AutoCAD Command Prefixes

What prefixes are available for AutoCAD commands? You can use prefix characters with most AutoCAD internal commands. Such prefixes are e.g.: "'" transparency prefix (invokes a command during execution of another command – e.g. ‘_HELP) "-" commandline prefix (invokes a non-dialog version of a command – e.g. _-LAYER) "_" non-localized command prefix (original english command names in a localized version of AutoCAD – e.g. _LINE) "." non-redefined command prefix (e.g. for commands undefined using _UNDEFINE, example: ._LINE or _.LINE) "+" dialog tab prefix (for selecting a particular dialog tab – e.g. '._+DSETTINGS), or a special command mode (e.g. +PUBLISH)

Unable to delete/move/select viewport

John.vellek providing a summary of the solutions of this issue:
Saved from: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-forum/unable-to-delete-move-select-viewport/td-p/4364254

• Verify all layers are on and thawed including the VP layer settings.

 

 

• If the Viewport is on the defpoints layer, try renaming defpoints.

 

• Double-click inside the viewport to make it active.
  Maximize the viewport by clicking the + sign in the top left corner.
  Change back to paper space and you can now see and select the viewport.

 

• Draw a rectangle over the viewport
  Qselect the viewport
• 
  use VPCLIP (viewport is still selected)
  Select the rectangle.

John Vellek
Technical Support Specialist

* One can create a Viewport with an Object, then erase that Object.

The Viewport will remain with no way to manipulate the Viewport.

* Draw a rectangle over the top of the viewport in paperspace.

Use QUICKSELECT to select only the viewport.

Start the Viewport Clip command (VPCLIP).

It will already have the viewport selected and will prompt you to select the object to clip with.

Select the rectangle.

And You should have a workable viewport.

*  If you have issues with selecting a viewport, here is the magic fix: (if it is on the Defpoints layer) change the word defpoints to “Defpoint”  no “s”. Make a new viewport under the correct defpoints, delete the old one and purge to get rid of the corrupt layer.

* A faster fix that doesn’t involve changing the Defpoints layer: In paperspace, use ctrl+A to select everything and use shift+select to deselect everything except the viewport.  The viewport is now the only thing selected and can be moved off of the Defpoints layer

• If you have them on Defpoints, and layer 0 is frozen or off, you can’t select anything on the
  Defpoints layer.

 

System variable that controls Shortcut Menus in the drawing area

This Is SHORTCUTMENU

Controls whether Default, Edit, and Command mode shortcut menus are available in the drawing area. The setting is stored as a bitcode using the sum of the following values:

0
Disables all Default, Edit, and Command mode shortcut menus, restoring AutoCAD Release 14 behavior.

1
Enables Default mode shortcut menus.

2
Enables Edit mode shortcut menus.

4
Enables Command mode shortcut menus whenever a command is active.

8
Enables Command mode shortcut menus only when command options are currently available from the command line.

16
Enables display of a shortcut menu when the right button on the pointing device is held down longer

My Lisp’s to toggle “shortcut menus in drawing area” on and off


(defun c:s0()
(command "SHORTCUTMENU""0")
(princ)
)

(defun c:s1()
(command "SHORTCUTMENU""1")
(princ)
)

Using Wildcards in the FIND and Replace in AutoCAD

Using Wildcards in the FIND and Replace in AutoCAD

---

Isaac Harper

November 14, 2014

Uncategorized

Since my last Blog was about Text features in AutoCAD, I recently got a support request from one of our clients that made us have to stop and scratch our heads for a minute on the capabilities of using the Find/Replace command with wildcards in AutoCAD. It seemed that in some cases the text would not me found and in others we would lose valuable information. So, after several trial and errors we finally were able to get the command to accomplish what the client needed (and after losing a few hair follicles along the way too!). So I thought this was a perfect time to add to last month’s Blog; so I wanted to share my findings with you…

First let me set the stage of what the customer wanted to do.
They had an AutoCAD Structural drawing with Mtext calling out the member sizes and some of them with the quantities if there were multiple beams, obviously to avoid unnecessary duplication and better drawing clarity. The naming convention was standard (i.e. W12X18 [24]) which denotes a Wide-flange beam 12” by 18” and a total count of 24 beams and so on.

