AutoCAD DevBlog

Integrating WebView2 with AutoCAD: A Rich UI for Data Visualization

By Madhukar Moogala

AutoCAD's native UI is powerful, but sometimes we need modern, interactive, and web-based interfaces to enhance productivity.

This sample demonstrates how to integrate WebView2 inside AutoCAD using .NET, enabling developers to display rich HTML dashboards and visualize data extracted from AutoCAD drawings.

 

Data Extraction Overview

The extracted data is linked to an AutoCAD drawing. In this example, we use the AutoCAD 2025 Sample Drawing:
\AutoCAD 2025\Sample\Mechanical Sample\Data Extraction and Multileaders Sample.dwg
This sample contains the Grill Schedule.dxe file, which stores extracted data in a binary format.

Since .dxe files are binary, we use a new tool shipped with AutoCAD 2025 called BFMigrator.exe to convert them into a human-readable JSON file (.dxex).

The converted .dxex file is then parsed and sent to an embedded WebView2 instance, where a dynamic HTML dashboard is generated.

DXE to JSON Conversion

Below is the C# code snippet used to convert the binary .dxe file into a JSON .dxex file using BFMigrator.exe:

        ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo
        {
            FileName = BFMigrator,
            Arguments = $"\"{dxeFile}\" \"{dxexFile}\"",
            UseShellExecute = false,
            CreateNoWindow = true
        };
        
        Process process = new Process { StartInfo = psi };
        process.Start();
        process.WaitForExit(); // Ensure migration is complete
      

Communication Between AutoCAD Plugin and WebView2:

When embedding WebView2 in AutoCAD, we need to initialize the browser instance, configure it, and navigate to our HTML dashboard. And stores WebView2 cache/data locally instead of a system-protected folder.

1. Initialize WebView2 environment
2. Ensure WebView2 is ready before setting the Source
3. Set the Source URL
4. Send JSON data to WebView2

Below is the C# code snippet used to initialize WebView2, set the Source URL, and send JSON data to WebView2:

  string appDataFolderACAD = System.IO.Path.Combine(
  Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.LocalApplicationData),
  "AcadWebView"
    );
    Directory.CreateDirectory(appDataFolderACAD);

    // Create WebView2 environment
    var env = await CoreWebView2Environment.CreateAsync(null,
      appDataFolderACAD);

    // Ensure WebView2 is ready before setting Source
    await Wv.EnsureCoreWebView2Async(env);
    Wv.CoreWebView2.Settings.IsWebMessageEnabled = true;

    // Now that WebView2 is initialized, set the Source URL
    Wv.CoreWebView2.Navigate(new Uri(_source).AbsoluteUri);
    Wv.CoreWebView2.NavigationCompleted += async (sender, args) =>
    {
        if (args.IsSuccess)
        {
            await SendJsonToWebView();
        }
        else
        {
            Wv.CoreWebView2.PostWebMessageAsJson(
                "{\"error\": \"Failed to load the web page\"}"
            );
        }
    };
    

We will use PostWebMessageAsString to send JSON data to WebView2:

For more information, refer to the

Below is the C# code snippet used to send JSON data to WebView2:

1. Check if the JSON file exists
2. Read the JSON file content
3. Parse the JSON content
4. Send the formatted JSON to WebView2
5. Handle exceptions

      private async Task SendJsonToWebView()
      {
          if (!File.Exists(_json))
          {
              Console.WriteLine("JSON file not found.");
              string errorJson = "{\"error\": \"JSON file not found\"}";
              Wv.CoreWebView2.PostWebMessageAsString(errorJson);
              return;
          }    
          string jsonContent = await File.ReadAllTextAsync(_json);   
          try
          {
              var parsedJson = 
              System.Text.Json.JsonSerializer.Deserialize<object>(jsonContent);
              string formattedJson = 
              System.Text.Json.JsonSerializer.Serialize(parsedJson);  
              Wv.CoreWebView2.PostWebMessageAsString(formattedJson);
          }
          catch (Exception)
          {
              Wv.CoreWebView2.PostWebMessageAsString("{
                \"error\": \"Invalid JSON format\"
              }");
          }
      }
    

Receiving Data in WebView2 on JS

On the HTML side, the WebView2 receives JSON data and dynamically updates the dashboard.

1. Listen for messages from the AutoCAD plugin
2. Parse the received JSON data
3. Update the dashboard

  
      window.chrome.webview.addEventListener("message", event => {
        try {
            console.log("Raw WebView2 Message (Before Parsing):", event.data);    
            // Ensure the received data is parsed correctly
            const jsonData = typeof event.data === "string" ? 
              JSON.parse(event.data) : event.data;
            console.log("Parsed JSON from C#:", jsonData);
        }
        catch (error) {
            console.error("Error parsing JSON:", error);
        }
      });    
    

For more information, refer to the sample AcadWebView on Github.

