Hey Great Job! I've been working in lsp since 2005 and didn't know about double clicking the parenthesis!!!! Thanks for teaching this old dog a new trick!
Great Job! I've been even watching Autolisp videos from South Korea to check some practical examples of this programming language. Thanks a lot for what you are doing. 4 Months ago i thought i was an Expert with AutoCAD, but no way! there's a whole universe of programming to discover :)
You can definitely still be an 'expert' even without LISP programming knowledge. At my first drafting job I was a structural draftsman for (mostly) steel bridges. CAD speed itself wasn't my 'bottle neck', but rather my knowledge of bridges, steel construction, and the ability to read site plans and old shop drawings. I was an 'expert' at that job but not great with CAD; the incentive to improve my CAD skills simply wasn't there. Once I started drafting buildings (with lots of repetitious tasks) that's when I really started to get into the CAD customization. AutoLISP is only one of many 'API' languages, and one of the simpler ones... it's never ending hehe.
Very articulate and easy to understand what you're saying. However it seems that there is some info that was left out and it wasn't explained why, for example, the (/) was left out. But I liked how you explained what DEFUN was and you explained the formula much better than most tutorials on RUclips. BTW, Autodesk does not any instruction on lisps other than the community forums, which is no help at all.
Which community forums do you use? For myself, I found good success with www.theswamp.org and Augi's forums. I google search most of my problems and that usually gets me the answer quicker than figuring out myself (the later is gratifying but time intensive). www.Afralisp.net is my go to for tutorials. What they do cover on there is covered quite well. So good in fact that I was originally hesitant to make videos, but I realized that few people are actually making any videos at all... something is better than none at all! Totally appreciate your feedback :-) . Often times I miss stuff and only realize it after creating the video. And don't have time to re-create the video. And of course there's stuff I don't even realize I'm missing. My intent is that people can just ask me about anything missing from the videos in the comments, but that's not always an option during a late night coding session when you just want to complete your project ;-). Recently, I only just learnt that using "nil" in place of the brackets is valid code too. Make sure the comment blocks are on their respective lines before trying to actually run this code: (defun C:TEST1 nil (alert "This actually works!") ) (defun C:TEST2 () (alert "This works too of course.") ) (defun C:TEST3 () (alert "And this.") ) (defun _test4 ( _testMessage / ) ; sub function, embedded function, non-command line function, ; or whatever you want to call it (alert _testMessage) ) (defun C:TEST4 ( / testMessage ) ; we make test Message a local variable. (setq testMessage "This will work too, but only if we Pass an argument correctly.") (_test4 testMessage) ; we call our sub function here. ) (defun C:TEST5 () (setq testMessage "This will work too, but only if we Pass an argument correctly.") (_test4 "...and lastly, this works too.") )
I'll bet Emacs is a bit easier to write source code in. There is a slight mismatch between AutoLISP and Emacs Lisp but it should take care of stuff like automatic indentation and closing of your s-expressions. Maybe somebody should write an AutoLISP mode for it...
VLIDE (AutoCAD's LISP editor) is extremely dated. It has a few advantages which is why I keep going back to it. Once is that I can check on the state of variables at breakpoints. I'm finding myself gravitating towards more manual ways of bug testing my code (prompts placed at key points displaying variable values). I'm actually learning .NET / C# at the moment and now almost have the same ability in either language. From start to finish I'm still faster with LISP though and find myself using it when I have to get something working asap.
@@randomCADstuff Any idea if AutoCAD is trying to snuff out AutoLISP? I'd always considered it as a side job (being a guy who loves various dialects of Lisp in general). Their new subscription model is really unfortunate since I'm still able to roll with 2004 and can't keep my software with AutoCAD these days.
