Writing new extension

Hi,

I am new to AutoCAD customization. I am writing a new application on top of AutoCAD. My application has it's own menu that should plug-in to AutoCAD's main menu. My application commands interact with AutoCAD model and layout windows.

Here are my questions, Could anyone of you answer them? Thanks a lot in advance

1. Can we add menu items programmatically through a external VB application? I have seen examples in VBA to add menus to AutoCAD, but I didn't see any example adding menus to AutoCAD through a VB application.

2. Can we compile VBA macros into a dll? I guess we cannot do it, but I am not sure.

Could someone point me to some example applications/ sample code to learn more about the above things.

Thanks a lot,
Suresh

 

Here's an idea for an autoload of your VB stuff...

First... if you do not already have an MNL file matching your main menu name create one...

In the very end of this file insert a line like:
(defun c:Welch ()(load "VBautoload.lsp")(c:Welch))
; where Welch is the command to launch the VB and (it can me anything you want)
; VBautoload.lsp is another file where - - - see below

Create a VBautoload.lsp in the support directory and insert a line like...
(command "_VBAload" "g:\path\morepath\visualbasicfile.dvb")
(defun c:Welch ()(command "-vbarun" "DataConnect"))
; Where dataconnect is your macro name

If you want the macro to automatically run on startup & what not - place a line in your ACAD.lsp file like
(c:welch)
; where welch is your command to execute all this madness

DLL may be possible but not worth the hassle...