AutoCAD DevBlog

ObjectARX 2021: Link Errors With VS 2019

By Madhukar Moogala

Q: We are getting link error compiling code for AutoCAD 2021 with Visual Studio 2019 and ObjectARX SDK 2021.

A. The AutoCAD code for 3D modelling entities namely AcDbSubDMesh, AcDb3dSolid, AcDbRegion, AcDbAsmBody, AcDbShape etc are now ported to new library AcGeomEnt.lib

The declaration for almost all 3D entities are moved AcGeomEnt.lib, you need to link your source code with AcGeomEnt.lib which is present in <SDK>\lib-x64\

And, you may also need to appload  the AcGeomentObj.dbx in case if you are reading a drawing with 3D entities in side databases.

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

RealDWG: Implementation of dumpAcDbSubDMesh

By Madhukar Moogala

In RealDWG dumpDWG sample project [RealDWG 2018\Samples\DumpDWG], dumpAcDbSubDMesh implementation is missing, I received a query from a ADN partner, so for the benefit of every one I blogging this.

Context: If input drawing to your RealDWG app contains Mesh elements, and you would like to view this elements in any other 3d viewer for example, OpenGL, this implementation will come handy.

void dumpAcDbSubDMesh(AcDbEntity *pEnt)
{
entInfo(pEnt, sizeof(AcDbSubDMesh));
if (pEnt->isKindOf(AcDbSubDMesh::desc())) 
{
	entInfo(pEnt, sizeof(AcDbSubDMesh));
	AcDbSubDMesh *pMesh = AcDbSubDMesh::cast(pEnt);
	Adesk::Int32  nFaces, 
					nEdges, 
					nVertices,
					nSubFaces,
					nSubVertices,
					nSubdLevel;
	bool bWaterTight;
	Acad::ErrorStatus es = pMesh->numOfFaces(nFaces);
	es = pMesh->numOfVertices(nVertices);
	AcGePoint3d pt;
	// this is just for simplicity instead of 
	//traversing all the vertices. 
	//if the vertices > 50 it increments by that number fold.
	int increment = nVertices / 50;
	if (!increment)increment++;
	for (int i = 0; igetVertexAt(i, pt);
		_print(_T("\t\t Vertex Points[%d] %g,%g,%g\n"), i,
			pt.x, pt.y, pt.z);
	}

	es = pMesh->numOfSubDividedFaces(nSubFaces);
	es = pMesh->numOfSubDividedVertices(nSubVertices);
	es = pMesh->isWatertight(bWaterTight);
	es = pMesh->subdLevel(nSubdLevel);
	es = pMesh->numOfEdges(nEdges);
	
	AcGePoint3dArray nsubVerticesArray;
	es = pMesh->getSubDividedVertices(nsubVerticesArray);

	AcArray nsubfacesArray;
	es = pMesh->getSubDividedFaceArray(nsubfacesArray);
	// The content of the faces list is like so :
	// [number of vertices of next face],
	// ,
	// e.g. [4], <1, 2, 3, 4>, [3], <1, 2, 3>, etc


	for (int numVertices = 0, 
		i = 0; 
		i < nsubfacesArray.length();
		i += numVertices + 1)
	{
	numVertices = nsubfacesArray.at(i);
	// Let's print the edges of the face
	_print(_T("\t SubDMesh Edge Points \n"));
	_print(_T("\t\t Face vertex Points[%d] \n"), numVertices);						
	for (int j = 0; j < numVertices; j++)
	{
		AcGePoint3d startPt = 
		nsubVerticesArray.at(nsubfacesArray.at(i + j + 1));
		AcGePoint3d endPt =
		nsubVerticesArray.at(nsubfacesArray.at(i + ((j + 1) % numVertices) + 1));							
		_print(_T("\t\t Vertex Points[%d] [{%g,%g,%g} ,{ %g,%g,%g }]\n"), j,
			startPt.x, startPt.y, startPt.z , endPt.x, endPt.y, endPt.z);
		//Now you can draw lines using these points in OpenGl