Mission: The drawing consisted of hundreds of beam callouts that needed to be modified to only show the quantities and not the beam size. But beams without quantities needed to be left alone.

Note: This is a super small portion of the drawing just to show an example.

Solution: Find and Replace with Wildcards. Now the trick only works character by character, so with that said there are differences in the text (example. W8X16 Vs W16X24 has a different number of place holders.) And some of the callouts do not include a quantities so we don’t want to lose those callouts either, so logically we will have to work through several steps to address each scenario, as well as there are certain other things to be aware of to avoid making mistakes that the user could be unaware of.

Operation: In AutoCAD enter the FIND command, the FIND and Replace Dialog if you type in the following bold text in the Find field box.

W?X?? 

The results will find anything that starts with a W and any single character after (The 2^nd Character place holder) and the 3rd character has to be an X, then it will accept any characters after, but only the next 2 characters that follow the X will remain if you replace with nothing. (Meaning a voided blank box, not even a space) in the Replace field. Below I created a Matrix Chart  and summary for the client so they can easily; know what to enter in the find and know what the results of the changes would be.

With FIND, you can use several wild-card characters to broaden your search. Here is a list of the Character’s and their Definitions…

# (Pound)

Matches any numeric digit

 

@ (At)

Matches any alphabetic character

 

. (Period)

Matches any nonalphanumeric character

 

* (Asterisk)

Matches any string and can be used anywhere in the search string

 

? (Question mark)

Matches any single character; for example, ?BC matches ABC, 3BC, and so on

 

~ (Tilde)

Matches anything but the pattern; for example; ~*AB*matches all strings

that don’t contain AB

 

[ ]

Matches any one of the characters enclosed; for example, [AB]C matches

AC and BC

 

[~]

Matches any character not enclosed; for example, [~AB]C matches XC but

not AC

 

[-]

Specifies a range for a single character; for example, [A-G]C matches

AC, BC, and so on to GC, but not HC

 

` (Reverse quote)

Reads the next character literally; for example, `~AB matches ~AB

I hope this is useful information for you. I know that the Find command is one of the commands that most people forget about… So the next time you need to change a lot of text in your AutoCAD drawing, and if you know these tricks, it will drastically speed up the process… Now that is a FIND!!!

How to make AutoCAD Open Faster and Run Faster

---

Isaac Harper

March 28, 2017

2017, AutoCAD, autocad 2017, Uncategorized

A common goal for every AutoCAD user is to get the best performance out of your AutoCAD software. And some of the old tricks still hold true today–they are just done a little bit differently in the newer versions.

So, I thought I would take some time and show everyone how some of some old tricks that help AutoCAD run faster.

Reducing the Amount of Content to Load When Starting AutoCAD

Right-click on the AutoCAD desktop Icon and click Properties.

Click lick in the short and add the switch “/nologo” at the end of the line in the Target field.

Example: “C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2017\acad.exe” /product ACAD /language “en-US” /nologo

Click Apply at the bottom. (You will need to have administrator permission to do this)

Click OK to exit the properties dialog box.

Setting the Priority in the Task Manager

Launch AutoCAD so the executable displays in the Task Manager.

Right-click on the Window’s start icon and open the Task Manager.

 

Click on the Details Tab.

Right-click on the ACAD.EXE file.

Click the Set Priority.

Select Realtime option.

Close the Task Manager by clicking the X in the upper-right corner of the dialog.

Setting the Hardware Acceleration

Open AutoCAD and check the Hardware Acceleration icon to see if it is ON.

 vs 

 

(If OFF, follow the steps below to turn it ON)

Right-click on the Hardware Acceleration icon and pick the [Graphics Performance] shortcut menu.

Other ways you can test to see if you are getting the best performance is to test some of the settings by turning them on and off.

For example: Open the Hardware Acceleration the same way you did in the last Item. You can also view the Tuner Log.

Additional Notes from the AutoCAD Help file:

Graphics performance tuning examines your graphics card and 3D display driver and determines whether to use software or hardware acceleration.

