AutoCAD DevBlog

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year 2015!

By Balaji Ramamoorthy

ADN wishes you a Merry Christmas and Happy New year !

Here is a Christmas tree with lots of gifts.

Due to some issues, the tree could not be embedded in this blog. Here is the link : Xmas tree

Hope you like it :)

Quick way to find number of entities in modelspace

By Balaji Ramamoorthy

LINQ provides an easy way to find the number of entities in modelspace without having to iterate on our own. The IEnumerator exposed by BlockTableRecord can be cast as IEnumerable<ObjectId> to find the count. Here is a code snippet :

 using  System.Linq;

 Document doc 

 	= Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument;

 Database db = doc.Database;

 using  (Transaction tr 

 	= db.TransactionManager.StartTransaction())

 {

     BlockTable bt = tr.GetObject(

 			db.BlockTableId, 

 			OpenMode.ForRead) as BlockTable;

     ObjectId modelSpaceId 

 		= SymbolUtilityServices.GetBlockModelSpaceId(db);

     BlockTableRecord btr = tr.GetObject(

 			modelSpaceId, 

 			OpenMode.ForRead) as BlockTableRecord;

     System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable<ObjectId> 

 		idCollection = btr.Cast<ObjectId>();

     doc.Editor.WriteMessage(

 		String.Format("{0} Model space count : {1}" , 

 		Environment.NewLine, idCollection.Count<ObjectId>()));

     tr.Commit();

 }

Balloon notification in statusbar tray item

By Balaji Ramamoorthy

ObjectARX 2004 SDK had this nice C++ sample on adding tray items to the status bar and displaying balloon notification in one of those tray items. I have migrated this sample project to work on AutoCAD 2015 and you can download it here :

StatusBar

To build this sample, place it under \samples\editor folder in ObjectARX 2015 SDK path. Here is a sample code snippet to display balloon window from that sample :

 // Create the bubble notification message, and callbacks. 

 int  result;

 AcApDocument *pDoc=acDocManager->curDocument();

 CString strMsg(_T(" Notification" ));

 AcTrayItemBubbleWindowControl bwControl(

 	"Attention!" , 

 	strMsg, 

 	"HyperText Here" , 

 	"www.autodesk.com" );

 bwControl.SetIconType(

 	AcTrayItemBubbleWindowControl::

 	BUBBLE_WINDOW_ICON_INFORMATION);

 bwControl.SetCallback(BubbleWindowCallback, pDoc);

 result=trayItems[0]->ShowBubbleWindow(&bwControl);

To control the time the balloon will be displayed, please run the "TRAYSETTINGS" command and set the display time.

Retrieving property values from entity's COM wrapper

By Balaji Ramamoorthy

When implementing an AutoCAD plugin, its quite easy to retrieve entity properties without having to directly deal with the entity's COM wrapper. But when implementing a RealDWG host application, this can become necessary to retrieve some of the entity properties. 

If you are using .Net languages, using reflection can come very handy. Here is a blog post that can help :

Get ActiveX/COM class properties and methods from .NET

If you are using C++, here are the changes to the DumpDwg sample from the RealDWG SDK. In this code snippet, our objective is to retrieve properties of a custom entity using the IDispatch interface of its COM wrapper. For example, a drawing that includes a "AsdkPoly" entity from "ObjectARX 2015\samples\entity\polysampPolySamp".

 // Info on each IDispatch member item 

 struct  stringdispid

 {

     CComBSTR bstr;

     int  nLen;

     DISPID id;

 };

 // DispId map to retrieve properties 

 static  stringdispid* m_pMap;

 static  int  m_nMapLen;

 static  int  m_nCount;

 // Helper method to convert VARIANT to ads_point 

 static  HRESULT get_PointFromVariant(

 	VARIANT &variant, 

 	ads_point &pt)

 {

 	if  (V_VT(&variant) != VT_EMPTY) 

 	{

 		if  (V_VT(&variant) == (VT_ARRAY | VT_R8))

