detect if there are objects selected

[BigDumbWeirdo]

I'm wondering if anyone knows a way to detect of there are objects currently selected using Autolisp, visual lisp or even VBA. I would like to be able to do something using that as a conditional, so that (assuming the hypothetical variable isSelected is an on/off indicator of whether or not something is selected) I can code something like this:

(if (isSelected)
    (...)
)

 any help would be appreciated.

[Kent1Cooper · Accepted solution]

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@BigDumbWeirdo wrote:

I'm wondering if anyone knows a way to detect of there are objects currently selected . I would like to be able to do something using that as a conditional, so that (assuming the hypothetical variable isSelected is an on/off indicator of whether or not something is selected) I can code something like this:

(if (isSelected)
    (...)
)

....

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You can use the implied-selection option in the selection-method argument in (ssget):

(if (ssget "_I")

  (...)

)

[BigDumbWeirdo]

Sweet. Two weeks of googling with no results and all it takes is one post on the forums...

[Kent1Cooper]

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@BigDumbWeirdo wrote:

Sweet. Two weeks of googling with no results and all it takes is one post on the forums...

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You can use the same approach to go even further than just determining whether there's anything pre-selected.  For instance, you can find out whether there are any Line entities among a pre-selection:

(if (ssget "_I" '((0 . "LINE")))

  (...)

); if

And you can do things like put them into a variable directly in the process if there are, but ask the User to pick some if there are not:

(if (not (setq liness (ssget "_I" '((0 . "LINE")))))

  (progn ; then -- ask User to select

    (prompt "\nTo [do something with] Lines.")

    (setq liness (ssget '((0 . "LINE"))))

  ); progn

); if

(...do something with liness...)

[BigDumbWeirdo]

Good advice, there. I'll probably be using it, soon.