Through the Interface

Jigging an AutoCAD hatch using .NET (redux)

Many thanks to Holger Rasch who worked out how to fix the code in this previous post. It really doesn’t matter that 3 years have passed, Holger – I have no doubt people will greatly appreciate the fact the code can now run without causing the annoying display issues it produced previously. Holger made a few adjustments to the implementation to make sure the persistent hatch loop gets added and removed in the right places. 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; using Autodesk.AutoCAD.Colors; using System; namespace HatchJig { class JigUtils... Read more →

Adding a web-page as a document tab in AutoCAD 2015 using .NET

This was a fun one. It was really only a single line of code but I decided to embellish it a bit to make it a bit more useful. The “task” I set myself was to open a web-page – this blog, in fact – inside AutoCAD as an MDI child. AutoCAD can now host web-pages directly inside its MDI frame – the New Tab Page is a great example of that – and this mechanism can be used for external applications, too. You can also load non-HTML documents into the frame, but it’s quick and easy to use... Read more →

Per-document data in AutoCAD .NET applications – Part 4

In yesterday’s post, we looked at a mechanism that has been introduced in AutoCAD 2015 to simplify associating custom data with a Document. In today’s post we’re going to swap out the custom manager class to make use of the standard UserData mechanism, showing how the PerDocumentClass attribute and the UserData property are actually highly complementary. Here’s the updated C# code: using Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices; using Autodesk.AutoCAD.Runtime; using System; using System.Collections.Generic; // The all-important attribute telling AutoCAD to instantiate // the PerDocData class for each open or new document [assembly: PerDocumentClass(typeof(PerDocSample.PerDocData))] namespace PerDocSample { public class Commands { // A simple... Read more →

Per-document data in AutoCAD .NET applications – Part 3

I almost named this post to make it clear it’s about a new API capability in AutoCAD 2015, but then I wouldn’t have had the slightly perverse satisfaction of resurrecting a series of posts after 7.5 years. Here are the first parts in this series, in case you’ve forgotten them (and you’d be forgiven for doing so, after all ;-). This post is introducing the new PerDocumentClassAttribute capability provided in AutoCAD 2015’s .NET API. We’re going to look at it over two posts: the first showing how it can be used with your own “manager” class to link the... Read more →

Implementing a custom AutoCAD object snap mode using .NET (redux)

I had an email from Martin Duke about this old post a couple of weeks ago. I started to update the original post but then realised that a) I couldn’t easily go that far back using Windows Live Writer and the built-in Typepad editor often messes up code in old posts when I edit them and b) there was some value in revisiting this topic again now that nearly 6 years has passed. I’ll hopefully manage to link to this updated post from the old one without things going awry. Martin was having some trouble with text display in... Read more →

Autodesk ReCap Connect: a partner program for ReCap

It’s Good Friday, so much of the world will be offline today, but I thought I’d post quickly on some (good) news that may be of interest to people. The ReCap team has officially launched a new partner program. This provides access to a number of mechanisms for integrating with or harnessing Autodesk ReCap products and services. The Capture Codec Kit is primarily for importing custom point cloud formats – something important for hardware manufacturers, particularly – into Autodesk ReCap on the desktop. Embedded ReCap OEM allows generated or post-processed point cloud data to be brought into Autodesk’s design... Read more →

Fun in the UK

It’s been a great week of holidays, so far. There’s been a lot of driving: we booked our flights in and out of Stansted – as our main purpose was to attend a good friend’s wedding in Suffolk – but fairly late on we decided to drive up to Cumbria to visit my grandmother. My birthday dinner at The Windmill Inn in Redmile – a pub used to film certain episodes of the classic UK series, Auf Wiedersehen Pet. As my old friend Charles McAuley used to say, the difference between England and America is that in England 100... Read more →

One month to go until the AEC Technology Symposium

As Jeremy has pointed out on his blog, in lieu of a dedicated AEC DevCamp – as has been run every other year for some years – Autodesk and the ADN team will be supporting the upcoming AEC Technology Symposium being held in New York on May 16-18. As with the DevCamps, this is a great opportunity to get to know the people behind our AEC products – whether product management or software engineering – so you can build relationships and get a better sense of where Autodesk is heading in the AEC industry. There will also be a... Read more →

Call for proposals for Autodesk University 2014 approaching

The “call for proposals” for AU2014 is going out on April 23rd and will remain open for about a month. This is approaching quickly, so get your thinking hats on if you’re considering submitting a class proposal. From my side I’m thinking about a few possible topics: Implementing a tangible user interface for AutoCAD using SensorTag Integrating a web-based user interface into AutoCAD via its JavaScript API I’m also toying around with the idea of doing a kind of “meta” session, during which we’d look at some of my favourite blog posts/areas of research over the years. Something like... Read more →

AutoCAD 2015’s updated JavaScript API

We first introduced a JavaScript API into AutoCAD as a “preview” in the 2014 release. Take a look at this post for more details on this implementation. In the 2015 release the API has matured in a number of key ways, making it really ready for primetime usage. Firstly it’s been made much more robust: rather than having a single instance of the browser executable hosting the various bits of JavaScript code running inside AutoCAD, we now use separate instances of the browser – which in turn hosts the Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) – for each application. Which means... Read more →

Supporting AutoCAD 2015’s dark theme

After a little fun last Tuesday around a pink theme for AutoCAD – for which I got at least a few “we should totally do that”s from internal folk in response, so watch this space ;-) – today we’re going to talk more seriously about what’s needed to support the dark theme in your applications. But before that, a big thanks to Lee Ambrosius, who owns – and does a fantastic job with – AutoCAD’s developer documentation. Lee pointed out the online documentation which helped me create this post. If you’re interested in the work Lee and team has... Read more →

Conceptual modeling in a drone-captured environment

I thought I was done with my posts for the week, but this was too good not to share. The below video shows a scene being captured using a GoPro Hero 3 Black edition on a 5-second timelapse setting mounted on a DJI Phantom drone and processed with Photo on ReCap 360 before being used as a basis for a conceptual model created in Revit 2014. Phew. This is very much a proof-of-concept rather than a genuine project – no architect was involved, for instance – but it does a good job of showing the possibilities of this kind... Read more →

An update to Project Memento

I’ve talked about this tool – which was developed by my good friend and colleague Murali Pappoppula and his team – a number of times in the past. I’m really enjoying seeing it mature, over time. This latest version has the capability to send photos directly to the Photo on ReCap 360 web-service, letting you pull the mesh down directly into Memento. Presumably it makes use of the new API that we have a number of ADN members piloting, right now. Here’s a demo of the capabilities, taking you through from photo import to 3D printing: And here’s a... Read more →

New pink theme for AutoCAD 2015

During the AutoCAD team’s efforts to introduce the dark theme in the 2015 version, work was done to more easily support additional themes. A lot of work was needed to create the underlying mechanism but now it’s really easy to add your own themes. To test the mechanism, the AutoCAD team has created a sample theme that turns AutoCAD into various shades of pink. It works programmatically by adjusting the various UI elements, so you really don’t need much code of your own to implement it. My 5-year old daughter absolutely loves it – she’s extremely interested in what... Read more →