tailoring IntelliCAD e-book

Tailoring IntelliCAD 2009 is the ebook for customizing and programming IntelliCAD 6.5 (aka "2009"). The 272-page e-book is available in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format via email or on CD.

This ebook is based on the progeCAD 2009 dialect of IntelliCAD, and is revised for IntelliCAD 6.5 with this new material:

The ebook continues to provide these details and step-by-step tutorials on customizing and programming IntelliCAD:

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I welcome your feedback for correcting and improving the text. Send your email to grabowski@telus.net

Starting IntelliCAD 2009, Changing the User Interface, Changes Through Windows, Windows 2000 and XP, Windows Vista and 7, Changes Through IntelliCAD, Options: General, Options: Paths, Search Path Options, Default System File Names, Options: Display , Graphics Window, Background Colors, Menus, Crosshair Colors and Size, Axis Color, Snap Cursor Colors and Markers, Other User Interface Elements, Command Bar, Status Bar, Drawing Tabs, Toolbars, Startup Options, Statup Switch, /b Switch

Shortcut Keys, Defining Shortcut Keys, Editing Keyboard Shortcuts, Deleting Keyboard Shortcuts, Assigning Multiple Commands, Command Aliases, Creating New Aliases, Editing Aliases, Deleting Aliases, Rules for Writing Aliases, IntelliCAD Aliases: Sorted by Command Name, Sharing Shortcuts, Exporting Shortcuts & Aliases, Importing Shortcuts and Aliases, Importing Through the Command Bar, File Formats, Keystroke Shortcuts - .ick, nAccelKeys, [AccelKey-n], Command, Accel, Aliases - .ica, nAliases, Alias, LocalCommand and GlobalCommand

Customizing the Toolbar Look, Rearranging Toolbars, Dragging & Moving Toolbars, Toggling the Display of Toolbars, Creating New Toolbars, Renaming Toolbars, Changing Button Size, Color, and Tooltips, Writing Toolbar Macros, Simple Macros, Intermediate Macros, Toolbar Macros Are No Panacea, Sharing Toolbars, Saving Toolbars, Importing Toolbars, .mnu File Format, General Format, Toolbar Format, ***TOOLBARS, **name, TBAR_name, _Toolbar, "titleBar", defaultPosition, defaultVisibility, xCoord and yCoord, rows , Button Format, ID_cmdName , _Button, cmdName , smallIcon, largeIcon, macro , Flyout Button Format, _Flyout, _otherIcon , TBAR_name, Help String Format, ***HELPSTRINGS, TBAR_name [name], ID_cmdName , [helpString]

Modifying the Menu Bar, Examing Menu Names, Underline - &, Dialog Box - ..., Tab Separator - \t, New... and Ctrl+N, Editing Macros, Cancel - ^C, Transparent - ', Internationalize - _, Enter - ;, Pause - \, Editing the Help String, Changing Options, Experience Level, MDI Window, ActiveX In-Place Activation, Checked-State and Grayed-Stated Variables, Value - &, Not - !, Context Menu Entity Availability, Miscellaneous, Adding New Menu Items, Deleting Menu Items, ICM Menu File Format, nMenuItems, Name, Alt-Shortcut - &, Dialog Box - . . ., Right-Justified - \t, TearOffName, Command, Cancel - ^C, Internationalize - _, Enter - ;, Pause - \, Visibility, Experience Level, MDI Window, ActiveX In-Place Activation, Other, HelpString, SubLevel, AddSpacerBefore, EntityVisibility, ChekVar, GrayVar, Value - &, Not - !

Commands That Affect Linetypes, System Variables that Affect Linetypes, The Special Case of Polylines, Compatibility with AutoCAD, Customizing Linetypes, IntelliCAD Explorer, Editing the Linetype Definition, Deleting Linetype Definitions, At the Command Prompt, Testing the New Linetype, Creating Linetypes with the Text Editor, The Linetype Format, Line1: Header, Line 2: Data, Complex (2D) Linetypes, Embedding Text, Text - "HW", Text Style - STANDARD, Text Scale - S=.2, Text Rotation - R=0.0, Absolute - A=0.0, X and Y Offset - X=-0.1 and Y=-0.1, Embedding Shapes, Shape Name - SSS, Shape File - ltypeshp.shx

Where Do Hatch Patterns Come From?, How Hatch Patterns Work, Creating Custom Hatch Patterns, Hatch Command, BHatch Command, Understanding the .pat Format, Comment and Header Lines, Comment - ;, Start of Definition - *, Pattern Name, Description, The Hatch Data, angle, xOrigin and yOrigin, xOffset and yOffset, dash1,..., Tips on Creating Pattern Codes, Adding Custom Patterns to the Palette, Creating a Sample Hatch Pattern, Creating the Slide

Fonts, Complex Linetypes, and GDT Symbols, Fonts, Complex Linetypes, GDT Symbols, About Shape Files, Font Compatibility with AutoCAD, Using Shapes in Drawings, The Shape File Format, Header Fields, Definition Start - *, shapeNumber, totalBytes, shapeName, Definition Lines, bytes, Vector Codes, Instruction Codes, End of Shape - 0/000, Draw Mode - 1/001, 2/002: Move Mode -, Reduced Scale - 3/003, Enlarged Scale - 4/004, Save (Push) - 5/005, Recall (Pop) - 6/006, Subshape - 7/007, X,y Distance - 8/008, X,y Distances - 9/009, Octant Arc - 10/00A, Fractional Arc - 11/ 00B, Bulge Arc - 12/00C, Polyarc - 13/00D, Flag Vertical Text Flag - 14/00E

