infant application needs direction

say we are developing an autocad application that we believe will some day
be an integral part of autocad. we need to know its ultimate potential, so
we can establish a dictionary system now that will be upwardly compatible.
initially, the app will be distributed in autolisp with limited capability,
then arx will speed it up, but will arx expand its capability?

without giving away confidential info, i'll try to describe the application.
it is based on the idea that viewport objects and insert objects are similar
in function. so much that they could be unified into one object; a viewport
afterall is just a reference of the *model_space block. inserting a block
is establishing a view of a group of objects. viewport clipping is the same
as xclip or reference clipping (i wish). to edit a block with refedit then
edit a layout by switching tabs then edit model space through a paperspace
viewport is silly when all you need is a unified object model. the set of
terms - layout, tab, modelspace, paperspace, viewport, block - requires
tools like - refedit, insert, mview, mpsace, pspace, layout, tilemode,
layer, vplayer... this user-friendly abomination can simply be reduced to -
block definition, block reference - and the tools - refedit, layer, refclip.

the idea of a unified insert object gives users expanded functionality and a
simplified intuitive control. the new insert object can display nested
layers independently, it can be clipped the way viewports now can, with
disjoint regions- why not make that volumetric clipping? change its x y z
scale factors as before, or, apply a perspective transformation to its
coordinate system.

our new application is another tool for manipulating a block reference. i'll
be as ambiguous as possible... initially, using autolisp, we'll scan a block
and change the way it is displayed. in the future we want to interupt
AutoCAD's regeneration process, hook onto the regeneration to do our scan
and change the way the block is displayed while it is being regenerated. A)
is this possible at any level of programming? B) can separate instances of
the same block be scanned and altered differently during the same regen?

thanks all

 

our new application is another tool for manipulating a block reference.
i'll

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