Topic: Autocad Utility Frameworks with Source Code

[sinc]

The new Sincpac-C3D 2008 Free Edition v1.0 has been released, along with new Source Code!  See Quux Software for details and download.

There are three projects included in one solution (using VS 2008 C# Express). Two of the included projects work only with Civil-3D, but the AcadUtilities one should be using only the core managed DLLs, and should work in any Autodesk product (although I haven't tried them in anything but Civil-3D). Obviously, you would need to relink the references, and then try to figure out how to use the code by looking at the other two projects. At some point, I'll try to get a Vanilla-only download put together with some sample commands.

This library is currently in the process of being shifted over from a somewhat clunky approach that I first used, into a much-nicer component-based approach. As such, it is subject to change significantly in the future. Parts of the frameworks are still implemented in a "messy" way, and other parts are implemented with the new components, so you can see the difference by comparing different commands. It is much easier to customize Autocad when you can simply grab a combo box that lets the user select a layer by name and/or pick a layer in the drawing and/or create a new layer, and just drag-n-drop it onto a form, and have all that functionality working without writing any code. All that grungy stuff involving managing lists in combo boxes, etc., is all done once, in the components, and then just drag-n-dropped into everything else.

Eventually, I'll also get some measure of documentation put together, as well. And it is all written in C#, so you VBers need to translate if you want to use it. But if you are trying to figure out how to customize an Autodesk product with .NET, you may find it very useful. And it is being released under a very loose license, so you may even use it in commercial development, with only the lightest of restrictions. This is a gift to the community, in the interests of furthering the general knowledge in the community at large.

Enjoy!

[It's Alive!]

Wow! You have been a busy boy, that’s a Ton of code!!  :-oThanks for sharing!!!

[Peter Laker]

Thanks for sharing sinc, that's very generous 

[MP]

I don't do "C3D" but I'm sure it's a significant effort, a generous one at that, so on behalf of the community, thanks Sinc!

[sinc]

You're welcome, all.

As predicted, I have already made significant improvements to this framework, even just since it was released.  It's amazing how much easier it is to create dialog boxes when I can drag "Select Alignment" and "Select Profile" controls onto a form, and they just work with no further coding.

I feel that creating a full Software Development Kit for Autocad products would be incredibly useful.  The frameworks I released on the Quux website illustrate the basic idea, but they need a lot of work before they can be considered "complete".  And of course, the idea can be expanded to all of Autodesk's products, not just Civil-3D.  So there's lots of potential, but also lots of work to get it done.

If there is sufficient interest, I can look into getting a full Open Source style project up and running for this development.  But that basically depends on the interest in the community.  So far, I have had spot interest in such a project, but it seems most people don't want to work on Open Source projects.  So if you are interested in such a project, let me know.  If there's enough interest, I'll look into breaking these frameworks out into a full-fledged Open Source project.

Otherwise, Quux Software will most-likely continue to release a core Civil-3D SDK as it develops.  The "old-style" of customization we've historically used is just too painful, so we view it as important to spread the knowledge that there's at least one better and faster way to do things.  That's assuming we can get something working along the lines of the Ruby on Rails model, where a company releases much of its core development kit for free, in addition to offering premium products and services at a cost.  Of course, such an effort would not include SDKs for the other Autodesk products (since we are a "Civil-3D Only" shop), the SDK documentation will continue to leave something to be desired, and releases of improved kits would be more sporadic in such an effort.  But at Quux Software, we view support of the community as a high priority, even if we could improve our competitive advantage by keeping all these ideas "secret".