AutoCAD DevBlog

When does IsEffectivelyErased return True

by Fenton Webb

For a database resident object that is not itself erased, there are three reasons why isEffectivelyErased() could return true:

1. Some owner up the ownership hierarchy is erased.
2. This object, or some object up the ownership hierarchy is returning an empty ObjectId from its ownerId() method.
3. An owner cannot be opened for some reason somewhere up the ownership hierarchy.

AutoCAD OEM Support for AutoLISP/LISP

by Fenton Webb

AutoCAD OEM does support LISP, but there are a few restrictions:

1. LISP applications must be compiled into .fas, raw .lsp files are not supported.
• You must compile your LISP applications using the inbuilt “AutoCAD OEM” (aoem.exe) application that is installed with the AutoCAD OEM CD.
• Once the .lsp has been compiled into a .fas, you must then bind the fas file to the OEM product in the build process. This means that you can never just load LISP files (.fas) into an OEM product, it must be registered at build time.
2. The ActiveX API is not supported in LISP; that means vlax functions do not work.
3. The VLIDE and APPLOAD commands are omitted in 3rd party AutoCAD OEM products.
4. The user-entered LISP interpreter is disabled in 3rd party AutoCAD OEM products. The (command) still works fine when invoked from an OEM bound .fas file.

Importing named Layout in an AutoCAD DWG file using LISP

By Partha Sarkar

If you are wondering how to import a named Layout into the current drawing file using LISP in AutoCAD, here you go.

LISP code snippet below, demonstrates how to import a layout named "ABC" from a selected DWG file to the current drawing file.

(defun C:LayoutImport()

  ;; Select a DWG file to import a Layout
	(setq myFile (getfiled "Select your DWG File:" " " "dwg" 8)) 
	(command"layout" "t" myFile "ABC") 
	(alert "New Layout is inserted!") 
	(princ) 
)

 

After executing the above LISP code, you would see a new Layout named “ABC” is imported to the current DWG –

 

Overruling Osnaps of BlockReference

By Balaji Ramamoorthy

When overruling the osnap points for a BlockReference, you may not want the osnap points of the entities that make the Block reference from getting snapped. For this, override the "IsContentSnappable" method of the "OsnapOverrule" class.

Here is a sample code to add the center point of the BlockReference as a osnap point and prevent all other osnap points, including those of the entities that make the BlockReference.

using System.Collections.Generic;

 

public class ExtApp : IExtensionApplication

{

    static ObjectSnapOverrule m_osnapOverrule

                                    = new ObjectSnapOverrule();

    static Overrule[] m_overrules = new Overrule[]

    {

        m_osnapOverrule,

    };

    static List<ObjectId> m_overruledObjects = new List<ObjectId>();

    static bool m_overruleAdded = false;

 

    [CommandMethod("startOverrule")]

    static public void Start()

    {

        Document doc = Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument;

        Editor ed = doc.Editor;

 

        PromptEntityOptions peo = new PromptEntityOptions(

                        "Select a blockreference to overrule :"

                       );

 

        peo.SetRejectMessage("Not a block reference");

        peo.AddAllowedClass(

            typeof(Autodesk.AutoCAD.DatabaseServices.BlockReference),

            false);

 

        PromptEntityResult per = ed.GetEntity(peo);

        if (per.Status != PromptStatus.OK)

            return;

 

        ObjectId brefId = per.ObjectId;

 

        if (!m_overruledObjects.Contains(per.ObjectId))

        {

            m_overruledObjects.Add(brefId);

        }

 

        ObjectId[] ids = m_overruledObjects.ToArray();

        foreach (Overrule o in m_overrules)

        {

            o.SetIdFilter(ids);

            if (!m_overruleAdded)

            {

                Overrule.AddOverrule(

                    RXObject.GetClass(typeof(BlockReference)),

                    o,

                    false);

            }

        }

 

        Overrule.Overruling = true;

        m_overruleAdded = true;

 

        Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument.Editor.Regen();

    }

 

    [CommandMethod("stopOverrule")]

    static public void End()

    {

        foreach (Overrule o in m_overrules)

        {

            Overrule.RemoveOverrule(

                RXObject.GetClass(typeof(BlockReference)),

                o);

        }

        Overrule.Overruling = false;

        Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument.Editor.Regen();

