AutoCAD DevBlog

Is it possible to emulate command LIVESECTION with AutoCAD .NET AP

By Madhukar Moogala

This question is coming from one of our beloved Forum contributor and Mentor Alexander Rivilis

I am working with code which change color of Intersection Fill of Live Section. But although the color is changed, but this is not visible on the screen until I turn off and turn LIVESECTION:

I made slight changes to have this working

Note: To work this make sure LIVESECTION is not turned on

This code will change color of SECTION which converted to LIVESECTION

    public void SetSectionColor()
       {
          Document doc = Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument;
          if (doc == null) return;
          Editor ed = doc.Editor;

          PromptEntityOptions peo = 
                new PromptEntityOptions("\nSelect section: ");
          peo.SetRejectMessage("\nIt is not a section!");
          peo.AddAllowedClass(typeof(Section), true);
          PromptEntityResult per = ed.GetEntity(peo);
          if (per.Status != PromptStatus.OK) return;
          ObjectId idSecSets = ObjectId.Null;
          using (Transaction tr =
          doc.TransactionManager.StartOpenCloseTransaction())
          {
              Section sec =
              tr.GetObject(per.ObjectId,
                           OpenMode.ForWrite) as Section;
              sec.IsLiveSectionEnabled = true;                
              idSecSets = sec.Settings;
              tr.Commit();
          }
        using (Transaction tr = doc.TransactionManager
                                     .StartOpenCloseTransaction())
        {
          SectionSettings secset = tr.GetObject(idSecSets, 
                                   OpenMode.ForWrite) as SectionSettings;
          secset.CurrentSectionType = SectionType.LiveSection;
          Color clr = secset.Color(SectionType.LiveSection,
                                   SectionGeometry.IntersectionFill);
          ColorDialog cd = new ColorDialog
          {
              Color = clr
          };
          System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult dr = cd.ShowDialog();
          if (dr != System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK) return;
          ed.WriteMessage("\nSelected Color: " + cd.Color.ToString());
          clr = cd.Color;
          // Define that color we change
          secset.SetColor(SectionType.LiveSection,
          SectionGeometry.IntersectionFill, clr);
          tr.Commit();
        }  
    }

Gif

How to Implement Dynamic UCS for Custom Solids

By Madhukar Moogala

You need to derive  from this class(AcDbDynamicUCSPE) in order to enable Dynamic UCS switching for your custom objects or for other core objects.

By default, the core DUCS code will call this protocol extension on objects under the cursor during the initial point acquisition in DUCS-enabled command.

Derived classes must override and implement getCandidatePlanes().

And, also if you don’t implement AutoCAD Solid’s and it derived entities can participate in dynamic UCS using the default AcDb3dSolidDynamicUCSPE, this  protocol extension is always registered by AcDb during startup.  So, unless some other app has explicitly removed or replaced it, it will always be in place for AcDb3dSolids and classes derived from that.

There's also an AcDbEntityDynamicUCSPE protocol extension that's added at the AcDbEntity level to provide a default implementation for all classes.

Note:

getCandidatePlanes() is only called for entities that have subentities.  For such entities, it is called once for each subentity with the subentId argument being the id of the subent for which it is being called.

For entities that don't have subentities, the AcDbNonSubEntDynamicUCSPE protocol extension base class should be used, and its getCandidatePlane() method will be called.

Acad::ErrorStatus AsdkUCSPE::getCandidatePlanes(
	AcArray& results,
	double& distToEdge,
	double& objWidth,
	double& objHeight,
	AcDbEntity* pEnt,
	const AcDbSubentId& subentId,
	const AcGePlane& viewplane,
	AcDbDynamicUCSPE::Flags flags) const
{
	Acad::ErrorStatus es = Acad::eInvalidInput;
	if (!pEnt)
		return es;

	// Check if User selected custom Solid plane, we are not doing anything here, just to make sure 
	   //Debugger hits us, ideally we are expected to populate the result array 
	   // with one or more AcGePlane objects and return Acad::eOk if successful.

