Topic: AutoLISP vla-getboundingbox equivalent in C#

[dugk]

Is there an equivalent to the AutoLISP vla-getboundingbox in C#?

the Help file definition for vla-getboundingbox:
Gets two points of a box enclosing the specified object.

thanks!

[sinc]

Entity.GeometricExtents

[dugk]

Thanks!

I figured it would be a Method and didn't look in the Entity.Properties.

Thanks again!

[sinc]

Yeah, it takes a while to learn the API.  That's probably the most time-consuming part, at least if you've done programming in the past.

Are you using an IDE that supports Intellisense for your development?  The Intellisense can be a pretty handy way of finding things.

It can also be helpful sometimes to poke around using the Object Browser (in View -> Other Windows in Visual Studio C# Express Edition).

[dugk]

Yes, I'm using Visual Studio 2008.  I've used Emacs and VisualLisp IDE in the past.  VS is great IMO.

Your comment/question regarding Intellisense makes me wonder if I have VS setup to take complete advantage of Intellisense.  When I type in an class object I get the dropdown list of its properties, events and methods.  I don't get a summary either holding the cursor over an AutoCAD class object or in the Object Browser.  Is it possible to get a summary in the IDE of AutoCAD class objects?

Thanks!

[sinc]

Oh, no, I don't think so.

Autodesk would have had to have created their source code properly for the comments to show up there.  I think they actually did in some cases, but for most things, all you get is the name of the object/field/property/method/event.  Then you need to look in the Help for more info on things that catch your interest.  And then hope that the Help actually has more information - in many cases, it doesn't.  When that happens, web searches sometimes turn up useful information.  Or you might need to ask a question in a forum like this, or over on Kean's blog, or submit a help ticket to the ADN, or something like that.

Did you download and install the ObjectARX kit?  There's stuff in there that is useful.  Not only is there documentation, there's also samples, and things like the Drawing Browser.

[MickD]

For more info on some classes, if the doc's show what arx class it wraps you can get quite a bit more info for the class in the arx reference docs although some of the parameters etc might seem criptic if you haven't work with c++ much.