	}
	}
}
}

Sample Output

SubDMesh Edge Points
                 Face vertex Points[4]
                 Vertex Points[0] [{10.1735,8.28866,16.5088} ,{ 16.5135,8.28866,16.5088 }]
                 Vertex Points[1] [{16.5135,8.28866,16.5088} ,{ 16.5135,11.4619,16.5088 }]
                 Vertex Points[2] [{16.5135,11.4619,16.5088} ,{ 10.1735,11.4619,16.5088 }]
                 Vertex Points[3] [{10.1735,11.4619,16.5088} ,{ 10.1735,8.28866,16.5088 }]
         SubDMesh Edge Points
                 Face vertex Points[4]
                 Vertex Points[0] [{10.1735,5.11544,16.5088} ,{ 16.5135,5.11544,16.5088 }]
                 Vertex Points[1] [{16.5135,5.11544,16.5088} ,{ 16.5135,8.28866,16.5088 }]
                 Vertex Points[2] [{16.5135,8.28866,16.5088} ,{ 10.1735,8.28866,16.5088 }]
                 Vertex Points[3] [{10.1735,8.28866,16.5088} ,{ 10.1735,5.11544,16.5088 }]
         SubDMesh Edge Points
                 Face vertex Points[4]
                 Vertex Points[0] [{10.1735,1.94223,16.5088} ,{ 16.5135,1.94223,16.5088 }]
                 Vertex Points[1] [{16.5135,1.94223,16.5088} ,{ 16.5135,5.11544,16.5088 }]
                 Vertex Points[2] [{16.5135,5.11544,16.5088} ,{ 10.1735,5.11544,16.5088 }]
                 Vertex Points[3] [{10.1735,5.11544,16.5088} ,{ 10.1735,1.94223,16.5088 }]
         SubDMesh Edge Points
                 Face vertex Points[4]
                 Vertex Points[0] [{16.5135,8.28866,16.5088} ,{ 22.8534,8.28866,16.5088 }]
                 Vertex Points[1] [{22.8534,8.28866,16.5088} ,{ 22.8534,11.4619,16.5088 }]
                 Vertex Points[2] [{22.8534,11.4619,16.5088} ,{ 16.5135,11.4619,16.5088 }]
                 Vertex Points[3] [{16.5135,11.4619,16.5088} ,{ 16.5135,8.28866,16.5088 }]
         SubDMesh Edge Points
                 Face vertex Points[4]
                 Vertex Points[0] [{16.5135,5.11544,16.5088} ,{ 22.8534,5.11544,16.5088 }]
                 Vertex Points[1] [{22.8534,5.11544,16.5088} ,{ 22.8534,8.28866,16.5088 }]
                 Vertex Points[2] [{22.8534,8.28866,16.5088} ,{ 16.5135,8.28866,16.5088 }]
                 Vertex Points[3] [{16.5135,8.28866,16.5088} ,{ 16.5135,5.11544,16.5088 }]
         SubDMesh Edge Points
                 Face vertex Points[4]
                 Vertex Points[0] [{16.5135,1.94223,16.5088} ,{ 22.8534,1.94223,16.5088 }]
                 Vertex Points[1] [{22.8534,1.94223,16.5088} ,{ 22.8534,5.11544,16.5088 }]
                 Vertex Points[2] [{22.8534,5.11544,16.5088} ,{ 16.5135,5.11544,16.5088 }]
                 Vertex Points[3] [{16.5135,5.11544,16.5088} ,{ 16.5135,1.94223,16.5088 }]
         SubDMesh Edge Points
                 Face vertex Points[4]
                 Vertex Points[0] [{22.8534,8.28866,16.5088} ,{ 29.1934,8.28866,16.5088 }]
                 Vertex Points[1] [{29.1934,8.28866,16.5088} ,{ 29.1934,11.4619,16.5088 }]
                 Vertex Points[2] [{29.1934,11.4619,16.5088} ,{ 22.8534,11.4619,16.5088 }]
                 Vertex Points[3] [{22.8534,11.4619,16.5088} ,{ 22.8534,8.28866,16.5088 }]
         SubDMesh Edge Points
                 Face vertex Points[4]
                 Vertex Points[0] [{22.8534,5.11544,16.5088} ,{ 29.1934,5.11544,16.5088 }]
                 Vertex Points[1] [{29.1934,5.11544,16.5088} ,{ 29.1934,8.28866,16.5088 }]
                 Vertex Points[2] [{29.1934,8.28866,16.5088} ,{ 22.8534,8.28866,16.5088 }]
                 Vertex Points[3] [{22.8534,8.28866,16.5088} ,{ 22.8534,5.11544,16.5088 }]
         SubDMesh Edge Points
                 Face vertex Points[4]
                 Vertex Points[0] [{22.8534,1.94223,16.5088} ,{ 29.1934,1.94223,16.5088 }]
                 Vertex Points[1] [{29.1934,1.94223,16.5088} ,{ 29.1934,5.11544,16.5088 }]
                 Vertex Points[2] [{29.1934,5.11544,16.5088} ,{ 22.8534,5.11544,16.5088 }]
                 Vertex Points[3] [{22.8534,5.11544,16.5088} ,{ 22.8534,1.94223,16.5088 }]