Features that might not work properly on your system are turned off. Some features might work with your hardware, but are not recommended because the graphics card or 3D graphics display driver that you are using did not pass the Autodesk certification process or was not tested. Features can be enabled at your own risk.

The tuner log reports which graphics card and 3D display driver were identified on your system and whether hardware effects are enabled. The Effects section displays the current state of the supported hardware effects of the current display driver.

The log file displays information about the current application driver, as well as available application drivers and supported effects. Use this information to determine whether it’s better to use an application driver for your graphics card or the software driver.

To display mapped object shadows in viewports and to use per-pixel lighting, hardware acceleration is required.

When Uncompressed Textures is turned on, the amount of video memory required to open a drawing that contains materials that utilize images is increased.

By using this effect, it may decrease the time to load the images the first time that they are accessed, but the downside is it can increase the amount of video memory necessary to display the drawing. Also, there is a reduction in the quality of the images when they are displayed.

Finally, always make sure that your Hardware (including Graphics Card) is tested and Certified by Autodesk.

And when it comes to RAM, more is always better!

Remember, the recommend amount is just to run the software, not your business!

Good AutoLISP Programming Techniques

By Rachid Khouri on May 30, 2017 04:56 pm When creating AutoLISP routines, the programmer should keep in mind not only correct syntax, but also a well-structured program that is easy to comprehend, forgiving of mistakes, easy to debug, and easy to edit. Formatting You can format manually while you type. But Visual LISP includes helpful formatting tools. They automatically insert tabs and spaces where needed to give you added clarity and help you track parentheses. You can either Format edit window or Format selection. AutoLISP ignores spaces and carriage returns, so use them to make the routine more understandable to the programmer. Unformatted routine: (defun C:TRIANGLE () (setq PT1 (getpoint “Pick a Point: “) PT2 (getpoint “Pick another point: “) PT3 (list (car PT1) (cadr PT2))) (command “line” PT1 PT2 PT3 “c”)) Formatted routine: You can set the formatting options under Tools>Environment Options> Visual LISP Format Options. Commenting Comments help you and anyone else reading the file to understand the code. Use a semi-colon in front of any line to add comments to a file. Anything on a line to the right of a semi-colon is ignored. At the beginning of the routine be sure to include a comment that states the filename, what the function does, the author, the date, and the version. You may also want to break longer functions up into stages and explain what each stage does. While just one semi-colon will do the job, some people prefer two or three for visibility. Visual LISP automatically adds three semicolons in front of any comment starting at a blank line that is not indented, two semicolons when the new line is indented and one when tabbed over to a column location or after a closing parenthesis. To automatically add comments after a closing parenthesis on a separate line, check the “Insert form-closing comment” box in the dialog under Tools>Environment Options> Visual LISP Format Options. Comment Block/Uncomment Block To use these tools, simply select the lines you want to comment or uncomment and press the button. Comment Block adds semicolons at the start of the selected lines; Uncomment Block removes the semicolons. For example, you may want to test just a portion of your routine in AutoCAD. You can highlight the undesired portion and comment it out with the click of a button. When you are ready to test this section as well, highlight it again and press the Uncomment Block tool. Commenting Example ;;;This program draws a triangle based on the two ;;;endpoints of the hypotenuse. ;;;June 14, 2012 (defun C:TRIANGLE () (setq PT1 (getpoint “Pick a Point: “)           PT2 (getpoint “Pick another point: “)           PT3 (list                          (car PT1)                          (cadr PT2) )                    ;end list ) ;end setq (command “line” PT1 PT2 PT3 “c”) ) ;end defun Naming Use symbol names that make sense. Use a name that relates to the value such as, PT1, ReferencePoint, SCALE_FACTOR, etc. Visual LISP will complete a function or symbol name if you type the first few letters and the press Ctrl + Spacebar. Repeat if you