AfraLISP - Learn AutoLISP for AutoCAD productivity

AutoLISP

What can AutoLISP do?

AutoLISP can be used simply to automate repetitive tasks or to build complex programs that extend AutoCAD and make it more productive. For example, you could write a program that calculates the total length of polylines on a particular layer - imagine how much time that would save over doing it manually!

What's so good about AutoLISP?

The great thing about AutoLISP is that it's pretty easy to use - even if you haven't done any programming before. A complete beginner can easily create a simple routine that could save hours or days of work, making AutoCAD much more efficient and the drawing process much less tedious. People may tell you that AutoLISP is too limited and not powerful enough and that the higher-end languages are the way to go with AutoCAD customization. That may be true if you're a serious developer of 3rd party applications but if you're just a regular AutoCAD user who wants to make their life easier, AutoLISP is just the thing.

A little AutoLISP history

AutoLISP is based on the LISP programming language but was written by Autodesk specifically for AutoCAD. It was introduced with AutoCAD version 2.18 (a minor version update of AutoCAD 2.1) in January 1986. Autodesk continued to enhance and extend AutoLISP up to and including AutoCAD Release 13 in November 1994. From Release 14 onwards, Autodesk have not developed AutoLISP, choosing to focus efforts on the then new Visual LISP version of the language. Despite the fact that AutoLISP has not changed in almost two decades, it remains incredibly popular with AutoCAD users. This is mainly due to its ease of use and the massive productivity gains that can be earned through its implementation. See the AutoLISP Wikipedia article for more information.

AutoLISP Beginners' Tutorials

  • The Basics in a Nutshell - Part 1

    Popularity: 36.23 visits per day  |  Last visit: 23 minutes ago  |  Total visits: 28,749

  • The Basics in a Nutshell - Part 2

    Popularity: 26.59 visits per day  |  Last visit: 23 minutes ago  |  Total visits: 21,100

  • The Basics in a Nutshell - Part 3

    Popularity: 19.12 visits per day  |  Last visit: 1 hour ago  |  Total visits: 15,168

  • The Basics in a Nutshell - Part 4

    Popularity: 15.68 visits per day  |  Last visit: 1 hour ago  |  Total visits: 12,441

  • Loading AutoLISP Files

    Popularity: 13.03 visits per day  |  Last visit: 18 minutes ago  |  Total visits: 10,339

  • AutoLISP Quick Start

    Popularity: 38.21 visits per day  |  Last visit: 26 minutes ago  |  Total visits: 30,350

  • The Define Function (defun)

    Popularity: 8.6 visits per day  |  Last visit: 11 minutes ago  |  Total visits: 6,859

  • SET and SETQ

    Popularity: 5.57 visits per day  |  Last visit: 1 hour ago  |  Total visits: 4,439

  • Program Looping

    Popularity: 5.39 visits per day  |  Last visit: 4 hours ago  |  Total visits: 4,298

  • Conditionals

    Popularity: 4.9 visits per day  |  Last visit: 2 hours ago  |  Total visits: 3,908

  • COND vs. IF

    Popularity: 7.49 visits per day  |  Last visit: 16 minutes ago  |  Total visits: 5,977

AutoLISP Intermediate Tutorials

  • Error Trapping

    Popularity: 6.01 visits per day  |  Last visit: 2 hours ago  |  Total visits: 4,793

  • Calculating Points (Polar)

    Popularity: 5.36 visits per day  |  Last visit: 9 hours ago  |  Total visits: 4,277

  • Locating Files

    Popularity: 4.24 visits per day  |  Last visit: 2 hours ago  |  Total visits: 3,381

  • File Handling

    Popularity: 5.29 visits per day  |  Last visit: 9 hours ago  |  Total visits: 4,218

  • External Data

    Popularity: 4.47 visits per day  |  Last visit: 7 minutes ago  |  Total visits: 3,564

  • List Manipulation

    Popularity: 6.39 visits per day  |  Last visit: 4 hours ago  |  Total visits: 5,077

  • Into the Database

    Popularity: 7.56 visits per day  |  Last visit: 1 minute ago  |  Total visits: 6,008

  • Selection Sets

    Popularity: 9.75 visits per day  |  Last visit: 48 minutes ago  |  Total visits: 7,743

  • Selection Set Filters

    Popularity: 6.71 visits per day  |  Last visit: 1 hour ago  |  Total visits: 5,257

  • Working with Layers and Styles

    Popularity: 4.93 visits per day  |  Last visit: 2 hours ago  |  Total visits: 3,865

  • Polylines and Blocks

    Popularity: 8.59 visits per day  |  Last visit: 1 hour ago  |  Total visits: 6,703

AutoLISP Advanced Tutorials

  • Extended Entity Data - Part 1

    Popularity: 8.54 visits per day  |  Last visit: 25 minutes ago  |  Total visits: 6,662

  • Extended Entity Data - Part 2

    Popularity: 5.41 visits per day  |  Last visit: 12 minutes ago  |  Total visits: 4,224

  • (mapcar) and (lambda)

    Popularity: 9.72 visits per day  |  Last visit: 54 minutes ago  |  Total visits: 7,582

  • The (eval) Function

    Popularity: 3.57 visits per day  |  Last visit: 13 hours ago  |  Total visits: 2,787

  • Redefining Commands

    Popularity: 4.53 visits per day  |  Last visit: 3 hours ago  |  Total visits: 3,536

  • Efficient Variables

    Popularity: 3.25 visits per day  |  Last visit: 1 hour ago  |  Total visits: 2,535

  • The DIR Command

    Popularity: 3.36 visits per day  |  Last visit: 51 minutes ago  |  Total visits: 2,620

  • Colours and Linetypes ByLayer

    Popularity: 5.41 visits per day  |  Last visit: 8 hours ago  |  Total visits: 4,222

  • Debugging

    Popularity: 2.9 visits per day  |  Last visit: 12 hours ago  |  Total visits: 2,258

  • Dictionaries and XRecords

    Popularity: 5.84 visits per day  |  Last visit: 8 hours ago  |  Total visits: 4,552

  • Tool System Primer

    Popularity: 3.53 visits per day  |  Last visit: 12 hours ago  |  Total visits: 2,755

AutoLISP Application Tutorials

AutoLISP Tips'n'Tricks