Exploding AEC entities using RealDWG

By Balaji Ramamoorthy

Exploding an AEC entity such as a Wall in AutoCAD results in a block reference and the block table record that it refers to contains faces. But when exploding the Wall entity in a RealDWG application results in a block reference and the block table record that it refers to contains lines. 

In this blog post we will look into the reason for this difference and a way to workaround it. The workaround was provided by my colleagues Mikako Harada and Tony Zou. Many thanks to them.

While RealDWG can read a drawing created by any of the AutoCAD verticals, the object enablers specific to the verticals will still be needed for the host application to recognize the entities in that drawing. The object enabler defines the resulting entity set when the entity is exploded. As object enabler provides the explode functionality for its custom entities, they may also have other considerations.

For example, when an AEC drawing has its viewing direction set as Top View, a wall appears as a rectangle. When the viewing direction is any other view, the wall appears as a collection of faces. 

Also, AEC drawings do not fully load into a side database when using the readDwgFile. This is a known behavior in AutoCAD Architecture and here is a blog post by my colleague Adam Nagy. For the database to get fully loaded in a side database it is required to call AecAppDbx::drawingPromoterAndIniter method.

Considering the above reasons, here are the C++ and .Net sample codes to explode a wall entity in a RealDWg application. The methods to have the database initialized and to set its viewing direction are invoked by accessing the exported methods from AecBase.dbx using their ordinal numbers. Please note that the ordinal numbers can change and are version specific. In the below code, the ordinal numbers for 2015 and 2016 releases are provided. For any other version, you may need to find them out using dumpbin on AecBase.lib from the \Lib-x64 folder.

Here is the C# code snippet :

 using  System.Runtime.InteropServices;

 using  Autodesk.AutoCAD.Runtime;

 internal  static  class  Workaround 

 {

     [StructLayout (LayoutKind .Sequential)]

     private  struct  AcGeVector3d 

     {

         public  double  x;

         public  double  y;

         public  double  z;

     }

     // for 2016 

     //[DllImport(@"C:\\Program Files\\Autodesk\\RealDWG 2015\\AecBase.dbx",  

     //        CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl,  

     //        EntryPoint = "#1202")] 

     // for 2015 

     [DllImport (@"C:\\Program Files\\Autodesk\\RealDWG 2015\\AecBase.dbx" , 

         CallingConvention = CallingConvention .Cdecl, 

         EntryPoint = "#1204" )]   

     private  extern  static  void  setLastViewDir(ref  AcGeVector3d  vDir);

     public  static  void  SetLastViewDirection(Vector3d direction)

     {

         if  (! SystemObjects.ServiceDictionary.Contains(

             "AecBaseServices" ))

             return ;

         AcGeVector3d  vec;

         vec.x = direction.X;

         vec.y = direction.Y;

         vec.z = direction.Z;

         setLastViewDir(ref  vec);

