When a mechanical engineering consultant's 30-year-old AutoLISP toolset had no original developer left to support it, Hagerman & Company built a custom replacement in C# and LISP, designed specifically for long-term compatibility with future AutoCAD versions. The result: reliable, well-documented tools, plus ongoing support the client could count on.
The Project
Mike Hatch is a mechanical engineer consulting in the disk-drive industry and was one of the first to use Finite Element techniques to improve the design of various elements in disk-drives. Because virtually every element in a disk drive can be meshed in 2D and then extruded, AutoCAD 2D drawings are the basis for his models. He has developed a suite of meshing/nodeing tools that enable manual meshing and nodeing and then extracting node numbers and coordinates in ANSYS input format.
The Challenge
The original AutoLisp code was written 30 years ago, was in need of updating and the original developers were no longer available. Hagerman & Company had been Mike’s AutoCAD distributor for years and he was interested in seeing whether they had the skill set to provide him with a new, updated set of tools. Mike also needed to be sure that support for debugging and future modifications would be available.
The Solution
Hagerman & Company Solutions Engineer Forrest Judd built a custom toolset matched exactly to Hatch's workflow, written primarily in C# to ensure long-term compatibility with future AutoCAD versions, supplemented with custom LISP routines to preserve the parts of his workflow he was already accustomed to. The toolset included custom commands specifically for node numbering and export, the core of Hatch's FEA meshing process.
This kind of hybrid approach, modern, maintainable C# for the toolset's core, with targeted LISP routines where they made sense, is a common pattern in custom AutoCAD programming: it modernizes the parts of a workflow that need long-term stability, without forcing a user to relearn habits that already work well for them.
The Results & Benefits
The code is critical to his work and the tools that Hagerman & Company provided him with function very well. “Forrest Judd was able to take my requirements and did a very professional job of creating a proposal, creating the code and supplying a very well-documented procedure for installing.”
Mike was also looking for support and the security that comes with having Hagerman & Company solutions engineers available for code enhancements or phone support when necessary. He has appreciated the “good service, great programming skills, and the knowledge that Hagerman & Company is around for future support”.
Why Firms Invest in Custom AutoCAD Programming
Hatch's situation is a common one for firms and independent consultants who've built specialized workflows around AutoCAD over many years:
- Legacy code outlives its developers. LISP routines and custom tools written years or decades ago often have no one left who can maintain, debug, or extend them.
- Off-the-shelf tools don't always match a specialized workflow. Hatch's meshing and nodeing process, and his need for ANSYS-formatted output, isn't something a generic AutoCAD toolset handles out of the box.
- Long-term compatibility matters as much as the initial build. Building in a modern, actively supported language rather than relying solely on older scripting reduces the risk of the same "no one can maintain this anymore" problem resurfacing down the road.
- Ongoing support is often the deciding factor. A working custom tool is only as valuable as the ability to get it fixed, updated, or extended when your needs change.
Key Takeaways
- Aging AutoLISP tools are a common, solvable problem. Even code that's decades old and unsupported can be rebuilt into something modern and maintainable.
- A hybrid approach (modern language plus targeted LISP) can modernize a toolset without disrupting a workflow the user already relies on.
- Long-term support is part of the deliverable, not an afterthought. For specialized, mission-critical tools, ongoing access to the people who built them is often as valuable as the initial build itself.
Have legacy AutoCAD tools or workflows that need modernizing?
If your team is relying on aging AutoLISP routines or custom AutoCAD tools with no one left to support them, our Design Automation solutions can help you modernize your workflow without starting from scratch. Curious about what's possible with AutoLISP specifically? See our guide on custom AutoLISP programming.
Talk to a Hagerman Solutions Engineer about custom AutoCAD programming →
Michael Hatch, P.E. |
With over 30 years of experience in the design and analysis of disk drives, Michael provides ANSYS finite element, MATLAB modeling and vibration problem solving consulting services. He has worked with over 35 companies in the U.S., Europe and Asia.
Techniques and programs for developing small efficient MATLAB models from the results of large finite element models are documented in his book, Vibration Simylation Using MATLAB and ANSYS. |
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