don’t come up with the right name at first. Symbols are not case sensitive but capitalization can help you differentiate between symbols and functions when you are not in Visual LISP. Remember, don’t use PI, T, or any function name such as ANGLE as a symbol name. Give understandable file names for your LISP routines. For example, not DS.LSP but DATESTAMP.LSP. Prompting Use error control such as the (iniget) and (getkword) functions. Expect the unexpected input. Make the routine as easy to use as possible. Write prompts that look like AutoCAD’s. This makes a smoother interface between your LISP routine and the main package. For example: “Choose a color: Red or [Blue/Yellow/Green]: ” Don’t forget that AutoCAD 2000 has a new prompt style. Setting Local Variables Another good clarity practice is to keep the track of the variables you use as symbols and make sure you do not leave them active in AutoCAD if they will impact another routine. This is called localizing the variables. All variables in use in a session of AutoCAD are stored in the atom list. This also includes all the AutoLISP function names. Explanation: the (defun) function options A variable can be declared exclusive to a given function. These “local” variables are declared in the same parentheses as the argument list of the (defun): (defun function_name ([arguments / local_variables]) The optional arguments are the variables that you will want permanently assigned in a drawing session. These may be symbol information that you will use in another AutoLISP routine. Or they are the ones you must supply for the function to work. The optional local_variables set aside the name and value of local variables. They will not be added to the atom-list and will only be retained in memory while the function is executing. Arguments and local variables are separated by a forward slash “/”. Local variables remain in memory only while the routine is executing. This allows the use of longer and clearer variable names. You may need to exit and restart AutoCAD to remove any existing variables. Explanation: the (atoms-family) function The (atoms-family) function returns a list of all the symbols currently defined, called the atom list. This way you can know what symbols have been defined in the drawing session. (atoms-family format [symbol]) The format argument specifies whether the symbols will be returned as symbols or strings: 0 returns a list of symbols and 1 returns list of symbols converted to strings. The optional symbol argument is used to check whether each symbol in the symbol list exists in the current editing session. If the symbol exists, the argument returns a symbol name; otherwise it returns nil. Command: (atoms-family 1 ‘(“CAR”)) (“CAR”) Example: Localized Variables ;;;MATRIX.LSP ;;;C:MATRIX – A function to create a rectangular array ;;; by total row and column distance. (defun c:MATRIX ( / ROW-NUMBER COL-NUMBER STARTPT TOTAL-ROW TOTAL-COL ROW-DIST COL-DIST SS1) (command “graphscr”) (initget (+ 1 2 4) (setq ROW-NUMBER (getint “Number of rows (—): “)) (initget (+ 1 2 4) (setq COL-NUMBER (getint “Number of columns (|||): “)) (setq STARTPT (getpoint “Starting point: “)) (initget (+ 1 2) (setq TOTAL-ROW (getdist STARTPT “\nTotal row distance: “)) (initget (+ 1 2) (setq TOTAL-COL (getdist STARTPT “\nTotal column distance: “)) (setq ROW-DIST (/ TOTAL-ROW (1- ROW-NUMBER))) (setq COL-DIST (/ TOTAL-COL (1- COL-NUMBER))) (setq SS1 (ssget)) (command “array” SS1 “” “r” ROW-NUMBER COL-NUMBER ROW-DIST COL-DIST) (princ) ); close defun About Rachid Khouri R. Khouri is a CAD Engineer, CAD manager, Corporate trainer and Educator he has worked with big industries and create training institution in Quebec (Canada) and delivers training to corporate clients in AutoCAD. He is Currently Autodesk Developper and author authorized .You can get more on AutoCAD and Autolisp/Visual lisp from TutoCAD

Cистемная переменная WHIPTHREAD

Saved from: https://mikhailov-andrey-s.blogspot.co.il/2017/01/autocad-podderzhka-mnogoyadernyh-processorov.html

На данный момент AutoCAD использует несколько ядер многоядерного процессора (multi-threading или многопоточность) только в трех случаях:
•Регенерация 2D-графики (команды РЕГЕН/_REGEN и ОСВЕЖИТЬ/_REDRAW, равно как и команды зумирования и панорамирования)
•Рендеринг изображений в MentalRay
•Открытие файла с внешними ссылками (XREF)

Во всех остальных случаях AutoCAD использует лишь одно ядро процессора и это НИКАК не исправить и не победить. Думаю, что в обозримом будущем AutoCAD не будет поддерживать многоядерность, Хотя, например, Autodesk Inventor с недавнего времени поддерживает многоядерную архитектуру для большинства рабочих операций и процессов, и эта поддержка все растёт и растёт от версии к версии.