	CMyBox* pSolid = CMyBox::cast(pEnt);
	if (!VERIFY(pSolid != NULL))
		return Acad::eInvalidInput;

	AcDb::SubentType seType = subentId.type();
	if (seType != AcDb::kFaceSubentType)
		return Acad::eWrongSubentityType;

	AcDbFullSubentPath facePath(pEnt->objectId(), subentId);
	std::auto_ptr pFaceSubEnt;
	pFaceSubEnt.reset(pEnt->subentPtr(facePath));
	
	if (pFaceSubEnt.get() && 
	pFaceSubEnt->isKindOf(AcDbRegion::desc()))
	{
		AcDbRegion* reg = AcDbRegion::cast(pFaceSubEnt.get());
		assert(reg != NULL);
		if (!reg)
			return (Acad::eWrongObjectType);
		AcGePlane entPlane;
		AcDb::Planarity kPanarity;
		es = reg->getPlane(entPlane, kPanarity);

		//- Test for intersection 
		// between the circle's plane and Zaxis of viewplane
		AcGeLine3d line;
		line.set(viewplane.pointOnPlane(),
		viewplane.normal());

		AcGePoint3d intersectPnt;
		if (entPlane.intersectWith(line, intersectPnt) == Adesk::kTrue)
		{
			AcDbExtents extents;
			if (reg->getGeomExtents(extents) != Acad::eOk)
				return (Acad::eInvalidInput);

			const double diagonal = extents.minPoint().
						distanceTo(extents.maxPoint());
			objWidth = diagonal;
			objHeight = diagonal;

			//- now calculate closest edge to the intersection point
			//- and set the origin and X axis accordingly

			AcGePoint3d origin;
			AcGeVector3d xAxis, yAxis;
			entPlane.getCoordSystem(origin, xAxis, yAxis);
			distToEdge = origin.distanceTo(intersectPnt);

			AcGePlane newPlane(entPlane);
			results.append(newPlane);
			return Acad::eOk;

		}
		return Acad::eNotApplicable;
	}
	return Acad::eNotApplicable;
}

Demo and source code

Set "Display printable area" via API

By Madhukar Moogala

When you make a new Layout a new Page Setup called *Layout1*

You see the printable area in Layout. This is a dashed rectangle.

In order to remove that rectangles you set the option via UI:
Go to TOOLS > OPTIONS > DISPLAY > LAYOUT  ELEMENTS > Uncheck "Display printable area"

or to do the same in API

void turnOffPrintableArea() 
{

  AcApLayoutManager* pApLayoutMgr =
  (AcApLayoutManager*)acdbHostApplicationServices()->layoutManager();
	if (pApLayoutMgr != NULL) {
        pApLayoutMgr->setShowPaperMargins(false);
        pApLayoutMgr->updateCurrentPaper();
	}
}

Unfortunately, the interface AcApLayoutManager for application-specific routines that manipulate, access AcDbLayout objects and controls layout related GUI attributes is not exposed to NET.

Opensource Announcement for AutoCAD AutoLISP Extension

By Madhukar Moogala

Dear Developers,

Thank you for being part of the Autodesk AutoCAD developer ecosystem.

As part of Autodesk Opensource Initiative, we are glad to announce a new member to the family, the “VSCode extension for AutoLISP” which is now Opensource in Github.

This extension adds support for AutoCAD AutoLISP source (LSP) files to Visual Studio Code. It allows you to edit and debug your lisp programs with AutoCAD 2021. For information on creating lisp programs for AutoCAD with the AutoLISP programming language, see the:

• AutoCAD AutoLISP: Developer’s Guide
• AutoCAD AutoLISP: Reference
• AutoCAD AutoLISP: Tutorials

The extension is open source and distributed under Apache License v2.0. A friendly summary can be found at tldrlegal.

Your feedback is highly appreciated! Should you have any suggestions, please create an issue here.

