Per-document data in AutoCAD .

NET applications - Part 2 - Through the Interface

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Per-document data in AutoCAD .NET applications - Part 1 | Main | A quick
Visual Studio tip - automatically implement interfaces in C#
October 19, 2006
Per-document data in AutoCAD .NET applications - Part 2
This entry completes the series of posts about per-document data. Here are the
previous entries:
Some background to AutoCAD's MDI implementation and per-document data
Per-document data in ObjectARX
Per-document data in AutoCAD .NET applications - Part 1
Document.UserData
Now let's take a look at a second technique in .NET for storing transient (non-
persisted) data with an AutoCAD document, the UserData property. The managed
framework for AutoCAD associates a hash table with each document, which can
be accessed using the UserData property. Hash tables are a great way to store
and access data quickly: each object you store in a hash table is associated with
a particular key, or lookup value. You then use this key to get at the data you've
stored in the hash table.
The UserData property returns an object of the standard .NET class,
System.Collections.Hashtable, so its advised to look on MSDN for further
examples of usage.
I've written some code to demonstrate how you might store and access per-
document data in the UserData property. The below C#code declares and
implements a simple class called MyData to store custom data, and then two
commands that store data in and use data from the UserData hash table.
The inc command checks whether theres an object under a particular
key, and if not, it creates and adds a MyData object. It then goes on to
increment the integer value stored in that object (and therefore in the
hash table)
The bogus command has some fun with the hash table, storing a
bogus object (a Point2D object) in the place where the "inc" command
expects to find a MyData object. This can only be run on a fresh
drawing one that has not had inc executed otherwise there will
already be an object stored in the hash table
Here's the code:
usi ng Aut odesk. Aut oCAD. Appl i cat i onSer vi ces;
usi ng Aut odesk. Aut oCAD. Runt i me;
usi ng Aut odesk. Aut oCAD. Edi t or I nput ;
usi ng Aut odesk. Aut oCAD. Geomet r y;
usi ng Syst em. Col l ect i ons;
[ assembl y: CommandCl ass( t ypeof ( CommandCl asses. User Dat aCl ass) ) ]
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Per-document data in AutoCAD .NET applications - Part 2 - Through the Interface