     }

 }

 // No change in ordinals 

 // For 2015 and 2016 

 [DllImport (@"C:\\Program Files\\Autodesk\\RealDWG 2015\\AecBase.dbx" , 

     CallingConvention = CallingConvention .Cdecl, 

     CharSet = CharSet .Unicode, EntryPoint = "#897" )] 

 public  extern  static  void  drawingPromoterAndIniter

 (IntPtr db, bool  sideDb);

 Database db = new  Database(false , true );

 db.ReadDwgFile(

     @"D:\\Temp\\wall.dwg" , 

     System.IO.FileShare.None, 

     false , 

     "" );

 HostApplicationServices.WorkingDatabase = db;

 drawingPromoterAndIniter(db.UnmanagedObject, true );

 Workaround.SetLastViewDirection(Vector3d.XAxis);

 //... Usual Explode of the entity

Here is the C++ code snippet :

 typedef void  (*drawingPromoterAndIniter)

     (AcDbDatabase* pDb, bool  bUseCurrentViewInfo);

 typedef void  (*setLastViewDir)(AcGeVector3d direction);

 acdbSetHostApplicationServices(&gDumpDwgHostApp);

 CString testFilePath = "D:\\\\Temp\\\\wall.dwg" ;

 long  lcid = 0x00000409;  // English 

 acdbValidateSetup(lcid);

 bool  isLoaded = acrxLoadModule(

     _T("C:\\\\Program Files\\\\Autodesk\\\\RealDWG 2016\\\\AecBase.dbx" ), 0);

 HMODULE hModule=GetModuleHandle(_T("AecBase.dbx" ));

 int  ordinal = 897;

 auto drawingPromoterFunc = 

     (drawingPromoterAndIniter)GetProcAddress(hModule, (LPCSTR) ordinal);

 if  (drawingPromoterFunc == nullptr) 

 {

 	AfxMessageBox(_T("Error ! function not in AecBase.dbx !!" ));

 	return  1;

 }

 ordinal = 1202; // 2016 

 //ordinal = 1204; //2015 

 auto setLastViewDirFunc = 

     (setLastViewDir)GetProcAddress(hModule, (LPCSTR) ordinal);

 if  (setLastViewDirFunc == nullptr) 

 {

 	AfxMessageBox(_T("Error ! function not in AecBase.dbx !!" ));

 	return  1;

 }

 AcDbDatabase *pDb = new  AcDbDatabase(Adesk::kFalse);

 if  (pDb == NULL)

     return  1;

 Acad::ErrorStatus es = Acad::eOk;

 es = pDb->readDwgFile(testFilePath);

 acdbHostApplicationServices()->setWorkingDatabase(pDb);

 acdbResolveCurrentXRefs(pDb);

 drawingPromoterFunc(pDb, false );

 setLastViewDirFunc(AcGeVector3d::kXAxis);

 //... Usual Explode of the entity

Common exceptions while running RealDWG application

By Balaji Ramamoorthy

In this blog post, we will look at a few common setup related issues that can cause problems in running your RealDWG application.

System.IO.FileNotFoundException : This exception get thrown usually because your RealDwg Application does not find the dependent dlls. To ensure your RealDwg application accesses the right DLLs is to create an installer for your application with all the dependencies and then installing your application in a clean test machine and test it. But, for testing purposes during development, you can place your RealDWG application in the RealDWG root folder and test it. It is easier to simply set the build output path in the Visual Studio solution to place the output in the RealDWG root folder.

Also, ensure that the [RealDWG root path], [RealDWG root path]\Fonts and [RealDWG root path]\Support folder paths are added to the system's PATH environment variable. You may need to restart Visual Studio if you made the environment variable change when Visual Studio was open.