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

AUTOCAD OEM 2023–Product Doesn’t Start

By Madhukar Moogala

We have moved to new installation tech called ODIS – On Demand Installation Services, this change is good in many aspects as its purpose is to create an installation, deployment, and update experience that's fast, easy, predictable, and painless for customers, as well as for the teams who develop and deliver Autodesk products.

First and foremost refer to this blog                     

If this doesn't solve or fix the problem.

Next, request these files from the target user -

    %localappdata%\Autodesk\ODIS
    %temp%\*.log

Check for \ODIS\DDA.log, see if you find any errors, this should give some clue for you.

If this didn't solve the problem, contact A D N support and send those files, one of us can research this for you.

How To Send Reproducible Test Project to A D N

By Madhukar Moogala

This is small utility file to create a zip file that ignores temporary, .vs and packages files. This can be applied to any VS project.
create a bat file with below contents and name it mkzip.bat
Replace this with attached file C:\UtilStuff\bin\vsExclude.txt

or you download the zip package containing mkzip.bat and vsExclude.txt

Note: make sure you have 7z on your path

The Github project - https://github.com/MadhukarMoogala/mkzip

How to find Circle from a given centre point

By Madhukar Moogala

Selection filters are very powerful device yet most of the times it is overlooked, using selection filters you can achieve many regular tasks of conditional selections.

In this snippet we will see, how you can leverage the selection filters to get a circle(s) from a given a centre point!

Do let me know if you have used conditional filters in any interesting scenario.

How do I prepare a conditional filter sequence ?

For example, we have a task to find all the MTEXT entities with particular background mask color fill

From the above picture, we have few MText entities with different colors, suppose if I want to get a MText with green background color fill ?

First, I would check the entity information, I can use this entity information in building a selection filter, (entget (car (entsel)))

Applying this code and pick MTEXT entity with green background mask would give me

((-1 . ) (0 . "MTEXT") (330 . ) (5 . "299") (100 . "AcDbEntity") (67 . 0) (410 . "Model") (8 . "0") (100 . "AcDbMText") (10 1495.9 1933.67 0.0) (40 . 2.5) (41 . 17.7906) (46 . 0.0) (71 . 1) (72 . 5) (1 . "AUTOCAD") (7 . "Standard") (210 0.0 0.0 1.0) (11 1.0 0.0 0.0) (42 . 16.8895) (43 . 2.58697) (50 . 0.0) (73 . 1) (44 . 1.0) (90 . 1) (63 . 3) (45 . 1.0) (441 . 0))

Now referring to MTEXT DXF reference, it is clear that DXF Code 90 is background mask on and 63 is the color when Background mask is enabled

DXF Reference

Now, to pick all MTEXT entities with background color Green

The conditional filter would be (90 . 1) (63 . 3)

This give length of entities respecting our filter

(sslength  (ssget "X"  (list  (cons 0 "MTEXT")(cons 90 1)(cons 63 3))))

Back to our topic, applying similar logic we can construct a code to filter circle based on given center point

AcDbObjectIdArray getCirclesFromAGivenPoint(AcGePoint3d centerPoint) {

    AcDbObjectIdArray idArray;
    ads_name ss, entName;
    /*Construct a filter list*/
    resbuf* filterRb = acutBuildList(RTDXF0, L"CIRCLE",
        10, asDblArray(centerPoint),
        RTNONE);    bool hasSS = false;

    /*Make selection based on filtered list*/
    if (acedSSGet(_T("_X"), NULL, NULL, filterRb, ss) == RTNORM) {
        Adesk::Int32 len;
        acedSSLength(ss, &len);
        if (len > 0) {
            hasSS = true;
            /*Collect and append the objectId to an array*/
                    for (int nEnt = 0; nEnt < len; nEnt++)
                    {
                           if (acedSSName(ss, nEnt,entName) == RTNORM)
                           {
                                 AcDbObjectId selId;
                                 if (acdbGetObjectId(selId, entName) == Acad::eOk)
                                        idArray.append(selId);
                           }
                    }
        }
        freeResbuf(&filterRb);

        if (hasSS)
            acedSSFree(ss);
    }
    return idArray;
}

Using Entitlement API with Lisp

By Madhukar Moogala

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

We have examples on .NET, C++ and now on Lisp

.NET

Please check - https://github.com/MadhukarMoogala/Entitlement/blob/9ee757fefa9be4369a0503396b8dc1b774056182/ACAD_EntitilementApi/Plugin.cs#L36

C++

Please check

https://adndevblog.typepad.com/autocad/2020/07/using-entitlement-api-within-objectarx-c.html

Lisp

For lisp we will be using IXMLHTTPRequest which provides client-side protocol support for communication with HTTP servers.

