.NET Api from inside of AutoCAD?

[mdhutchinson]

Back a few releases to get the older VBA you had to install a separate download.

Of late, I've been hearing bits of info that .NET API may be included in future AutoCAD and verticals.

Can anyone confirm this?

[dgorsman]

That... doesn't sound right.  Could it be you are thinking of VSTA, or a scripting system?

FWIW, any future development plans are covered by NDA so those who know can't tell.  Even then, nothing can be guaranteed to be included in future releases.

[Keith.Brown · Accepted solution]

The AutoCAD .net API has been included in the AutoCAD and its vertical releases for quite some time.  To program with .net you will probably need an IDE and the new visual studio community edition. is a good one to use.  It has the power of the old professional version now at a greatly reduced price.  Free.

Different versions of AutoCAD use different versions of the .net API.  I believe that AutoCAD 2015 is now on Version 4.5 so you will need at least that version to program any of the new features that came with AutoCAD 2015.  If you are programming old features of AutoCAD then you can probably get away with using a previous version.  You can see this thread which will explain it better.

You can visit the ADN webpage at this link that will explain the API a little better.  http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?id=1911627&siteID=123112

And finally you can download the ObjectARX samples and documentation from the ADN website but they are not needed to do the actual programming.  I have been programming AutoCAD MEP for a couple of years and have not downloaded anything from Autodesk to do this.  All i needed was my version of AutoCAD MEP and Visual Studio.

If you are actually asking about having a IDE (Integrated Development Environment) actually inside of Autocad similar to Revit for .net languages hen I cannot speak to that as I have no information about it.

[mdhutchinson]

ooh shoot...

I didn't meen API... I meant IDE.

[khoa.ho]

Hi,

You can give it a try with .NETScript for AutoCAD , which provides a .NET IDE inside AutoCAD and an embedded HTML5 web browser to host web applications inside AutoCAD. You can also run your code (C#, VB.NET, JavaScript...) without Visual Studio right in AutoCAD, and learn the latest AutoCAD I/O, View & Data API from this plugin too. It provides many good AutoCAD programming resources for developers to play around.

Khoa