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I use a variation of the ssx.lsp to select objects in the drawing. In Bricscad v15 using (sssetfirst ss1 ss1) would both activate grips and activate the properties window to show info on those objects. For example select all blocks with same name, I could quickly edit the attribute value for all of them. I'm testing upgrade to v26 and the properties window no longer activates unless I manually toggle the property preview button. Is there a system variable to use the old behavior? Here is the simple code: (setq ss1 (ssget)) (sssetfirst ss1 ss1)

Honestly, I've been using AI to code in AutoLISP for the past year or so and I think it's more successful at it than I am. I'm not saying it's clean code, but I'm saying it's already useful. I had a sales engineer ask me info on a project that they're selling trying to verify if what they sold was feasible and with the tool the AI built, I could give them concrete details. If I had to finish that tool, it would have taken me months to write it. I had to test it a bunch of times in autocad and give feedback and it'll find the problem. I had to upgrade which models I used if it gets stuck or restart a new chat. I have a bunch of md files for it to remember how the codebase works but it's getting there. I would say the AI didn't code the whole thing, I still gave it most of the ideas to use, it just had to fill stuff in between for the implementation. At the end of the day, I just want it to work. I had it write a debug.txt which it can read after each test run. I had it create toy functions to measure what it did after the fact. There's a couple of good engineering practices still in place, it's just that I'm allowing myself to have 'fuzzy' details about the implementation.

Yes, I've encountered that problem...usually that's when I have to go to my lisp library or come up with new code to accommodate for when matchprop falls short

The Scenario (The Security Blindspot) A draftsman, facing a tight deadline, downloads an unvetted compiled plugin (.DLL or .ARX) from a public forum. Because CAD plugins execute directly within the application's memory space, malicious code bypasses traditional network firewalls entirely, exposing the enterprise to ransomware. The IT department demands a complete lockdown of all CAD installations. The Legacy Approach OS-level lockdowns cripple engineering efficiency, while traditional CAD deployment tools (requiring .exe installers and Registry modifications) trigger massive IT compliance red flags. The Modern Solution (Zero-Install & SecOps Gateway) VedaCAD operates with a Zero-Install footprint, utilizing a pure LISP microkernel that requires no OS-level admin privileges or Registry modifications—complying natively with strict corporate GPO security policies rather than demanding risky security exemptions. For ultimate B2B compliance, VedaCAD offers two powerful safeguards: EDR SecOps Gateway: All third-party binaries imported into the corporate Foundry are automatically routed to the company's internal EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response) sandbox for black-box detonation. Only payloads returning a "SAFE" webhook are authorized for fleet deployment. Dedicated Enterprise Nodes (DED): VedaCAD can dynamically provision an absolutely physically isolated database and edge storage node, eliminating shared-database cross-tenant risks. (Note: Both the EDR Gateway integration and Dedicated D1 Nodes are exclusive Add-ons available for the Enterprise Tier.)

The Scenario (The Firewall Block) You find a modern package manager to streamline your CAD fleet, but your Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) instantly rejects it. For defense contractors, top-tier architectural firms, and government agencies, placing proprietary LISP routines and DWG templates on a third-party SaaS cloud is a strict violation of corporate data sovereignty policies. The Legacy Approach Enterprises are forced to choose between highly efficient cloud deployments and strict data residency compliance, often falling back to archaic, hard-to-maintain on-premise servers. The Modern Solution (BYOS - Bring Your Own Storage) VedaCAD pioneers a decoupled Control Plane / Data Plane architecture through its BYOS integration. Enterprise administrators can bind their own private AWS S3, Cloudflare R2, or internal MinIO bucket API credentials directly into the dashboard. VedaCAD handles the complex routing and telemetry, but the physical assets (.LSP, .DLL, .DWT) are written to and streamed directly from the customer's own private storage. We enforce an "As-Is Custody" guarantee—our servers never touch your proprietary binaries. (Note: The BYOS S3 routing module is an exclusive Add-on available for the Enterprise Tier.)

