AutoCAD .NET Developer's Guide

This is really great news! I have reviewed a lot of the guide and can testify that it will be useful for many.

This guide provides information on how to use the AutoCAD .NET API with Microsoft Visual Studio and the programming languages VB.NET and C#. Information specific to developing applications using Microsoft Visual Studio can be found under the topics “Getting Started with Microsoft Visual Studio” and “Develop Applications with Microsoft Visual Studio.”
Programmers developing with the .NET Framework using a development environment other than Microsoft Visual Studio can skip these two chapters. However, all of the example code in this guide is presented in VB.NET and C#.

You can access the AutoCAD .NET Developer’s Guide online:
http://www.autodesk.com/autocad-net-developers-guide


Introduction

Getting Started with Microsoft Visual Studio

Basics of the AutoCAD .NET API

Control the AutoCAD Environment

Create and Edit AutoCAD Entities

Dimensions and Tolerances

Work in Three-Dimensional Space

Define Layouts and Plot

Use Events

Develop Applications with VB.NET and C#

VBA/VB to VB.NET and C# Comparison

VBA to VB.NET and C# Comparison

AutoCAD .NET Developer's Guide

Here is also some great screencasts from Microsoft.

When can I get Windows 7 RTM?

According to the Windows 7 Team Blog I have to wait to get my hands on the final bits of Windows 7 a couple of weeks until August 6th. Until then I’m happily using Build 7100.

Autodesk Assistance Program for Northern Europe

Autodesk Assistance Program for Northern Europe EMIA. It is not clear what countries are included but Sweden is for sure as I can see on Autodesk Sverige website. I also find Norway, UK, Ireland, Iceland, Netherlands, Latvia, Lithuania and Belgium.

Investera i dig själv
Anmäl dig till Autodesks Assistance Program och få tillgång till mjukvaror och mycket mer.

And according to the Autodesk Assistance Program website:

In these uncertain economic times, many companies have had to let good people go. If you were one of them, you might be wondering how to advance your career in this challenging global job market.

In order to get ahead in the workplace, you need to invest in yourself by increasing your knowledge and expanding your skills. And the good news is that Autodesk can help you get back in the game. With the Autodesk Assistance Program you can take action today to gain a competitive advantage in your field. The program offers:

• Free Software License*: Student licenses of 17 Autodesk® products, including AutoCAD®, Revit® Architecture, Autodesk® Inventor® Professional, and/or AutoCAD® Civil 3D® software.  
• Free Online Training: On-demand training available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with Subscription eLearning, and Autodesk University online.
• Reduced-Cost Classroom Training: Over 70 Autodesk Authorized Value Added Resellers and Autodesk Authorized Training Center (ATC®) partners are offering classroom training at their training facilities for free or for a significantly reduced fee. (Offerings will vary, please check with your local reseller or ATC to get details)
• Certification: Certification preparation and exams available at discounted rates.

Seize the opportunity now. Don’t just survive, thrive!

*13 month and 90 day  term license subject to the educational license terms and conditions.

To learn more about the program and included benefits, download our Autodesk Assistance Program FAQ.  Want to share the program details with an Autodesk Users Group or at other meetings?  Download the  Autodesk Assistance Program PowerPoint® here.

Previous post on the subject: Autodesk Assistance Program

AutoCAD 2010 on Mac and Revit Architecture 2010 too

Autodesk is expanding assistance for Macintosh users by adding support for Boot Camp for select products in addition to offering native Mac OS products.

Autodesk is now officially supporting Apple Boot Camp, a component of the Mac OSX operating system that enables customers to run Windows on their Apple Hardware.

With Autodesk support for Boot Camp, customers can now run their favorite Mac applications and Autodesk applications on the same computer. This will also enable customers to run Autodesk applications at full speed on a Mac and leverage its native graphics capabilities.

More details on Shaan’s blog post AutoCAD, Revit, Inventor, and 3ds Max Supported on Apple Boot Camp and www.autodesk.com/mac

Knowledge Base documents:
Apple® Boot Camp Support for AutoCAD® 2010
Apple® Boot Camp Support for Autodesk® 3ds Max®
Apple® Boot Camp Support for Autodesk® Inventor®
Apple® Boot Camp Support for Autodesk® Revit® Products

Autodesk Design Review and DWG TrueView downloads

Autodesk Design Review 2010 can be downloaded at this location.

If you don’t select “Also Install DWG Reader” AutodeskDesignRevSetup.exe will be downloaded (271 KB) and it will in turn download SetupDesignReview2010.msi (36 MB).

If you select “Also Install DWG Reader” AutodeskDesignRevSetup.exe will be downloaded (280 KB) and it will in turn download SetupDesignReview2010.msi (36 MB) and DWGViewer.zip (117 MB) a total of 153 MB. This will install DWG TrueView 2010 that also includes TrueConvert that can convert drawings to AutoCAD R14, AutoCAD 2000, AutoCAD 2004, AutoCAD 2007 and AutoCAD 2010 DWG file formats.

The links above are the direct links to these files.

System Requirements here.

To deploy the software silently across a network using this script:
msiexec /i SetupDesignReview.msi /qn

AutoCAD 2010 cannot attach multiple xrefs at a time

It’s sad to see that this functionality had to be changed in AutoCAD 2010 as this was a wish that came true in AutoCAD 2004.

Issue

In previous versions of AutoCAD you were able to select and insert more than one drawing as XREF at a time with the XATTACH command. However, in AutoCAD 2010 you are only allowed to insert one drawing at a time.

