Through the Interface

AutoCAD 2016: Calling commands from external events using .NET

Last week we introduced the ExecuteInCommandContextAsync() method and saw it in action from a context menu click event. In today’s post we’re going to see how it can be used for a lot more: we’re going to use it to respond to external, operating system-level events (although admittedly we’re handling the event in-process to AutoCAD via .NET). What we’re actually going to do is fire off a command inside AutoCAD – in our case we’re going to use RECTANG to create square polylines – each time we find that a file has been placed in a particular folder (in... Read more →

NuGet packages now available for AutoCAD 2016

Some time ago we posted the NuGet packages for AutoCAD 2015’s .NET API. The packages for AutoCAD 2016 are now live, too. Here’s the report from the NuGet console (accessible in Visual Studio via Tools –> NuGet Package Manager –> Package Manager Console). PM> Get-Package -filter AutoCAD.NET -ListAvailable Id Version Description/Release Notes -- ------- ------------------------- AutoCAD.NET 20.1.0 AutoCAD 2016 API AutoCAD.NET.Core 20.1.0 AutoCAD 2016 core object model API AutoCAD.NET.Model 20.1.0 AutoCAD 2016 drawing object model API To install the 2016 versions of the assemblies into your project, you can use the following command, once again in the NuGet Console.... Read more →

AutoCAD 2016: Calling commands from AutoCAD events using .NET

It’s time to start looking in more detail at some of the new API capabilities in AutoCAD 2016. To give you a sense of what to expect in terms of a timeline, this week we’ll look at a couple of uses for DocumentCollection.ExecuteInCommandContextAsync() and next week we’ll look at point cloud floorplan extraction and (hopefully) security and signing. The first use of ExecuteInCommandContextAsync() I wanted to highlight was one raised in a blog comment a couple of months ago. The idea is simple enough: we want to be able to launch a command reliably from an event handler, in... Read more →

AutoCAD 2016 for developers

After our quick look at AutoCAD 2016 from a user perspective, let’s now spend some time looking at the things important to developers in this latest release. Compatibility Off the bat it’s worth stating that AutoCAD 2016 is a DWG compatible release: it’s using the same file format as AutoCAD 2013, 2014 and 2015. It’s also a binary application compatible release: ObjectARX apps written for AutoCAD 2015 should work in 2016 and it’s likely that .NET apps built for AutoCAD 2014 will work, too. That said, some changes have been made to the security model for this release of... Read more →

AutoCAD 2016

It’s that time again! Over the coming days you’re going to be hearing lots about the next release of AutoCAD, codenamed “Maestro”. Before taking a look at AutoCAD 2016 from a developer’s perspective – which we’ll do next time – in this post we’re going to take a quick look at its user features. To kick things off here are the new commands and system variables, here are those that have changed and here are those that have been removed. To cherry-pick from the top of the new commands list, CLOSEALLOTHER will close all open drawings other than the... Read more →

Docking a WPF window inside AutoCAD – Part 3

In this post we’re wrapping up this mini-series on docking, which is part of a much broader story arc around a “command-line helper” tool, of course. But then we’re reaching the end of that, too, I suspect, as the app’s just about done. Hopefully it’s ready for posting to Autodesk Labs, at least. Last time we added right-click dragging to allow our keywords window to be moved around without interrupting the active command. Now we’re taking it a step further to preview docking at one of the four corners of the drawing window, as well as to actually dock... Read more →

Docking a WPF window inside AutoCAD – Part 2

I’m happy to say that the implementation I mentioned in the last post ended up being pretty straightforward. Which is actually great, as I have some important posts to work on for next week. :-) Today we’re going to take a look at the next stage of the “command-line helper” implementation: basic right-click movement of the global keywords dialog, so we can set a custom location for the dialog without needing to use the KWSDOCK command. Here’s the code in action: The main work for this stage was to add support for right-click, mouse move and right mouse-button up... Read more →

Docking a WPF window inside AutoCAD – Part 1

During the course of this week we’re going to look at extending the command-line helper sample posted last week by allowing our global keywords window to “dock” to the four corners of the drawing window as well as to remain fixed at a custom location somewhere on the screen. I use the term “dock” here loosely, as we’re really just placing it in one of the corners of the drawing window. If we wanted a modeless dialog that was properly docked into AutoCAD then we’d almost certainly want to use a PaletteSet. Here’s a quick video demonstrating the KWSDOCK... Read more →

Building bridges

Last night the section of motorway closest to my home was closed from 10pm to 6am. They closed it to install a new cycle bridge intended primarily for children from one local village to cycle safely to school in another. Closing a motorway is considered quite an event around here, so a small crowd gathered to watch the proceedings in spite of the hour and the pre-spring nip in the air. Admittedly the drinks laid on by the local government – tea or wine, depending on your preferred approach for keeping warm – didn’t hurt the mood. At around... Read more →

Adding support for global keywords at AutoCAD’s command-line using .NET – Part 2

Today we’re going to look at the implementation talked about in the last post: we’re going to see how it’s possible to use the Application.PreTranslateMessage() method to hack AutoCAD’s message-loop and basically convert typed keywords into global ones. This is actually pretty neat (yes, even if I do say so myself :-) and frankly I’m surprised it works. Here’s the overall approach: Track the characters typed into the command-line Add individual characters into a list Backspace removes the tail of the list Arrow-keys invalidate the tracking: if the user accesses entries in the command-history we can’t deal with that,... Read more →

Adding support for global keywords at AutoCAD’s command-line using .NET – Part 1

This post carries on from this series from a couple of weeks ago: Adding a global keyword menu to AutoCAD using WPF – Part 1 Adding a global keyword menu to AutoCAD using WPF – Part 2 Enabling global commands on localized AutoCAD versions using .NET The overall goal behind these posts was to create a “command-line helper” tool to make it easier for people who know the English version of AutoCAD (or an AutoCAD-based vertical) to work with a corresponding localized version. Basically because some people learn AutoCAD using an English version – perhaps during their studies –... Read more →

Autodesk Memento now in public beta

One of the announcements at the recent REAL 2015 conference – and if you missed the event, as I did, you can see a great summary here – was the fact that the much-appreciated mesh manipulation tool from our Reality Solutions division, Autodesk Memento, has now entered public beta. It has graduated from Autodesk Labs and is now available for download without you having to log into the beta portal. It also has a brand new web-site describing why you might want to use it. For those of you who have been tracking its progress, release on release, here... Read more →

Morgan at the Geneva Motor Show 2015

I headed over to Geneva yesterday afternoon for the first press day of this year’s Geneva Motor Show. I was there courtesy of our friends at the Morgan Motor Company who launched their new Aero 8 (it was actually nice being there as a guest, in contrast to last year’s collaboration). Here’s the launch video for this exciting car: I love this video, but I did have one minor gripe for the Morgan team: why was Jon Wells, Morgan’s Head of Design, shaving a piece of clay rather than using Autodesk tools to develop the design? I was joking... Read more →

AutoCAD and Prince of Persia

Every so often I get hit by a wave of computing nostalgia. This weekend it was a veritable tsunami triggered by the discovery that a number of old MS-DOS games are available to play online in your browser, including the seminal Prince of Persia. This game has a strong connection with AutoCAD, for me, so today I’m blogging about that. I first started working with AutoCAD while I was still at high school – it must have been around 1989. After a successful (but mind-numbingly boring) summer project at a local manufacturing company, converting their old engineering calculation routines... Read more →