Through the Interface

Using Erlang-style message passing from F# to coordinate asynchronous tasks in AutoCAD

This is something I’ve been meaning to attempt for a while, and have finally been spurred to do it by next week’s AU Virtual session on F#. Not that I expect to have time to present this during the session (60 minutes is already feeling way too short for the material I want to cover), but I at least wanted to have this working so I could present with a touch more authority. :-) In last year’s session we used Asynchronous Workflows to improve the performance of IO-bound operations, such as retrieving multiple RSS feeds and displaying the results... Read more →

Turning AutoCAD into a Spirograph using F#

I’ve been toying for some time with the idea of writing some code to turn AutoCAD into a Spirograph, a device which I’m sure fascinated and inspired many of you as children (just as it did me). I chose to write the application in F# for a couple of reasons: this type of task is fundamentally mathematical in nature – so a functional programming language should be well-suited to the task – and I needed to dust off my F# skills in time for my F# class at AU. Searching the web I came across this helpful post providing... Read more →

AU 2009: Attend one of my sessions from the comfort of your armchair

Seeing Jeremy's post from Friday, I decided to give you a quick update of where I am with my own preparation for this year’s Autodesk University. I’m delivering two sessions, this year: CP9214-1 AutoCAD® .NET – Developing for AutoCAD Using F# CP208-1 AutoCAD® .NET – Developing for AutoCAD Using IronPython and IronRuby So yes, it seems as though I’m carving out a niche for myself as “the quirky languages guy”. :-) The first one of these is actually a virtual session, and will be broadcast twice during the week of AU. It’s one I presented already, last year, and... Read more →

Creating Fibonacci spirals in AutoCAD using F#

I recently stumbled across this post which inspired me to do something similar in AutoCAD (the fact that both posts cover Fibonacci spirals and use F# is about where the similarity ends - they do things quite differently). Fibonacci spirals are an approximation of the golden spiral, which for old timers out there will be reminiscent of the AutoCAD R12 (it was R12, wasn’t it?) design collateral - the same as this one from AME 2.1 - which I still find cool after all these years. :-) The first thing was to create a function that returns a portion... Read more →

Winner of the F# programming contest

Back at the beginning of the year I launched a programming contest for using F# with Autodesk products. A few months ago I introduced one of the winning entries showing how to use F# to implement Overrules in AutoCAD 2010. Now I’ve finally got around to unveiling the second winning entry. And the winner is… drumroll… Nada Amin, who entered her Master of Engineering project which uses F# with AutoCAD. Here is a description of the project from the MIT website: Micado: an AutoCAD plug-in for programmable microfluidic chips Programmable microfluidics, using multi-layer soft lithography, are lab-on-chip systems that... Read more →

Customizing the display of standard AutoCAD objects using F#

This post is one of the winning entries of the F# programming contest started at the beginning of the year. It was submitted by an old friend of mine, Qun Lu, who also happens to be a member of the AutoCAD engineering team, and makes use of a new API in AutoCAD 2010: the somewhat ominously-named Overrule API. The Overrule API is really (and I mean really, really) cool. Yes, I know: another really cool API in AutoCAD 2010? Well, I’m honestly not one to hype things up, but I do have a tendency to get excited by technology... Read more →

Using IronPython with AutoCAD

I’ve been meaning to play around with the Python language for some time, now, and with the recent release of IronPython 2 it seems a good time to start. Why Python? A number of people in my team – including Jeremy Tammik and the people within our Media & Entertainment workgroup who support Python’s use with Maya and MotionBuilder – are fierce proponents of the language. I’m told that it’s an extremely easy, general-purpose, dynamic programming language. All of which sounds interesting, of course, although I have to admit I’m less convinced of the importance of the dynamic piece:... Read more →

Reminder: F# programming contest deadline looming...

There are just a few days left before the February 28th deadline of the F# programming contest. Thanks to those of you who have already submitted entries! At least one potential prize is still up for grabs - beyond those I've ear-marked for existing entrants - so if you're working on something and plan on submitting it in the next week or two (even if you won't be able to meet the original deadline for the actual submission), then please let me know by email. If you haven't notified me by Saturday that you have something in the works... Read more →

Parallelized pixelization inside AutoCAD using F#

As promised in the last post, we're now going to look at how to change the code to make the colour averaging routine work in parallel. The overall performance is marginally better on my dual-core machine, but I fully expect it to get quicker and quicker as the number of cores multiply. To start with, though, here's the modified "synchronous" version of the code - as I went through making the code work in parallel, I noticed a bunch of general enhancements that were applicable to both versions. Here's the updated F# code: // Use lightweight F# syntax #light... Read more →

Importing and pixelizing images inside AutoCAD using F#

A friend and esteemed colleague asked - very validly - why I decided to use circles on a grid to display the results of a mathematical function in this last post, rather than using a linear object of some kind. Well I did, in fact, have a plan in mind... :-) This post extends the concept, introduced in that post, of displaying data in a grid of solid-hatched circles. This post focuses on importing a bitmap image from a file, pixelizing the contents and using the "averaged" pixel colours to modify our grid. The idea actually came to me... Read more →

