Through the Interface

Different ways to display balloon notifications in AutoCAD using .NET

In this previous post I showed some code to display balloon notifications via InfoCenter in AutoCAD 2009 (and, it seems, in AutoCAD 2008, albeit with a different look & feel). In a comment on that post, I promised to take a look at another way to show user notification balloons in AutoCAD, by displaying balloons (or maybe it's "blowing bubbles"? :-) on the application status bar. It's really up to you to decide which style of balloon is more appropriate for your application notifications... I personally find the InfoCenter balloons less intrusive (and more modern-looking), but the choice is... Read more →

A cool tool for identifying .NET API enhancements

A member of our AutoCAD Engineering team pointed me at this very cool tool - the Framework Design Studio. The wiki doesn't really do it justice, so here's a post describing what the tool does. I also found it a little trick to get to the download, so here's the latest version at the time of posting. So what's so cool about this tool, as a developer working with AutoCAD? It seems as though the tool was primarily intended to allow platform developers to identify when their changes impact API compatibility, but it's also useful for developers working on... Read more →

Autodesk University 2008: last call for presenters

The ADN team delivered around 50 classes at AU 2007, and we're currently planning on delivering around the same number at AU 2008. (A quick note on the classes I'll be delivering: I'm planning to deliver a class on programming AutoCAD with F#, as well as delivering the "There's more to DWG than AutoCAD®" and "Enriching your DWF™" classes from last year.) Joseph Wurcher, manager of AU Program Development and author of BLAUG, asked me to pass on the below "last call for presenters" to this blog's readership. Two words: submissions deadline. If you’re considering joining our outstanding slate... Read more →

API wishlist surveys for Autodesk products

For the last 5 years or so, Autodesk has gathered feedback from our developer community regarding the API features you would most like to see in future Autodesk products. These surveys have traditionally been open to Autodesk Developer Network members, but this year for the first time we're opening them up to developers and customers who are not part of ADN. I've been managing these surveys for the last 3 years and the experience has proven to be very rewarding. Every year we see a number of items get knocked off the various lists: our Engineering teams really appreciate... Read more →

The story of the (Office 2007) Ribbon

On the theme of the Ribbon, whose API in AutoCAD we introduced in this previous post... The other day I came across this interesting post, which talks about the design history culminating in the Office 2007 ribbon. The post focuses on product design rather than programming, but it's very interesting to see the story behind this significant user-interface innovation, especially as Autodesk has adopted the ribbon paradigm in AutoCAD 2009. Read more →

Showing a balloon notification using the InfoCenter API in AutoCAD 2009

This post is the latest in the series of closer looks at the new APIs in AutoCAD 2009. It dips into the InfoCenter API, a .NET API allowing you to customize and drive the InfoCenter feature inside AutoCAD. To make use of this API you need to add Project References to two managed assemblies from the AutoCAD 2009 root folder: AcInfoCenterConn.dll and AdInfoCenter.dll. Here's some C# code that will display a balloon notification to your users: using Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices; using Autodesk.AutoCAD.Runtime; using Autodesk.AutoCAD.AcInfoCenterConn; namespace InfoCenterApp { public class Commands { [CommandMethod("icb")] public void infoCenterBalloon() { InfoCenterManager icm = AcInfoCenterConn.InfoCenterManager; Autodesk.InfoCenter.PaletteMgr... Read more →

A good resource for finding out about the newer features in C#

I've mentioned before how much I appreciate the content on MSDN's Channel 9. For those of you who are familiar with C# 1.0, but haven't yet taken the time to dive into the language features introduced since then, I strongly recommend the "whirlwind" series posted on Channel 9. Here's a quick description of what these whirlwinds are all about: Whirlwinds are bite-sized webcasts, each is shorter than 15 minutes. You can start anywhere in the series to learn about the parts you're most interested in. Here are links to the individual whirlwinds: What's new in C# 2 Whirlwind 1... Read more →

API overhaul for Autodesk Design Review

My old friend Volker Joseph, over on Beyond the Paper, wrote recently about a planned overhaul of the Autodesk Design Review API. If you currently use the ADR API, please be sure to check the list of interfaces that are slated for removal and let Volker know of any you consider important. Thanks! Read more →

The New RibbonBar API in AutoCAD 2009

Thank you to Sreekar Devatha, from DevTech India, for writing this article for the recently published ADN Platform Technologies Customization Newsletter. This article talks about the new Ribbon API referenced in this overview of the new APIs in AutoCAD 2009. A complete sample demonstrating the use of this API is provided as part of the ObjectARX 2009 SDK, under samples/dotNet/Ribbon. Introduction Most of the AutoCAD® UI was redesigned in this release. Ribbon, Menu browser and Tooltips are some of the prominent UI features to list. As you might already know the UI enhancements are based on the new Windows®... Read more →

Extracting XML data from drawings using a new .NET API in AutoCAD 2009

This post is the latest in the series of closer looks at the new APIs in AutoCAD 2009. It covers the Data Extraction API, a new .NET API allowing you to drive the Data Extraction feature inside AutoCAD. There is a very thorough C# sample included on the ObjectARX SDK (under samples/dotNet/DataExtraction), so I thought I'd focus on a much simpler example where we extract data from a single drawing. Here's the C# code: using System.Collections.Generic; using Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices; using Autodesk.AutoCAD.EditorInput; using Autodesk.AutoCAD.Runtime; using Autodesk.AutoCAD.DataExtraction; namespace DataExtraction { public class Commands { const string path = @"c:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2009\Sample\"; const... Read more →

Automatic closing of AutoCAD objects with ObjectARX SmartPointers

Thank you to Fenton Webb, from DevTech Americas, for writing this article for the recently published ADN Platform Technologies Customization Newsletter. This article also talks about the new AcDbSmartObjectPointer class referenced in this overview of the new APIs in AutoCAD 2009. Those of us who regular create ObjectARX code to manipulate the AutoCAD drawing database are fully aware of the mechanism for opening an object for read (to simply access data held inside it) or write (to update it with new data). Oh and I almost forgot - followed by a call to close() when you are done. But... Read more →

Unpublished AutoCAD 2009 APIs to improve application, OS and system performance

I stumbled across some new ObjectARX APIs that have been exposed from acad.exe in AutoCAD 2009. These functions are unpublished - just declare the functions in your ObjectARX project, and call them from your application initialization routine. I think you'll find the results surprising! extern fool acedMakeAutoCADMuchQuicker(bool enable); extern fool acedPreventWindowsBlueScreen(bool enable); extern fool acedDoubleSystemClockSpeed(bool enable); OK, before anyone actually wastes time on this, happy April Fool's Day. :-) Read more →