Graphics subsystem, linetype problems with an external database

[oliver253]

Greetings,

I'm creating an application that creates a small preview of entities inside a dialog window, based on ideas from the BlockView sample that came with older SDK's. Basically, I create a new database in memory, add a polyline, set the properties and show it in a custom control. Everything else is working great, except that the linetypes are wrong. I thought there is a bug in my code, but I went through everything and couldn't find it.

Then I compiled the BlockView sample from ObjectARX 2008 and the problem is there as well. Simplest steps to reproduce it: create a line and give it a distinct linetype, say containing the letter A. Close the drawing, open a new drawing. Load the BlockView sample and open that drawing. The line shows up as continuous.

To make things more interesting - if I load another linetype in a new drawing, say containing the letter B, run the BlockVew again, open the external drawing, then the line is displayed using the linetype that exists in the new drawing, not the drawing that I opened in BlockView.

I'm not very familiar with the details of the graphics subsystem, and I'm clearly missing something. I've already tried to temporarily set the working database to the new database that exists only in memory, but the linetypes are still displayed from the drawing that is currently open.

[Anonymous]

Since the BlockView example doesn't display linetypes from an external database correctly, and there are older unanswered posts on the same subject, I'm going to assume it's either not possible, or unobvious.

As a workaround, I decided to load the linetypes in the current drawing and create the entities just outside the current extents, all wrapped in a transaction that gets aborted after getting the snapshot. Ugly, but gets the job done. Perhaps this will be useful to someone struggling with the same problem in the future.