System.InvalidProgramException : RealDWG SDK has two versions of acdbmgd.dll just as the ObjectARX SDK does. The dll in RealDWG 2016\Inc folder has its executable code removed and the one in the RealDWG root folder is the unmodified dll. When referencing the "acdbmgd.dll" in your VisualStudio project from the Inc folder, remember to set "Copy Local" property to false for the reference. This is to prevent Visual Studio from replacing the "acdbmgd.dll" in the RealDWG root folder with the one found in "Inc" folder. If this happens, your application can throw a System.InvalidProgramException and the only way to fix it would be to find the "acdbmgd.dll" from the RealDWG install CD and copy it to the RealDWG root folder.

Introduction to RealDWG .Net Programming

By Balaji Ramamoorthy

My colleague Adam Nagy had created an nice video recording back in 2008 on "Introduction to RealDWG .Net programming". You can download the recording here

DevTV on RealDWG programming

Here is another recording with the same sample project. The changes are mainly in the installer creation and in the licensing steps which have changed since the last recording was created.

The sample project and the slides can be downloaded here :

SampleCode_DevTV

Retrieving property values from entity's COM wrapper

By Balaji Ramamoorthy

When implementing an AutoCAD plugin, its quite easy to retrieve entity properties without having to directly deal with the entity's COM wrapper. But when implementing a RealDWG host application, this can become necessary to retrieve some of the entity properties. 

If you are using .Net languages, using reflection can come very handy. Here is a blog post that can help :

Get ActiveX/COM class properties and methods from .NET

If you are using C++, here are the changes to the DumpDwg sample from the RealDWG SDK. In this code snippet, our objective is to retrieve properties of a custom entity using the IDispatch interface of its COM wrapper. For example, a drawing that includes a "AsdkPoly" entity from "ObjectARX 2015\samples\entity\polysampPolySamp".

 // Info on each IDispatch member item 

 struct  stringdispid

 {

     CComBSTR bstr;

     int  nLen;

     DISPID id;

 };

 // DispId map to retrieve properties 

 static  stringdispid* m_pMap;

 static  int  m_nMapLen;

 static  int  m_nCount;

 // Helper method to convert VARIANT to ads_point 

 static  HRESULT get_PointFromVariant(

 	VARIANT &variant, 

 	ads_point &pt)

 {

 	if  (V_VT(&variant) != VT_EMPTY) 

 	{

 		if  (V_VT(&variant) == (VT_ARRAY | VT_R8))

 		{

 			SAFEARRAY *psa = variant.parray;

 			long  lStartIndex = 0;

 			long  lEndIndex = 0;

 			SafeArrayGetLBound(psa, 1, &lStartIndex);

 			SafeArrayGetUBound(psa, 1, &lEndIndex);

 			if (lEndIndex == 2)

 			{

 				AcAxPoint3d tmpPt(variant);

 				pt[X] = tmpPt[X];

 				pt[Y] = tmpPt[Y];

 				pt[Z] = tmpPt[Z];

 			}

 			if (lEndIndex == 1)

 			{

 				AcAxPoint2d tmpPt(variant);

 				pt[X] = tmpPt[X];

 				pt[Y] = tmpPt[Y];

 				pt[Z] = 0.0;

 			}

 			return  S_OK;

 		}

 	} 

 	return  E_INVALIDARG;  

 }

 // Helper method to get the COM wrapper for an entity 

 static  IAcadBaseObject* get_com_wrapper

 						(AcDbEntity* entity) 

 { 

 	AcAxOleLinkManager* manager = AcAxGetOleLinkManager();

 	if  (!manager) 

 		return  NULL; 

 	IUnknown* unknown = manager->GetIUnknown(entity); 

 	if  (!unknown) 

 	{ 

 		CLSID class_id; 

 		if  (Acad::eOk != entity->getClassID(&class_id)) 

 			return  NULL; 

 		HRESULT res = CoCreateInstance(

 			class_id, 

 			NULL, 

 			CLSCTX_ALL, 

 			IID_IUnknown, 

 			(LPVOID*) &unknown);

 		if  (FAILED(res)) 

 			return  NULL; 

 		IAcadBaseObject* base = NULL; 

 		res = unknown->QueryInterface(

 			__uuidof (IAcadBaseObject), 

 			(VOID**) &base);

 		if  (FAILED(res)) 

 			return  NULL; 

 		if  (!manager->SetIUnknown(entity, unknown)) 

 			return  FALSE; 

 		base->SetObjectId(entity->objectId()); 

 		base->Release(); 