 		{

 			SAFEARRAY *psa = variant.parray;

 			long  lStartIndex = 0;

 			long  lEndIndex = 0;

 			SafeArrayGetLBound(psa, 1, &lStartIndex);

 			SafeArrayGetUBound(psa, 1, &lEndIndex);

 			if (lEndIndex == 2)

 			{

 				AcAxPoint3d tmpPt(variant);

 				pt[X] = tmpPt[X];

 				pt[Y] = tmpPt[Y];

 				pt[Z] = tmpPt[Z];

 			}

 			if (lEndIndex == 1)

 			{

 				AcAxPoint2d tmpPt(variant);

 				pt[X] = tmpPt[X];

 				pt[Y] = tmpPt[Y];

 				pt[Z] = 0.0;

 			}

 			return  S_OK;

 		}

 	} 

 	return  E_INVALIDARG;  

 }

 // Helper method to get the COM wrapper for an entity 

 static  IAcadBaseObject* get_com_wrapper

 						(AcDbEntity* entity) 

 { 

 	AcAxOleLinkManager* manager = AcAxGetOleLinkManager();

 	if  (!manager) 

 		return  NULL; 

 	IUnknown* unknown = manager->GetIUnknown(entity); 

 	if  (!unknown) 

 	{ 

 		CLSID class_id; 

 		if  (Acad::eOk != entity->getClassID(&class_id)) 

 			return  NULL; 

 		HRESULT res = CoCreateInstance(

 			class_id, 

 			NULL, 

 			CLSCTX_ALL, 

 			IID_IUnknown, 

 			(LPVOID*) &unknown);

 		if  (FAILED(res)) 

 			return  NULL; 

 		IAcadBaseObject* base = NULL; 

 		res = unknown->QueryInterface(

 			__uuidof (IAcadBaseObject), 

 			(VOID**) &base);

 		if  (FAILED(res)) 

 			return  NULL; 

 		if  (!manager->SetIUnknown(entity, unknown)) 

 			return  FALSE; 

 		base->SetObjectId(entity->objectId()); 

 		base->Release(); 

 	} 

 	// Caller will release this interface  

 	IAcadBaseObject* wrapper = NULL; 

 	HRESULT res = unknown->QueryInterface(

 		__uuidof (IAcadBaseObject), 

 		(VOID**) &wrapper);

 	if  (FAILED(res)) 

 		return  NULL; 

 	return  wrapper; 

 } 

 // Helper method to retrieve the function desc  

 // from the typeinfo and store it in a map  

 static  HRESULT LoadNameCache(ITypeInfo* pTypeInfo)

 {

     TYPEATTR* pta;

     HRESULT hr = pTypeInfo->GetTypeAttr(&pta);

     if  (SUCCEEDED(hr))

     {

 		m_nCount = 0;

 		m_nMapLen = pta->cFuncs;

 		m_pMap = NULL;

 		if (m_nMapLen > 0)

 			m_pMap =  new  stringdispid[m_nMapLen];

         for  (int  i=0; i<m_nMapLen; i++)

         {

             FUNCDESC* pfd;

             if  (SUCCEEDED(pTypeInfo->GetFuncDesc(i, &pfd)))

             {

                 CComBSTR bstrName;

                 if  (SUCCEEDED(pTypeInfo->GetDocumentation(

 											pfd->memid, 

 											&bstrName, 

 											NULL, 

 											NULL, 

 											NULL)))

                 {

 					if (pfd->invkind == DISPATCH_PROPERTYGET)

 					{

 						m_pMap[m_nCount].bstr.

