AutoCAD Document Events

Hi group,

I would like to move a drawing to another folder after it has closed. In
anticipation of this, I have trapped the BeginDocClose event. When this
event fires, I get the Fullname property of the ActiveDocument and form a
string for the destination filename. I store these in variable names which
I have declared in the declaration section of the Class Module.

My plan was to then rely on the EndCommand event and test to see if
CommandName = "CLOSE". Then FileCopy to put the closed drawing in a
different folder.

Current (simplified) code similar to this:

Public WithEvents acaddoc as AcadDocument
Public copysource as Variant
Public copydestination as Variant

Private Sub acaddoc_BeginDocClose(Cancel As Boolean)
copysource = ThisDrawing.Fullname
copydestination = "SomePath\" & ThisDrawing.Name
End Sub

Private Sub acaddoc_EndCommand(ByVal CommandName As String)
If CommandName = "CLOSE" Then
FileCopy copysource, copydestination
End If
End Sub

However, it seems that the firing of the EndCommand event does not
necessarily mean that AutoCAD has released it's file lock on the drawing in
question. How is it possible to determine when AutoCAD has actually
"finished" closing the drawing so that it can be moved?

Thanks in advance,
Kenneth Hutson
San Antonio, TX

 

What about a timer loop with a check for the dwgname.dwl file being deleted?
in most cases acad will delete that file after closing the dwg file.
(assuming 2004/5 - whichever version started using the dwl files.)

 

Try using the Application's EndCommand event, not the Document's. The doc's
endcommand fires as the document is still open otherwise it couldn't
trigger the event.

-- Mike
___________________________
Mike Tuersley
___________________________
the trick is to realize that there is no spoon...

 

Thanks for the suggestions. Tried the Application_EndCommand. Seems to
interfere somehow because I get "AutoCAD is busy" dialog most times. Tried
timer loop but this time could vary. Didn't work anyway. Search for .dwl
proved fruitless too. Whatever I try throws AutoCAD for a loop. I first
receive a dialog File I/O error. I never get a chance to dismiss it because
another dialog pops up immediately afterwards. Second dialog notifies of an
exception at a memory address.

Seems that EndCommand works normally for other commands I have tried. I
think it would propably be good if a EndClose event were added to the model.
Something which would fire when AutoCAD has "completely" closed a drawing
file and released it's locks.

Thanks,
Kenneth Hutson
San Antonio, TX

 

Ken, are you doing this in vba or full vb?

-- Mike
___________________________
Mike Tuersley
___________________________
the trick is to realize that there is no spoon...

 

Why not a saveas into the folder you need and then just close the drawing.

 

Mike,

Main app is VB. You could call it a document managenent app using a
database. We have a central server for drawings but we work on them
locally. Main app copies the file from the server to a local workstation at
the user request and opens it in AutoCAD. Need to return the drawing to the
server on close.

Figured it was easiest to tap AutoCAD events through VBA to determine when a
drawing is ready to go back (i.e. user closed it). In this case, let VBA
put the drawing back.

Also tried setting up a class module with AutoCAD events in my VB app. I
get events to fire on only one drawing.

Cheers,
Kenneth Hutson
San Antonio, TX

 

Hi Mikko,
That would work to get the drawing where it needs to be. This will be on a
network server. However, and I guess I didn't mention this, I also want to
delete the closed drawing.
Thanks,
Kenneth Hutson
San Antonio, TX

 

Here is a quick 5 minute demo that saves a dwg, closes it, moves it to one of our network drives and kills the original save. Something to play with.

Imports AutoCAD
Imports System.IO


Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim ACADApp As AutoCAD.AcadApplication
Dim acadDoc As AcadDocument
Dim acadUtl As AcadUtility
Dim acadMoS As AcadModelSpace
ACADApp = GetObject(, "AutoCAD.Application.16.1")
acadDoc = ACADApp.ActiveDocument
acadUtl = ACADApp.ActiveDocument.Utility
acadMoS = ACADApp.ActiveDocument.ModelSpace
Dim startPnt As Object
Dim endPnt As Object
Dim endPoint(2) As Double
startPnt = acadUtl.GetPoint(, "Select Start Point: ")
endPnt = acadUtl.GetPoint(startPnt, "Select End Point: ")
endPoint(0) = endPnt(0)
endPoint(1) = endPnt(1)
endPoint(2) = endPnt(2)
Dim lineObj As AcadLine
lineObj = acadMoS.AddLine(startPnt, endPnt)
ACADApp.ZoomAll()
acadDoc.SaveAs("c:\temp\bogus.dwg")
acadDoc.Close()
Call MoveDWG("c:\temp\bogus.dwg")
End Sub

Sub MoveDWG(ByVal WhatDwg As String)
Dim MoveItHere As String = "j:\0well\bogus.dwg" 'your server location
Try
File.Copy(WhatDwg, MoveItHere)
Kill(WhatDwg)
Catch ex As Exception
MsgBox("What the heck")
Finally
MsgBox("OK")
End Try
End Sub

 

Mikko,
I gotcha. Interesting. Is this what .Net looks like? I havent seen Try
before. I assume the VB equivalent is On Error Resume Next....

Anyway, right now I am thinking of a different tack. Trap the BeginDocClose
event, get my source and destination filenames established. Write them to a
text file. Then from the VB app, provide a button to process the text file
when the coast is clear.. I hate to leave it up to the user to remember to
push though.

Thanks,
Kenneth

 

Ok, then you need to use the events from full vb.The trick is to create a
class that manages the references to each doc. If you're on ADN, there is
an example up there for you.

-- Mike
___________________________
Mike Tuersley
___________________________
the trick is to realize that there is no spoon...

 

Hey Mike,

No ADN here. That's a pay thing right? Man we are still running release
2000 in this office. HA!

Wondering what difference it would make if the event were fired from VB or
VBA. Wouldn't it still boil down to be AutoCAD's End command event in the
end? Anyway, thanks for all the tips and ideas guys.

Respectfully,
Kenneth Hutson
San Antonio, TX

 

From full vb you can monitor the end command from the application level
then either have IO code to watch for the file to actually be "closed" or
use the timer idea. Actually, you could use the error to your advantage and
just loop the file.move until it occurs without error

Yeah ADN is $ but worth it if you do a lot of code. Sorry to hear about
2000!

-- Mike
___________________________
Mike Tuersley
___________________________
the trick is to realize that there is no spoon...