Для управления использованием дополнительного процессора или ядра многоядерного процессора в AutoCAD используется системная переменная WHIPTHREAD, которая может принимать значение:

0 – не использовать многопоточность

1 – использование многопоточности только при регенерации чертежа

2 – использование многопоточности только при перерисовке чертежа

3 – использование многопоточности при регенерации и при перерисовке чертежа

По умолчанию установлено значение 1, желательно присвоить 3.

AutoCAD only supports multi-core technology in specific areas of the product, including:

• 2D regeneration
• MentalRay rendering

To fully benefit from multi-core processors, you need to use multi-threaded software; AutoCAD is predominantly a single-threaded application.

Send us Performance Feedback 
If you are having performance problems, consider using the Performance Feedback tool, available in AutoCAD 2015 and later.

It can be found on the Performance tab:

This tool makes it easy for you record performance and then send Autodesk a log file, which helps us diagnose program areas that need to be addressed.

---

Note: A CPU-intensive operation that uses 100% of the resources of a single-core processor only uses a maximum of 50% of the CPU for that same operation on a dual-core computer, and only 6% of each CPU on a 16-core computer. This is shown in the following image:

Due to the lack of multi-threading, AutoCAD is not capable of using more than 50% of the CPU on a dual-core computer, so there is no significant performance gain over a single CPU computer except for the areas noted above.

 

Using BigFonts..

Asian alphabets contain thousands of non-ASCII characters. To support such text, the program provides a special type of shape definition known as a Big Font file. You can set a style to use both regular and Big Font files.

Asian Language Big Fonts:
Font File Name

Description

@extfont2.shx

Japanese vertical font (a few characters are rotated to work correctly in vertical text)

bigfont.shx

Japanese font, subset of characters

chineset.shx

Traditional Chinese font

extfont.shx

Japanese extended font, level 1

extfont2.shx

Japanese extended font, level 2

gbcbig.shx

Simplified Chinese font

whgdtxt.shx

Korean font

whgtxt.shx

Korean font

whtgtxt.shx

Korean font

whtmtxt.shx

Korean font

When you specify fonts using the STYLE command, the assumption is that the first name is the normal font and the second (separated by a comma) is the Big Font. If you enter only one name, it’s assumed that it is the normal font and any associated Big Font is removed. By using leading or trailing commas when specifying the font file names, you can change one font without affecting the other, as shown in the following table.

Double-Byte Character Issues

Data Source Names
•Character codes (such as 0x??41 and 0x??61) that are used for data source names may not be handled correctly. This problem occurs when you create multiple data sources using optional names (Japanese) specified in the database configuration. As a result, some of the data source names may not be listed. When this problem occurs, you can change the name of the unlisted data source to another name.

Subobject and Object Cycling
•Subobject and object cycling using CTRL + SPACEBAR and SHIFT + SPACEBAR does not work in Chinese (PRC and Taiwan) versions of Microsoft Windows. When using the Chinese IME, these key combinations do the following: ◦CTRL + SPACEBAR toggles Chinese IME.
◦SHIFT + SPACEBAR toggles double-byte and single-byte English characters.

 

Text Display

Vertical Text for Asian Languages
•SHX fonts – Text can be created with SHX fonts and Big Fonts for vertical display in the same way as for previous releases. For best results, use the single-line TEXT command, not MTEXT. You can select a vertical style in the Text Style dialog box.

TrueType fonts – You still select fonts starting with the @ sign, but now the text is automatically rotated 270 degrees. (In AutoCAD 2005 and earlier versions, you had to manually rotate this text.) Vertical cursor movement is now supported for vertical text.

Font Display
•If the default font doesn’t support the characters you enter using the In-Place Text Editor (MTEXT command), an alternative font is usually substituted.
•CIF or MIF codes entered with the In-Place Text Editor (MTEXT command) or with the DTEXT command are now automatically converted to display the actual characters.

Updated bigfont.ini
•AutoCAD 2007 and AutoCAD 2008 are handling custom SHX Big Fonts differently than AutoCAD 2006 and earlier versions. If custom SHX Big Fonts are used in your drawing files, you need to add the SHX Big Font names and their code page ID into the bigfont.ini file in your Support folder. Please refer to the header section of this bigfont.ini file to learn how to add them.

