Pre requisites for AutoCAD .NET development

[DMadhuri]

Hi,

I am not sure if this is th right place to post my query or not, but I need some very basic information.

I'm very new to AutoCAD  and Revit but have good experience in woking as a .NET programmer.

I want to know what are the prerequisites for starting  programming on AutoCAD .

Do we need to know  AutoCAD and Revit to start developing addin's or any other stuff

Please let me if there is any site if I can find any information.I have seen many sites giving the infomration of basics on .NET programming for AUTOCAD but no where it states about persons coming from programming background and begining tools for AutoCAD.

Thanks in advance

[michael.robertson]

We have a number of programmers in our office that started out the same way you are (programmer > cadd).

The best advice I can give you is to take an actual ACad course first to get an idea of what is going on. Although you will deal alot with geometry, getting that geometry (the drawing) on screen/paper requires a pretty in depth knowledge of how the CADD system as a whole works. Think of AutoCAD as the operating system you are programming on.

Learning CADD from a book is very hard, you really need someone to show you what is going on (either via instructor or if you work in a CADD environment then users).

[DMadhuri]

thanks for the answer. I am really planning to take a training of cadd, but do i really need to know the in & out of the subject or  a basic intro is enough.

The reason i'm asking this is I am working as a software developer on .NET  in an organization which is also into engineering services. So they arranged me to give a training through an instructor.let me know what all do I need to check with them before they say the training is completed and to start development. I want to get the best oout of this training that should be hepful for the development  because they certainly will not teach me everything in cadd

Need assistance .Thanks in advance.

[michael.robertson · Accepted solution]

Depending on what you are trying to do you will need a different level of instruction but you will need a basic understanding of things which you should get from a basic class like:

• AutoCAD system variables
• Object TYpes & Symbologies (color, lineweight, linestyle, layers) sounds simple but can be complicated because for some of these things when you are programming you have to make sure they exist in your file before you can use them, if not then you need to know how to import/create them on the fly
• Model Space/Paper Space
• Drawing Scales (seems like on of the hardest things for non-CADD/Engineers to understand)
• Text, Dimension, and MLeader styles
• Blocks

Do you know what type of programs you will be writing yet? (ie drawings, reporting, bulk file manipulation, custom ACad Entities)?

No matter what type of apps you are writing one of the first things you should get a good grip on is the structure of the ACad drawing Database. There are some good tools around for viewing the contents and structure of a drawing file.

[DMadhuri]

thanks Mike fro answering them so clearly but i'm really not aware on what kind of programmin I would be involved in . I was informed about development of Add-ins .I'll surely have to get  a proper understanding on AutoCAD before starting to work .

Canyou throw some light on the tools mentioned about the viewing content and structure of the drawing file.

I 've just started going through the basic gathering of information .

I have found some useful information on through the interface(one of the good blog for developers) and couple of  speakers handouts from Autodesk university but they all talk about programming and about  focus the API in specific.

I'll surely take your suggestion.

but  tell me about the Tools you mentioned and about any good sites that focus more on AutoCAD fro programmers.

[michael.robertson]

If you have not been there yet I highly recommend visting the Developer Center at:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?id=1911627&siteID=123112

You find documentation, tools, and sample code at that location.

The 2 tools that come to mind are adskinspector.arx and arxDbg.arx, I'm not sure where I got these. It might have been from the Autodesk Developer Network, if so I'm not sure I can distribute them. I'll check and let you know soon.

[StephenPreston]

You can get ArxDbg, Inspector, and (my favorite) MgdDbg from here:

http://through-the-interface.typepad.com/through_the_interface/2010/02/the-stephen-and-fenton-show-a....

And to reiterateto what others have said:

- You need to know the AutoCAD product before you develop plug-ins so you can avoid reinventing something AutoCAD already does.

- You need to know how AutoCAD works so you can make your custom functionality work in a way users expect.

- You need to know the DWG structure so you can add/edit entities in a drawing.

Cheers,

Stephen Preston

Autodesk Developer Network

[DMadhuri]

Thanks guys  for guiding me...