@@PixelOutlaw Not so much AutoCAD (or Autodesk) but the whole industry. Everyone wants to charge customers more and more whereas AutoLISP offers cheap and simply solutions to common problems. Creating actual, useable construction drawings is a pretty boring process. LISP is extremely well suited for dealing with a lot of that boring stuff. It's quite easy to learn and implement. By comparison, .NET/C# took me months before I could actually start using it to automate AutoCAD, but with AutoLISP, I went from zero programming ability (it was the first language I learnt) to creating something useful in days. .NET has a way higher ceiling and gives you access to Winforms and WPF of course (AutoLISP incorporates a very basic but useful dialog control language, DCL). Many .NET programmers desperately want AutoLISP to go away because when it comes to actual productivity and creating useful code fast (and cheap). It's actually hard for .NET developers to compete; in other words, a programmer's ability in .NET has to be quite a bit higher than an AutoLISP programmer's to achieve the same result - that is, if we're talking about the 'boring stuff'. .NET has a much higher ceiling of course and you can make way prettier dialog boxes away quicker. I have AutoCAD 2023 on my computer right now. I was previously experimenting with the AutoCAD clones and will eventually go back to using them I think. One called BricsCAD comes with a Visual LISP editor that's better than AutoCAD's. It's actually the only reason I tried/bought BricsCAD. The LISP editor is great but the rest of the program is lacking. There are a few other AutoCAD clones, the other one I've tried (and the one that's most similar to AutoCAD) is called GstarCAD. One program that uses LISP is Solidworks. Solidworks is tailored more towards mechanical engineering applications (where as AutoCAD is just generic). I found it very interesting that Solidworks uses LISP because it's considered the standard in it's particular field and among the most modern/advanced software.
@@PixelOutlaw All of them also include 30 day free trials. One per year I believe. You can do AutoCAD's free trial, then BricsCAD's, then GstarCAD's... and more even.
Only I know how grateful I am for this. Than you!
Hey Great Job! I've been working in lsp since 2005 and didn't know about double clicking the parenthesis!!!! Thanks for teaching this old dog a new trick!
Great Job! I've been even watching Autolisp videos from South Korea to check some practical examples of this programming language. Thanks a lot for what you are doing. 4 Months ago i thought i was an Expert with AutoCAD, but no way! there's a whole universe of programming to discover :)
You can definitely still be an 'expert' even without LISP programming knowledge. At my first drafting job I was a structural draftsman for (mostly) steel bridges. CAD speed itself wasn't my 'bottle neck', but rather my knowledge of bridges, steel construction, and the ability to read site plans and old shop drawings. I was an 'expert' at that job but not great with CAD; the incentive to improve my CAD skills simply wasn't there. Once I started drafting buildings (with lots of repetitious tasks) that's when I really started to get into the CAD customization. AutoLISP is only one of many 'API' languages, and one of the simpler ones... it's never ending hehe.
Very articulate and easy to understand what you're saying. However it seems that there is some info that was left out and it wasn't explained why, for example, the (/) was left out. But I liked how you explained what DEFUN was and you explained the formula much better than most tutorials on RUclips. BTW, Autodesk does not any instruction on lisps other than the community forums, which is no help at all.
Which community forums do you use? For myself, I found good success with www.theswamp.org and Augi's forums. I google search most of my problems and that usually gets me the answer quicker than figuring out myself (the later is gratifying but time intensive). www.Afralisp.net is my go to for tutorials. What they do cover on there is covered quite well. So good in fact that I was originally hesitant to make videos, but I realized that few people are actually making any videos at all... something is better than none at all!
Totally appreciate your feedback :-) . Often times I miss stuff and only realize it after creating the video. And don't have time to re-create the video. And of course there's stuff I don't even realize I'm missing. My intent is that people can just ask me about anything missing from the videos in the comments, but that's not always an option during a late night coding session when you just want to complete your project ;-).
Recently, I only just learnt that using "nil" in place of the brackets is valid code too. Make sure the comment blocks are on their respective lines before trying to actually run this code:
(defun C:TEST1 nil
(alert "This actually works!")
)
(defun C:TEST2 ()
(alert "This works too of course.")
