To display the dialog box and respond to the user pressing OK

1. Use the load_dialog function to load the DCL file into memory. For example:

   (setq dcl_id (load_dialog "hello.dcl"))
   

   The load_dialog function returns a DCL identification number. You need this to identify the dialog in subsequent function calls.

2. Call the new_dialog function and pass it the dialog name and DCL identification number as arguments, as follows:

   (new_dialog "hello" dcl_id)
   

3. Initialize the dialog box by setting up tile values, lists, and images.

   The DCL example above uses a predefined tile named ok_only, so you do not have to initialize the tile unless you want to override its default values. The ok_only tile also has an action named done_dialog assigned to it. If the user presses the OK button, AutoCAD passes the done_dialog call to your AutoLISP application and ends the dialog.

4. Call start_dialog to pass control of the dialog to AutoCAD for display to the user:

   (start_dialog)
   

5. Call unload_dialog to remove the dialog from memory after the user responds.

   Steps 3, 4, and 5 are dependent on the new_dialog function returning a non-nil value. For the sake of simplicity, no error processing is included in this example.

You can use the following function to call the sample dialog box:

(defun C:HELLO( / dcl_id )

  (setq dcl_id (load_dialog "hello.dcl")) ; Load the DCL file.

  (if (not (new_dialog "hello" dcl_id))   ; Initialize the dialog.

	(exit)								; Exit if this doesn't 

										; work.

  )

  (start_dialog)						; Display the dialog 

										; box.

  (unload_dialog dcl_id)				; Unload the DCL file.

  (princ)

)

Enter this code into a new VLISP text editor window and load the program by choosing Tools Load Text in Editor from the VLISP menu. To display the dialog box, enter (c:hello) at the VLISP Console prompt.

Note that the start_dialog call remains active until the user selects a tile (usually a button) whose associated action expression calls done_dialog. The done_dialog call can be issued explicitly by the tile. The done_dialog call is also issued by the selected tile if its is_cancel attribute is set to true.