BricsCAD uses a similar system, except that the files are named differently. The file that loads once per session in BricsCAD is named “on_start.lsp” and the file that loads each time a document is loaded is named “on_doc_load.lsp“. Menu lisp files (.mnl extension) are loaded whenever a menu file with the same name is loaded. So if you have a custom menu named “mycustom.cui”, then if you have a file named “mycustom.mnl”, it will be loaded also. We were able to take our AutoCAD based startup files and move them to BricsCAD with no problem.
The S::Startup function is also supported in BricsCAD. You can define (or add code to) this function, which is executed after the drawing has finished initializing. This is a safe way to call things such as the (command) function.
You can also use the BricsCAD Appload dialog (shown below) to store a list of lisp/BRX/VBA/NET files that can be loaded at startup. Note that this is per-user, per-profile. Lastly, the Registry-based DemandLoad mechanism has been extended to support Lisp and VBA files.
See this page for more information.
Just a minor addition related to APPLOAD, which uses “appload.dfs” :
that file is searched by normal findFile() mechanism, based on support search pathes.
So it is possible to have 1 single global “appload.dfs” for all users and all profiles, when “appload.dfs” is located in a particular folder, and that folder is defined as first support search path.
Thanks for that info Torsten.
You can also have multiple S::Startup definitions. BricsCAD will happily run S::Startup functions contained in on_start.lsp, on_doc_load.lsp, mycustomcui.mnl
Thanks for the info Jason!