Solution

This change was required in order to support other file formats than the DWG format.

If you want to insert more than one drawing as an XREF at a time, use the CLASSICXREF command.

Knowledge Base document: Inserting multiple XREFs in AutoCAD 2010

AutoCAD Adware Trojan

This is a very special kind of trojan “pigrig”. It is an ARX (ObjectARX) application that makes use of AutoCAD as a host to pass through normal protection. It is not that dangerous one (only adware client) and you probably will never get it unless you are in or have been in China (I see Lynn Allen have been in China in this post).

I fund out about this new trojan on Without A Net blog. For more technical details see the source at webroot.

On the topic: AutoCAD virus

Revit 2010 Update 1 for Architecture, Structure and MEP

Here you can get the Update 1 for Revit. Seems like there are several enhancements and bug fixes included. Even the Revit API have been enhanced and improved.

Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010 Update 1

Autodesk Revit Structure 2010 Update 1

Autodesk Revit MEP 2010 Update 1

And here are documents describing what’s new:

Update Enhancements for Revit Architecture 2010 Update Release 1

Update Enhancements for Revit Structure 2010 Update Release 1

Update Enhancements for Revit MEP 2010 Update Release 1

.dwg .dwt .dws .bak .sv$ can all be DWG files

Typically these are AutoCAD based files but there are other applications that support these file types as well. Any of the following files can be renamed using the .dwg extension or the other way around.

.bak - AutoCAD Backup files

A backup of the .dwg file is created with the extension .bak when a drawing is saved within AutoCAD and ISAVEBAK is set to 1. The backup file is located in the same folder as the drawing file. You can revert to your backup version by renaming the .bak file in Windows Explorer to a file with a .dwg extension.

.sv$ - AutoCAD Automatic save file

If you turn the automatic save option on, your drawing is saved at specified time intervals. By default, files saved automatically are temporarily assigned the name filename_a_b_nnnn.sv$.

Filename is the current drawing name.
a is the number of open instances of the same drawing file in the same work session.
b is the number of open instances of the same drawing in different work sessions.
nnnn is a random number.
These temporary files are automatically deleted when a drawing closes normally. In the event of a program failure or a power failure, these files are not deleted.

To recover a previous version of your drawing from the automatically saved file, rename the file using a .dwg extension in place of the .sv$ extension before you close the program.

You can specify the location of all Autosave files by using the SAVEFILEPATH system variable. SAVEFILE (read-only) stores the name of the Autosave file.

Note that Automatic save is disabled when the Block Editor is open.

You might find that .sv$ files are not created if you frequently save the drawing manually or have the automatic save option off (SAVETIME=0).

.dwt - AutoCAD Drawing Template files

New drawings can be created based on template drawings. A template drawing can be empty but with many settings specified to use as a starter like units, layers, annotation styles and linetypes. A template drawing can also include drawing geometry like a title block, borders and logos.

.dws – AutoCAD Standards files

To set standards, you create a file that defines properties for layers, dimension styles, linetypes, and text styles, and you save it as a standards file with the .dws file name extension. You can decide to create and associate more than one project-specific standards file with an individual drawing.

Update with more details from my friend Chris:

SAV###.tmp and ATMP#### (no extension) could also potentially be drawing files from a failed save.   I wouldn’t trust SAV* files as much because if it is still around it could be a partially created file.

Here is the AutoCAD save procedure I discovered that AutoCAD uses…

1)    Saves a small TEST.DWL text file - a Lock file with the current users information and when the drawing was opened:

User
HOST 
Friday, May 05, 2009  9:57:39 AM

2)    Saves current open file to SAV341.TMP  (random number each time, but begins with SAV and ends with .TMP always)

3)    (Failing here) Rename existing TEST.DWG to ATMP6334  (no file extension, always begins with ATMP)

4)    Delete TEST.BAK if it exists

5)    Rename ATMP6334 to TEST.BAK

6)    Rename SAV341.TMP to TEST.DWG

7)    ReLoad TEST.DWG into memory.

So, if you only have SAV*.TMP files left over, but no ATMP* files it means it only gets to step #2.

AutoCAD IS finishing step 2 (saving the dwg to a TMP file) but for some reason is failing when trying to rename the original DWG file to ATMP, then .BAK.

This can also happen if the .BAK file is Read Only or cannot be written to.

Sticky Notes are saved in StickyNotes.snt

Where are the Sticky Notes in Windows 7 saved? You might wonder as to be able to make back up of it.
You need to be able to view hidden files and folders, then navigate to
%AppData%\Microsoft\Sticky Notes
The file StickyNotes.snt holds all sticky notes.
 
If you press F1 within a Sticky Note you will find the Help that tells Ctrl+Shift+L is used to create a Bulleted list. (Press this keyboard shortcut again to switch to a numbered list.) Some formatting tips: CTRL+B for Bold, Ctrl+I for Italic text, Ctrl+U for Underlined text, Ctrl+T for Strikethrough.

Ctrl+Shift+> to Increased text size and Ctrl+Shift+< to Decreased text size and if it does not work try to use Ctrl+Shift+. or Ctrl+Shift+,


If you write a web address it can be CTRL+clicked on too.
You can even copy from applications like Word and Excel and fonts and tables for example will be retained in the note. I looked inside the SNT file and it looks like the information is saved internally in Rich Text Format (RTF).