converting Measurement Units 88
Accessing the AutoCAD Calculator 89
Converting Lists to Strings and Strings to Lists 90
Exercise: Adding Holes to the Plate 90
Defining the New Get-Sysvars and Set-Sysvars Utility
Functions 91
Defining the New createcircle Utility Function 93
Revising the drawplate Function 94
Using the Revised drawplate Function 95
Chapter 5 ? Requesting Input and Using Conditional and
Looping Expressions 97
Interacting with the User 97
Requesting Input at the Command Prompt 98
Providing Feedback to the User 113
Working with the Graphics Windows 118
Conditionalizing and Branching Expressions 120
Comparing Values 120
Grouping Comparisons 126
Validating Values 126
Evaluating if a Condition Is Met 127
Testing Multiple Conditions 129
Repeating and Looping Expressions 131
Repeating Expressions a Set Number of Times 132
Performing a Task While a Condition Is Met 133
Exercise: Getting Input from the User to Draw the
Plate 137
Revising the drawplate Function 137
Using the Revised drawplate Function 140
Chapter 6 ? Creating and Modifying Graphical Objects
143
Working with Entity Names and Dotted Pairs 143
Creating a Dotted Pair 145
Accessing the Elements of an Entity Data List and Dotted
Pair 146
Adding Objects to a Drawing 147
Selecting Objects 152
Selecting an Individual Object 152
Working with Selection Sets 154
Filtering Selected Objects 160
Modifying Objects 161
Listing and Changing the Properties of an Object
Directly 162
Updating an Object?s Properties with an Entity Data
List 168
Deleting an Object 171
Highlighting Objects 172
Working with Complex Objects 173
Creating and Modifying Polylines 173
Creating and Modifying with Block References 176
Extending an Object?s Information 180
Working with XData 180
Defining and Registering an Application Name 181
Attaching XData to an Object 181
Querying and Modifying the XData Attached to an
Object 184
Removing XData from an Object 186
Selecting Objects Based on XData 186
Exercise: Creating, Querying, and Modifying Objects 187
Revising the Functions in utilitylsp 187
Testing the Changes to the drawplate Function 188
Defining the New Get-DXF-Value and Set-DXF-Value Utility
Functions 189
Moving Objects to Correct Layers 190
Creating a Basic Block Attribute Extraction Program 192
Using the Functions in the furntoolslsp File 196
Chapter 7 ? Creating and Modifying Nongraphical
Objects 199
Working with Symbol Tables 199
Accessing and Stepping through Symbol Tables 200
Adding and Modifying Entries in a Symbol Table 202
Creating and Modifying Block Definitions 208
Working with Dictionaries 210
Accessing and Stepping through Dictionaries 210
Creating a Custom Dictionary 213
Storing Information in a Custom Dictionary 215
Managing Custom Dictionaries and Entries 215
Exercise: Creating and Incrementing Room Labels 216
Revising the createlayer Function in utilitylsp 217
Creating the Room Label Block Defi nition 217
Inserting a Block Reference Based on the Room Label Block
Definition 219
Prompting the User for an Insertion Point and Room
Number 222
Adding Room Labels to a Drawing 224
Chapter 8 ? Working with the Operating System and
External Files 227
Storing Information in the Windows Registry or a Plist File
227
Creating and Querying Entries 228
Editing and Removing Entries 230
Accessing Data from External Files 231
Opening and Creating an External File 231
Reading Characters and Lines from a File 234
Writing Characters and Lines from a File 235
Closing an Open File 236
Working with Directories and Files in the Operating
System 237
Locating and Listing Files and Directories 237
Managing Files and Directories 243
Getting Information about a File 244
Exercise: Reading and Writing Data 244
Creating Layers Based on Data Stored in an External
File 245
Adding Layers to a Drawing with the loadlayers
Function 247
Writing the Bill of Materials to an External File 248
