About Controlling the Graphics and Text Windows (AutoLISP)

You can control the display of the graphics and text windows from an application.

Early releases of AutoCAD could be configured to use two different screens; one displayed the graphics screen while the other displayed the contents of the text window. In those early releases, AutoCAD could be installed using a single-screen. With single-screen AutoCAD installations, a call to graphscr displayed the graphics window, and a call to textscr displayed the text window. Using these functions was equivalent to toggling the Flip Screen function key. The function textpage is equivalent to textscr.

In later and the most recent release, the text window is a floating window that can be independently displayed and resized instead of being a separate screen. A call to graphscr hides the text window and ensures that the graphics window is displayed, while a call to textscr displays the text window. If the text window is already displayed when textscr is called, the window is moved to the foreground in front of the AutoCAD application window.

The redraw function is similar to the AutoCAD REDRAW command, but provides more control over what is displayed. It not only redraws the entire graphics area, but can also specify a single object to be redrawn or undrawn (that is, blanked out). If the object is a complex object such as an old-style polyline or a block, redraw can draw (or undraw) either the entire object or its header. The redraw function can also highlight and unhighlight specified objects.