Некоторые факторы влияют на выбор, ввод и представление на чертеже текста на разных языках.

Программа поддерживает стандарт кодирования символов Unicode. SHX-шрифт, закодированный с использованием шрифта стандарта Unicode, может содержать намного больше символов, чем описанный в системе пользователя; поэтому для использования символа, не доступного непосредственно с клавиатуры, можно ввести последовательность \U+nnnn, где nnnn представляет собой шестнадцатеричное значение Unicode для символа.

Начиная с версии AutoCAD 2007, все контурные SHX-шрифты кодируются с учетом стандарта Unicode, за исключением “Больших шрифтов”. При выборе шрифта для международных работ можно воспользоваться или шрифтом TrueType, или “Большим шрифтом”.

SHX-файлы азиатских “больших шрифтов”

Азиатские алфавиты содержат тысячи символов, не относящихся к стандарту ASCII. Для поддержки такого текста программа позволяет работать с особым типом файлов описания форм, называемых файлами большого шрифта. При этом текстовому стилю можно одновременно назначать обычный и большой шрифт.

Большие шрифты азиатских языков, входящие в продукт
Наименование файла шрифта	Описание
@extfont2.shx	Японский вертикальный шрифт (некоторые символы повернуты для корректного использования в вертикальном тексте)
bigfont.shx	Японский шрифт, подгруппа символов
chineset.shx	Традиционный китайский шрифт
extfont.shx	Расширенный японский шрифт, уровень 1
extfont2.shx	Расширенный японский шрифт, уровень 2
gbcbig.shx	Упрощенный китайский шрифт
whgdtxt.shx	Корейский шрифт
whgtxt.shx	Корейский шрифт
whtgtxt.shx	Корейский шрифт
whtmtxt.shx	Корейский шрифт

При вводе имен шрифтов в командной строке в ответ на запрос команды -СТИЛЬ предполагается, что первым вводится имя обычного шрифта, а вторым (через запятую) – имя большого шрифта. Если вводится только одно имя, предполагается, что это имя обычного шрифта, и любой связанный с ним большой шрифт удаляется из стиля. Вставляя запятые перед именами файлов шрифтов или после них, можно переназначить только один из шрифтов, не изменяя другой, как показано в следующей таблице.

Автокад поддерживает стандарт Unicode, при котором в шрифте может содержаться до 65 тыс. символов из различных языков, правда ввести такие символы непосредственно невозможно, приходится пользоваться последовательностями \U+nnnn, где nnnn – шестнадцатиричный код символа. Все AutoCAD SHX-шрифты являются Unicode. Предыдущие релизы Автокад вплоть до 13, не поддерживают эту возможность. Шрифты BIGFONT используются для представления символов алфавиты которых содержат тысячи “букв”. Пример изменения файла шрифтов:

Sub ChangeFontFiles()
    ThisDrawing.ActiveTextStyle.BigFontFile = "C:/AutoCAD/Fonts/bigfont.shx"
    ThisDrawing.ActiveTextStyle.fontFile = "C:/AutoCAD/Fonts/italic.shx"
End Sub

How to convert Lsp Files to Fas

1) Open Cad program

2) Open Visual LISP Console Editor : Command VLIDE

3) Open lsp file

4) Click File > Make application > New Application Wizard…

5) Select Expert > next

6) Click Browse

7)Find a directory > click OK

8)Fill name of FAS file > click next

9).Select Separate namespace > next

10) Click Add > select a file lsp > click next

11) Click add > select a file lsp > click open

12) Click next

13) Click next

14) Click Finnish

Or use this lisp:

;;; CADALYST 11/07 http://www.cadalyst.com/code
;;; Tip 2256: complisp.lsp Convert LISP to FAS (c) 2007 Jim Dee

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Purpose: Compiles a directory of lisp files to FAS in another folder.
; Note: Be sure to change the lspfolder & fasfolder variables below.
;
; Written by Jim Dee at http://www.caddee.com
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

(defun c:l2p ( / file compdate lspfolder fasfolder filelst itm)
(princ "\n***Written by Jim Dee at http://www.caddee.com***")
(setq lspfolder "c:\\temp\\") ;Modify the path in quotes for the location of your uncompiled LSP files.
(setq fasfolder "c:\\temp\\") ;Modify the path in quotes for the location of the compiled FAS files.

