Sharing info with autolisp

In a VBA app I have there are some variables which I would like to "share"
with the Acad/AutoLisp environment. During my lisp days this was no problem,
any "global" variables would be available to any other lisp program.
In VBA is there some way to create a lisp variable or to make a vba variable
available to a lisp program? Is there some way to access the Vlisp
"blackboard"?
For the time being I have worked around this by using "sendcommand" to send
strings like "(setq currenttitleblock "title-a")" but this is kinda kludgy,
you see this kinda junk scroll by on the command line.
Has anyone else had a need to share variables between the environments and
found a suitable method?
Thanks

 

Store your data in Dictionary/XRecord which both languages can use.

--
R. Robert Bell


In a VBA app I have there are some variables which I would like to "share"
with the Acad/AutoLisp environment. During my lisp days this was no problem,
any "global" variables would be available to any other lisp program.
In VBA is there some way to create a lisp variable or to make a vba variable
available to a lisp program? Is there some way to access the Vlisp
"blackboard"?
For the time being I have worked around this by using "sendcommand" to send
strings like "(setq currenttitleblock "title-a")" but this is kinda kludgy,
you see this kinda junk scroll by on the command line.
Has anyone else had a need to share variables between the environments and
found a suitable method?
Thanks

 

That did indeed occur to me Robert, and may be my only choice. I was trying
to make it "super simple" though, so that
other users who may use my app will need little or no programming knowledge
to access these variables.
As you know, with Lisp variables, at the Acad command line you can simply
type "!variable" to see its value and easily
use it in your own macros' etc. Putting it in a dictionary would be easy for
me, but many casual Acad users may have
difficulty retrieving these.

 

Just write some simple wrappers. The wrapper functions will make it easy to
read (or even write) to the storage location.

--
R. Robert Bell


That did indeed occur to me Robert, and may be my only choice. I was trying
to make it "super simple" though, so that
other users who may use my app will need little or no programming knowledge
to access these variables.
As you know, with Lisp variables, at the Acad command line you can simply
type "!variable" to see its value and easily
use it in your own macros' etc. Putting it in a dictionary would be easy for
me, but many casual Acad users may have
difficulty retrieving these.

 

I guess I could make a little lisp "utility" which could retrieve values
from specific dictionary entries...
Oh, by the way, thanks for the prompt replies

 

A word of caution.

Program memory variables are not the same as data stored
in a drawing. Keep in mind that storing anything in the
drawing will subject it to UNDO/REDO.

Of course, the user can't undo/redo changes to program
memory variables.

Depending on what your variables are for, storage in the
drawing strictly for the purpose of shared access from
LISP and VBA may, or may not be a good idea.

For shared program memory that is not subject to UNDO/REDO,
a better approach would be to create an ActiveX object in
VB which is a singleton (meaning that only a single instance
of the object can exist, and all clients connect to it).

Add a property to the object that exposes a Dictionary
(Scripting.Dictionary that is), which will allow you to
read/write 'named' values to the dictionary, then you can
connect to it from LISP or VBA and have shared access.

--
http://www.caddzone.com

AutoCAD based Security Planning Solutions:
http://www.caddzone.com/securityplanning

AcadXTabs: MDI Document Tabs for AutoCAD 2004/2005
http://www.acadxtabs.com

 

A very good point Tony.
Being kinda new to VB though you lost me on that last part.
How do I create a "singleton" class object, how do I make it expose a
scripting dictionary (didnt even know what that was)?
Being that this would be a VB object, how would AutoLisp access it? a vla-
routine?
Are there any examples of similar code?

Thanks for the input

 

What release(s) of AutoCAD do you need this for?

--
http://www.caddzone.com

AutoCAD based Security Planning Solutions:
http://www.caddzone.com/securityplanning

AcadXTabs: MDI Document Tabs for AutoCAD 2004/2005
http://www.acadxtabs.com

 

It would be nice if it worked on 2000 and above. Are you referring to a 2005
only option? VB.net?