AutoCAD DevBlog

We are Hiring- Developer Advocate

By Madhukar Moogala

The DAS (erstwhile ADN)  team is hiring a AutoCAD Developer Advocate based in our Bengaluru office.

Please spread the word. Experience with AutoCAD APIs - or any other Autodesk technology - is not required (but would be a bonus).

https://autodesk.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/Ext/job/Bengaluru-IND/Developer-Advocate_22WD61274-1?src=JB-10065

Autodesk is hiring  Developer Advocate!  If you’re a software engineer who’s enthusiastic about new technologies, enjoys interacting with others and sharing this enthusiasm, and loves to evangelize code –then this is the job for you!

As a member of the Developer Advocacy and Support (DAS) group, the Developer Consultant will deliver direct application programming evangelism to developers of third-party applications, based on Autodesk products, who are part of the Autodesk Developer Network (ADN) program and Forge platform.

Responsibilities:

• Working directly with third party developers to help them solve their problems using our APIs. 
• Acting as developer advocate to our internal software development teams – helping them understand the APIs our developer community needs to be successful.
• Evangelizing our new technology through conferences, hackathons, meetups, blogging, webcasts, social media, and whatever other communication channels you dream up.

To be successful you will have the following attributes:

• You’re a gifted programmer who is excited about learning new technology and teaching others. (You already know deep in your heart if you’re a natural programmer – if you don’t then you’re not).
• You have a good grounding in C++, OOPS and Algorithms & Data structures.
• You have a good grounding in, or are willing to learn new languages, such as C#, and  web platform programming technologies, such as HTML, JS and CSS.
• You’re intelligent and inquisitive, and enjoy solving problems.
• You enjoy interacting with people – including one-on-one conversations and presenting to large audiences at conferences.
• You enjoy writing – including blogging, tweeting, and other social media outlets.

Do you enjoy solving complex problems?

By Madhukar Moogala

We are hiring card concept vector by HappyDwiS

Do you enjoy solving complex problems and troubleshooting is part of your gene?

You are a self-motivated, constant learner, courageous to explore new technologies.

If you feel you have these qualities, we have right job opening for you.

You as a member of the Developer Advocacy and Support (DAS) group, the Developer Consultant will deliver direct application programming evangelism to developers of third-party applications, based on Autodesk products, who are part of the Autodesk Developer Network (ADN) program and Forge platform.

The successful applicant will have a good grounding in C++, .NET, and object-oriented techniques, and show an aptitude for learning and problem-solving. The role will develop to include evangelizing the APIs to Autodesk’s products to prospective and existing ADN members through conference presentations, webcasts, training classes and one-on-one meetings.

Must Have:

• VC++ and MFC
• .NET and WPF
• Working Knowledge of Visual Studio IDE
• Working Knowledge of OOP and Design Patterns.
• Good understanding of Data Structures and Algorithms.

Good to Have:

• Experience in ObjectARX (AutoCAD SDK)
• Experience in Web Technologies (HTML, CSS, and JS)
• Experience in Git.

Job Location: Bengaluru, India.

Join Us!

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

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 :)

Edge detection of image using Azure Webrole + Android OpenGL ES

By Balaji Ramamoorthy, Madhukar Moogala, Virupaksha Aithal

In the recently concluded Apps Hackathon, DevTech teams worked on different cloud and mobile based projects of their choice. The DevTech team in India chose to work on an image edge detection web service by creating a Microsoft Azure Webrole that exposes REST API and to create an Android client for it to display the edges. In this blog post, we are sharing the work that we did. Most of the webrole had already been created as a hobby project and a significant portion of the work during the Apps Hackathon went into consuming the web service in an Android OpenGL ES project.

Here is a sample image that was uploaded and the edges in an Android tablet

As a basis for the algorithm needed for image edge detection, we converted the code from this excellent blog post into a Azure web role and provided REST access to it.

Canny edge detection of images

The Azure webrole project, android client project, a sample image and a screenshot of the output in an Android tablet can be downloaded here :

Download EDServiceAzureWebRole

Download EDAndroidClient

Download DS1

Here are some details about the files provided for download :

EDServiceAzureWebRole.zip includes source code for a Azure web role that does edge detection of images and provides output as lines. Canny edge detection algorithm as implemented in the blog post is used as a basis for this web service. REST API has been provided to upload an image and get access to the edge detected output. Here are some details about the webrole.

After the EDService Webrole is hosted in Azure, you will get a URL similar to this : http://168.63.186.125:8080/EDService.svc/

The REST API exposed by the web role are :

1) GET : http://168.63.186.125:8080/EDService.svc/Datasets

Provides the id of all the image datasets that have been uploaded for edge detection

2) GET : http://168.63.186.125:8080/EDService.svc/Dataset/{id}

Gets the edge information of a dataset that is identified using {id}

A sample edge information obtained for a dataset is provided in "DS1.ogl" file.

3) POST : http://168.63.186.125:8080/EDService.svc/Image/{id}

Uploads the image as a JSON data represented by "ImageData" class.

Please refer to IEDService.cs for the contents of ImageData class that represents an image

4) GET : http://168.63.186.125:8080/EDService.svc/ClearDataset/{id}

Clears the dataset identified by the id. If you no longer need the edge detected image to be stored at the server, this will help clear it.

DS1.ogl : A sample file that contains the edge information as obtained for the sample image from the webrole. This sample data is used in the Android application for display.

EDAndroidClient.zip includes an Android project that uses OpenGL ES 2.0 for displaying the edges as obtained from the webrole.