    }

 

    void IExtensionApplication.Initialize() { }

 

    void IExtensionApplication.Terminate() { }

}

 

class ObjectSnapOverrule : OsnapOverrule

{

    public override void GetObjectSnapPoints(

                                Entity entity,

                                ObjectSnapModes snapMode,

                                IntPtr gsSelectionMark,

                                Point3d pickPoint,

                                Point3d lastPoint,

                                Matrix3d viewTransform,

                                Point3dCollection snapPoints,

                                IntegerCollection geometryIds)

    {

        BlockReference bref = entity as BlockReference;

        if (bref != null)

        {

            Database db = entity.Database;

            using (Transaction t

                    = db.TransactionManager.StartTransaction())

            {

                BlockTableRecord btr

                    = t.GetObject(

                                    bref.BlockTableRecord,

                                    OpenMode.ForRead

                                 ) as BlockTableRecord;

 

                // Add only the centerpoint as snap point

                Extents3d exts = bref.GeometricExtents;

                snapPoints.Add(

                    exts.MinPoint + (exts.MaxPoint - exts.MinPoint) * 0.5);

            }

        }

    }

 

    // Return false to prevent the entities that make the

    // block reference from getting snapped

    public override bool IsContentSnappable(Entity entity)

    {

        return false;

    }

}

Working with ToolPalette groups using .Net

By Balaji Ramamoorthy

The "CAcTcUiToolPaletteGroup" class is not exposed in the .Net API. To work around this limitation, utility methods can be implemented using mixed-managed code that perform actions such as creating a tool palette group, adding palettes to it and removing the tool palette group.

Here is a sample project that uses the mixed-managed assembly in a .Net project to demonstrate this.

This project implements the following commands in .Net :

1) "Demo1" : Demonstrates iterating through all the ToolPalette groups and the ToolPalettes added to them. After this command is run, a series of message boxes appear to display the names of the ToolPalette groups and ToolPalettes.

2) "Demo2" : Demonstrates activating a specific palette using its name. After this command is run, the ToolPalette named "Mechanical" is set as the Active ToolPalette.

3) "Demo3" : Demonstrates the creation of a ToolPalette group, creation of a ToolPalette and adding ToolPalettes to the newly created ToolPalette group. After this command is run, a new group named "MyTPGroup" can be found with two ToolPalettes added to them. One of the two ToolPalette is a newly created ToolPalette called "MyPalette".

4) "Demo4" : Demonstrates the removal of a ToolPalette and ToolPaletteGroup. After this command is run, the "MyTPGroup" and "MyPalette" are removed.

Download ToolPaletteGroupMixedManagedDemo

Access Object Properties and control visibility using Design Review API

By Partha Sarkar

Autodesk Design Review is a viewer application which allows us to view, print, annotate, and compare 2D and 3D DWF files. It has a set of public API which allows us to create custom application focused on viewing DWF files, Object properties, Printing etc. You can get more details on Autodesk Design Review API from the Developer Center Page. 

In this blog post, I am sharing some code snippet using Design Review / DWF Viewer API which shows how to load a DWF file, how to get the object properties of the components of DWF object model, how to control visibility of a component in the DWF file and access the DWF file properties. Here is the screenshot of the sample Windows Forms application which embedding Design Review / DWF Viewer control and few buttons for specific task -

 

 

And here is the relevant C# code snippet for each task -

privatevoid button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

 

  // Option 2 - Using OpenFileDialog

 

  OpenFileDialog oFileDialog = newOpenFileDialog();

  oFileDialog.ShowDialog();

  axCExpressViewerControl1.SourcePath = oFileDialog.FileName;      

 

}

 

 

privatevoid DWF_Property_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

 

  ECompositeViewer.IAdECompositeViewer CompositeViewer;

  AdCommon.IAdCollection Sections;

 

  CompositeViewer = (ECompositeViewer.IAdECompositeViewer)axCExpressViewerControl1.ECompositeViewer;

  Sections = (AdCommon.IAdCollection)CompositeViewer.Sections;

  MessageBox.Show("Pages Count : " + Sections.Count);

 

 

  //Loop through Sections Collection using foreach

  foreach (ECompositeViewer.IAdSection Section in Sections)

  {       

    MessageBox.Show(Section.Title);

    MessageBox.Show("Order of the section \"" + Section.Title + "\" is " + Section.Order);

  }

}

 

 

privatevoid button_ObjProp_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

  try

  {

    ECompositeViewer.IAdECompositeViewer compvwr =

(ECompositeViewer.IAdECompositeViewer)axCExpressViewerControl1.ECompositeViewer;

 

    ECompositeViewer.IAdSection sec = (ECompositeViewer.IAdSection)compvwr.Section;

    ECompositeViewer.IAdContent con = (ECompositeViewer.IAdContent)sec.Content;

 

    AdCommon.IAdCollection adobj = (AdCommon.IAdCollection)con.get_Objects(1); //for selected object

    AdCommon.IAdObject obj = (AdCommon.IAdObject)adobj[1];

 

    string str = "";

    foreach (AdCommon.IAdProperty prop in (AdCommon.IAdCollection)obj.Properties)

    {

      str = str + "Name: " + prop.Name + " Value: " + prop.Value + Environment.NewLine;

    }

    // Properties of the selected object will be displayed in a Text Box 

    textBox1.Text = str;

 

  }

  catch

  {

    // TODO: Add your error handling here.