Implementing a simple graphing tool inside AutoCAD using F#

Well, I couldn't resist... as I mentioned in the last post - where we looked at creating a simple graph inside AutoCAD as an example of modifying objects inside nested transactions - the idea of graphing inside AutoCAD is a good fit for F#. This is for a number of reasons: F# is very mathematical in nature and excels at processing lists of data. I also spiced it up a bit by adding some code to parallelise some of the mathematical operations, but that didn't turn out to be especially compelling with my dual-core laptop. More on that later.... Read more →

F# programming contest

Firstly, I'd like to wish you all a very Happy New Year! I've just taken three consecutive weeks of vacation for the first time in years, and it's done me the world of good. In fact I'm also on holiday this week but am easing back into the rhythm of things, and have decided to get back into the blogging saddle, while I'm at it. Thanks for your patience during the interruption in service. :-) So to start 2009 with a bang (or a pop, at least) I'm going to run a programming contest. The basic idea is to... Read more →

AU Handouts: AutoCAD® .NET - Developing for AutoCAD® Using F# - Part 2

This post continues on from Part 1 of this series. You'll find much of this content has been used before in these previous posts, although post does include content updated for F# 1.9.6.2 (the September 2008 CTP). The first thing we need to do is – as with any AutoCAD .NET project – add project references to AutoCAD’s managed assemblies, acmgd.dll and acdbmgd.dll. With F#’s integration into Visual Studio 2008 you do this in exactly the same way as you would for a C# or VB.NET project, by selecting Project -> Add Reference... from the pull-down menu or right-clicking... Read more →

AU Handouts: AutoCAD® .NET - Developing for AutoCAD® Using F# - Part 1

As mentioned in my previous post, I've been beavering away on the handout for a new class I'm delivering at this year's Autodesk University. Here is the first part of this handout. Introduction F# is a new programming language from Microsoft, due to become a first-class .NET citizen (joining its siblings C# and VB.NET) and fully integrated with Visual Studio 2010. In this class we’ll introduce many of the concepts behind the F# language, and look at examples where we use it to create applications inside AutoCAD. At the time of writing, F# is available as a Community Technology... Read more →

An interview with Don Syme

As mentioned in this previous post, I had the great pleasure of spending a day up at Microsoft Research in Cambridge last week. My host, Don Syme, took great care of me and was very generous with his time and knowledge. Some background on why I decided to request a meeting with Don: Don is the person behind F#, a new programming language that has, over the last year or so, transitioned from being a research project to a fully-fledged .NET language with full support in Microsoft's development tools. Expect to see the capability to create F# projects (just... Read more →

More interview fun

Thanks to all who have provided feedback on my recent interview with John Walker. Here is a PDF of the complete series for those who would rather use that format for offline viewing (please think twice before printing all 27 pages, though). The interview proved to be a very interesting activity - even more so than I had anticipated - and so I've decided to try a few more. I'm in no danger of making a career of this (don't worry) but I'm finding it an interesting diversion to meet and talk with people who have important information to... Read more →

F# takes an important step closer to official release

This just may be the catalyst I needed to get around to installing Visual Studio 2008: the availability of the F# September 2008 Community Technology Preview. This takes F# an important step closer to being a full .NET citizen, with the first release delivered by Microsoft's Developer Division (the previous releases having been delivered by Microsoft Research). It's not required to use VS 2008 with this release of F#, but that's the version that's been targeted for the IDE integration, naturally enough. I've been holding off from installing VS 2008 for some time - mainly as ObjectARX applications still... Read more →

A simple 3D LOGO implementation inside AutoCAD using F#

I've been threatening to implement this for a few posts, now, so I decided it was finally time for me to put my money where my mouth is. :-) This post extends the series I've been writing on turtle graphics (here's the most recent part, from which you'll find links to its predecessors). This series has been about developing a turtle graphics engine using C#, eventually extending it for 3D. The series so far has focused very much on the engine, but from very early on it was my intention to use this engine to implement a subset of... Read more →

AU 2008 class schedule published

The class schedule for Autodesk University 2008 has been published on Joseph Wurcher's BLAUG. Here are this year's Developer Track sessions (although they may end up being categorized under "Customization & Programming", along with a host of other interesting classes from external presenters). You'll see a number of speakers listed, both from my team (DevTech) and our various Engineering teams (who I've highlighted in italics below). I'm personally presenting three classes: two will be more-or-less the same as last year (here are the handouts for There's More to DWG™ than AutoCAD®, Parts 1, 2 and 3 and Enrich Your... Read more →

A simple turtle graphics implementation in AutoCAD using .NET

Like many thirty-something Brits (and possible non-Brits, for all I know) my earliest introduction to the world of graphics programming was via a language called Logo running on the BBC Microcomputer. This machine and its educational software were commonplace in UK schools in the 1980s, and I have clear memories of staying late at primary school (which I suppose means I was somewhere between 8 and 10) to fool around with BBC BASIC. With a friend I used to try to write text-based adventures ("you are in a cave, there are exits North, South, East and West" - you... Read more →