Function Entry: GETORIENT

getorient

Function

(getorient [pt] [msg])

• pt: optional base point
• msg: optional prompt

Autodesk documents pt as a 2D base point in the current UCS; a 3D point may be supplied, but measurement remains in the current construction plane.

Prompts the user for an orientation angle.

Real or nil.

• prompts the user
• consumes interactive input

Closely related to getangle, but documented separately.

• 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.

• [getorient (AutoLISP)](https://help.autodesk.com/cloudhelp/2024/ENU/AutoCAD-AutoLISP-Reference/files/GUID-4F8606DD-6453-4D01-84C6-EC8EEBBE2D1A.htm)

• Autodesk documents that getorient returns radians measured counterclockwise from the right (east), ignoring ANGBASE and ANGDIR in the returned value.
• Autodesk documents that the user cannot respond with another AutoLISP expression.
• Autodesk explicitly distinguishes getorient from getangle: getorient is for an absolute orientation, getangle for a rotation amount.

clautolisp implementation deviation — not part of the normative specification above. AutoCAD and BricsCAD collect this orientation through the graphical drawing editor (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 the orientation is typed as text and returned in radians, using exactly the same angle syntax as getangle (bare number = radians; deg / degree(s); degrees-minutes-seconds with ' and "; rd / rad / radian(s) with an optional pi factor — e.g. 90 deg, pi rd, 4/3 pi rd). Unrecognized text returns nil.