We welcome contributions through PR’s for more details please read through the CONTRIBUTION guide.

Using VSCode Extension for AutoLISP in AutoCAD

• Setup VSCode Extension
  Installing and configuring the AutoCAD Autolisp VSCODE extension
• Debugging AutoLisp
  Editting and debugging Autolisp files in VSCODE

Forge Partner Talks: August Webinars

By Madhukar Moogala

Worried that the end of July also means the end of Forge Partner Talks? Don't worry - the series will be extended through August! With two brand new episodes featuring trusted Autodesk partners focused on the construction industry, you can easily stay in the loop on the latest Forge-powered design + make cloud innovations. Tune in to learn more about their solutions, and how they can help your business stay ahead of the competition and win more customers.

REGISTER HERE

Join host Emily Scherbenski, Senior Forge Marketing Manager, and top Forge partners who will share the innovative solutions they have built using Forge, insights they gained along the way, and any words of wisdom for others just starting out.

Forge Partner Talks: Remote Construction Site Management

August 5th 7 am PST/4 pm CET

Hear from featured partners:

• OpenSpace uses cutting-edge technology to allow people in the real world to efficiently capture, analyze, and get their work done
• HoloBuilder assists builders and engineers to create immersive 360° progress views of construction sites
• EarthCam empowers customers to manage jobsites remotely, document compliance and generate positive public relations

REGISTER HERE

Forge Partner Talks: Tracking Progress with Reality Capture

August 19th 7 am PST/4 pm CET

Hear from featured partners:

• VisualLive provides mixed reality tools to bring the power of BIM to construction sites
• Cintoo offers a comprehensive scan-BIM platform to compare a scan with a BIM model or another scan
• DroneDeploy is a drone data solution for construction helping companies capture their site and turn that data into meaningful information, such as validating work, verifying progress, and resolving issues.

REGISTER HERE

Check out previous Forge Partner Talks recordings here

How to Import Step (.stp) Files to AutoCAD

By Madhukar Moogala

Though there is not a direct API to import a Step file in to AutoCAD drawing unlike Body.AcisIn, we use Editor.Command API to invoke Import command

public void StepIn()
{
Document doc = Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument;
Editor ed = doc.Editor;            
ed.Command(new object[] { "_.IMPORT",
	                 "D:\\Work\\CADFiles\\Scafolf_Bracket_Asy.stp"});
}

Using Entitlement API within ObjectARX C++

By Madhukar Moogala

We have .NET (C#) example on how to secure and protect your app on AutoCAD and other Autodesk products, for AutoCAD, Kean has written long back

For Revit – A blog from Mikako

For Fusion 360 – A C++ code, which I used most part of it and made few changes to best fit with AutoCAD

There is an introductory briefing on Entitlement API by Daniel.

For reading brevity, I will give simple statement what it brings to the table.

Entitlement API is a rest enabled API, allows you to check if the user is entitled to access your app i.e., user has bought the app from Autodesk App Store

To call Rest API with in ObjectARX, we need to use a Rest Client, for this I’m using restclient-cpp from mrtazz, a Json library to parse the response and make code more readable (this an optional not a must to run the sample)

Full instructions to build the sample is provided in Github

		if (getUserId()[0] == _T('\0')) {
			//User is not logged in, we will prompt to login!
			onlineUI();
		}
		//plumbing wide
		TCHAR buffer[512];
		acedGetString(0,_T("Enter AppId To Test CheckEntitlement:\t"), buffer);
		string userId = toNarrow(getUserId().kwszPtr());	 
		string appId = toNarrow(buffer);
		string url ="https://apps.exchange.autodesk.com/webservices/checkentitlement"+
					string("?userid=") + userId + string("&appid=") + appId;
		RestClient::Response response = RestClient::get(url);