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namespace CommandCl asses
{
publ i c cl ass User Dat aCl ass
{
/ / Speci f y a key under whi ch we want
/ / t o st or e our cust om dat a
const st r i ng myKey = " AsdkDat a" ;
/ / Def i ne a cl ass f or our cust om dat a
publ i c cl ass MyDat a
{
publ i c i nt count er ;
publ i c MyDat a( )
{
count er = 0;
}
}
[ Aut odesk. Aut oCAD. Runt i me. CommandMet hod( " i nc" ) ]
publ i c st at i c voi d i ncr ement ( )
{
Document doc =
Appl i cat i on. Document Manager . Mdi Act i veDocument ;
Edi t or ed = doc. Edi t or ;
Hasht abl e ud = doc. User Dat a;
MyDat a md;
md = ud[ myKey] as MyDat a;
i f ( md == nul l )
{
obj ect obj = ud[ myKey] ;
i f ( obj == nul l )
{
/ / MyDat a obj ect not f ound - f i r st t i me r un
md = new MyDat a( ) ;
ud. Add( myKey, md) ;
}
el se
{
/ / Found somet hi ng di f f er ent i nst ead
ed. Wr i t eMessage(
" Found an obj ect of t ype \ " " +
obj . Get Type( ) . ToSt r i ng( ) +
" \ " i nst ead of MyDat a. " ) ;
}
}
i f ( md ! = nul l )
{
ed. Wr i t eMessage( " \ nCount er val ue i s: " +
md. count er ++) ;
}
}
[ Aut odesk. Aut oCAD. Runt i me. CommandMet hod( " bogus" ) ]
publ i c st at i c voi d addBogus( )
{
Document doc =
Appl i cat i on. Document Manager . Mdi Act i veDocument ;
Edi t or ed = doc. Edi t or ;
Hasht abl e ud = doc. User Dat a;
Poi nt 2d pt = new Poi nt 2d( ) ;
t r y
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Per-document data in AutoCAD .NET applications - Part 2 - Through the Interface
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Comments
ud. Add( myKey, pt ) ;
}
cat ch
{
ed. Wr i t eMessage(
" \ nCoul d not add bogus obj ect at \ " " +
myKey +
" \ " , must be somet hi ng t her e al r eady. " ) ;
}
}
}
}
Now let's take a look at that running:
[From first drawing...]
Command: i nc
Count er val ue i s: 0
Command: i nc
Count er val ue i s: 1
Command: i nc
Count er val ue i s: 2
Command: i nc
Count er val ue i s: 3
Command: new
[From second drawing...]
Command: i nc
Count er val ue i s: 0
Command: i nc
Count er val ue i s: 1
Command: i nc
Count er val ue i s: 2
Command: bogus
Coul d not add bogus obj ect at " AsdkDat a" , must be somet hi ng t her e
al r eady.
Command: new
[From third drawing...]
Command: bogus
Command: i nc
Found an obj ect of t ype " Aut odesk. Aut oCAD. Geomet r y. Poi nt 2d" i nst ead of
MyDat a.
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Thanks for your great article,Kean.
For C++,you give the Falsely MDI-Aware Version
example.
csharpbird said...
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Per-document data in AutoCAD .NET applications - Part 2 - Through the Interface
http://through-the-interface.typepad.com/through_the_interface/2006/10/perdocument_dat_2.html[21/01/2014 16:49:43]
Reply October 19, 2006 at 07:46 PM
What about .NET?
Reply October 19, 2006 at 10:44 PM
Thanks, csharpbird.
If you take a look at the previous entry (Part 1), you can
see the "glob" command implementation... this could be
considered a "Falsely MDI-Aware" command, if the
command was supposed to be considering the counter
variable to be local for each document.
Kean said...
Reply October 19, 2006 at 11:54 PM
Thanks, Kean! Your's last three articles is very useful!
Alexander Rivilis said...
Reply October 20, 2006 at 01:38 PM
Great couple of articles Kean.
This is always a subject developers are unaware of
when developing ObjectARX applications and it would
happen with .NET too.
Thanks, Fernando.
Fernando Malard said...
Reply May 16, 2008 at 07:09 PM
hi kean,
are you aware of the difference between static and
instance variables in an AutoCAD .NET application
command class? If you create static variables (and a
static command method), they exist only once. If you
create instance variables (and a non-static command
method), a new instance of the class is instantiated for
each AutoCAD document. This automatically generates
and manages per-document data, with no need for any
work at all from your side. I have a nice sample
demonstrating this, if you like.
cheers
jeremy
jeremy said...
Hi J eremy,
Yes, I am - the previous post covered that.
The reason I used this approach in another recent post
is actually that sometimes the class instances you
Kean said...
More...
Per-document data in AutoCAD .NET applications - Part 2 - Through the Interface
http://through-the-interface.typepad.com/through_the_interface/2006/10/perdocument_dat_2.html[21/01/2014 16:49:43]
Reply May 17, 2008 at 10:56 AM
receive automatically are not the ones you expect -
particularly when implementing event handlers
(presumably it's because you're in the application
context rather than being in a particular document's
context, depending). So I actually find UserData to be
more predictable and therefore dependable.
Cheers,
Kean
Reply June 08, 2009 at 05:46 PM
Hi,Kean
You've said
"I've written some code to demonstrate how you might
store and access per-document data in the UserData
property"
Where can I find these code? Thank u.
hhhwjb
hhhwjb said...
Reply June 08, 2009 at 05:48 PM
hhhwjb - it's the C#code in this post.
Kean
Kean Walmsley said...
Reply June 09, 2009 at 02:38 AM
Hi,Kean
Thank u for ur answer.
I test this code, when I close the document,the
UserData lost. How can I save the UserData together
with my documentation?
Thank u in advance.
hhhwjb said...
Reply June 09, 2009 at 08:13 AM
This example does not persist data in the DWG file: it
just associates it with the document for runtime access.
If you need to persist data then you'll probably want to
use XRecords to do so (search this blog to find
examples).
Kean
Kean Walmsley said...
Hi Kean,
I came across this article when i was
Matus said in reply to Kean Walmsley...
Per-document data in AutoCAD .NET applications - Part 2 - Through the Interface
http://through-the-interface.typepad.com/through_the_interface/2006/10/perdocument_dat_2.html[21/01/2014 16:49:43]
Comment below or sign in with Typepad Facebook Twitter Google+
and more...
Reply January 13, 2011 at 04:55 PM
searching for a way to store custom classes
in AutoCAD drawing.
I thought i found the answear until i realised,
that this data is not persistent.
On the other hand XRecord can only store
ResultBuffer type in his Data property and
DBDictionary can only store classes derived
from the DBObject class. Or am I wrong?
What is the best way to store custom classes
id drawings persistently?
Matus
Reply January 13, 2011 at 05:06 PM
Hi Matus,
Regarding your last question (which may also
respond to your others), It depends:
Xdata for smallish amounts (meaning up to
about 4K, as a rule of thumb... there's a
shared 16K limit per chunk of Xdata, if I recall
correctly).
Xrecords in extension dictionaries (or centrally
in the named objects dictionary) for larger
amounts.
ResultBuffers are actually reasonably flexible,
if you implement them properly.
Regards,
Kean
Kean Walmsley said in reply to Matus...
Reply June 09, 2009 at 01:43 PM
Thank u very much.
hhhwjb said...
Reply December 14, 2012 at 03:13 PM
Thanks Kean, it is still relevant in 2012.
Regards
Craig
Craig Nicholas said...
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