Topic: New to me Namespace, UIBindings

[Jeff_M]

Thanks to @gile's post HERE I learned something new that has been, apparently, around for quite some time. Not sure how I've missed it all these years. Well I did some messing around with it yesterday and found I could replace an extension method which has been in use for many years (c. 2008). Can anyone see any reason to not do this?

Old method:

Code - C#: [Select]

1.         public static List<string> GetNamesOfLayers(this Database db, bool includeFrozen, bool includeOff, bool includeXref, Transaction tr)
2.         {
3.             List<string> layerNames = new List<string>();
4.             LayerTable lt = (LayerTable)tr.GetObject(db.LayerTableId, OpenMode.ForRead);
5.             foreach (ObjectId layerId in lt)
6.             {
7.                 LayerTableRecord layer = (LayerTableRecord)tr.GetObject(layerId, OpenMode.ForRead);
8.                 if (includeXref || !layer.IsDependent)
9.                     if ((includeOff || !layer.IsOff) && (includeFrozen || !layer.IsFrozen))
10.                         layerNames.Add(layer.Name);
11.             }
12.             layerNames.Sort(new ComparerHyphen());
13.             return layerNames;
14.         }
15.  

New method:

Code - C#: [Select]

1.         public static List<string> GetNamesOfLayers(this Database db, bool includeFrozen, bool includeOff, bool includeXref)
2.         {
3.             var itemCollection = Application.UIBindings.Collections.Layers;
4.             var names = itemCollection
5.                 .Where(s => (bool)s.GetProperties()["IsFrozen"].GetValue(s) == false || includeFrozen)
6.                 .Where(s => (bool)s.GetProperties()["IsOff"].GetValue(s) == false || includeOff)
7.                 .Where(s => (bool)s.GetProperties()["IsDependent"].GetValue(s) == false || includeXref)
8.                 .Select(s => s.GetProperties()["Name"].GetValue(s).ToString())
9.                 .OrderBy(name => name, new ComparerHyphen());
10.             return names.ToList();
11.         }
12.  
13.  

[gile]

@Jeff_M UIBindings may be really usefull.
I used UIBindings.Collections.Layers in these code samples about user interfaces.

[Jeff_M]

Thanks, Gile, for the memory jog. I actually bookmarked your examples a long time ago, before I decided to explore WPF, thinking it could be useful down the road. I guess I should look at my bookmarks more often!

[n.yuan]

Jeff, since you asked "any reason to not do this", here is a reason of "not": UIBindings can only be used with running AutoCAD session (because of acmgd.dll). If want your code can be also used in core console/Platform API service (former Forge Service), then you would keep the old good extension method in your base/shared code library. That is, only use UIBindings in the code base that is strictly used in plugins specifically running in a desktop AutoCAD session.

[Jeff_M]

Thanks for the clarification, Norman.