  }

 

} //

 

privatevoid button_hideObj_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

  try

  {

    ECompositeViewer.IAdECompositeViewer compvwr =

(ECompositeViewer.IAdECompositeViewer)axCExpressViewerControl1.ECompositeViewer;

 

    ECompositeViewer.IAdSection sec = (ECompositeViewer.IAdSection)compvwr.Section;

    ECompositeViewer.IAdContent con = (ECompositeViewer.IAdContent)sec.Content;

 

    AdCommon.IAdCollection adobj = (AdCommon.IAdCollection)con.get_Objects(1); //for selected object

    AdCommon.IAdObject obj = (AdCommon.IAdObject)adobj[1];

 

    compvwr.ExecuteCommand("HIDE");       

 

  }

  catch

  {

    // TODO: Add your error handling here.

  }

}

 

Hope this is useful to you!

 

[ Updated on 20/Nov/2013 ]

I am updating this blog post with the following notes and screenshot to show what all components you need to reference from Autodesk Design Review to build this C# .NET code sample.

Autodesk Design Review 2013 API Reference document has a topic - "Setting References in C# .NET" which lists the Autodesk Design Review components you need to reference in your project to build this sample.

 

Here is the screenshot of the Design Review components I have used in my project -

You can also download this C# .NET sample application from here ADR2013WinFormAppCS. 

Obtain the RGB color value from an AcDbEntity using ObjectARX and RealDWG

by Fenton Webb

Here’s how to obtain the RGB value from an already AcDb::kOpenForRead AcDbEntity.

static COLORREF GetRGBFromEntity( AcDbEntity *ent )

{

  COLORREF colorRef = RGB(255, 255, 255);

  AcCmColor Color = ent->color();

  AcCmEntityColor::ColorMethod ColorMethod = Color.colorMethod();

 

  switch(ColorMethod)

  {

  case AcCmEntityColor::kByACI:

    {         

      long acirgb, r,g,b;

      acirgb = AcCmEntityColor::lookUpRGB(Color.colorIndex());

 

      b = ( acirgb & 0xff00L );

      g = ( acirgb & 0xff00L ) >> 8;

      r = acirgb >> 16;

 

      colorRef = RGB( r, g, b); 

      break;

 

    }

  }

  return colorRef;

}

 

Change the background mask property of AcDbMText object programmatically using ObjectARX

by Fenton Webb

Issue

I need to create (or set) an AcDbMText object with the background mask turned on. How can I do so programmatically?

Solution

We can do this both in ObjectARX and LISP.

In ObjectARX, we can use setBackgroundFill() member function of class AcDbMText to do the job. Please find the following code which toggles the background mask property of an MText entity.

void test_setBackgroundFill_MText()

{

  ads_name ename;

  ads_point p;

  // select the entity

  int res = acedEntSel(_T("Please pick an MText entity: "), ename, p );

  // if ok

  if (res == RTNORM)

  {

    AcDbObjectId oId;

    acdbGetObjectId( oId, ename );

    AcDbObjectPointer<AcDbMText> pMText(oId, AcDb::kForWrite);

 

    if(pMText.openStatus() == Acad::eOk)

    {

      AcCmColor color;

      if(pMText->backgroundFillOn())

      {

        pMText->setUseBackgroundColor(false);

        pMText->setBackgroundFill(false);

      }

      else

      {

        pMText->setBackgroundFill(true);

        color.setColorIndex(1);

        pMText->setBackgroundFillColor(color);

        pMText->setUseBackgroundColor(false);

      }

    }

    else

      acutPrintf(_T("\nError - you need to select an MText entity..."));

  }

}

 

In LISP, we can add group code 90 and set it as 1 to turn on the background mask. If we want to use a different color than the one used last time we can add group code 63 such as (63 . 1) - RED color - as well. We can turn off the mask by removing group code 90 and all related ones such as 63, 45, 441 and 421 (if applicable). A small tip here, we can substitute the original sub list of group code 90 with (90 . 2) to turn the mask off successfully and do not need to care about other related group codes. The following LISP code demonstrates how to do so…

