Through the Interface

AU 2009 classes, both physical and virtual

As mentioned in this previous post, at this year’s Autodesk University the “Developer Track” has rightly been combined with the “Customization & Programming” track (it made sense to rationalise these two tracks which had a very similar style of class). So unlike in previous years, the sessions we’re either presenting or helping coordinate are listed with the “CP” prefix.

Here’s a quick round-up of the AutoCAD-related physical classes, labs and panel sessions being presented either by my team or by members of Engineering (with my team helping coordinate):

CP104-1 Using .NET 4.0 with AutoCAD	Albert Szilvasy
CP308-4 AutoCAD VBA to .NET migration: The easy way using COM Interop	Augusto Goncalves
CP218-3 AutoCAD APIs: The Right Tools for the Job	Fenton Webb
CP114-5 AutoCAD .NET: UI Design featuring WPF Part 1	Fenton Webb
CP118-2 AutoCAD .NET: UI Design Featuring WPF Part 2	Fenton Webb
CP222-4 Maximize the .NET in AutoCAD .NET	Gopinath Taget
CP304-4 AutoCAD .NET: Developing a User Interface using WinForms	Gopinath Taget
CP208-1 AutoCAD .NET: Developing for AutoCAD Using IronPython and IronRuby	Kean Walmsley
CP114-3L Going from VBA to VB .NET in 90 Minutes	Lee Ambrosius
CP308-1L Working with Actions and the Action Recorder	Lee Ambrosius
CP318-4 Taking a Look at the Sheet Set Object with VB .NET	Lee Ambrosius
CP122-3 AutoCAD APIs: Meet the Experts	Stephen Preston (panel host)
CP204-2 API for CUIx, Runtime Ribbon & introduction to WPF in AutoCAD	Wayne Brill
CP214-4 AutoCAD .NET: Using .NET with your LISP applications	Wayne Brill

Here are the AutoCAD-related virtual sessions (see this previous post for some background on AUv):

CP9210-1 AutoCAD .NET: 0 to 3D in 90 Minutes	Fenton Webb
CP9214-1 AutoCAD .NET: Developing for AutoCAD Using F#	Kean Walmsley
CP9310-1 Customizing entity behavior in AutoCAD .NET	Stephen Preston

There are many other classes besides these, of course. Here are the the complete catalogs for both the physical and virtual classes.

If you can’t make it to Las Vegas but would still prefer to attend a physical event, there is one more option available to you: Autodesk University Extension. These 100+ free training events, held at 90+ Authorized Training Centers (ATC®) in 35 countries around the world, will provide you access to content delivered at AU – including many of the AUv classes – as well as providing the opportunity to network with local peers and experts. To compare AUv with AU Extension, you may find this comparison grid helpful.

I’m looking forward to meeting many of you in Vegas, whether physically or virtually!

Free webcast on AutoCAD VBA to .NET Migration

Sorry for the late notice on this one… I’d have posted sooner but for having taken some time off, last week, to take the family to Disneyland Paris. Now I just need a few more days of vacation to recover. :-S :-)

Tomorrow there’s a free webcast showing how to migrate your VBA code to use VBA.NET. The content focuses primarily on the use of COM Interop to quickly get your VBA code working from VB.NET, building on the DevTV session mentioned previously and using its accompanying migration tool.

The session will be taking place at 8am Pacific/10am Eastern/4pm in the UK/5pm in Central Europe, on October 20, 2009.

To register, please go to our API training schedule (also accessible via http://www.autodesk.com/apitraining). As usual, we will be posting links to the recording of this session on the API training schedule page, in case you’re not able to attend at such short notice.

Free AutoCAD API webcast: 0 to 3D in 60 Minutes

Next week Fenton Webb, from DevTech Americas, will be presenting a free webcast on the 3D capabilities of AutoCAD’s APIs. Here’s Fenton’s synopsis:

“If your product has always been 2D and you are now considering moving to 3D or if you are simply interested in finding out about the different API’s that are available to program AutoCAD in 3D then come join this webcast. We’ll give a brief overview history of 3D in AutoCAD along with some code demonstrations of some API’s in operation. Also, don’t forget that included at the end is a Q and A section allowing you to ask any questions you might have.”

The session will be taking place at 8am Pacific/10am Eastern/4pm in the UK/5pm in Central Europe, on October 13, 2009, and will presumably last about an hour (although I can well imagine the Q&A might make it longer). :-)

To register, please go to our API training schedule (also accessible via http://www.autodesk.com/apitraining). As usual, we will be posting links to the recording of this session on the API training schedule page, in case you’re not able to attend.

