AEC DevBlog

Welcome to AppHack 2.0

By Jeremy Tammik.

Connecting Autodesk to the Cloud

Win up to $5000, a newly released tablet computer and a trip to Las Vegas!

APPHACK 2.0 is a virtual code-fest to produce apps and plug-ins for AutoCAD, Revit, Inventor and BIM 360 Glue. The theme of the event is Connecting Autodesk to the Cloud – and is open to creative interpretation. Perhaps you can think of a way to wire our software into your favorite social media network or make use of infinite cloud computing to carry out CPU-intensive tasks. Or maybe you have a way to help users better visualize and share their ideas using a web browser. Build a standalone app for an AutoCAD, Revit, Inventor or a BIM 360 Glue product. Or build an app that takes advantage of the integration capabilities of BIM 360 Glue with either of the three other AutoCAD, Revit or Inventor product families. It’s up to you. Code a new app, finish coding one you already have in progress or submit one you already have but haven’t published yet.

More details about the event are provided by the main AppHack 2 announcement.

Please note that AppHack is open to ADN members and US residents only. See the competition page for more details.

The DevDays are just around the corner!

By Augusto Goncalves

rEvolution

Where Desktop meets the Cloud

Got great ideas for cloud and mobile apps? Want to learn where Autodesk is taking the convergence of desktop computing and cloud technology?

If you’re an innovator developing on Autodesk platform technology and have not yet attended an Autodesk Developer Network Conference join us for a deep dive as we take an in-depth look at Autodesk’s newest technologies and the next generation of products coming in 2014. The Autodesk Developer Network is holding its annual, worldwide Developer Day Conference and DevLab in cities around the world from November 2013 through February 2014.

Called Autodesk DevDays 2013, the theme for this year’s event is rEvolution – Where Desktop meets the Cloud.  Come and learn about upcoming releases of several new web service APIs from Autodesk.  You’ll see how these new web services extend the power of the desktop: delivering easy collaboration, limitless compute power and big data – and are platforms that can deliver the same to you and your customers.  It’s an opportunity to learn about a range of “360 based” web service APIs delivering you Cloud based platforms for a number of industries - Manufacturing, AEC, Infrastructure and more. And, we will of course also cover what’s new in the next releases of our desktop products (AutoCAD®, Autodesk® Revit®, Autodesk® Inventor®, AutoCAD® Civil 3D® and so on)!

Note that material at Developer Days is forward-looking and highly confidential so ADN membership is required. Maybe you are using ADN Open and forums and would like to attend DevDays? Visit www.autodesk.com/joinadn or send an email to your local ADN representative and let’s talk. We like to hear from — and help — interested parties, innovators and companies just getting started.

Autodesk DevDays 2013 World-wide Schedule

Here are the dates for this year’s tour. For a more detailed agenda and to register your interest in attending a specific event, head on over to the registration page.

November 7, 2013 – Developer Day, Beijing, China
November 8, 2013 – DevLab, Beijing, China
November 11, 2013 – Developer Day, Shanghai, China
November 12, 2013 – DevLab, Shanghai, China
November 13, 2013 – Developer Day, Seoul, South Korea
November 15, 2013 – Developer Day, Tokyo, Japan
November 18, 2013 – Developer Day, Melbourne, Australia
November 19, 2013 – Developer Day, Osaka, Japan
November 20, 2013 – Developer Day, Singapore, Singapore
November 22, 2013 – Developer Day, Bangalore, India
December 2, 2013 – Autodesk® Developer Network Conference, Las Vegas, USA
December 3, 2013 – DevLab, Las Vegas, USA
December 9, 2013 – Developer Day, Paris, France
December 10, 2013 – Developer Day, Milan, Italy
December 11, 2013 – Developer Day, Farnborough, United Kingdom
December 12, 2013 – Developer Day, Munich, Germany
December 13, 2013 – DevLab, Munich, Germany
December 16, 2013 – Developer Day, Gothenburg, Sweden
December 18, 2013 – Developer Day, Moscow, Russia
February 5, 2014 – Developer Day, São Paulo, Brazil
February 12, 2014 – Developer Day, Mexico City, Mexico

Call C++ API functions from .NET AddIn

By Adam Nagy

Sometimes a function is not available in a higher level API (COM or .NET) but only in the underlying C++ API. Not all is lost in such a case. 