 	} 

 	// Caller will release this interface  

 	IAcadBaseObject* wrapper = NULL; 

 	HRESULT res = unknown->QueryInterface(

 		__uuidof (IAcadBaseObject), 

 		(VOID**) &wrapper);

 	if  (FAILED(res)) 

 		return  NULL; 

 	return  wrapper; 

 } 

 // Helper method to retrieve the function desc  

 // from the typeinfo and store it in a map  

 static  HRESULT LoadNameCache(ITypeInfo* pTypeInfo)

 {

     TYPEATTR* pta;

     HRESULT hr = pTypeInfo->GetTypeAttr(&pta);

     if  (SUCCEEDED(hr))

     {

 		m_nCount = 0;

 		m_nMapLen = pta->cFuncs;

 		m_pMap = NULL;

 		if (m_nMapLen > 0)

 			m_pMap =  new  stringdispid[m_nMapLen];

         for  (int  i=0; i<m_nMapLen; i++)

         {

             FUNCDESC* pfd;

             if  (SUCCEEDED(pTypeInfo->GetFuncDesc(i, &pfd)))

             {

                 CComBSTR bstrName;

                 if  (SUCCEEDED(pTypeInfo->GetDocumentation(

 											pfd->memid, 

 											&bstrName, 

 											NULL, 

 											NULL, 

 											NULL)))

                 {

 					if (pfd->invkind == DISPATCH_PROPERTYGET)

 					{

 						m_pMap[m_nCount].bstr.

 							Attach(bstrName.Detach());

 						m_pMap[m_nCount].nLen 

 							= SysStringLen(m_pMap[i].bstr);

 						m_pMap[m_nCount].id = pfd->memid;

 						m_nCount++;

 					}

                 }

                 pTypeInfo->ReleaseFuncDesc(pfd);

             }

         }

         pTypeInfo->ReleaseTypeAttr(pta);

     }

     return  S_OK;

 }

 // Retreive properties from an entity using the  

 // IDispatch interface of its COM wrapper 

 HRESULT dumPolyProps(AcDbEntity *pEntity) 

 {

    	::CoInitialize(NULL);

 	IAcadBaseObject *pAcadObj = get_com_wrapper(pEntity);

 	CComQIPtr<ITypeLib> pTypeLib(pAcadObj); 

 	CComQIPtr<ITypeInfo> pTypeInfo(pAcadObj); 

 	TCHAR full_app_file_name[512] = L"" ; 

 	int  nBufferLength = 512;

 	TCHAR* filePart;

     DWORD result;

     result = SearchPath(NULL, _T("asdkcompoly.dbx" ), 

 		_T(".dbx" ), 512, full_app_file_name, &filePart);

     if  (result && result < (DWORD)nBufferLength)

 	{

 		HRESULT hr = LoadTypeLib

 			(full_app_file_name, &pTypeLib);

 		if  (FAILED(hr)) 

 			return  hr;

 		UINT iCount = pTypeLib->GetTypeInfoCount(); 

 		for  (UINT i=0; i < iCount ; i++) 

 		{

 			hr = pTypeLib->GetTypeInfo(i, &pTypeInfo);

 			if  (FAILED(hr))

 				return  hr;

 			LoadNameCache(pTypeInfo);

 			CComQIPtr<IDispatch> pDisp(pAcadObj);

 			// Retrieve the properties 

 			for (int  index = 0; index < m_nCount; index++)

 			{

 				OLECHAR *sMember = m_pMap[index].bstr;

 				DISPID dispId;

 				hr = pDisp->GetIDsOfNames(

 					IID_NULL, 

 					&sMember, 

 					1, 

 					LOCALE_SYSTEM_DEFAULT, 

 					&dispId);

 				if (SUCCEEDED(hr))

 				{

 					unsigned  int  puArgErr = 0;

 					VARIANT VarResult;

 					VariantInit(&VarResult); 

