Topic: ACAD 2013 Open Drawing

[stevenh0616]

Anyone know how to open a drawing programmatically in ACAD 2013? The developer doc (link below) says to do the following, but when I do the acDocMgr.Open says it does not belong to DocumentCollection. I'm thinking this is something they moved with the new API changes. Thoughts???

http://docs.autodesk.com/ACD/2013/ENU/index.html?url=files/GUID-330A8DCB-626F-4271-8B89-9773A7631D87.htm,topicNumber=d30e716937

Code - vb.net: [Select]

1. Imports System.IO
2. Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices
3. Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.DatabaseServices
4. Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.Runtime
5.  
6. <CommandMethod("OpenDrawing", CommandFlags.Session)> _
7. Public Sub OpenDrawing()
8.   Dim strFileName As String = "C:\campus.dwg"
9.   Dim acDocMgr As DocumentCollection = Application.DocumentManager
10.  
11.   If (File.Exists(strFileName)) Then
12.       acDocMgr.Open(strFileName, False)
13.   Else
14.       acDocMgr.MdiActiveDocument.Editor.WriteMessage("File " & strFileName & _
15.                                                      " does not exist.")
16.   End If
17. End Sub
18.  

[BlackBox]

Did you add the necessary reference to AcCoreMgd.dll?

<snip>

Extension methods exposed by one type, look like methods of another type.

The Open() method was a member of the DocumentCollection class in previous releases. In AutoCAD 2013, Open() is a member of another class, but is an extension method that target's the DocumentCollection class, which means the method can be called as if it was still a member of DocumentCollection, and calls to it that worked in AutoCAD 2012 will continue to work in AutoCAD 2013, provided the assembly containing the extension method is referenced.

<snip>

[Jeff_M]

You might want to see the 2013 Migration video Stephen Preston made, specifically at about the 3:10 mark.
Download and extract the zip, then load the html file in your browser.
http://adndevblog.typepad.com/autocad/2012/04/migrating-objectarx-and-net-plug-ins-to-autocad-2013.html

[stevenh0616]

Thanks to you both.

I did know to add the acCoreMgd.dll, but have not seen the DocumentCollectionExtension. I'll make sure I watch the video thouroughly!! 

[stevenh0616]

Actually I'm still getting an error. It builds fine within Visual Studio and loads into CAD fine. When I try to run a command to open a drawing I get the error "Invalid Execution Context."

The error still occurs on "acDocMgr.Open(Path, False)"

I've followed all the 2013 conversion properties... not sure why it's not working. Here's my code.

Code - vb.net: [Select]

1. Imports System.IO
2. Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices
3. Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices.DocumentCollectionExtension
4. Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.DatabaseServices
5. Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.Runtime
6.  
7. Public Class OpenDrawing
8.     Public Shared Sub Open(ByVal Path As String)
9.         Dim acDocMgr As DocumentCollection = Application.DocumentManager
10.  
11.         If (File.Exists(Path)) Then
12.             acDocMgr.Open(Path, False)
13.         Else
14.             acDocMgr.MdiActiveDocument.Editor.WriteMessage("File " & Path & " does not exist.")
15.         End If
16.     End Sub
17. End Class

Thanks for the help.

[tonofsteel]

Are you trying to open a drawing in AutoCAD from an external program?  The .NET libraries are meant to be used from in-process in AutoCAD and after you create a .dll it needs to be netloaded to run.

If you are trying to open a drawing from out of process then you need to use COM.

[stevenh0616]

Thanks.

No, this is being run from inside of CAD, so what I'm doing should work just fine - as documented in the AutoCAD Developers Guide.

[Jeff H]

"Invalid Execution Context."

You need to be in the Application context.
 
You are in the document context.
 
You can use commandFlag.Session or I think there might be a method that will switch it for you.
 

[Jeff H]

Thanks.

No, this is being run from inside of CAD, so what I'm doing should work just fine - as documented in the AutoCAD Developers Guide.

From developers guide
 

Code - Visual Basic: [Select]

1.  
2.  <CommandMethod("NewDrawing", CommandFlags.Session)> _
3. Public Sub NewDrawing()
4.   '' Specify the template to use, if the template is not found
5.  '' the default settings are used.
6.  Dim strTemplatePath As String = "acad.dwt"
7.  
8.   Dim acDocMgr As DocumentCollection = Application.DocumentManager
9.   Dim acDoc As Document = acDocMgr.Add(strTemplatePath)
10.   acDocMgr.MdiActiveDocument = acDoc
11. End Sub
12.  
13.  

Notice the  <CommandMethod("NewDrawing", CommandFlags.Session)> _
 
Glad they did not name it RunInApplicationContext because that would be confusing.

[BlackBox]

<snip>

Glad they did not name it RunInApplicationContext because that would be confusing.

 

[TheMaster]

Are you trying to open a drawing in AutoCAD from an external program?  The .NET libraries are meant to be used from in-process in AutoCAD and after you create a .dll it needs to be netloaded to run.

It should be plainly obvious that the OP's code is a .NET extension.

[stevenh0616]

Thanks again everyone.

My overall goal was to allow the user to select a drawing a make some edits to XREFs in the selected drawings database, without opening the file. IE: Unload/reload XREFs prior to opening the file (This I have working well).

My next step, within the same command was to take the original selected file and open it. So initially I was thinking of using this open sub from the .NET developers guide, not having much experience with Command Flags. I did read up on these more and have a better understanding.

For what I'm looking to do, it seems using SendStringtoExecute is a better option I think. Unless somebody as a better idea...

[BEEB.NET]

        Dim acDocMgr As DocumentCollection = Application.DocumentManager
        Dim This As Document = DocumentCollectionExtension.Open(acDocMgr, "D:\test.dwg", True)