AutoCADderMonday, February 27, 2006
AutoCAD reactors are user friendly
AutoCAD reactors are an underestimated customization functionality in AutoCAD. Imagine functions for which you (as an AutoCAD user) don't need to remember their command names (or cryptic icons), which launch automatically under your hands exactly at the moment you need them. Sounds perfect?
You can write your own reactors which react on a change in your DWG drawing, on other commands launched, on drawing about to be closed, etc. Reactors can be written even in VisualLISP and VBA - so you don't have to be a C++ genius-programmer to write your own ones. Just think of the options - how many steps you have to repeat daily editing your drawings. Switching layers on and off, manipulating layouts, publishing a fresh drawing copy, forgetting to reset the xxxxx variable when doing yyyyy. All this can be automated using reactors.
You can write your own reactors which react on a change in your DWG drawing, on other commands launched, on drawing about to be closed, etc. Reactors can be written even in VisualLISP and VBA - so you don't have to be a C++ genius-programmer to write your own ones. Just think of the options - how many steps you have to repeat daily editing your drawings. Switching layers on and off, manipulating layouts, publishing a fresh drawing copy, forgetting to reset the xxxxx variable when doing yyyyy. All this can be automated using reactors.
Useful links: The AfraLISP web offers an introduction to LISP reactors. The Xanadu company has some useful free LISP reactors for download (the latest one is LayLay).