 							Attach(bstrName.Detach());

 						m_pMap[m_nCount].nLen 

 							= SysStringLen(m_pMap[i].bstr);

 						m_pMap[m_nCount].id = pfd->memid;

 						m_nCount++;

 					}

                 }

                 pTypeInfo->ReleaseFuncDesc(pfd);

             }

         }

         pTypeInfo->ReleaseTypeAttr(pta);

     }

     return  S_OK;

 }

 // Retreive properties from an entity using the  

 // IDispatch interface of its COM wrapper 

 HRESULT dumPolyProps(AcDbEntity *pEntity) 

 {

    	::CoInitialize(NULL);

 	IAcadBaseObject *pAcadObj = get_com_wrapper(pEntity);

 	CComQIPtr<ITypeLib> pTypeLib(pAcadObj); 

 	CComQIPtr<ITypeInfo> pTypeInfo(pAcadObj); 

 	TCHAR full_app_file_name[512] = L"" ; 

 	int  nBufferLength = 512;

 	TCHAR* filePart;

     DWORD result;

     result = SearchPath(NULL, _T("asdkcompoly.dbx" ), 

 		_T(".dbx" ), 512, full_app_file_name, &filePart);

     if  (result && result < (DWORD)nBufferLength)

 	{

 		HRESULT hr = LoadTypeLib

 			(full_app_file_name, &pTypeLib);

 		if  (FAILED(hr)) 

 			return  hr;

 		UINT iCount = pTypeLib->GetTypeInfoCount(); 

 		for  (UINT i=0; i < iCount ; i++) 

 		{

 			hr = pTypeLib->GetTypeInfo(i, &pTypeInfo);

 			if  (FAILED(hr))

 				return  hr;

 			LoadNameCache(pTypeInfo);

 			CComQIPtr<IDispatch> pDisp(pAcadObj);

 			// Retrieve the properties 

 			for (int  index = 0; index < m_nCount; index++)

 			{

 				OLECHAR *sMember = m_pMap[index].bstr;

 				DISPID dispId;

 				hr = pDisp->GetIDsOfNames(

 					IID_NULL, 

 					&sMember, 

 					1, 

 					LOCALE_SYSTEM_DEFAULT, 

 					&dispId);

 				if (SUCCEEDED(hr))

 				{

 					unsigned  int  puArgErr = 0;

 					VARIANT VarResult;

 					VariantInit(&VarResult); 

 					EXCEPINFO pExcepInfo;

 					DISPPARAMS pParams;

 					memset(&pParams, 0, sizeof (DISPPARAMS)); 

 					pParams.cArgs = 0; 

 					hr = pDisp->Invoke(

 						dispId, 

 						IID_NULL, 

 						LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT, 

 						DISPATCH_PROPERTYGET, 

 						&pParams, 

 						&VarResult, 

 						&pExcepInfo, 

 						NULL);

 					if (V_VT(&VarResult) 

 						== (VT_ARRAY | VT_R8))

 					{

 						// Convert to ads_point 

 						ads_point pt;

 						get_PointFromVariant(VarResult, pt);

 						_print(_T("%s : %lf %lf %lf\\n" ), 

 							sMember, pt[0], pt[1], pt[2]);

 					}

 					else  if (VarResult.vt == VT_DISPATCH)

 					{

 						_print(_T("%s : VT_DISPATCH\\n" ), 

 							sMember);

 						//IDispatchPtr pDispatch  

 						//			= VarResult.pdispVal; 

 					}

 					else 

 					{

 						hr = VariantChangeType(

 											&VarResult, 

 											&VarResult, 

 											0, 

 											VT_BSTR);

 						_print(_T("%s : %s\\n" ), 

 							sMember, 

 							VarResult.bstrVal);

 					}

 					VariantClear(&VarResult);  

 				}

 			}

 			delete [] m_pMap;

 			m_pMap = NULL;

 		}

 	}

 	CoUninitialize();

 	return  S_OK;

 }

 // Invoke it from the dumpEntity method 

 void  dumpEntity(AcDbEntity *pEnt)

 {

 	if  (_tcscmp(p, _T("AsdkPoly" )) == 0)

 		dumPolyProps(pEnt);

 	// ... Rest of the code  

 }

Here is a screenshot of the retrieved property values (Click on it to enlarge) :

AutoCAD.NET API is now on Nuget.org

By Madhukar Moogala

The long waited enhancement is rolled out , I’m personally very happy that our API package is available on Nuget .

