HyperPics: Beyond the UI

Updated AutoCAD 2013 ActiveX Developer Documentation

A new update to the AutoCAD 2013 ActiveX Developer Documentation has recently been made available through the AutoCAD Developer Center. The updated documentation set can be found at the bottom of the page under the Documentation section.

The updates that were made to the documentation are:

• Corrections to the existing VBA samples
• VBA samples ported to show the use of AutoLISP/Visual LISP
• Reference documentation updated to include all the latest and previously missing classes/properties/methods
• Full list of changes to the API from AutoCAD 2000 through AutoCAD 2013
• Corrections to and the inclusion of the ActiveX Developer's Guide

To utilize the documentation with the VBA IDE or Visual LISP IDE, download and extract the contents of the ZIP file to the following location:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Autodesk Shared

Sincerely,
  Lee

AutoLISP API Changes for AutoCAD 2013 - Updated

AutoLISP has been in AutoCAD for a long time, well before my time when I started with AutoCAD R12 for DOS in 1994.  At its core, AutoLISP really has not changed much in the past 15 years outside of the introduction of Visual LISP and the ability to utilize the ActiveX API on Windows.

There were a few additions to the Visual LISP extension in AutoCAD 2013 which expose some new functionality from the ActiveX API and a few new functions that allow you to obtain the Machine and User product keys of AutoCAD.  Along with some new functions, there are some new variables introduced as a result of new constants being added to the ActiveX API.

To use the the changes made to the Visual LISP extension, be sure to call the VL-LOAD-COM function first.

New Functions:
VLA-GET-ACTIVEINVPROJECT / VLA-PUT-ACTIVEINVPROJECT - Specifies the active Inventor project being used by the Model Documentation feature. (Internal Use Only)
VLA-GET-INTENSITYCOLORSCHEME / VLA-PUT-INTENSITYCOLORSCHEME - Specifies the color scheme to use for displaying intensity values.
VLA-GET-SHOWCLIPPED / VLA-PUT-SHOWCLIPPED - Enables or disables the clipping boundary.
VLA-GET-SHOWINTENSITY / VLA-PUT-SHOWINTENSITY - Specifies if the point cloud is displayed using a shaded color scheme.
VLA-PUT-LENGTH - Sets the Length property for a point cloud.
VLAX-MACHINE-PRODUCT-KEY - Returns the AutoCAD product key from the Machine hive in the Windows Registry.  (ie. "Software\\Autodesk\\AutoCAD\\R19.0\\ACAD-B001:409")
VLAX-USER-PRODUCT-KEY - Returns the AutoCAD product keyfrom the User hive in the Windows Registry.  (ie. "Software\\Autodesk\\AutoCAD\\R19.0\\ACAD-B001:409")

Obsolete Functions:
VLAX-PRODUCT-KEY - While still supported, it is recommended to use the new function VLAX-MACHINE-PRODUCT-KEY instead which returns the same value.

Changed Variables:
ACNATIVE = 60

New Variables:
AC2013_DWG = 60
AC2013_DXF = 61
AC2013_TEMPLATE = 62
ACINTENSITYBLUE = 4
ACINTENSITYEDITABLEFLAG = 5
ACINTENSITYGRAYSCALE = 0
ACINTENSITYGREEN = 3
ACINTENSITYRAINBOW = 1
ACINTENSITYRED = 2
ACTRUECOLOR = 0

See Also:
ActiveX API Changes in AutoCAD 2013

***Updated 7/10/12 to include the change to VLAX-PRODUCT-KEY.

Sincerely,
  Lee