Recently somebody asked if it was possible to insert a block with a shortkey. I thought that that was a good question and for that reason the code below is showing how to realize this.

To make the shortkey happen we first have to create a VBA routine we can call from a shortkey. I took the InsertBlockS below as a sample.

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	Private Sub InsertBlockS()
 
 
 
	InsertBlock "C:\Block.dwg", 0
 
	'Change the 0 to another value (in degrees) to rotate the block'
 
	End Sub
 
 
 
 
 
	Function InsertBlock(ByVal blockpath As String, ByVal rotation As Double)
 
 
 
	Dim blockobj As AcadBlockReference
 
	Dim insertionPnt As Variant
 
	Dim prompt1 As String
 
 
 
	'set rotation Angle
 
	rotateAngle = rotation
 
	rotateAngle = rotation * 3.141592 / 180#
 
 
 
	'Prompt is used to show instructions in the command bar
 
	prompt1 = vbCrLf & "Enter block insert point: "
 
 
 
	ThisDrawing.ActiveSpace = acModelSpace
 
 
 
	insertionPnt = ThisDrawing.Utility.GetPoint(, prompt1)
 
 
 
	Set blockRefObj = ThisDrawing.ModelSpace.InsertBlock(insertionPnt, blockpath, 1#, 1#, 1#, rotateAngle)
 
 
 
	End Function

Put this code above into a module called Blocks. Then save the project to C:\TestProject.dvb.

Now that the project is created we can create a COMMAND to run it from the Commandline. To do so we have to add the following LISP code to Acadxxxx.lsp (xxxx stand for the AutoCad version, for instance Acad2000.lsp). The AutoCadxxxx.lsp file is located at C:\Program Files\AutoCad xxxx\Support\Acadxxxx.lsp

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Defun C:INSERTBLOCK ()
 
 
 
	(vl-vbarun "C:\\TestProject.dvb!Blocks.InsertBlockS") ) 

Simply open the Lisp file, scroll down and paste the code above. When AutoCad starts up now, this code will be loaded also. Change INSERTBLOCK to any name you wish. Test the command by typing INSERTBLOCk into the command bar. This should insert the block into modelspace.

To continue we have to hook this command to the F1 button.

Goto the ACAD.pgp file located in you Application data directory. Add the following code

S,        *INSERTBLOCK

This will connect the S key to the INSERTBLOCK routine. Type REINIT into the commandbar to reïnitialize the commandbar and then hit S to test the routine.