Function Entry: GETDIST

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Function Entry: GETDIST

Name

getdist

Class

Function

Syntax

(getdist [pt] [msg])

Arguments and Values

  • pt: optional base point
  • msg: optional prompt string

Autodesk documents pt as a 2D or 3D base point in the current UCS.

Description

Prompts the user to specify a distance.

Return Values

Real or nil.

Side Effects

  • prompts the user
  • consumes interactive input

Affected By

  • current distance/unit conventions
  • optional base point

Compatibility

Part of the standard user-input family.

Availability

  • AutoCAD 2026: documented (per Autodesk reference page).
  • BricsCAD V26: presumed compatible (no contradicting page found).
  • Status: AutoCAD documented; BricsCAD presumed-both pending Phase 4 verification.

Notes

  • Autodesk documents that if a 3D point is provided, the result is a 3D distance unless initget bit 64 is set, in which case Z is ignored and a 2D distance is returned.
  • Autodesk documents that the user cannot respond with another AutoLISP expression.
  • Autodesk documents that the result is always a real, even when the user enters values in architectural units.

clautolisp

clautolisp implementation deviation — not part of the normative specification above. AutoCAD and BricsCAD collect this distance through the graphical drawing editor: a command-line prompt combined with pointer/keyboard interaction in the drawing window (implicitly a GUI). clautolisp has no drawing editor — it writes the prompt to the standard output and reads the answer as one line of text from the standard input (a TUI interaction). Interactively this is the REPL's terminal; for scripted, deterministic runs it is the file attached with --mock-input. A live CAD host, when connected, restores the native GUI behavior. On the TUI a distance is typed as a single real number; picking two points is not available. Invalid input returns nil rather than re-prompting.