So what is big deal about Nuget ?

NuGet is the package manager for the Microsoft development platform including .NET. The NuGet client tools provide the ability to produce and consume packages. The NuGet Gallery is the central package repository used by all package authors and consumers.Nuget

How it is going to help us ?

Very simply ,now you need not download sdk and  manually add references to your project ,after installing package from nuget search available with in Visual Studio IDE ,it copies the library files to your solution and automatically updates your project (add references, change config files, etc.). If you remove a package, NuGet reverses whatever changes it made so that no clutter is left.

 

How should I install a package from Nuget ?

Go to Tools\Library Package Manager \ Manage Nuget Packages

Search for AutoCAD .NET API

Drawing preview in WPF palette

By Balaji Ramamoorthy

As you may already know, the BlockView .Net sample demonstrates the use of Graphics system to preview a drawing in a Windows form. The migrated sample that works with AutoCAD 2015 is available here.

To get the preview displayed inside a WPF user control hosted in an AutoCAD palette, poses a small problem. In that sample, as the "GraphicsManager.CreateAutoCADDevice" requires a Window handle to display the graphics, there is no direct way to get the display in a WPF user control. In a WPF window, the controls are managed by the top level window and there are no individual handles assigned separately for the controls. Because of this difference, the only way to get this working in WPF is to host the Windows user control that displays the preview in a WindowsFormsHost.

The attached sample is a modified version of the BlockView .Net sample that demonstrates this. Download Modified BlockView.NET
To try it, netload the dll and run the "bviewpal" command. To preview a drawing, click on the button in the palette and browse to a drawing.

Here is a screenshot of the WPF palette previewing a drawing :

Creating a solid from a set of SubDMesh

By Balaji Ramamoorthy

If you have a collection of subDMesh and wish to create a Solid from it, first convert each of those mesh to a surface. If the sufaces all put together form a closed volume, then a sculpted solid can be created from these surfaces. Here is a sample code snippet :

 // For SubDMesh  

 #include  "dbSubD.h" 

 static  void  AdskMeshToSolid()

 {

 	Acad::ErrorStatus es;

 	int  ret;

 	// Select the meshes to create the solid from 

 	AcArray<AcDbObjectId> meshIdArray;

 	do 

 	{

 		ads_name entName;

 		ads_point pt;

 		ret = acedEntSel(L"Select a mesh : " , 

 						entName, pt);

 		if (RTNORM != ret) 

 			break ;

 		AcDbObjectId objId = AcDbObjectId::kNull;

 		if ( Acad::eOk != acdbGetObjectId(objId, entName)) 

 			break ;

 		if (objId.objectClass() == AcDbSubDMesh::desc())

 		{

 			meshIdArray.append(objId);

 		}

 	}while (ret == RTNORM);

 	// Convert the meshes to surfaces 

 	AcArray<AcDbEntity*> surfacesArray;

 	AcGeIntArray limits;

 	AcDbSurface *pSurface = NULL;

 	for (int  mesh = 0; mesh < meshIdArray.length(); mesh++)

 	{

 		AcDbEntity *pEntity = NULL; 

 		if (acdbOpenAcDbEntity(pEntity, meshIdArray[mesh], 

 							AcDb::kForRead) != Acad::eOk) 

 		{

 			return ; 

 		}

 		AcDbSubDMesh *pMesh = AcDbSubDMesh::cast(pEntity); 

 		if (pMesh)

 		{

 			es = pMesh->convertToSurface(

 							false , 

 							false , 

 							pSurface);

 			if (es != Acad::eOk)

 				return ;

 			if  ( es == Acad::eOk && 

 				pSurface->isKindOf(AcDbSurface::desc()))

 			{

 				surfacesArray.append(pSurface);

 			}

 		}

 		pEntity->close();

 	}

 	// Create a sculpted solid from surfaces 

 	AcDb3dSolid *pSolid = new  AcDb3dSolid();

 	pSolid->setDatabaseDefaults();

 	es = pSolid->createSculptedSolid(

 					surfacesArray, 

 					limits);

 	if (es == Acad::eOk)

 	{

 		// Add sculpted solid to the database  

 		AcDbObjectId solidOid = AcDbObjectId::kNull;

 		postToDb(pSolid, &solidOid);

 		// To show the newly created solid away 

 		// from the surfaces, we transform it.. 