(initget "All Modified")
(setq compwhat (getkword "\nCompile All/Modified: "))
(if (= compwhat "All")
(vl-file-delete (strcat lspfolder "compile.upd"))
);if

;;;;;;get date of previous compile begin
(if (not (findfile (strcat lspfolder "compile.upd")))
(progn
(setq file (open (strcat lspfolder "compile.upd") "w"))
(write-line "0" file)
(close file)
);progn
);if
(setq file (open (strcat lspfolder "compile.upd") "r"))
(setq compdate (read-line file))
(close file)
;;;;;;get date of previous compile end

(textscr)
(Alert "ALERT:\n\nAfter the Visual LISP editor launches, you will need to click on the AutoCAD program window to begin compiling.\n\n\t\t\t Written by Jim Dee at http://www.caddee.com")
(princ "***Click here to begin compiling.***")
(c:vlide)
(setq filelst (vl-directory-files lspfolder "*.lsp" 1))
(foreach itm filelst
(if (> (ConvertFileDate (vl-file-systime (strcat lspfolder itm))) compdate)
(if (not (vlisp-compile 'st (strcat lspfolder itm) (strcat fasfolder (substr itm 1 ( - (strlen itm) 4)) ".fas")))
(princ (strcat "\n" itm " failed."))
)if
);if
);foreach
(setq file (open (strcat lspfolder "compile.upd") "w"))
(write-line (rtos (getvar "cdate") 2 6) file)
(close file)
(princ)
);defun

(defun ConvertFileDate (DateList / )
;Converts list containing [Year, Month, Day of Week, Day of Month, Hours, Minutes, Seconds] to a string like that returned by (rtos (getvar "cdate") 2 6)
(strcat
(rtos (nth 0 DateList) 2 0)
(RTOSAddLeadingZero (nth 1 DateList) 2)
(RTOSAddLeadingZero (nth 3 DateList) 2)
"."
(RTOSAddLeadingZero (nth 4 DateList) 2)
(RTOSAddLeadingZero (nth 5 DateList) 2)
(RTOSAddLeadingZero (nth 6 DateList) 2)
);strcat
);defun

(defun RTOSAddLeadingZero (numb digits / strnumb)
;converts a number to a string adds leading [digits] number of zeros to the left end.
(setq strnumb (rtos numb 2 0))
(while (< (strlen strnumb) digits)
(setq strnumb (strcat "0" strnumb))
);while
strnumb
);defun
(c:l2p)
 

Difference Between PRINT, PRINC and PRIN1

• The princ function sends a string after formatting any contol characters. E.g. (princ “\”this is quoted\””) will show as “this is quoted” on the command line.
• The prin1 function does the same without formatting. E.g. (prin1 “\”this is quoted\””) will show as “\”this is quoted\””. This is usually used when sending to a file so you can later use the read function to get the same value. Also say you have a list of strings, it’ll send the text to the file so a later read would produce the same list of strings – princ will ommit the quotes and the read would fail.
• The print function does the same as the prin1, but prefixes the string with a newline “\n” (which is formatted). This so that you can send a control code string to a new line in a file in one instruction, otherwise you’d have to do a princ for the new line, then a prin1 for the data.
• There’s also the prompt function which does exactly the same as princ with 2 caveats:
  • It can’t send to a file (only the command line)
  • It has to have some text to send to the command line. The princ can be used without any string – this is usually wanted when you end a defun with (princ) so nothing is displayed on the command line. Otherwise the last line of the defun will basically issue a prin1 with its value.

AutoLISP programs often need to inform the user of an error or request for input.

