topic AutoCad plugin development for both windows and Mac in .NET Forum

AutoCad plugin development for both windows and Mac

vishu_guntupalli — Sat, 25 May 2024 21:13:45 GMT

Hello, I currently have an AutoCad plugin that was written in C# .NET and it has the dependency on AutoCad.NET library which uses the .NET framework, so I am unable to do any development of this plugin or run it on Mac.

1. Is there a way to port this plugin over to Mac using mono or similar ?

2. Is there a way to develop AutoCad plugins that run on both Windows and Mac using the same codebase?

Thanks.

Re: AutoCad plugin development for both windows and Mac

maxim_k — Sun, 26 May 2024 04:44:56 GMT

Hi @vishu_guntupalli ,

I think it is better ask your question here:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/net/bd-p/152

You can also look at this thread:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/net/can-i-use-c-for-making-auto-cad-plugin-for-both-windows-and-mac/td-p/7751194

Re: AutoCad plugin development for both windows and Mac

ActivistInvestor — Thu, 30 May 2024 19:18:39 GMT

AutoCAD For Mac is severely limited insofar as API support goes. Mono wouldn't help because the Autodesk .NET API doesn't target it, and doesn't work with it AFAIK.

That means you are limited to the legacy AutoLISP/DCL (e.g., no vl-* functions, no ActiveX, etc.), or native ObjectARX/C++.

Re: AutoCad plugin development for both windows and Mac

daniel_cadext — Fri, 31 May 2024 02:15:41 GMT

There’s no C++/CLI compiler for Mac (Required for .NET). Microsoft stated they have no plans to port it.

So that means ARX, and if you need a GUI, that would mean QT or wxWigets

I’ve done a considerable amount of work in C++ / wxWigets, though it was not my responsibility to do the alt platform builds.

In general, you use the same code base, except initialization. Once you get setup, and with modern C++20, it’s not bad at all.

Though you will need to become a master at unit testing.

I’ve been thinking about this a bit as I also want to port my Python wrappers to Alt platforms (someday)

Hooking wx into AutoCAD for windows is easy.

https://github.com/CEXT-Dan/PyRx/blob/9dc90d8928cf2892350d40f1353718a97998e8da/PyRx/PyRxApp.cpp#L23-L48