AutoCAD LT

[#1]

Does anybody have experience with writing a plug-in with visual basic?  Is there a specific version of visual that works with Autocad LT 2011?  Or will express 2012 work too?

[#2 · Accepted solution]

LT doesn't support plug-ins or other programmatic extensions.

[#3]

I don't know if it's changed it LT 2011 or not, BUT in LT 2009 you can have an external vb program run in Autocad.

I have one which draws steel shapes for me.

I have a text box called txtbSWid which has the following done to it everytime my program loads up

txtbSWId.LinkMode = 0                                  '0 = reset
txtbSWId.LinkTopic = "AutoCAD LT.DDE|system"           'establish DDE link
txtbSWId.LinkMode = 2

The below is all the information I get from my program which draws a single polyline. en$ is the variable for the enter key

swibeam$ = "_ortho" + en$ + "off" + en$
swibeam$ = swibeam$ + "_pline" + en$ + "none" + en$ + "0" + en$ ', True 'draw pline begining @ last point
swibeam$ = swibeam$ + "@" + SWIwidthx$ + "<0" + en$
swibeam$ = swibeam$ + "@" + SWIStartToe$ + "<270" + en$
swibeam$ = swibeam$ + "Arc" + en$ + "@" + SWiToeChord$ + "<227.5" + en$
swibeam$ = swibeam$ + "Line" + en$ + "@" + SWITotalFlange$ + "<185" + en$
swibeam$ = swibeam$ + "Arc" + en$ + "@" + SWiRootChord$ + "<227.5" + en$
swibeam$ = swibeam$ + "Line" + en$ + "@" + SWIdmtrx$ + "<270" + en$
swibeam$ = swibeam$ + "Arc" + en$ + "@" + SWiRootChord$ + "<312.5" + en$
swibeam$ = swibeam$ + "Line" + en$ + "@" + SWITotalFlange$ + "<355" + en$
swibeam$ = swibeam$ + "Arc" + en$ + "@" + SWiToeChord$ + "<312.5" + en$
swibeam$ = swibeam$ + "Line" + en$ + "@" + SWIStartToe$ + "<270" + en$
swibeam$ = swibeam$ + "@" + SWIwidthx$ + "<180" + en$
swibeam$ = swibeam$ + "close" + en$

After it has collected all that data the following line is run

txtbSWId.LinkExecute swibeam$ + "move last  0,0 "

The line below just ends the program completely

Unload SWI

To run my program in Autocad I have a button with the following command in it

^C^C_ai_startapp myprogram.exe

[#4]

Question: does your VB program run more than once in an LT2009 session?

[#5]

Not too sure what you mean, but if you mean after it's drawn one polyline and shutdown can I immediately run it again to draw another. The answer is yes