Messages that are displayed should try and not interrupt the flow of a command, and when they do the text displayed should be short and precise as to what the problem is or the input that is being requested. AutoLISP offers the following functions to display messages to the user:

• prompt – Displays string at the AutoCAD Command prompt.
• princ – Displays a value at the AutoCAD Command prompt or to an open file. Strings are displayed without the enclosing quotation marks.
• prin1 – Displays a value at the AutoCAD Command prompt or to an open file. Strings are enclosed in quotation marks.
• print – Displays a value at the AutoCAD Command prompt or to an open file, but a blank line is placed before the value and a space is placed after the value. Strings are enclosed in quotation marks.
• alert – Displays a dialog box containing an error or warning message.
• terpri – Prints a newline to the AutoCAD Command prompt.

The write-char, write-line, getXXX, and entsel functions can also display messages at the AutoCAD Command prompt.

When entered from the Visual LISP Console window prompt, the prompt function displays a message (a string) in the AutoCAD Command window and returns nil to the Visual LISP Console window. The princ, prin1, and print functions all display a value (not necessarily a string) in the AutoCAD Command prompt and returns the value to the Visual LISP Console window.

Note: Visual LISP is available on Windows only.

The following examples demonstrate the differences between the basic output functions and how they handle the same string of text.

(setq str "The \"allowable\" tolerance is \261 \274\"")
(prompt str)
outputs The "allowable" tolerance is 1/4"
returns nil

(princ str)
outputs The "allowable" tolerance is 1/4"
returns "The \"allowable\" tolerance is 1/4\""

(prin1 str)
outputs "The \"allowable\" tolerance is 1/4""
returns "The \"allowable\" tolerance is 1/4\""

(print str)
outputs<blank line> "The \"allowable\" tolerance is 1/4""<space>
returns "The \"allowable\" tolerance is 1/4\""

prin1
(prin1 [expr [file-desc]])
Arguments
expr A string or AutoLISP expression. Only the specified expr is
printed; no newline or space is included.
file-desc A file descriptor for a file opened for writing.
Return Values
The value of the evaluated expr. If called with no arguments, prin1 returns a
null symbol.
Returns the UCS 3D point at a specified angle and distance from a point
Prints an expression to the command line or writes an expression to an open file
142 | AutoLISP Reference
Used as the last expression in a function, prin1 without arguments results in
a blank line printing when the function completes, allowing the function to
exit “quietly.”
Examples
Command: (setq a 123 b '(a))
(A)
Command: (prin1 'a)
AA
The previous command printed A and returned A.
Command: (prin1 a)
123123
The previous command printed 123 and returned 123.
Command: (prin1 b)
(A)(A)
The previous command printed (A) and returned (A).
Each preceding example is displayed on the screen because no file-desc was
specified. Assuming that f is a valid file-descriptor for a file opened for writing,
the following function call writes a string to that file and returns the
string:
Command: (prin1 "Hello" f)
"Hello"
If expr is a string containing control characters, prin1 expands these characters
with a leading \, as shown in the following table:
Control codes
Code Description
\\ \ character
\" " character
\e Escape character
\n Newline character
\r Return character
\t TAB character
\nnn Character whose octal code is nnn
princ | 143
The following example shows how to use control characters:
Command: (prin1 (chr 2))
"\002""\002"
SEE ALSO “Displaying Messages” in the Visual LISP Developer’s Guide.
princ
(princ [expr [file-desc]])
This function is the same as prin1, except control characters in expr are
printed without expansion. In general, prin1 is designed to print expressions
in a way that is compatible with load, while princ prints them in a way that
is readable by functions such as read-line.
Arguments
expr A string or AutoLISP expression. Only the specified expr is
printed; no newline or space is included.
file-desc A file descriptor for a file opened for writing.
Return Values
The value of the evaluated expr. If called with no arguments, princ returns a
null symbol.
SEE ALSO “Displaying Messages” in the Visual LISP Developer’s Guide.
print
(print [expr [file-desc]])
This function is the same as prin1, except it prints a newline character before
expr, and prints a space following expr.
Arguments
expr A string or AutoLISP expression. Only the specified expr is
printed; no newline or space is included.
Prints an expression to the command line, or writes an expression to an open file
Prints an expression to the command line, or writes an expression to an open file
144 | AutoLISP Reference
file-desc A file descriptor for a file opened for writing.
Return Values
The value of the evaluated expr. If called with no arguments, print returns a
null symbol.