 					EXCEPINFO pExcepInfo;

 					DISPPARAMS pParams;

 					memset(&pParams, 0, sizeof (DISPPARAMS)); 

 					pParams.cArgs = 0; 

 					hr = pDisp->Invoke(

 						dispId, 

 						IID_NULL, 

 						LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT, 

 						DISPATCH_PROPERTYGET, 

 						&pParams, 

 						&VarResult, 

 						&pExcepInfo, 

 						NULL);

 					if (V_VT(&VarResult) 

 						== (VT_ARRAY | VT_R8))

 					{

 						// Convert to ads_point 

 						ads_point pt;

 						get_PointFromVariant(VarResult, pt);

 						_print(_T("%s : %lf %lf %lf\\n" ), 

 							sMember, pt[0], pt[1], pt[2]);

 					}

 					else  if (VarResult.vt == VT_DISPATCH)

 					{

 						_print(_T("%s : VT_DISPATCH\\n" ), 

 							sMember);

 						//IDispatchPtr pDispatch  

 						//			= VarResult.pdispVal; 

 					}

 					else 

 					{

 						hr = VariantChangeType(

 											&VarResult, 

 											&VarResult, 

 											0, 

 											VT_BSTR);

 						_print(_T("%s : %s\\n" ), 

 							sMember, 

 							VarResult.bstrVal);

 					}

 					VariantClear(&VarResult);  

 				}

 			}

 			delete [] m_pMap;

 			m_pMap = NULL;

 		}

 	}

 	CoUninitialize();

 	return  S_OK;

 }

 // Invoke it from the dumpEntity method 

 void  dumpEntity(AcDbEntity *pEnt)

 {

 	if  (_tcscmp(p, _T("AsdkPoly" )) == 0)

 		dumPolyProps(pEnt);

 	// ... Rest of the code  

 }

Here is a screenshot of the retrieved property values (Click on it to enlarge) :

Deploying RealDWG application using WiX

By Balaji Ramamoorthy

Here is a sample project from RealDWG DevTV that has been modified to use WiX to deploy the application.

To try this, please download and install the WiX Toolset.

There are two batch files included in the sample project folder. These batch files run as "Pre-build event" when the project is built. Please ensure that the path of the VC++ re-distributables, Fonts and other RealDWG merge modules are correctly specified in the batch files.

The purpose of the batch files is to copy all the files needed for the packaging to a common folder named as "ForPackaging". The WiX setup project builds the MSI by using this folder path without having to look for files in different paths.

Download MyRealDWG_Sample

AutoCAD “Font file doesn’t Exist” when it does!?!

by Fenton Webb

One of my developers was trying to create a toolbar button which automatically setup some text styles/parameters. Everything was fine except that on some machines, the button would fail – the error was “Font file doesn’t exist”. He was using a very commonly used font file “arial.ttf”, indeed arial.ttf is the default font for the “Standard” AutoCAD style.

It seems there are very important updates the Font packs that you need to include (update) with your Windows installation – check out http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fonts/

I’m guessing Windows update also includes these Font updates as ‘Optional’ – best install them for an easy life!

Obtain the RGB color value from an AcDbEntity using ObjectARX and RealDWG

by Fenton Webb

Here’s how to obtain the RGB value from an already AcDb::kOpenForRead AcDbEntity.

static COLORREF GetRGBFromEntity( AcDbEntity *ent )

{

  COLORREF colorRef = RGB(255, 255, 255);

  AcCmColor Color = ent->color();

  AcCmEntityColor::ColorMethod ColorMethod = Color.colorMethod();

 

  switch(ColorMethod)

  {

  case AcCmEntityColor::kByACI:

    {         

      long acirgb, r,g,b;

      acirgb = AcCmEntityColor::lookUpRGB(Color.colorIndex());

 

      b = ( acirgb & 0xff00L );

      g = ( acirgb & 0xff00L ) >> 8;

      r = acirgb >> 16;

 

      colorRef = RGB( r, g, b); 

      break;

 

    }

  }

  return colorRef;

}