AutoCAD DevBlog

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

AutoCAD 2021 .NET API on NuGet

By Madhukar Moogala

For AutoCAD 2021 release we have posted API package on to Nuget.

We have started posting AutoCAD .NET packages from AutoCAD 2015 release, from since then we regularly update and post .NET package as per AutoCAD release cycle.

You simply select Project –> Manage NuGet Packages in your Visual Studio project:

Search for AutoCAD .NET click install on the primary AutoCAD.NET package (the third in the list). This will install acmgd.dll and its related assemblies but also the other two dependent packages. You should install AutoCAD.NET.Core (i.e. acmgdcore.dll, etc.) if you want to create a Core Console-compatible project, of course. Either way AutoCAD.NET.Model (i.e. acdbmgd.dll, etc.) will get installed.

Further reading on .NET package can be found on Kean’s old post.

RealDWG: Extracting Color Information from Solids

By Madhukar Moogala

Using RealDWG SDK,  following code extracts the color information of 3d solids in AutoCAD drawings.

To extract color from sub elements of Solid we will use BREP api, you need to refer AcDbMgdBrep.dll module from sdk.

You can use – Testdrawing 

        private void DumpSolid3d(Transaction tr, ObjectId solId)
        {
            using (OpenCloseTransaction oct = new OpenCloseTransaction())
            {
                Solid3d solid = tr.GetObject(solId, OpenMode.ForRead) as Solid3d;

                ObjectId[] ids = new ObjectId[] { solid.ObjectId };

                FullSubentityPath path =
                  new FullSubentityPath(
                    ids,
                    new SubentityId(SubentityType.Null, IntPtr.Zero)
                  );

                // For storing SubentityIds of cylindrical faces

                List subentIds = new List();

                using (Brep brep = new Brep(path))
                {
                    foreach (Autodesk.AutoCAD.BoundaryRepresentation.Face face in brep.Faces)
                    {
                        /*
                        // How to get colors of only cylinderical
                         
                        Autodesk.AutoCAD.Geometry.Surface surf = face.Surface;
                        var ebSurf = surf as Autodesk.AutoCAD.Geometry.ExternalBoundedSurface;
                        if (ebSurf != null && ebSurf.IsCylinder)
                        {
                            subentIds.Add(face.SubentityPath.SubentId);
                        }
                        
                         */
                        subentIds.Add(face.SubentityPath.SubentId);
                    }
                }

                if (subentIds.Count > 0)
                {
                    List> ColorSubEntityPairs
		     = GetColors(solid, subentIds);
                    foreach (var item in ColorSubEntityPairs)
                    {
                        var color = item.Key as Color;
                        SubentityId id = item.Value;
                        Console.WriteLine($"\nColor - {color.ColorNameForDisplay}
					 | SubEntity Index - {id.IndexPtr}");
                    }
                }
               oct.Commit();
            }
        }

        List< KeyValuePair< Color,SubentityId >> 
	GetColors(Solid3d solid, List subentIds)
        {
            List < KeyValuePair < Color, SubentityId >> ColorSubEntityPairs
		= new List< KeyValuePair >();
            foreach (SubentityId subentId in subentIds)
            {
                try
                {
                    Color col = solid.GetSubentityColor(subentId);
                    ColorSubEntityPairs.Add(new KeyValuePair(col, subentId));
                }
                catch (Autodesk.AutoCAD.BoundaryRepresentation.Exception ex)
                {
                    if(ex.ErrorStatus == ErrorStatus.NotApplicable)
                    continue;
                }
                

                
            }
            return ColorSubEntityPairs;
        }

Output

SolidColors.exe "C:\rd2020\RealDWG 2020\Samples\SolidColors\testBox.dwg"

BlockTable -*Model_Space

Color - 250 | SubEntity Index - 1

Color - 250 | SubEntity Index - 2

Color - 250 | SubEntity Index - 3

Color - 250 | SubEntity Index - 4

Color - 250 | SubEntity Index - 5

Color - 250 | SubEntity Index - 6

Color - 250 | SubEntity Index - 7

Color - 50 | SubEntity Index - 8

Color - 50 | SubEntity Index - 9

Color - 50 | SubEntity Index - 10

Color - 50 | SubEntity Index - 11

Color - 50 | SubEntity Index - 12

Color - 50 | SubEntity Index - 13

BlockTable -*Paper_Space

BlockTable -*Paper_Space0

Source code

Forge Design Automation For AutoCAD

By Madhukar Moogala

There is still time to get hands on with the new Design Automation APIs. Four webinars are scheduled in December that will cover each of the Design Automation APIs in depth. The recordings will be posted after so be sure to register to take advantage.

December 5 - Design Automation API for AutoCAD on Forge

Time: 8:00 AM Pacific Standard Time

Albert Szilvasy, software Architect will share details about the new and updated API.

In this webinar, we will discuss how the Design Automation for AutoCAD empowers customers and partners to get more work done more quickly, reliably and collaboratively using cloud-based web services. We will demonstrate the ability to run scripts on your design files, leveraging the scale of the Forge Platform to automate repetitive tasks.

Register Now

There are webinars on other Engines too, like Revit etc., please do check our Forge Blog for more information. 

Update:

Those who missed webinar, Albert Szilvasy, Senior Software Architect, gave an overview and demos of Design Automation API for AutoCAD on Forge API.
It is available on YouTube now, please check it out.

To Embed AutoCAD Drawing Viewing Control

By Madhukar Moogala

In this forum post my colleague Balaji discussed how to embed a Autodesk TrueView control in Windows Forms.

From TrueView 2015, the control name is changed to dwgviewrAcCtrl.dll

This github post will walk you through on embedding view control.

The Property Inspector in depth

By Madhukar Moogala

This is an old sample rewritten from ground up by Cyrille Fauvel for AU 2004

While working on case submission from an ADN partner, I got oppturnity to migrate it to current AutoCAD release.

• Agenda
• What is the Property Palette?
• Extending the Property Inspector for existing entities
• Enabling the Property Inspector for your custom entities
• Jig class
• What interface for which feature?

You can visit the github repository for full sample and presentation material.