Can anyone tell me how to obtain a downloadable AutoLISP programmer's guide?
Solved! Go to Solution.
Solved by RWBoltz. Go to Solution.
Have you looked at the AutoLISP Tutorial section under the help button of the AutoCAD program? If you copy the conteince of map c:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2012 - English\Help\ (burn it on a CD for instance), youmight be able to browse the help system on another computer rtaht has no AutoCAD installed.Open the file index.html to begin.
OK, look... here's a PDF of the 2012 AutoLISP Programmer's Guide available from Autodesk for MAC users:
http://docs.autodesk.com/ACDMAC/2012/ENU/PDFs/acdmac_2012_autolisp_developers_guide.pdf
Is there one available for PC users, or is it the same? I can't believe it's this difficult to find.
That one is for Acad 2000 - looking for the current Guide, or most current... the closest I've found so far is for Acad 2007. Can anyone verify if this is the last PDF available?
Check the first link (2011). The 2000 reference is just the uses of the vl,vlr,vlax commands - nothing new since 2000.
Here's a pdf for 2011: http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/acad_dxf2.pdf
One of the really good resources is Ron Leigh's Autolisp programming site. Over a period of time, I copied the various 'lessons' to a single text file that I now access via NoteTab Light, a very useful (free) text editor with excellent search options and other bells and whistles. He has a large number of sensible examples and I have found it very helpful as a reference.
Try this site for yourself :
http://ronleigh.com/autolisp/index.htm
OK, after 2 days of pursuit, I finally was able to speak with Stephen Preston, an ADN technician at Autodesk, who informed me that they've discontinued providing the AutoLISP Developer's Guide in PDF format (2010 being the last year available). Apparently the 2007 Guide (available by Google search) is current enough to use. Old school programmers, like me, need hardcopy documentation to spill coffee on and rifle through while writing code, so I recommended to Stephen that it would be nice for future releases to include the ability to dump the full documentation to print, rather than the current page by page limitation. I get that it's expensive for Autodesk to produce hardcopy of their documentation, but when I'm using my paper and toner, you'd think they could be a bit more helpful ;o)