Can I hide the crosshairs?

[jefries1683]

In several of my functions I use getstring to prompt the user for some input.  This works fine, however sometimes the user doesn't realize the command is still active because the crosshairs are still on-screen.  They attempt to continue working but are unable to select anything.  I even catch myself doing this.

Is there a way to temporarily deactivate or hide the crosshairs?

Thanks,

Jeffrey Ries

Novi, MI

[Anonymous]

The only thing I could think of at the moment is set your CURSORSIZE variable to a small number and then have it reset when you exit the program.  HTH.

[Anonymous]

Just thought of something else but I don't know if it is possible since currently I am not aware of any variables to control it.  But here it goes.  Set the color of the crosshairs to the same color as your background and the crosshairs should be "invisible".

[scot-65]

Also look into the possibility to turn on DYNMODE, then reset when finished.

(I think there are 2 DYN switches to investigate...)

???

[Shneuph]

One option is to use the (textscr) and (graphscr) functions before and after the (getstring) one.  That way it opens the command line window and the user will be more likely to see the prompt.

[Anonymous]

Have you tried turning the croshair color to that of the background?

[Anonymous]

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Visual-LISP-AutoLISP-and-General/XHairChange/td-p/2644296

[Kent1Cooper]

I like the idea of setting the CURSORSIZE System Variable very small, too [1 works pretty well], and if you want it to look even more different than usual, consider also setting the PICKBOX System Variable to 1 or even 0 [assuming you normally have it at something larger like the default 3].

Or, if you really want to be obnoxious, throw up an

(alert "Answer the prompt at the Command Line, you idiot!")

which, while it won't affect the crosshairs, will require the User to pick OK in the alert box before they can do anything else, so they'll be forced to be aware that the routine that's running wants some input.

[jefries1683]

I was once told of a way to do this - I believe it was through the use of grread.  Unfortunately, I had no use for it at the time so I eventually forgot it.

I'm going to give the background color + size trick a shot.

My fear with this method is this, what happens when eventually my command fails leaving the crosshairs invisible?  I do use error trapping, but sometimes an error gets through.  I suppose this could happen with any method so no harm right?

Thank you to everyone for your help,

Jeff