		Json::Reader reader;
		Json::Value root;

		bool isparseSuccessful = reader.parse(response.body, root);
		if (!isparseSuccessful) {
			acutPrintf(_T("Error parsing URL"));
		}
		if ((root["IsValid"].asString()) == "true")
		{
			acutPrintf(_T("IsValid is True"));
		}
		else
		{
			acutPrintf(_T("IsValid is False"));
		}

Working Gif - https://pasteboard.co/JgZaD71.gif

Separate Solid Complexes into Separate Solids

By Madhukar Moogala

You can try using Solid3d.SeparateBody Method

This method separates the solid into a list of solids representing the additional disjoint volumes.
This solid is reduced to a solid with one volume.
The calling application is responsible for the resulting entities (either appending them to a database or deleting them when they are no longer needed).
When the calling application closes this Solid3d, the resulting solid will be committed to the database.
So, if the other solids are not appended to the database, you will lose some data.

To separate solids interactively in UI, refer this knowledge article.

Please note, you need a Solid which is logical one, but visually it appears to be two or more, i.e, you can move or copy multiple disjoint solids as one.
I have attached one drawing.

public static void SepSolid()
{
Document doc = Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument;
Database db = doc.Database;
Editor ed = doc.Editor;
PromptEntityOptions peo = new PromptEntityOptions("\nSelect solid:");
peo.SetRejectMessage("\nMust be a 3D solid.");
peo.AddAllowedClass(typeof(Solid3d), false);
PromptEntityResult per = ed.GetEntity(peo);
if (per.Status != PromptStatus.OK) return;
Transaction tr = db.TransactionManager.StartTransaction();
using (tr)
{
Solid3d sol = tr.GetObject(per.ObjectId, OpenMode.ForRead)
as Solid3d;
if (sol != null)
{
sol.UpgradeOpen();
//The solid must have multiple lumps
Solid3d[] disjointSolids = sol.SeparateBody();
foreach (Solid3d v in disjointSolids)
{
    Vector3d dispVector = Point3d.Origin.GetVectorTo(v.MassProperties.Centroid);
    v.TransformBy(Matrix3d.Displacement(dispVector));
    v.ColorIndex = 3;
    using (OpenCloseTransaction oct = new OpenCloseTransaction())
    {
        // Open the Block table for read
        BlockTable acBlkTbl;
        acBlkTbl = oct.GetObject(db.BlockTableId,
                                            OpenMode.ForRead) as BlockTable;
        // Open the Block table record Model space for write
        BlockTableRecord acBlkTblRec;
        acBlkTblRec = oct.GetObject(acBlkTbl[BlockTableRecord.ModelSpace],
                                                OpenMode.ForWrite) as BlockTableRecord;
        acBlkTblRec.AppendEntity(v);
        oct.AddNewlyCreatedDBObject(v, true);
        // Save the new objects to the database
        oct.Commit();
    }
}
}
tr.Commit();

}
}

Demo

Redefining Help Shortcut Key with CUI API

By Madhukar Moogala

There is common need to change shortcut assigned for Help from F1 to some other key, if you look at keypad layout F1 and ESC keys are adjacent to each other, designers often use ESC to cancel running command, or deselect the objects from selection. As the F1 key is adjacent chances of pressing this key accidently is quite high, F1 pops up a Help window, which in said cases is counter productive.

To avoid this, we can assign F1 to a Cancel command and CTRL+ALT+F1 to Help.

 public static void RedefineHelpKey()
{
string mainCuiFile = (string)Application.GetSystemVariable("MENUNAME");
mainCuiFile += ".cuix";
var doc = Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument;
var db = doc.Database;
var ed = doc.Editor;
CustomizationSection cs = new CustomizationSection(mainCuiFile);
AcceleratorCollection acCollection = cs.MenuGroup.Accelerators;

//This is to get Help menu macro.
var macros = from MacroGroup mg in cs.MenuGroup.MacroGroups
        from MenuMacro mm in mg.MenuMacros
        where mm.ElementID.Equals("ID_Help") || mm.ElementID.Equals("ID_Cancel")
        select mm;
foreach(MenuMacro menuMacro in macros)
{
if (menuMacro.ElementID.Equals("ID_Help"))
{