The members of the API can be found here

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/desktop/ms760305(v=vs.85)

(defun c:IsEntitled (/ http response) 
  (setq appId (getstring "Enter AppId "))
  (setq userId (getvar "ONLINEUSERID"))
  (setq url (strcat "https://apps.autodesk.com/webservices/checkentitlement?userid=" 
                    userId
                    "&appid="
                    appId
            )
  )
  ;https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/desktop/ms759148(v=vs.85)
  (if (setq http (vlax-create-object "MSXML2.XMLHTTP")) 
    (progn 
      (vlax-invoke-method http 'open "get" url :vlax-false)
      (if 
        (not 
          (vl-catch-all-error-p (vl-catch-all-apply 'vlax-invoke (list http 'send)))
        )
        (setq response (vlax-get http 'responseText))
      )
      (vlax-release-object http)
    )
  )
  (cond 
    ((> (vl-string-search "true" response) 0) (princ "\nTrue"))
    (t (princ "\nFalse"))
  )
  (princ)
);defun

Guideline to use Autodesk Product Icons in 3rd Apps.

By Madhukar Moogala

Autodesk external developers may need or want to use our product icons on their apps for a cohesive design, however, using Autodesk product icons without written expression of permission is not recommended.

So if you are developer who is using or planning to use, you need to submit the permission to Autodesk.

Autodesk Permissions Workflow found here.

In case if the link breaks - https://autodesk.tap.thinksmart.com/prod/Portal/ShowWorkFlow/AnonymousEmbed/cf050d55-075d-4da3-9423-db7e85ced572

AutoCAD 2023 Developer Update

This year we have released many good features, for key features refer https://www.autodesk.com/products/autocad/features

Important attraction on API side for this release is AutoCAD LISP API for AutoCAD web app.

This API is exclusively for AutoCAD subscribers. Whether you are on the go, at a job site, or anywhere else, create your own customizations to automate sequences with LISP in the AutoCAD web app.  (Video: 55 sec.)

Some known limitations of Lisp API on web –

- Any functionality that relies on a platform-specific technology (i.e., Visual Lisp and DCL).

- Any functionality that is not supported in AutoCAD Web (AutoCAD Web does not support everything desktop does - 3d editing for example).

- Any functionality that would violate browsers sandboxing rules (such as reading and writing to your local filesystem without going through normal browser restrictions.

System Requirements for AutoCAD 2023

• https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/learn-explore/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/System-requirements-for-AutoCAD-2023-including-Specialized-Toolsets.html

AutoCAD 2023 API Help, covering all API offering, .NET, C++ etc.

• https://help.autodesk.com/view/OARX/2023/ENU/

AutoCAD 2023 ObjectARX SDK

• https://www.autodesk.com/developer-network/platform-technologies/autocad/objectarx-download

AutoCAD 2023 OMF SDK

• Is exclusively available to A D N subscriber through https://adn.autodesk.io/ portal

AutoCAD ObjectARX Wizard for VS 2019

• https://github.com/ADN-DevTech/ObjectARX-Wizards/blob/ForAutoCAD2023/ObjectARXWizardsInstaller/ObjectARXWizards-2023.zip

AutoCAD .NET Wizard for VS 2019

• https://github.com/ADN-DevTech/AutoCAD-Net-Wizards/blob/ForAutoCAD2023/AutoCADNetWizardsInstaller/AutoCAD_2023_dotnet_wizards.zip

Important Note - AutoCAD 2023 is binary forward compatibility release, ObjectARX application developed in previous versions up to AutoCAD 2021 are compatible with AutoCAD 2023.

Visual Studio 2019 for use with AutoCAD - 2019/2020/2021/2022/2023

• With Visual Studio 2019, MSVC v140 (VS 2015.3) and MSVC v141 (VS 2017) Toolsets are available.
• Refer- https://knowledge.autodesk.com/community/screencast/f6bdf229-2ea2-4051-ad38-7a82e651800d

Updated AutoCAD Plant 3D SDK Documentation Available

A new version of the Plant SDK documentation that covers the 2017 through 2022 releases of AutoCAD Plant 3D is available for download in the AutoCAD P&ID and Plant 3D Developer Center: https://www.autodesk.com/developer-network/platform-technologies/autocad-p-id-and-plant-3d

A link to download the latest documentation package can be found under both the Learning and Tools sections.

Do you want AutoCAD as an app platform on a web browser – any web browser? If yes, we want to hear from you!

The AutoCAD web app team is interested in understanding, in a deeper way, how Autodesk developers are creating solutions for showing drawings, CAD data, floorplans, and objects in a web-first fashion.  

Imagine if you could embed AutoCAD drawings and tools directly into your own applications. Help us to determine what to build in the future:

• What if we were able to expose more AutoCAD capabilities as APIs for you to tailor to your company's needs?
• What would you want or need, to allow you to build applications to view, edit, or place objects with precision?
• What would you want to keep track of ownership or inventory?
• Would you like to expand access to your drawing data? 

If you are a developer or Autodesk customer interested in assisting Autodesk with this product development research, please answer a few questions here (https://autodeskfeedback.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0VbNxcd8uQZNH0i).

It will take a few minutes to answer the questions, please leave your contact information so that we can follow up with you about our research sessions.  

People who end up participating in the 60-minute remote research meeting, will receive a $75 gift card as a token of our appreciation.