The AutoLisp Ultimate Tutorial

The AutoLisp Tutorial

Dialog Control Language - Controls

Let's take a look at the different controls you can put on the dialog box. You've seen a few of them in the overview portion but let's go over the majority of them now. I will only show the most used properties for each control.

LAYOUT CONTROLS:

: column { label = "My Column"; }	Column You can omit the label.
: boxed_column { label = "My Column"; }	Boxed Column You can omit the label.
: row { label = "My Row"; }	Row You can omit the label.
: boxed_row { label = "My Row"; }	Boxed Row You can omit the label.
: spacer { width = 10; height = 15; }	A normal spacer to help align other controls. You can omit the width and height properties.
: spacer_0;	A spacer that usually has no width. It simply means, if you have to stretch something in this row to make things fit, stretch this spacer instead of the other items..
: spacer_1;	The smallest spacer that's visually noticable.

BUTTON

: button {
key = "button1;
label = "Okay";
is_tab_stop = true;
is_cancel = false;
is_default = true;
width = 15;
height = 10;
mnemonic = "B";
}

key = The name you assign to the button.

label = The text displayed on the button.

is_cancel = Determines if this is the cancel button. One control must be assigned to be the cancel action.

is_default = Determines if this button activates when the user presses the enter key.

mnemonic = Determines if you can press ALT+B to move to this action key. You assign the letter and DCL will underscore the letter on the dialog box to let the user know it is ALT-able. If that is a word!

BOXED RADIO COLUMN, RADIO COLUMN, & RADIO BUTTON

: radio_column { label = "Choices"; key = "choices";	// Use boxed_radio_column if a box is required. // Label for the column or boxed_column // Action key for the radio column
: radio_button { label = "Choice 1"; key = "choice1"; }	// First radio button
: radio_button { label = "Choice 2"; key = "choice2"; }	// Second radio button
: radio_button { label = "Choice 3"; key = "choice3"; }	// Third radio button
: radio_button { label = "Choice 4"; key = "choice4"; }	// Fourth radio button
}	// Close the radio_column

BOXED RADIO ROW, RADIO ROW, & RADIO BUTTON

: radio_row { label = "Choices"; key = "choices";	// Use boxed_radio_row for box. // Label for the row or boxed_row // Action key for the radio row
: radio_button { label = "1"; key = "choice1"; }	// First radio button
: radio_button { label = "2"; key = "choice2"; }	// Second radio button
: radio_button { label = "3"; key = "choice3"; }	// Third radio button
: radio_button { label = "4"; key = "choice4"; }	// Fourth radio button
}	// Close the radio_row

EDIT BOX

: edit_box {
key = "myval";
label = "Value:";
edit_width = 10;
value = "";
}

// Action key
// Label for the edit box
// Character width
// Initial value

LIST BOX

: list_box {
label ="Choose Items";
key = "mylist";
height = 15;
width = 25;
multiple_select = true;
fixed_width_font = true;
value = "0";
}

// Label for the list box
// Action key
// Height of list box
// Width of list box
// Multiple Select = TRUE
// Use fixed with font = TRUE
// Initial selection = 1st item

DCL_LIST01.JPG (6604 bytes)