What are Scripts?, Drawbacks to Scripts, Strictly Command-Line Oriented, Script Commands and Modifiers, Script, RScript, Resume, Delay, Special Characters, Enter - (space), Comment - ;, Transparent - ', Pause - Backspace, Stop - esc, Recording Scripts

The History of LISP in CAD, Compatibility between LISP and AutoLISP, Additional LISP Functions, Different LISP Functions, Missing AutoLISP Functions, The LISP Programming Language, Simple LISP: Adding Two Numbers, LISP in Commands, Remembering the Result: setq, LISP Function Overview, Math Functions, Geometric Functions, Distance Between Two Points, The Angle from 0 Degrees, The Intersection of Two Lines, Entity Snaps, Conditional Functions, Other Conditionals, String and Conversion Functions, Joining Strings of Text, Converting Between Text and Numbers, Other Conversion Functions, External Command Functions, Command Function Limitation, Accessing System Variables, GetXXX Functions, Selection Set Functions, Entity Manipulation Functions, Advanced LISP Functions, Writing a Simple LISP Program, Why Write a Program?, The Id Command, The Plan of Attack, Obtaining the Coordinates, Placing the Text, Putting It Together, Adding to the Simple LISP Program, Conquering Feature Bloat, Wishlist Item #1: Naming the Program, Defining the Function - defun, Naming the Function - C:, Local and Global Variables - /, Wishlist Item #2: Saving the Program, Wishlist Item #3: Automatically Loading the Program, Wishlist #4: Using Car and Cdr, Saving Data to Files, The Three Steps, Step 1: Open the File, Step 2: Write Data to the File, Step 3: Close the File, Putting It Together, Wishlist #5: Layers, Wishlist #6: Text Style, Tips in Using LISP, Tip #1. Use an ASCII Text Editor., Tip #2: Loading LSP Code into IntelliCAD, Tip #3: Toggling System Variables, Tip #4: Be Neat and Tidy., Tip #5: UPPER vs. lowercase, Tip # 6: Quotation Marks as Quotation Marks, Tip #7: Tabs and Quotation Marks

What Dialog Boxes Are Made Of, Your First DCL File, DCL Programming Structure, Start Dialog Box Definition, Dialog Box Title, OK Button, Testing the DCL Code, Displaying System Variable Data, Adding the Complimentary LISP Code, Clustering Text, Fixing the Button Width, Testing the Dialog Box, Examples of DCL Coding, Buttons, Clusters, Debugging DCL, Dcl_Settings, DCL Error Messages, Additional Resources

Tile Reference, Button, Radio_Button, Toggle, Image_Button, Edit_Box, List_Box, Popup_List, Slider, Text, Spacer, Image, Column, Row & Boxed_Row, OurBase.Dcl, LISP Functions for Dialog Boxes, Dialog Boxes Displayed by LISP Functions, Load_Dialog, New_Dialog, Start_Dialog, Done_Dialog, Term_Dialog, Unload_Dialog, Get_Tile, Set_Tile, Get_Attr, Mode_Tile, Action_Tile, Client_Data_Tile, Start_List, Add_List, End_List, Start_Image, Slide_Image, Fill_Image, Vector_Image, DimX_Tile & DimY_Tile, End_Image, Dialog Boxes Displayed by LISP Functions

Is Diesel a Programming Language? , What Diesel Does, Brief List of Diesel Functions, Numeric Conversion Functions, ModeMacro: Displaying Text on the Status Bar, Reporting Values of System Variables , Debugging Diesel, MacroTrace , Using Variables, Diesel Functions, Math Functions, + (Addition), - (Subtraction), * (Multiplication), / (Division), Logic Functions, = (Equal), < (Less than), > (Greater Than), != (Not Equal), <= (Less Than or Equal), >= (Greater Than or Equal), and (Logical Bitwise AND), eq, if, or (Logical Bitwise Or), xor (Logical Bitwise Xor), Conversion Functions, angtos , fix, rtos, String Functions, index, nth, strlen, substr, upper, System Functions, edtime, eval, getvar, Diesel Programming Tips, Diesel in Menus and Toolbars, Parsing the Name Macro, $(if, ... !.), $(eq, ... 1),, $(getvar,attmode),, &Normal, Parsing Diesel in Macros, Bitcode Macros, Diesel in AutoLISP, Via the Setvar Function, Concatenate Two Diesel Strings, Via the MenuCmd Function

References, Introduction, DXF Formats, DWG and DXF Content, Miscellaneous Comments, DXF Format, Header Section of DXF Files , Object Properties, Group Codes, HEADER Section, Version Numbers, CLASSES Section, TABLES Section, BLOCKS Section, ENTITIES Section, OBJECTS Section, THUMBNAILIMAGE Section, EOF

Ralph Grabowski has authored and co-authored 100+ books and ebooks on CAD management, ArchiCAD, AutoCAD, Generic CADD, IntelliCAD, MicroStation, TurboCAD, VDraft, Visio, HTML, and VRML. He is the editor of two e-newsletters, upFront.eZine and iCommunique.

Mr Grabowski received his B.A.Sc ('80) degree in civil engineering from the University of British Columbia. He currently works and lives in the beautiful Central Fraser Valley region of British Columbia, Canada.