cadcraft/docs/customization.md

Customizing and automating CADCraft

What you can use today to automate CADCraft or bring over add-ons written for other CAD programs, and what is not there yet.

You have	In CADCraft	More
LISP routines (.lsp)	Run with APPLOAD or (load "name"). The core language, command, entity lists, selection sets, get… input and c: commands work.	autolisp.md
Startup LISP (acad.lsp, acaddoc.lsp)	Loaded from the support folder at startup and for each drawing.	autolisp.md
Scripts (.scr)	SCRIPT (Tools > Run Script...), cadcraft-cli run --script-file, and script text over MCP and the control channel.	below
Command aliases (.pgp)	ALIASEDIT {file} loads an alias file and keeps it; the aliases and the file survive restarts. REINIT reads it again.	below
Compiled plug-ins (C++, .NET)	Not supported. A plug-in API is planned, for plug-ins written in Rust and compiled to WebAssembly.	gaps.md (E4)
Programs that drive the CAD program from outside	The JSON control channel, the MCP server and cadcraft-cli. Any language that can open a TCP socket or start a process can use them.	below

LISP routines

Most routines that only draw, edit and query objects run as they are. Not yet supported: Visual LISP ActiveX functions (vlax-…, vla-…), DCL dialogs and reactors (gaps.md E1). A routine that uses them needs those parts rewritten, for example with command calls and get… prompts instead of a dialog.

Put routines you want in every session in the support folder (support in the settings folder; paths in autolisp.md) and load them from acad.lsp or acaddoc.lsp, or with (autoload "file" '("CMD")) so they load the first time their command is typed.

Scripts

A .scr file is what you would type at the command line, one line at a time. Run it with SCRIPT in the app, or headless:

cadcraft-cli run drawing.dxf --script-file setup.scr --save out.dxf

Command aliases

ALIASEDIT reads a .pgp alias file (ALIAS, *COMMAND lines); its aliases replace the ones you had. Lines that would start external programs are skipped. From a script or the control channel: aliasedit {"file": "/path/to/aliases.pgp"}. The Command Aliases dialog's Import… button picks a .pgp file, loads it the same way, shows its path and warnings, and remembers the folder it came from; on the web (no native file dialog) type ALIASEDIT with the file's contents in its text parameter instead.

Aliases are user settings, never part of a drawing. The desktop and web apps keep them, and the file REINIT reads, with your other preferences, so aliases added, edited, imported or removed in the Command Aliases dialog (or with ALIASEDIT's set, remove and clear) are there after a restart, and REINIT reads the same file again. The headless CLI keeps no preferences: there, aliases last for that run.

Driving CADCraft from another program

Every command has a JSON form that runs without dialogs. cadcraft-cli commands [FILTER] prints the catalog: each command's id and its parameters.

• Headless batch jobs: cadcraft-cli run FILE --cmd 'id {json}' --save OUT --export OUT.png. A --cmd parameter value of exactly {last} is replaced with the last object handle an earlier --cmd in the same run returned, so viewport.set {"handle":"{last}","scale":1} can follow mview. Every other value is passed unchanged.

• The running app: start it with --control PORT and send JSON lines to 127.0.0.1:PORT. See control-protocol.md.

  printf '%s\n' '{"id":1,"method":"cmdline.input","params":{"text":"circle 0,0 5"}}' | nc -w 2 127.0.0.1 7979
  

• AI agents: cadcraft-cli mcp, headless or connected to the app. See mcp.md.