SampleImage.png : A sample image that was uploaded to the Webrole for edge detection. The edges were displayed in an Android application using OpenGL ES 2.0

Screenshot_AndroidClientOutput.png : A screenshot of the Android client as it displays the edges as obtained from the webrole.

 

Code for America

By Stephen Preston

Earlier this week I drove in to San Francisco to attend a meetup for the 'SF Developer Advocates' group - my first visit to this group. The meeting itself was interesting - there were about 15 'developer advocates, so it was easy to talk to everyone. But the reason I'm mentioniong it on this blog isn't for the meetup, its for the organizers.

The meetup was hosted by Code for America - a non-profit organization that helps programmers write code that helps their local communities (and encourages cities to expose data that those programmer scan use). I think this is a great idea, so the least I could do is give them a mention on DevBlog.

So here's a big Friday Shout Out for:

 

Feeling Foolish

By Stephen Preston

The ADN blog posts yesterday were the result of the second year of our team's internal April Fools' Challenge, where we have a little friendly competition to see who can post the 'best' April Fools' article. Of course, different people like different kinds of humor, so there's never really just one 'best'. (We try to avoid posting serious articles on April 1st in case someone thinks we're joking when we're not, but one sometimes slips through due to timezone miscalculations).

In no particular order, here is a full list of our Foolish posts (along with the name and location of the perpetrator):

• Xiaodong Liang (China) - http://adndevblog.typepad.com/aec/2014/04/avr-glass-autodesk-virtual-reality-glass-in-the-age-of-cloud.html
• Adam Nagy (UK) - http://adndevblog.typepad.com/manufacturing/2014/04/william-as-honorary-autodesk-spokesperson.html
• Kevin Vandecar (US) - http://getcoreinterface.typepad.com/blog/2014/04/preparation-for-your-3ds-max-customers-cloud-storage.html
• Augusto Goncalves (Brazil) - http://adndevblog.typepad.com/infrastructure/2014/04/infraworks-360-public-pilot.html
• Daniel Du (China) - http://adndevblog.typepad.com/cloud_and_mobile/2014/04/autodesk-exchange-is-making-it-a-real-one.html
• Jeremy Tammik (Switzerland) - http://thebuildingcoder.typepad.com/blog/2014/04/automating-large-scale-waste-recycling-and-sustainability.html
• Cyrille Fauvel (France) - http://around-the-corner.typepad.com/adn/2014/04/3d-printing-second-industrial-revolution-is-under-way.html
• Partha Sarkar (India) - http://adndevblog.typepad.com/aec/2014/04/1-2-3-d-import-a-revit-family.html
• Brian Ekins (US) - http://modthemachine.typepad.com/my_weblog/2014/04/new-age-of-cad-interaction.html
• Stephen Preston (US) - http://adndevblog.typepad.com/autocad/2014/03/autodesk-announces-microsuites-1.html

And of course, I have to mention the post by Kean Walmsley - our longstanding Master of Fools.

Although, the Autodesk-related post yesterday that made me laugh the most was this one - http://designandmotion.net/autodesk/its-autodesks-turn-to-get-acquired-by-facebook/.

Getting Started with JavaScript API on AutoCAD 2014

By Philippe Leefsma

As you may have seen already, AutoCAD 2014 is coming with a brand new JavaScript API that will allow a new wave of programmers to interact with it.

Whether you are an experienced web developer or a complete newbie in that area, this DevTv will take you through the steps required to get started programming AutoCAD in JavaScript. A previous experience with one of the existing AutoCAD API, such as ObjectARX or .Net is however a plus.

Here are the topics I cover during the presentation:

I. Introduction to JavaScript

II. JavaScript API in AutoCAD

III. Extending AutoCAD JavaScript API

You will also find the samples that I am demo-ing as part of the attached material below. Note: Firefox or Chrome are recommended browsers if you are playing the video using the html link, IE may behave strangely.

Download AutoCAD_2014_Getting_started_with_JavaScript_API

"Error 1001. InstallUtilLib.dll: CorBindToRuntimeHost (hr=0x80070003): The system cannot find the path specified."

By Fenton Webb

Recently, our AppStore team ran into a problem with the AppStore build process by which a developer had sent us an MSM Merge Module for merging into our AppStore MSI. The problem was that when the installer ran, this error appeared:

"Error 1001. InstallUtilLib.dll: CorBindToRuntimeHost (hr=0x80070003): The
system cannot find the path specified."

The problem appears to be that MSM’s created with Visual Studio only like to be merged with MSI’s that are also built with Visual Studio. So even if you merge a Visual Studio MSM with a verifiably decent MSI tool like InstallSheild or Wise project it will still fail.

I worked out a pretty simple solution, which took me quite a bit of effort to master Basically, I created my own merge module MSM which contained the missing MSI components that the Visual Studio MSM was looking for, it’s called VisualStudioCompatibility.msm.

If you merge the VisualStudioCompatibility.msm into your non VS MSI before merging your VS MSM, it should work fine.

By the way, feel free to use the VisualStudioCompatibility.msm as you wish, but at your own risk.

How to locate the path used for support files

By Philippe Leefsma

Q:

AutoCAD puts support files (i.e. acad.pgp) in the Users/username/... folder. My program searches for the acad.pgp and other support files to update. How can I easily locate this directory?

A:

There are a couple of means available to retrieve this path. One is to get the value from the Registry. It is stored in the RoamableRootFolder key in this location: 
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD\<Release>\ACAD-<Version>:<Language>

You could use the value of CurVer key in this location
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD\<Release> To first get the CurVer to get the correct location for different AutoCAD based products.

Another approach would be to use the sysvar roamablerootprefix. Which will also return this path.