)
(defun C:TEST3 ()
(alert "And this.")
)
(defun _test4 ( _testMessage / ) ; sub function, embedded function, non-command line function,
; or whatever you want to call it
(alert _testMessage)
)
(defun C:TEST4 ( / testMessage ) ; we make test Message a local variable.
(setq testMessage "This will work too,
but only if we
Pass an argument
correctly.")
(_test4 testMessage) ; we call our sub function here.
)
(defun C:TEST5 ()
(setq testMessage "This will work too,
but only if we
Pass an argument
correctly.")
(_test4 "...and lastly, this works too.")
)
@@randomCADstuff Awesome, I'll check it out.
How to make any command save as separate lisp
Please answer
thank you. Very clear and concise.
Hi sir we need autolisp full tutorial
I'll bet Emacs is a bit easier to write source code in. There is a slight mismatch between AutoLISP and Emacs Lisp but it should take care of stuff like automatic indentation and closing of your s-expressions. Maybe somebody should write an AutoLISP mode for it...
VLIDE (AutoCAD's LISP editor) is extremely dated. It has a few advantages which is why I keep going back to it. Once is that I can check on the state of variables at breakpoints. I'm finding myself gravitating towards more manual ways of bug testing my code (prompts placed at key points displaying variable values). I'm actually learning .NET / C# at the moment and now almost have the same ability in either language. From start to finish I'm still faster with LISP though and find myself using it when I have to get something working asap.
@@randomCADstuff Any idea if AutoCAD is trying to snuff out AutoLISP? I'd always considered it as a side job (being a guy who loves various dialects of Lisp in general). Their new subscription model is really unfortunate since I'm still able to roll with 2004 and can't keep my software with AutoCAD these days.
@@PixelOutlaw Not so much AutoCAD (or Autodesk) but the whole industry. Everyone wants to charge customers more and more whereas AutoLISP offers cheap and simply solutions to common problems. Creating actual, useable construction drawings is a pretty boring process. LISP is extremely well suited for dealing with a lot of that boring stuff. It's quite easy to learn and implement. By comparison, .NET/C# took me months before I could actually start using it to automate AutoCAD, but with AutoLISP, I went from zero programming ability (it was the first language I learnt) to creating something useful in days. .NET has a way higher ceiling and gives you access to Winforms and WPF of course (AutoLISP incorporates a very basic but useful dialog control language, DCL). Many .NET programmers desperately want AutoLISP to go away because when it comes to actual productivity and creating useful code fast (and cheap). It's actually hard for .NET developers to compete; in other words, a programmer's ability in .NET has to be quite a bit higher than an AutoLISP programmer's to achieve the same result - that is, if we're talking about the 'boring stuff'. .NET has a much higher ceiling of course and you can make way prettier dialog boxes away quicker.
I have AutoCAD 2023 on my computer right now. I was previously experimenting with the AutoCAD clones and will eventually go back to using them I think. One called BricsCAD comes with a Visual LISP editor that's better than AutoCAD's. It's actually the only reason I tried/bought BricsCAD. The LISP editor is great but the rest of the program is lacking. There are a few other AutoCAD clones, the other one I've tried (and the one that's most similar to AutoCAD) is called GstarCAD.
One program that uses LISP is Solidworks. Solidworks is tailored more towards mechanical engineering applications (where as AutoCAD is just generic). I found it very interesting that Solidworks uses LISP because it's considered the standard in it's particular field and among the most modern/advanced software.
@@randomCADstuff Thank you so much for your insightful thoughts! I'll take them into my future purchase decisions.
@@PixelOutlaw All of them also include 30 day free trials. One per year I believe. You can do AutoCAD's free trial, then BricsCAD's, then GstarCAD's... and more even.
Video quality is low but you are good at teaching this, nice job
Thank you! It takes a lot of skill to make the really high quality videos we see. I think I'm years away from that.
MAAN THANK YOU SO F MUCH
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