Creating an AutoCAD table containing block images using .NET

Further to the previous post showing the creation of a simple table, this shows how to add a column that contains a preview image of a particular block definition.

I had to modify the code somewhat to open the block table sooner than we did before (I tend not to leave it open for longer than I have to, but in this case we want to check it for appropriate block definitions earlier on, while we're creating the table). Then I added a simple check, to see whether a block definition corresponding to our "name" field exists for a particular row, and if so, we add a reference to the block table record in the 4th column of the table.

Here's the updated C# code:

using Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices;
using Autodesk.AutoCAD.DatabaseServices;
using Autodesk.AutoCAD.EditorInput;
using Autodesk.AutoCAD.Geometry;
using Autodesk.AutoCAD.Runtime;

namespace TableCreation
{
  public class Commands
  {
    [CommandMethod("CRT")]
    static public void CreateTable()
    {
      Document doc =
        Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument;
      Database db = doc.Database;
      Editor ed = doc.Editor;

      PromptPointResult pr =
        ed.GetPoint("\nEnter table insertion point: ");
      if (pr.Status == PromptStatus.OK)
      {
        Transaction tr =
          doc.TransactionManager.StartTransaction();
        using (tr)
        {
          BlockTable bt =
            (BlockTable)tr.GetObject(
              doc.Database.BlockTableId,
              OpenMode.ForRead
            );

          Table tb = new Table();
          tb.TableStyle = db.Tablestyle;
          tb.NumRows = 5;
          // Added an additional column for the block image
          tb.NumColumns = 4;
          tb.SetRowHeight(3);
          tb.SetColumnWidth(15);
          tb.Position = pr.Value;

          // Create a 2-dimensional array
          // of our table contents
          string[,] str = new string[5, 3];
          str[0, 0] = "Part No.";
          str[0, 1] = "Name ";
          str[0, 2] = "Material ";
          str[1, 0] = "1876-1";
          str[1, 1] = "Flange";
          str[1, 2] = "Perspex";
          str[2, 0] = "0985-4";
          str[2, 1] = "Bolt";
          str[2, 2] = "Steel";
          str[3, 0] = "3476-K";
          str[3, 1] = "Tile";
          str[3, 2] = "Ceramic";
          str[4, 0] = "8734-3";
          str[4, 1] = "Kean";
          str[4, 2] = "Mostly water";

          // Use a nested loop to add and format each cell
          for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
          {
            for (int j = 0; j < 3; j++)
            {
              tb.SetTextHeight(i, j, 1);
              tb.SetTextString(i, j, str[i, j]);
              tb.SetAlignment(i, j, CellAlignment.MiddleCenter);
            }
            // If a block definition exists for a block of our
            // "name" field, then let's set it in the 4th column
            if (bt.Has(str[i, 1]))
            {
              tb.SetBlockTableRecordId(i, 3, bt[str[i, 1]], true);
            }
          }
          tb.GenerateLayout();

          BlockTableRecord btr =
            (BlockTableRecord)tr.GetObject(
              bt[BlockTableRecord.ModelSpace],
              OpenMode.ForWrite
            );
          btr.AppendEntity(tb);
          tr.AddNewlyCreatedDBObject(tb, true);
          tr.Commit();
        }
      }
    }
  }
}