In the following example we'll see how we can access the AecAppDbx::drawingPromoterAndIniter function of the OMF 2010 C++ API from a .NET AddIn.
Note: there is an easier way to get the drawing opened in the background fully loaded: http://adndevblog.typepad.com/aec/2012/09/problems-reading-an-aec-side-database-with-a-mode-other-than-sh_denyno.html, but that's not what this current article is about.

You have two options to access C++ functions from your .NET AddIn:

1) Create a .NET wrapper for this function 

You can simply create a new ARX project with OMF and .NET support using the ObjectARX Wizard in Visual Studio and then add the following somewhere in the project, e.g. in acrxEntryPoint.cpp:

public ref class Aen1AecUtils
{
public: 
  static void drawingPromoterAndIniter(
    Autodesk::AutoCAD::DatabaseServices::Database^ db, 
    System::Boolean sideDb)
  {
    AcDbDatabase* pDb = static_cast(db->UnmanagedObject.ToPointer());

    AecAppDbx::drawingPromoterAndIniter(pDb, sideDb);
  }
};

Now you can reference the assembly/dll from your .NET application:

[CommandMethod("OpenSideDatabase")]
public static void OpenSideDatabase()
{
  using (Database db = new Database(false, true))
  {
    db.ReadDwgFile(
      @"C:\temp\test.dwg", 
      System.IO.FileShare.None, false, "");

    Aen1AecUtils.drawingPromoterAndIniter(db, true);

    // read/write the database
  }
}

2) Use P/Invoke to call the OMF function from your .NET code

Based on the structure of the OMF SDK you can find out which library you need to check for the entry point of AecAppDbx::drawingPromoterAndIniter()

The function is declared in AecAppDbx.h, which is in the AecBase folder, so the function is inside the AecBase.lib (AecBase.dbx), whose 32 bit version resides in the lib-win32 folder.

If you use depends.exe (Dependency Walker, part of Visual Studio) to see the exported function in AecBase.dbx, then you will not find this function listed. That is because it is exported with the NONAME option.

So instead you need to use dumpbin.exe (part of Visual Studio). The easiest thing is just to open up "Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 > Visual Studio Tools > Visual Studio 2008 Command Prompt" and use it from there to list the exported functions in a text file, where you can search for the function you need, e.g.:

dumpbin "c:\OMF2010.56.0.final\lib-win32\AecBase.lib" 
/EXPORTS /OUT:"c:\AecBase.txt"

Since the function name is not exported, use the function's ordinal number [875] instead to P/Invoke it:

[DllImport("AecBase.dbx", CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl, 
  CharSet = CharSet.Unicode, EntryPoint = "#875")]
public extern static void drawingPromoterAndIniter(
  IntPtr db, bool sideDb);

[CommandMethod("OpenSideDatabase")]
public static void OpenSideDatabase()
{
  using (Database db = new Database(false, true))
  {
    db.ReadDwgFile(
      @"C:\temp\test.dwg", 
      System.IO.FileShare.None, false, "");

    drawingPromoterAndIniter(db.UnmanagedObject, true);

    // read/write the database
  }
}

 

Autodesk exchange Portathon event – Big Success

By Virupaksha Aithal

The Autodesk Exchange Apps Portathon event is over. On behalf of the Autodesk Developer Network (ADN) team I’d like to say a big “thank you” to all the publishers who has registered and submitted Apps to Autodesk exchange store. We have received more than 240 Apps as part of this event.

Autodesk exchange Portathon event – Day1 update

By Virupaksha Aithal

We are now into second day of two day Autodesk exchange Portathon event. Response is very positive, Since we began the registration for Autodesk exchange Portathon event, we received 166 registrations till date. We have received 180+ Apps as part of the event and out of which we have published 62 Apps in the exchange store already.

Last 20 hours left to submit the apps as part of Autodesk exchange Portathon event.

Autodesk exchange Portathon event – update

By Virupaksha Aithal

Since we began the registration for Autodesk exchange Portathon event, we received 127 registrations till date. We have received 98 Apps as part of the event and out of which we have published 52 Apps in the exchange store already.

There is less than 9 days to the event. if you have not registered yet, visit Autodesk® Exchange Apps Portathon event page