VisualLISP Extension Functions

Since years, the BricsCAD LISP engine has reached a level of compatibility and performance, which allows the majority of LISP applications, designed for AutoCAD, to run nicely under BricsCAD.

Being limited to AutoCAD AutoLISP compatibility means, LISP developers and their applications will not get the full comfort and performance of modern Lisp engines - as AutoCAD AutoLISP is based on a quite old XLisp dialect, but also has not been improved over the last decade ... it still lacks a large number of basic LISP functionality.

So the idea to extend the built-in capabilities of BricsCAD LISP engine was born, to provide

to LISP developers - without losing the compatibility to AutoCAD AutoLISP.

Since BricsCAD V12.2, this VLE function library is available, providing significant performance improvements, besides increased comfort and functionality.

VLE library functions cover a wide range of categories :

Platform compatibility

As vle-extension.lsp uses pure AutoLISP code only, it will work not only under Windows, but also running Linux and Macintosh OS.

Compatibility with AutoCAD and other AutoLISP-compatible CAD systems

We provide an emulation Lisp file vle-extension.lsp, installed with each BricsCAD version, and part of this package - this defines all VLE functions, if not provided as built-in functions.

To keep AutoLISP code compatible under all BricsCAD and AutoCAD platforms and versions, AutoLISP applications can simply load the file vle-extension.lsp in AutoCAD  and BricsCAD, under all versions; as BricsCAD V12.2 and higher provide these VLE functions 'built-in', loading this file has no impact at all (VLE functions from this file are only  defined when the built-in functions are not present).

Because the BricscCAD built-in VLE function set will grow with each BricsCAD version, it is a good idea to load this file under BricsCAD always (taken from the latest version of BricsCAD, copied to the application).

All those VLE functions, which have no useful meaning under AutoCAD, are implemented as 'no operation', so AutoLISP code is not affected in negative sense.