MenuAccelerator macHelp = new MenuAccelerator(menuMacro,
                            /*ShortCutKeyCombination*/"CTRL+ALT+H",
                                cs.MenuGroup);
if (acCollection.Contains(macHelp))
{
    ed.WriteMessage($"\n True MenuAccelerator Contains.");
}
else
{
    acCollection.Add(macHelp);
}
                    

}
if (menuMacro.ElementID.Equals("ID_Cancel"))
{
//Assigning Cancel to F1
MenuAccelerator macCancel = new MenuAccelerator(menuMacro,
                                        /*ShortCutKeyCombination*/"F1",
                                        cs.MenuGroup);
if (acCollection.Contains(macCancel))
{
    ed.WriteMessage($"\n True MenuAccelerator Contains.");
}
else
{
    acCollection.Add(macCancel);
}                 

}
}


//This will create backup CUIX!
cs.Save(true);
            

}            	

Note:

If the changes don't reflect immediately, a restart of AutoCAD is needed, this is because, we are attempting to change the main CUI.

A utility function to list shortcut keys we have redefined

[CommandMethod("LISTMAC")]
public static void ListMenuAccelerators()
{
var doc = Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument;
var db = doc.Database;
var ed = doc.Editor;
string mainCuiFile = (string)Application.GetSystemVariable("MENUNAME");
mainCuiFile += ".cuix";
CustomizationSection cs = new CustomizationSection(mainCuiFile);
AcceleratorCollection acCollection = cs.MenuGroup.Accelerators;
var q = from MenuAccelerator menuAcltr in acCollection
        where menuAcltr.Name.Contains("Help") || 
	      menuAcltr.Name.Contains("Cancel")
        select menuAcltr;
if (q != null && q.ToList().Count > 0)
{


    foreach (var m in q.ToList())
    {
        ed.WriteMessage($"\n Name: {m.Name}\n\tAccerlerator ShortcutKey: {m.AcceleratorShortcutKey}");
    }

                
}
}

Demo

Editor.Snap Method to change the snap mode of point

By Deepak Nadig

In your workflow of using Editor.GetEntity you may sometimes want to retrieve
all the co-ordinates of pickpoint used to select the entity.

For example consider the following case by constructing a circle at point (0,0,5) and radius 5 on WCS XY-plane with top view.
On selecting a point on circle using Editor.GetEntity, PromptEntityResult.PickedPoint returns : (3.50064192661003 , 3.35618169844321 , 0)

To get all the co-ordinates,it may be useful to change the point to nearest snap mode using Editor.Snap that returns the Z co-ordinate as well. 

Code:

[CommandMethod("getEntityPickPoint")]
public static void getEntityPickPoint()
{
    Document doc = Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument;
    Database db = doc.Database;
    Editor ed = doc.Editor;

    PromptEntityOptions peo = new PromptEntityOptions("\nSelect Entity");
    PromptEntityResult per = ed.GetEntity(peo);
    if (per.Status == PromptStatus.OK)
    {
        Point3d pickedPoint = per.PickedPoint;
        Point3d pickedPtOsnap = ed.Snap("_near", pickedPoint);

        ed.WriteMessage("\n Selected pick point: {0}", pickedPoint.ToString());
        ed.WriteMessage("\n Selected Picked Point Osnap near: {0}", pickedPtOsnap);
    }
}

Result:

Command: GETENTITYPICKPOINT
Select Entity:
Selected pick point: (3.50064192661003,3.35618169844321,0)
Selected Picked Point Osnap near: (3.60921996485993,3.46027907043009,5)

 

More about object osnaps :
https://knowledge.autodesk.com/de/search-result/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2017/DEU/AutoCAD-AutoLISP/files/GUID-4EEE5488-01D8-454F-9386-79E493E55D6E-htm.html