AUGIWorld Magazine - November/December 2008 - (Page 27) Our contribution to the Global Economy FREE A /CAD ™ Figure 4: Visual LISP and VBA IDEs Introducing A/CAD LT EXPRESS ™ If you do happen to have some programming experience or want to keep up with the industry, then the AutoCAD .NET Application Programming Interface (API) is what you want to examine. The AutoCAD .NET API utilizes the VB .NET and C# languages, which, in the programming languages world, are relatively new. They encompass the power of the C++ programming language and the ease of use of VB. The AutoCAD .NET API allows you to create custom commands just like you can with Visual LISP and AutoLISP, and create custom dialog boxes and palettes. Unlike VBA, the AutoCAD .NET API requires you to obtain a copy of Visual Studio Express 2005 at minimum which is free or Visual Studio Professional 2005 which must be purchased. Last but not least is ObjectARX, which requires you to learn C++. C++, while a bit of a challenge to learn because you have to manage your own memory and many other things, is also very powerful and is still the primary choice for new features developed in AutoCAD. However, the wind seems to be shifting a bit to include more .NET based applications and features in the latest releases. So unless you know C++ already, I recommend you go with the AutoCAD .NET API as it is nearly as powerful as ObjectARX and is easier to learn. With ObjectARX, you will need a copy of Visual Studio 2005 and you will have to recompile your applications about every three years when Autodesk changes C++ compilers. perform every day. You might be thinking that you have too much project work already without thinking about learning how to customize AutoCAD, and you might very well be right. However, I thought the same thing myself more than a dozen years ago. I started customizing AutoCAD at a very basic level to reduce the number of steps it took to get some things done, which eventually lead to being able to complete a whole project in less time. If you can show a return on investment for the time spent working on customization, more times than not you can convince your boss to allow you to spend some time (I am not saying you are going to get hours a day) to improve processes with customization. The main thing to do is reduce repetitive steps, as those are often when errors can sneak into a process. While this article did not go into great depth on each option, I hope it gave you an understanding of the different options available to you if you decide to customize or write programs for AutoCAD. Lee Ambrosius is a Sr. Technical Writer in the PSEB division at Autodesk, Inc. and works on AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT. He is the author of two AutoCAD book’s under the For Dummies series, AutoCAD 2009 & AutoCAD LT 2009 All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies and AutoCAD 2008 3D Modeling Workbook For Dummies. Lee can be reached via e-mail at lee_ambrosius@hyperpics.com; other contact information can be found on his Website at http://www.hyperpics.com or his Blog at http://hyperpics. blogs.com. Works like LT. But FREE. See first look of A/CAD LT in Las Vegas December 2 - 4 By appointment only. Please email Demo@ACADnow.com Conclusion Customizing is not reserved for any specific type of AutoCAD user. Whether you are relatively new to or have been using AutoCAD for many years, you can learn to customize AutoCAD at some level to help reduce the number of repetitive tasks you Nov/Dec 2008 For more information www.ACADnow.com A/CAD is a trademark of IMSI/Design 27 http://www.imsisoft.com/ http://www.hyperpics.com http://hyperpics.blogs.com http://www.hyperpics.com http://hyperpics.blogs.com
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