 		AcDbEntity *pSolidEnt;

 		es = acdbOpenAcDbEntity(

 				pSolidEnt, solidOid, AcDb::kForWrite);

 		if   (es == Acad::eOk &&

 				pSolidEnt->isKindOf(AcDb3dSolid::desc()))

 		{

 			AcGeVector3d vec(15.0, 15.0, 0.0);

 			AcGeMatrix3d transform 

 						= transform.setToTranslation(vec);

 			es = pSolidEnt->transformBy(transform);

 			pSolidEnt->close();

 			acutPrintf(

 				ACRX_T("Solid3d created from mesh !" ));

 		}

 		else 

 		{

 			acutPrintf(

 				ACRX_T("Solid3d creation failed !" ));

 		}

 	}

 	else 

 	{

 		acutPrintf(ACRX_T("Solid3d creation failed !" ));

 		delete  pSolid;

 	}

 	// Cleanup 

 	// We do not need the surfaces anymore 

 	int  surfCnt = 0;

 	for (;surfCnt < surfacesArray.length(); surfCnt++)

 	{

 		AcDbEntity *pEnt = surfacesArray[surfCnt];

 		delete  pEnt;

 	}

 }

 static  void  postToDb( AcDbEntity* pEnt, AcDbObjectId *pOid) 

 {

 	AcDbBlockTable* pBlockTable;

 	AcDbDatabase *pDb = 

 		acdbHostApplicationServices()->workingDatabase();

 	pDb->getBlockTable(pBlockTable, AcDb::kForRead);

 	AcDbBlockTableRecord* pModelSpaceBTR =  NULL; 

 	pBlockTable->getAt(

 		ACDB_MODEL_SPACE, 

 		pModelSpaceBTR, 

 		AcDb::kForWrite);

 	AcDbObjectId oid = AcDbObjectId::kNull;

 	if (pOid != NULL)

 	{

 		pModelSpaceBTR->appendAcDbEntity(*pOid, pEnt);

 	}

 	else 

 	{

 		pModelSpaceBTR->appendAcDbEntity(oid, pEnt);

 	}

 	pEnt->close(); 

 	pModelSpaceBTR->close();

 	pBlockTable->close();

 }

Here is a screenshot of the output

Migration Tip : ACAD2011\12 to 13\14\15

By Madhukar Moogala

This tip is not purely on ACAD per se ,but from Visual Studio perspective and will be helpful for guys who are using VS template CMap where on its key is AcDbHandle&

CMap<AcDbHandle, AcDbHandle&, CString, CString> handleMap;

I recently received a case query where customer is getting this compilation error C2440: 'type cast' : cannot convert from 'AcDbHandle' to 'long' ,which is working fine VS 90.0 compiler but failing in VS 100.0\110.0 , after investigating it is found that the  default implementation of

template<class ARG_KEY>

AFX_INLINE UINT AFXAPI HashKey(ARG_KEY key)

is changed in one of the atlmfc includes Afxtempl.h, the new definition is not allowing the type conversion, so we have two options either to understand new definition  ,which I didn’t get completely so expecting some expert opinion or to override HashKey template to suit to our need.

Here I’m going with the second option ,to override HashKey template.

You can incorporate the following definition in your DLLMain file to avoid type conversion error.

template<>

AFX_INLINE UINT AFXAPI HashKey<AcDbHandle&>(AcDbHandle& key)

{

 

// default identity hash - works for most primitive values

return (DWORD)(((DWORD_PTR)key)>>4);

 

}

You are welcome for comments and insights , I’m no expert on this ,I’m learning with you