To Debug a Program with Animate Mode (Visual LISP IDE)

Animate mode allows you to visually watch the Visual LISP editor execute the code for a program during runtime.

Note: The Visual LISP IDE is available on Windows only.

This mode allows you to see the order in which expressions are executed, and gives you a chance to see the values of variables at runtime. Execution of the program is interrupted when the Pause\Break key is pressed or when a breakpoint is encountered.

Use Animate mode to debug a program

  1. In Visual LISP, click Debug Animate when no checkmark is placed next to the menu item.
  2. Select the line of code you want execution to pause on and right-click. Click Toggle Breakpoint.

    If a message box with the text ‘Set break point here?’ is displayed, click Yes or No based on if you want to set or change the location of the breakpoint.

  3. Click Tools Load Text in Editor.
  4. At the Console window or AutoCAD Command prompt, enter the name of the user-defined function or command you want to debug and press Enter.
  5. After execution is interrupted, click Debug Continue to resume execution; Visual LISP resumes executing in Animate mode.

Adjust the animation rate

  1. In Visual LISP, click Tools Environment Options General Options.
  2. In the General Options dialog box, Diagnostic tab, enter a new value in the Animation Delay box. Click OK.

    The Animation Delay setting defines the pause between program steps, in milliseconds. 1,000 milliseconds is equal to 1 second.

Turn off Animation mode