AutoCAD DevBlog

How to Exit from AutoCAD or AutoCAD OEM

By Madhukar Moogala

There may be a situation where your Arx application needs to exit AutoCAD if the license check or some other business logic fails

When aborting, use AcDbHostApplicationServices::fatalError()

Or, acrx_abort() instead of a direct or indirect call to exit().This will allow AutoCAD and other ObjectARX applications to recover as much work as possible. Always use API calls rather than system calls.

It is highly desirable for the RealDWG host application to override this method, and do whatever needs to be done for a clean and graceful shutdown. For example, allowing the user to save some portion of the work in progress, cleaning up memory allocations, and so on are all things that should be done upon a fatal error.

extern "C" AcRx::AppRetCode
acrxEntryPoint(AcRx::AppMsgCode msg, void* pkt)
{
	AcRx::AppRetCode retVal = AcRx::kRetOK;
	switch (msg)
	{
	case AcRx::kInitAppMsg:
		//acrxDynamicLinker->unlockApplication(pkt);
		//acrxRegisterAppMDIAware(pkt);
		//initApp();

		// perform license check
		retVal = checkLicense();
		if (retVal == AcRx::kRetOK)
		{
			acrxDynamicLinker->unlockApplication(pkt);
			acrxRegisterAppMDIAware(pkt);
			initApp();
		}
		else
		{
			MessageBox(adsw_acadMainWnd(),
			L"Application should not be allowed to load.", L"Start-up Error", MB_OK + MB_ICONWARNING);
			acrx_abort(L"Invalid License: Application Quits Now");
			//or
			//acdbHostApplicationServices()->fatalError(_T("Application is Quitting Now"));					
			return AcRx::kRetError;
		}
		break;
	case AcRx::kUnloadAppMsg:
		unloadApp();
		break;
	default:
		break;

	}

	//return AcRx::kRetOK;
	return retVal;

}

How to Create a Custom Toggle Button

By Madhukar Moogala

Here in this blog I have shown how to create a Ribbon Toggle Button using AutoCAD Ribbon Runtime API.

https://adndevblog.typepad.com/autocad/2015/03/how-to-use-toggle-button-ribbon-api.html

This code sample shows how can we register a custom ribbon control on AutoCAD Ribbon bar, to illustrate I created a simple toggle button, but however this logic can be extended to any other fancy controls.

Logic:

• Create a ResourceDictionary to hold resources and controls in XAML

• Implement the binding logic to manage the state of ToggleButton.

  • Create a SystemVariable to hold the state of ToggleButton

      public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, CultureInfo culture)
          {
              return IsChecked(value);
          }
      public object ConvertBack(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, CultureInfo culture)
          {
              bool isOn = (bool)value;
              if (isOn && !string.IsNullOrEmpty(OnMacro))
                  RunMacro(OnMacro);
              else if (!isOn && !string.IsNullOrEmpty(OffMacro))
                  RunMacro(OffMacro);
              return DataBindings.DoNothing;
          }
  
      

• Load this XAML in to AutoCAD Runtime, so this custom dictionary gets merged in to the AutoCAD main resource dictionary and you will see a unfied UX.

• If you are preparing CUIX using CUI editor, make sure, the key of ToggleButton should be same as the Id of ToggleButton in CUI. For example "XyzToggleButton"

	    string menuName = (string)Application.GetSystemVariable("MENUNAME");           
            CustomizationSection cs = new CustomizationSection(menuName + ".cuix");
            var ribbonRoot = cs.MenuGroup.RibbonRoot;
            var homeTab = ribbonRoot.FindTab("ID_TabHome");
            var elementId = "ID_TogglePanel";
            var ribbonPanelSourceReference = homeTab.Find(elementId);
            if(ribbonPanelSourceReference is null)
            {
                var panel = homeTab.AddNewPanel(elementId, "TogglePanel");
                var row = panel.AddNewRibbonRow();
                row.AddNewToggleButton("XyzToggleButton", "XYZSTATE\nToggle", null, RibbonButtonStyle.LargeWithText);
                cs.Save();
            }

<adw:RibbonToggleButton 
        x:Uid="RibbonToggleButton-Xyz" 
        x:Key="XyzToggleButton"
        Name="XYZ Toggle"
        Tag="XYZSTATE">
        <adw:RibbonToggleButton.IsCheckedBinding>
            <Binding Source="{x:Static acmgd:Application.UIBindings}" Path="SystemVariables[XYZSTATE].Value" Converter="{StaticResource XyzToggleButtonConverter}"/>
        </adw:RibbonToggleButton.IsCheckedBinding>
        <adw:RibbonToggleButton.Image>
            <BitmapImage x:Uid="BitmapImage_1" UriSource="Resources/Toggle.bmp" />
        </adw:RibbonToggleButton.Image>
        <adw:RibbonToggleButton.LargeImage>
            <BitmapImage x:Uid="BitmapImage_2" UriSource="Resources/Toggle.bmp"/>
        </adw:RibbonToggleButton.LargeImage>
    </adw:RibbonToggleButton>

Complete sample with source code is available at Github : SimpleToggleButton

BlockView Sample Refactored

By Madhukar Moogala

BlockView is an ObjectARX graphics sample which use to be shipped with ObjectARX in previous year

I've recently recieved a request from an ADN partner

The problem

If we are running in 2022 or 2023 and we have Hardware Acceleration turned ON. We get some graphics not showing up in our CGsPreviewCtrl. Specifically the void CGsPreviewCtrl::RubberRectangle(CPoint startPt, CPoint endPt) will not display on the view. Again, this only occurs in AutoCAD 2022 & 20223, on Windows 11 with Hardware Acceleration turned ON. If we turn OFF hardware acceleration it works, or if we run on Windows 10 or if on AutoCAD 2021 and before it appears to work.

Reason

We start to support DX12 from AutoCAD 2022. DX12 uses flip mode but GDI uses blit mode. The issue happens because the below code attempt to use GDI to draw over a Window used by DX12.

void CGsPreviewCtrl::RubberRectangle(CPoint startPt, CPoint endPt) 
{
  // get the device context for the client area
  CDC *cdc = this->GetDC();
  // if ok
  if (cdc != NULL)
  {
    HDC hdc = cdc->GetSafeHdc();
    // Create a black pen with a dotted style to draw the border of the rectangle.
    HPEN gdiPen = CreatePen(PS_DOT, 1, RGB(0,0,0));
    // Set the ROP cdrawint mode to XOR.
    SetROP2(hdc, R2_XORPEN);

    // Select the pen into the device context.
    HGDIOBJ oldPen = SelectObject(hdc, gdiPen);

    // Create a stock NULL_BRUSH brush and select it into the device
    // context so that the rectangle isn't filled.
    HGDIOBJ oldBrush = SelectObject(hdc, GetStockObject(NULL_BRUSH) );

    // Now XOR the hollow rectangle on the Graphics object with
    // a dotted outline.
    Rectangle(hdc, startPt.x, startPt.y, endPt.x, endPt.y);

    // Put the old stuff back where it was.
    SelectObject(hdc, oldBrush); // no need to delete a stock object
    SelectObject(hdc, oldPen);
    DeleteObject(gdiPen);		// but we do need to delete the pen

    // Return the device context to Windows.
    this->ReleaseDC(cdc);
  }
}

It is highly recommended to move away from GDI API

In case you can't invest in upgrading the code, you can use following workaround to set GFXDX12=0 and close AutoCAD, it will switch to DX11

We updated the old Arx sample to work effectively without switching to DX11 in AutoCAD 2022 and later version.

Github - BlockView