Using the furnbomexport Function 249
Chapter 9 ? Catching and Handling
Errors 251
Identifying and Tracking Down Errors 251
Putting Your Code Under the Microscope 252
Displaying Messages During Execution 254
Tracing Functions 259
Catching Errors in a Program 260
Defining and Using a Custom Error Handler 262
Grouping Functions into a Single Undo Action 263
Exercise: Handling Errors in the drawplate Function 266
Using the drawplate Function 267
Implementing a Custom *error* Handler and Undo
Grouping 268
Testing the Changes to the drawplate Function 269
Chapter 10 ? Authoring, Managing, and Loading AutoLISP
Programs 271
Storing AutoLISP Expressions 271
Selecting an Editing Environment 272
Creating an AutoLISP File 272
Editing an AutoLISP File 274
Writing Modular Code 275
Adding Comments 276
Undefining and Redefining Standard AutoCAD Commands 279
Defining a Startup Function 280
Loading AutoLISP Files 281
Manually Loading an AutoLISP File 281
Automatically Loading an AutoLISP File 282
Using the Load/Unload Applications Dialog Box to Load a LSP File
284
Managing the Locations of AutoLISP Files 287
Specifying Support File Search Paths 287
Identifying Trusted Locations 289
Deploying AutoLISP Files 291
Deployment Methods (Local vs External) 292
Defining a Plug-in Bundle 294
Implementing Help for Custom Functions 296
Exercise: Deploying the drawplate Function 298
Loading the utilitylsp File by Reference 298
Loading the drawplatelsp File on Demand 299
Enabling Help Support for the drawplate Function 299
Configuring the AutoCAD Support and Trusted Paths 300
Testing the Deployment of the drawplate Function 301
Creating DrawPlatebundle 302
Deploying and Testing the DrawPlatebundle 303
Chapter 11 ? Using the Visual LISP Editor (Windows
only) 305
Accessing the Visual LISP Editor 305
Managing AutoLISP Files with the Visual LISP Editor 306
Formatting an AutoLISP File 307
Coloring Syntax 308
Formatting Code 309
Commenting Code 310
Validating and Debugging Code 310
Executing Code from the Visual LISP Editor 310
Checking and Loading Code in the Current Editor Window 311
Debugging Code 313
Creating a Visual LISP Project 315
Compiling LSP and PRJ Files into a VLX File 317
Exercise: Working with the Visual LISP Editor 318
Formatting, Checking, and Debugging the badcode Function 318
Stepping Through and Inspecting the badcode Function 320
Creating and Compiling a Project 323
Chapter 12 ? Working with ActiveX/COM Libraries
(Windows only) 325
Understanding the Basics of ActiveX 325
Accessing Classes, Objects, and Collections 326
Specifying Properties and Invoking Methods 329
Working with Variants and Arrays 332
Importing COM Libraries 336
Using the AutoCAD COM Library 337
Accessing the AutoCAD Application and Current Drawing Objects
338
Working with Graphical and Nongraphical Objects in the Current
Drawing 339
Monitoring Events with Reactors 342
Leveraging the Windows and Microsoft Office COM Libraries
344
Accessing the Windows Shell Object 345
Working with Microsoft Office 347
Chapter 13 ? Implementing Dialog Boxes (Windows only)
349
What Is Dialog Control Language? 349
Defining and Laying Out a Dialog Box 351
Defining a Dialog 351
Adding Tiles 352
Grouping, Aligning, and Laying Out Tiles 356
Creating and Previewing a Dialog in a DCL File 360
Loading and Displaying a Dialog Box 362
Loading and Unloading a DCL File 362
Displaying a Dialog 363
Initializing Tiles 365
Interacting with and Responding to a User 369
Specifying the Action of a Tile 369
Getting Information about a Tile 370
Terminating or Closing a Dialog Box 371
Hiding a Dialog Box Temporarily 372
Exercise: Implementing a Dialog Box for the drawplate Function
373
Creating the drawplate Dialog Box 374
Renaming the Existing drawplate Function 376
Defining a New drawplate Function 376
Testing the drawplatelsp Changes 379
Index 381
