Instant Autodesk AutoCAD 2014 Customization with .NET

by Tom Nelson

In Detail AutoCAD's .NET API can be used to create small but powerful applications that help CAD users achieve productivity gains and improve quality. CAD users can accelerate drafting and design processes, improve drawing accuracy, minimize time spent on repetitive or demanding tasks, and reduce errors. In short, users can deliver better drawings faster with customized CAD tools.

Learn how to use AutoCAD's .NET API to create your own high-powered, custom applications for AutoCAD. This book is a toolbox of small projects for handling common AutoCAD tasks. You can add to these recipes to develop your own specialized AutoCAD program library. Clear, step-by-step instructions and complete code examples illustrate the process, making it easy to develop your own custom AutoCAD tools.

Giving you the building blocks of AutoCAD application development, you’ll learn to create compact user interfaces for your AutoCAD plugins and add command buttons to the ribbon interface. Next, you’ll create programs to insert and modify AutoCAD block and attribute references, as well as working with custom data stored on AutoCAD objects. Learn how to publish layouts from external drawings in multi-sheet PDF files, export AutoCAD data to MS Excel for processing, and respond to AutoCAD event notifications (such as when an object is selected). With the tools presented in this book, you can develop and implement new functionality to address your specialized business needs.

Approach Filled with practical, step-by-step instructions and clear explanations for the most important and useful tasks. An instruction-based guide with examples written in the C# programming language. VB.NET programmers can also take advantage of these examples by using one of the free conversion websites to convert the examples to VB.NET.

Clear, step-by-step instructions and complete code examples illustrate the processes, making it easy to develop your own custom AutoCAD tools

Who this book is for This book is perfect if you are interested in customizing AutoCAD 2014 using the .NET API. You should have a basic familiarity with programming. Prior experience of customizing AutoCAD is helpful, but not required (as is a basic understanding of AutoCAD commands). If you have AutoCAD customization experience with another API, such as Lisp or VBA, you may find the examples in this book helpful when learning the .NET API.

You should also have a basic familiarity with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 (the Express editions are fine).

84 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Tom Nelson is an award-winning author and speaker and the founding pastor of Christ Community Church, a large multisite church in Kansas City. He is founder and executive chairman of the national nonprofit Made to Flourish, which helps church leaders equip their people for everyday life in the workplace and the economy. He also is a founding council member of The Gospel Coalition and previously served on the leadership team of the Oikonomia Network. Nelson and his wife, Liz, have two grown children and live in Leawood, Kansas