Ok, after your comment MP I reread my code and I found the error of my ways. I tried to put this (strcat (vl-filename-base dcl_name) ".dcl")
in my load statement and actually I meant to put it in the 'new_dialog' statement.
Now my problem is if I put the full path or just the filename in the 'new_dialog' statement it tells me it can't find the definition. What gives now?