Michael’s Corner

Michael's Corner is a monthly publication written by Michael E. Beall, Autodesk Authorized Author and peripatetic AutoCAD trainer. Michael travels all over the USA, bringing his fantastic experience and great understanding of AutoCAD to his clients. Michael's Corner brings together many of the tips, tricks and methods developed during these training sessions for the benefit of all users.

Michael's Corner provides something for every AutoCAD user. Every month, a number of articles cover a wide range of topics, suitable for users at all levels, including "The Basics" for those just starting out. Essentially, the aim of Michael's Corner is to help all AutoCAD users work smarter and faster.

This month…

From the Vault

Originally published February 2016

LISP for Move Previous

It's been a while — four years ago, actually; MC February 2012 — since I tinkered with a one-line lisp. I usually put my customization on a tool palette or the Quick Access Toolbar, but I had a request recently to automate the Move command with the Previous option.

MOCORO: This is an opportunity, however, to remind folks of the buried treasure of the MOCORO [Move/Copy/Rotate] command under Express Tools (see Michael's Corner June 2004), just in case you didn't know that one was out there.

When you create a Lisp routine, you always want to confirm that there's no other command that you may unwittingly supersede in the execution of your new routine. To keep this one simple and quick, I'm going to use MM as the hotkey combination to launch the Move command with the Previous option.

How to Write and Save a One-Line Lisp

1. Open Windows Notepad (not Word, it puts hidden characters in the header and footer).

2. First, it's always a good idea to identify what your routine is doing by adding a comment line at the beginning. Comment lines have a semi-colon as the first character on the line. Add something similar to the following as the first two lines in your notepad file.

   ;   CADTUTOR 3/2016
   ;   MOVE command with the Previous option

3. Add the following text as the next line. It's not case-sensitive and there is no preceding semi-colon:

   (DEFUN C:MM()(COMMAND "MOVE" "P" "")(PRINC))

   Here's how all that stuff breaks down:

   (	AutoCAD takes off if you hit the spacebar, so the first open parenthesis puts AutoCAD on ‘hold’.
   DEFUN	DEfine FUNction. You're telling the Lisp routine what you're setting up.
   C:	The Command: line. The text that comes after C: is what you type to ‘run’ the Lisp.
   ()(	The ‘clutch’. Push it in ( change the gear ) let it out ( No options. Don't need to know.
   COMMAND	For all one line Lisps, you need to let AutoCAD know you are using Commands.
   "MOVE"	All commands and options go in quotes. Yes, you can put a space between them.
   "P"	The option for Previous.
   ""	Double-quotes; Lisp-speak for ‘Press Enter’. [Note: If you would like your routine to allow for the additional selection of objects after selecting the Previous selection set, leave out these double-quotes.]
   (PRINC)	Locking the door on the way out. Suppresses that ‘nil’ you see in some routines.
   )	Resolve all the open parentheses.

4. When you're finished adding your one-liners (you can have as many as you want, I would recommend comment lines between them, though), click FileSave, then navigate to AutoCAD's ..\Support folder.

5. Important: You must enter the file extension of .LSP after the filename, not Notepad's .TXT. I'll name this one CT316_MPREVIOUS.LSP.

As I mentioned, your .LSP file can contain as many one-liners as you want. I simply recommend you put comment lines in between each routine so it doesn't look so cryptic when you review it later.

How to Quickly Run a One-Line Lisp

1. Launch AutoCAD, then open ‘My Computer’ (Windows Explorer) with Windows key + E.

2. Navigate to where you saved your .LSP, then drag and drop it into the AutoCAD drawing window.

   

   You will see something like the following response on the command line:

   Command: (LOAD "C:/Program Files/Autodesk/AutoCAD 2016/ Support/CT316_MPREVIOUS.LSP") C:MM

3. In the drawing, Move or Rotate a few things.

4. To run your routine, enter MM and you will be prompted to “Specify base point”! That's all there is to it!

Launching Your LSP from the Startup Suite

If you have a .LSP file containing routines that you want to have available whenever you open AutoCAD, add that file to the Startup Suite. On the Manage tabApplications panel you will find Load Application. In the Load/Unload Application dialog box, you will find the golden key: The Startup Suite.

How to Add Your .LSP to the Startup Suite

1. Click Load Application [Manage tabApplications panel].

2. Click the Startup Suite suitcase at the bottom (or Contents) to open the Startup Suite dialog box.

   

3. At the bottom of the Startup Suite dialog box, click Add, then navigate to the .LSP files in the ..\Support folder (or wherever you saved that file).

4. Select your .LSP file(s), then click Open to return to the Startup Suite dialog where you will see the file(s) listed.

5. Click Close, then Close out of the Load Application dialog box.

6. To make them work, you will need to close and re-launch AutoCAD.

Those are just, plain fun. Like a good book or a new favorite restaurant or whatever brings a smile to your day.

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