AutoCAD DevBlog

Open a particular sheet in a DWF file using Design Review API

By Partha Sarkar

If you want to open a particular sheet in a DWF file which has many sheets in it (e.g. - Model, A1, A2, A3 etc) and you want to show only the A2 sheet when the DWF file is loaded using the Design Review API, in that situation we can use the AdCommon.IAdCollection Sections collection to get and set the named section as demonstrated in the code snippet below :

 

ECompositeViewer.IAdECompositeViewer compvwr = (ECompositeViewer.IAdECompositeViewer)axCExpressViewerControl1.ECompositeViewer;

AdCommon.IAdCollection Sections = (AdCommon.IAdCollection)compvwr.Sections;

 

// Loop through the section collections and set the current

foreach (ECompositeViewer.IAdSection sec in Sections)

{

  //Set section

  if (sec.Title.ToString() == "A2") // Get the specific section of the DWF file

  {

    compvwr.Section = sec;

    //MessageBox.Show(sec.Title);

  }

 

}

How to set the view in a DWF file using Design Review API?

By Partha Sarkar

Setting the View using Design Review API takes two different approach based on whether you want to set View for a 2D DWF or 3D DWF.

Using EPlotSection.SetView() function we can set a view for the current section (page) of the DWF file based on the specified paper-based coordinates. Please note, this API is available only for 2D sections i.e. 2D DWF files.

Here is a relevant C# code snippet:

CompositeViewer = (ECompositeViewer.IAdECompositeViewer) axCExpressViewerControl1.ECompositeViewer;

SectionChk = (ECompositeViewer.IAdSection) CompositeViewer.Section;

SectionTypeChk = (ECompositeViewer.IAdSectionType) SectionChk.SectionType; 

 

if (SectionTypeChk.Name == "com.autodesk.dwf.ePlot")

  {

  PlotSection = (EPlotViewer.IAdEPlotSection) CompositeViewer.Section;

  View = (AdCommon.IAdPageView)PlotSection.View; 

  //Set View - interchange Left with Bottom and Top with Right

  PlotSection.SetView (View.Bottom, View.Left, View.Top,  View.Right);

}

 

In 3D, using EModelSection.Camera property, we can access the camera object of a specific 3D section in the DWF that is currently loaded in the canvas. Then it can be modified using the EModelCamera object, to access various properties of the camera.

EModelCamera.Position property -> Returns the current position of the camera. We can use [set] method of this property to set the position of the camera to a known set of coordinates (represented by IAdPoint object).

Getting Sheet Count in a multi Sheet DWF using Design Review API

By Partha Sarkar

Following VBScript code snippet demonstrates how to get the sheet count and activating each of them for view. This code snippet is part of the "Viewer API Test" sample available in our Developer Center Page DWF Code samples.

function ShowPages
    dim page
	MsgBox Eview.Viewer.Pages.count()
    for each page in Eview.Viewer.Pages
      Eview.Viewer.Page = page.Name
      call Eview.Viewer.WaitForPageLoaded()
      MsgBox Eview.Viewer.Page.Name
    next
end function

 

Zoom & Center to a Lat / Lon location using Autodesk Design Review API

By Partha Sarkar

 

In Autodesk Design Review using the “Center to Coordinates” UI tool we can set the center for a Map to a specific coordinate value entered through the User Interface as seen in the screenshot below –

 

 

Using ECompositeViewer.centerToCoordinates(coordType, x, y) we can replicate the above mentioned UI tool command. You need to pass on the correct Lat & Lon values in context to the page you are trying to view, e.g.

dwfView.centerToCoordinates(2, -12.562387, 131.073166) // Lat & Lon values should be correct to view and zoom to your dataset

Note that, to use this API, sections in the DWF must contain Georeferenced properties.

This API can be used in a URL to open a DWF with a Map section and Center the view to the coordinates provided. However, when used as part of a URL the coordinates must be within the section that is being viewed.

Controlling Layer Visibility using Autodesk Design Review API

By Partha Sarkar

If you want to control the layer visibility of a DWF file embedded in a Web Page using Autodesk Design Review JavaScript API, you can access the Layers property from the DWF Viewer control object and for a specific layer in the layer list you can set the Visible property to true or false to show that layer or to switch it off.

Here is a relevant JavaScript code snippet – 

function LayerON(){ 

// Switching a Layer ON
// DWFViewer is DwfViewer Object that represents the DWF Viewer control

DWFViewer.Viewer.Layers.Item(2).Visible = true; 

//
}

function LayerOFF(){ 

// Switching a Layer OFF
// DWFViewer is DwfViewer Object that represents the DWF Viewer control

DWFViewer.Viewer.Layers.Item(2).Visible = false;  

}

 

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.