 

(defun toggleBackgroundMaskOfAMText (en / ed)
  (setq ed (entget en))   ; Sets ed to the entity data
  (setq atom90 (assoc 90 ed))
  (if (= atom90 nil)
    ;; no 90 groud code at all
    (progn
      (setq lst90 (cons 90 1))
      (setq atom63 (cons 63 1))
      (setq ed (append ed (list atom63 lst90)))
      ;; Add the 63 group code to set the background color as 1 (RED)
    )
    (progn
      (setq maskProp (cdr atom90))
      (if (= (boole 1 maskProp 1) 1)
(setq new90 (cons 90 2))
(setq new90 (cons 90 1))
      )
      (setq ed
      (subst new90
      (assoc 90 ed) ; Toggle the value of 90 group in ed.
      ed
      )
      )
    )
  )

  (entmod ed)
  (princ)
)

(defun c:testBGMask ()
  (toggleBackgroundMaskOfAMText
    (car (entsel))
  )
)

 

Here is some information about the DXF group codes related to Background Mask of MTEXT entities.

** Group code 90: Bit flags for background Mask

The possible values can be:

        kFillTextBox            = 0x1
        kFillTextBoxBackground  = 0x2
        kUseWordBreak           = 0x4
        kCheckedForUseWordBreak = 0x8

In the Background Mask dialog UI (while in the text editor or double click on the text --> right click context menu -->  [Background Mask..]), we can check the 'Use background mask' option to set the kFillTextBox bit and 'Use drawing background color' option in the 'Fill Color' group to set the kFillTextBoxBackground bit. In ARX API, We can use AcDbMText::backgroundFillOn() AcDbMText::setBackgroundFill() to get and set the kFillTextBoxBackground bit.

** Group code 63:  Fill Color

Specifies the color for the background. If it is a true color, Group code 63 gives the ACI color value and the corresponding Group code 421 gives the AcCmColor’s value.

We can specify the background color of the MTEXT in the Background Mask dialog UI. In ARX API, we can use AcDbMText::getBackgroundFillColor and AcDbMText::setBackgroundFillColor to get and read the value.

** Group code 45:  Border Offset Factor

Specifies the margin around the text for the opaque background. The value is based on the text height. A factor of 1.0 exactly fits the multiline text object. A factor of 1.5 extends the background by 0.5 times the text height.

In the Background Mask dialog UI, we can specify it in the 'Border offset factor' field. In ARX API, We can use AcDbMText::getBackgroundScaleFactor and AcDbMText::setBackgroundScaleFactor to get and set the value.

** Group code 441: Transparency color. 

The corresponding data member is of AcCmTransparency Type. This can not be controlled by the Background Mask dialog UI. But we can get or set this value using AcDbMText::getBackgroundTransparency and AcDbMText::setBackgroundTransparency methods.

Setting your AutoCAD OEM Default Graphics window Color

by Fenton Webb

You might need to set the AutoCAD Drawing Window color (Model Space Background) to a different color via your installer. To do so is pretty easy – simply set your OEM registry key .\Profiles\<<Unnamed Profile>>\Drawing Window\Background setting to the desired DWORD value.

Some Tips on AutoCAD OEM

by Fenton Webb

Just some small for new users of AutoCAD OEM…

1) When you install OEM on your system, you install two things - the Toolkit (OemMakeWizard and OemInstallerWizard) and a runnable application called AutoCAD OEM.

2) AutoCAD OEM is a relaxed version of any OEM product you build with the OemMakeWizard. It is used to test OEM specific stuff you are doing, it allows NETLOAD, Appload and the VBAIDE (if VBA is installed)...

3) The modules you add to OEM are usually just your modules and direct dependencies – basically the ones that you load into normal AutoCAD, and the ones that your App relies on (excluding standard runtime modules).

4) DLLs that you include *must* be built with the OEM ObjectARX SDK because OEM modules are dependent on aoem.exe not acad.exe like in the normal ObejctARX SDK. If you try to load modules built with the normal ObjectARX SDK they will not load because they are being physically loaded into the wrong host exe.

5) When you rebuild your app DLLs, you must rebuild your OEM product in order to test them - basically, your application DLLs must be restamped and aligned with your OEM product.

6) In order for your application to load properly, you must have a unique Logical Name in Your Modules declaration page of the OemMakeWizard.