AutoCAD Platform Customization

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