The Scenario (The 50-Page PDF) A new engineer joins the firm. The CAD Manager wastes half a day mapping Support Paths, importing .arg profiles, and loading menus. Even worse, the firm has heavily invested in proprietary automation plugins, but the new hire doesn't know how to use them because no one reads the 50-page static PDF manual buried on the intranet. The Legacy Approach Manual terminal configuration is unscalable. Static documentation disconnected from the drafting environment leads to poor tool adoption. The Modern Solution (JIT Provisioning & In-Context SOPs) With VedaCAD’s Enterprise functionalities, onboarding is automated via JIT (Just-In-Time) Provisioning. Utilizing Enterprise SSO, the CAD Manager assigns the new hire to the "Structural Squad". When the engineer logs into AutoCAD, VedaCAD instantly fetches and mounts every proprietary plugin, template, and command alias assigned to that specific squad in seconds. If they don't know how to use a tool? They simply click the "SOPs" button inside the VedaCAD client. VedaCAD uses a secure hardware-bound token (OTT) to instantly bypass passwords and log them into the Web Portal in their browser, displaying the specific Markdown guidelines and Demo GIFs tied to their assigned assets.

The Scenario (The Standard Drift) Whenever external subcontractors submit drawings, it’s a mess. Missing SHX fonts replace text with ?, and line weights via .CTB plot styles are completely unaligned. You email them your company’s CAD environment templates, but you have zero visibility into whether they actually configured their CAD correctly before drafting. The Legacy Approach Sending ZIP files relies purely on trust. You cannot verify if the subcontractor is using outdated standards until the flawed deliverables arrive, resulting in unbillable rework. The Modern Solution (Project Arks & Telemetry) VedaCAD shifts the paradigm from "trust" to "Verified Governance" through Project Arks. General Contractors can package their passive configuration files (.CTB, .SHX, .DWT) into a secure container and issue a time-limited Visa (VCID) to subcontractors. Format Firewall: The Ark physically blocks any executable code (.DLL, .LSP), eliminating cross-company malware transmission risks. Visibility & Unmounting: The GC's dashboard displays real-time telemetry, instantly flagging if a subcontractor's terminal is "Out of Sync." When the Visa expires, VedaCAD cleanly unmounts the standards from the subcontractor’s active CAD preferences, maintaining a pristine workspace and preventing future standard contamination across different projects.

The Scenario (The Verifiable Sync Problem) To unify standards, IT usually maps the CAD Support Path to a network drive (Z:\CAD_Standards) or OneDrive. But as a veteran CAD Manager recently pointed out to us: "The problem with shared drives has never really been just file availability—it’s knowing that everyone is actually running the same approved environment and being able to verify that without manually checking individual machines." The Legacy Approach Live cloud paths are fragile (if the internet drops on a construction site, CAD freezes). Furthermore, network drives offer zero observability. You can only "pray" your team's CAD synced properly, leading to massive version fragmentation. The Modern Solution (Cloud-Managed Local Sandbox) This exact feedback validates why VedaCAD abolishes live network drives in favor of a Cloud-Managed Local Sandbox. All configs and plugins are pushed to a secure cache on the user's local C: drive, ensuring native speed and an Offline Grace Period if the internet drops on-site. The cloud's only job is to orchestrate and verify the version delivery. When you patch a .DLL plugin, VedaCAD uses a .bak renaming trick to bypass the Windows File Lock, silently hot-swapping the new payload in the background. Meanwhile, the CAD Manager gets a centralized dashboard showing the exact sync adherence of every physical terminal globally. Absolute observability.

The Scenario (The Plugin Avalanche) As AI copilots dramatically lower the barrier to coding, engineering teams are rapidly accumulating custom plugins routines. Suddenly, you’re stuffing dozens or even 100+ plugins into AutoCAD's APPLOAD Startup Suite. The result? AutoCAD takes minutes to launch. Different plugins fight over the same keyboard aliases. The Legacy Approach The traditional monolithic approach forces every plugin into the boot sequence. When an alias conflict occurs, CAD managers have to manually debug source code across dozens of workstations, disrupting drafting workflows. The Modern Solution (Demand-Loading Proxy) We recently had a veteran developer put VedaCAD through a massive stress test, which validated exactly why we built a Demand-Loading Proxy. Instead of loading 100 physical binaries at boot, VedaCAD's microkernel registers lightweight proxy hooks in memory. The actual physical binary evaluates into memory only at the exact millisecond the user types the command alias. Whether you manage 20 or 300 plugins, your CAD startup memory footprint remains exactly 0%. For pure function libraries that don't require command aliases, VedaCAD utilizes a "System Library" silent load mechanism. The platform establishes strict Alias Hegemony—ensuring the custom tools you deploy work flawlessly without overlap.

