Can not get arx file to autoload in AutoCAD Mechanical 2013

[scott.edsell]

We have a small arx program that adds a bunch of commands to AutoCAD.  I have recompiled the program using VS 2010, and the program works fine when loaded using appload (the commands register and work).  Now I am trying to autoload the program by adding registry entries in HKLM\SOFTWARE\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R19.0\ACAD-B005:409\Applications.  I am using 0x00000002 for LOADCTRLS.  On AutoCAD startup, none of the commands are registered.  When I check in the loaded applications list (appload), it shows that the program is loaded, but it is grayed out.  I dont see any errors in the Autocad message window on startup.  Any ideas on what could be wrong?

[owenwengerd · Accepted solution]

Does the (arx) function show that your ARX module is loaded? Have you checked the debugger output while the module loads?

[scott.edsell]

Thanks that lead to the solution.  The arx function showed that the arx program was loaded, but the group wasn't.  I looked at the code and there was a section in AcRx::kInitAppMsg: where the comands would only be registered if the window was visible (if (::IsWindowVisible(adsw_acadMainWnd())){).  For some reason this returns false in AutoCAD 2013.  I commented this check out, and now it works.  Now I just have to figure out why this check was added 🙂

Thanks!