Custom Command Parameters in .NET

[michael_robertson]

Is there a way in the .NET api to create a custom command that takes parameters? Want to create the ability to call the netloaded command from an external application and send it parameters without user interaction.

[Anonymous]

Mike,

Yes. For my inter-process communication I use WCF, NetTcpBinding in particular, as this gives me the ability to have both server and client on different or the same machine(s). Because of threading issues within AutoCAD/Map3d I had to develop the Autodesk WCF side within a Windozes Form instantiated during IExtensionApplication.Initialize(). I have found WCF to be very reliable and full featured. Once I had finalized my approach to communication and realized how fast it was I developed a rather simple system for exchanging commands and data between the exe’s.

There are other approaches but I will let others speak to those. If you are interested and wish to explore the gory details we could take this offline.

r, dennis

[michael_robertson · Accepted solution]

Thanks Dennis,

I actually just ended up creating a command using the <ListFunction> tag instead of the <CommandMethod> tag and it seems to do what I needed. I'm attaching the code incase anyone else runs into the same request.

Code:

If you need to create a custom autocad command that takes parameters the <CommandMethod> tag does not allow parameters.

BUT…

You can declare your custom command as a Lisp Function which can take parameters (but doesn’t have to) as follows:

        <LispFunction("MyFunction")> _

        Public Sub MyFunction(ByVal Args As ResultBuffer)

            ‘check if any parameters

            If Not Args = Nothing Then

                'step through the parameters

                For Each rb As TypedValue In Args

                    'check the param type

                    If (rb.TypeCode = Autodesk.AutoCAD.Runtime.LispDataType.Text) Then

                        'do something if text

                    End If

                    If (rb.TypeCode = Autodesk.AutoCAD.Runtime.LispDataType.ObjectId) Then

                        'do something if ObjectID

                    End If

                Next

            End If

        End Sub

To call the command from the command line enclose the command in parens as follows:

(MyFunction “myText”)

This calls the MyFunction command with a single text param = “myText”