Have you ever used MATCHPROP to make one object look like another, but it still did not turn out right? I've often had to use MATCHPROP to change certain properties of an object, and while it does copy many properties like layer, color, linetype, and lineweight, it cannot copy all properties, so the objects are no longer identical For example, text can have a different height, and dimension objects can have different dimension-styles. When this happens, I usually go to the specific style or property of the object that is different, rather than using MATCHPROP over-and-over again. Has MATCHPROP ever done something unexpected for you?

As I mentioned in the other thread, I do not see any real usefulness for the way I work for BURST. I just can see any real need to explode any blocks with attributes, it's simple enough to alter the attributes, with code even easier. I am sure there is a way to convert them to text without exploding the block.

I added a note in the file where to change to keep PowerShell open. ; ---------------------------------------------------------- ; Wait until PowerShell finishes. ; ---------------------------------------------------------- (vlax-invoke-method shell "Run" cmd 0 ; <=== Change 0 to 1 if you want PowerShell to stay open. :vlax-true ) (vlax-release-object shell) ) ) I was running some tests at work to see if there was a method to determine if PowerShell was blocked to give a message... (princ "\nPowerShell access is blocked.") (princ "\nPowerShell access is allowed.")) Right now all I get on the commandline is... error: Automation Error. Description was not provided. Though I had to get to some of my "paid to do" work done yesterday. This is probably above my pay grade. I just realized who the OP is, a big time Guru over at Autodesk forums and AUGI.

I've actually used the attached lisp function BurstAttrBlock to run through a bunch of dwgs looking for a specific (non dynamic) block with attributes to convert them to text using accoreconsole. BurstAttrBlock.lsp

@GLAVCVS thanks for the feedback. I assume to use a single Powershell session you would have to run a batch file that launches Powershell first before starting autocad? Then when autocad closes or crashes out that session of Powershell also closes.

Yes: as @SLW210 says, it seems to work well. On the other hand: Have you considered having the script written only if it does not already exist in the expected directory, and keeping PowerShell running from the initial load? This would make the dialog box load faster on subsequent calls. In this regard, the script check/creation could be done when the code is loaded. This would also improve the speed of the first execution slightly.

Have you ever received a drawing where a block contains attribute text. You need to edit the text as normal objects?of exploding the block with EXPLODE and losing the attribute values BURST can be useful. BURST breaks the block into objects while preserving the attribute values as text. For example if you have a title block or equipment tag with attributes and need to make edits BURST can save some extra work. Just remember that after bursting the result is no longer a block. Do you use BURST, for attribute blocks. Do you normally handle them another way?

I think AI is definitely part of the reason, but probably not the whole story. A lot of questions that used to become forum threads can now be answered quickly with ChatGPT or Copilot, especially when the problem is a small piece of code or a common error. The interesting part is exactly what you mentioned: when the AI-generated solution fails, people still need somewhere to ask a human who understands the bigger context. AI can produce working-looking code very quickly, but debugging someone else's real project is a different problem. I also think newer users are less attached to forums than they used to be. Many will try a search, ask an AI, or post in a Discord/Reddit community before they ever find a specialist forum. So the drop in posts doesn't necessarily mean people have stopped needing help; the questions may simply be going elsewhere.

I'll probably do more tweaking, that's the 2nd version, I might go back to the first version.

Yes you can have custom buttons Ok_Cancel_Width. Have to go back to my R12 paper manual for details.

Nice job on the vector images. Like the highlite option.

@BIGALOr another option would be to provide a button to click on so that the selected item on the list box will open up into another dcl written on the fly with an Edit Box having a set edit_width attribute greater than the length of the selected item.

@Paul Li another way may be to check the strlen of the selected item in the list and do a child dcl that has correct width press Ok to keep else Cancel and go back to list.

@SLW210 Your revised version works beautifully and can now support older versions of AutoCAD...thanks a bunch!!!

I worked on the DCL after some inspiration from... Hopefully I didn't break anything. New version with nicer DCL in first post.

Yes, I was working on that for my home computer with 2000i. Since I had some home time today with AutoCAD 2000i, I did some updating to your code. Seems to work great with minimal testing. Here is my Test Code... ; ================================================================ ; Test command ; ================================================================ (defun c:SelectDWGs (/ files) (setq files (pl:getfiledps "Select DWG Files" (getvar "DWGPREFIX") "dwg" 1 ) ) (if files (progn (princ "\nSelected files:" ) (foreach file files (princ (strcat "\n" file ) ) ) ) (princ "\nNo files selected." ) ) (princ) ) pl_getfiledps_2000i.lsp