topic 3D drawing to STL using COM interface (VBA?) in AutoCAD Forum

3D drawing to STL using COM interface (VBA?)

Anonymous — Tue, 21 Nov 2017 21:32:08 GMT

Dear community,

do you know a way how to convert a .dwg file into a STL file?

I guess this is only possible if the drawing is a 3D drawing.

So the questions are:

* Is there a way to do an STL export via VBA application?

* Is there a way to check whether the drawing is a 3D drawing?

* Is there a way to check which files are already open? Eg. when AutoCAD is already running?

I would like to write an plugin for Cura (slicing software for 3D printers).

There are already a lot of plugins I wrote for other software, eg. Inventor, SolidWorks, FreeCAD, OpenSCAD..

However, AutoCAD is missing in my list of plugins and my trial is running out and I still found no good example how to do that on the internet.

Basically, I need a working script in any kind of programming language, so I can read out the API calls and convert it into a Python script.

Hope you can help to make it happen.

Thanks

- Thomas Karl Pietrowski

Re: 3D drawing to STL using COM interface (VBA?)

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Nov 2017 02:26:01 GMT

Question 1

The Answer: Use EXPORT command, Then You will get the Export Data dialog box. Next, If you spread out Files of type list, You will see STL format to export to use CURA.

Question 2

The Answer: Open the drawing that you need to check at AutoCAD.

Question 3

The Answer: If some Drawing is opened, When you try to open the drawing, You will get an Alter message that chooses either open the drawing as Read-only or do not open.

Re: 3D drawing to STL using COM interface (VBA?)

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Nov 2017 18:17:01 GMT

Thank you for your answer,

but this sounds like I need to do additional inputs via mouse and control things in addition to my running script.

Is there a way to run this all invisible? In the background?

Yes, I could do all the checks manually, but is there no way to ask this the API and get back info in form of booleans?

Thanks!