Updated versions of the AutoCAD .NET Wizard & Labs

As mentioned a few months ago, we’ve been working on a project wizard for AutoCAD .NET development. The official version of this tool is now available via the AutoCAD Developer Center (a direct link to the download can be found here).

We incorporated a number of enhancement requests received from people working with the previous, draft version, but I don’t have an exhaustive list of the updates, unfortunately. If you provided feedback, thank you for taking the time to do so, and hopefully the issue you faced has been addressed in this updated version (and please do let us know, if not).

On a related note, an updated version of the AutoCAD .NET Labs is also available from the same location (the direct link is here). This is a great resource for someone getting started with AutoCAD .NET development, and is the material we use when delivering AutoCAD .NET training. You’ll find included a PowerPoint presentation along with step-by-step samples in both C# and VB.NET.

A big thanks to those involved in providing these tools, especially our resident Wizard wizard, Cyrille Fauvel.

Free webcast: AutoCAD .NET - Developing a User Interface

Gopinath Taget, from DevTech Americas, will be delivering a repeat session of this free webcast on Thursday, August 20. Please go to our API training schedule if you would like to register for the event (from where a recording of the previous event is also available for download (20.3 MB)).

Here’s a brief synopsis of the webcast:

This webcast will show how to integrate your application's user interface into the AutoCAD look and feel. We’ll show you how to work with .NET Forms, create your own palettes, issues surrounding .NET UI development on AutoCAD and implement Event handling so your interface can respond to actions initiated by the user. We will also talk about freely available .NET controls that the AutoCAD .NET API provides and how to use them.

Gopi tells me the content is focused on WinForms: if you are looking to integrate WPF into your UI then the information in this recent post should be of help.

DevLabs in Beijing, Bangalore & Las Vegas(?)

This post is to bring you up-to-date on DevLabs, an initiative I’ve mentioned a couple of times in recent months.

We’ve so far held two very successful DevLab events in Farnborough and San Francisco. The feedback we’ve received from attendees has been overwhelming positive, and the people from my team who hosted the events found the experience extremely rewarding.

So yes, full speed ahead with the remaining, scheduled DevLabs events in China and India:

• Beijing, China
• August 17-21, AutoCAD and Autodesk Inventor APIs
• August 24-28, Geospatial and Revit APIs
• Bangalore, India
• September 8–11, Geospatial and Revit APIs
• September 14-17, AutoCAD and Autodesk Inventor APIs

The events held so far have definitely left us considering running more in the future. We’re currently thinking about booking a meeting room at AU 2009 to hold a DevLab focused specifically on helping people migrate their AutoCAD code from VBA to VB.NET language (we would also help people moving to C#, of course, but the assumption is that VBA developers will generally choose VB.NET over C# given the familiarity of the syntax).

If you’re interested in attending any of these three events, please send us an email. We’re still just trying to gauge how well attended a DevLab held at AU would be – there’s already so much going on – so we need to hear from you if you believe you’d find this opportunity valuable.

Reminder: free API webcast series on using WPF in your AutoCAD applications

As mentioned in this previous post, Fenton Webb is presenting a two-part series on using the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) in your AutoCAD .NET applications. The first session on June 2nd was recorded and the second is to be held next week on July 14th.

You can register for upcoming webcasts - and access recordings for previous webcasts – via our API training schedule (which can also be accessed via this easy-to-remember URL: http://www.autodesk.com/apitraining).

A learning path for newbie programmers

I’m working to develop a “learning path” for people who know one or more Autodesk products from a user perspective but are interested in getting more into programming them: perhaps during their engineering studies they took one or two programming classes (perhaps not), and now feel that implementing some level of automation would be beneficial to themselves or to their colleagues. Or perhaps their boss has just told them to find out how all this stuff works. Or – and this is an altogether more sobering alternative – they have recently lost their jobs and are contemplating a career change, taking advantage of the Autodesk Assistance Program to get access to Autodesk software and are looking to complement existing design skills with the ability to customize and develop for our software.

I’d really like to hear your opinion on this topic, whatever your own personal motivation for learning programming. I knew programming before I knew AutoCAD, so I came at this from another direction and to some degree find myself too far along my own learning path to properly assess the current tools for learning programming fundamentals (it was just so long ago that I went through this myself). So this post is really a call for help: if any readers of this blog have recently tried to learn how to program for Autodesk software (or any software, for that matter, as I’m most interested in the resources related to the core programming fundamentals, rather than the product-specific side of things) then I’d very much appreciate you letting me know what worked for you and what didn’t.

Some examples: Microsoft provides an online learning service called Ramp Up – have any of you tried it to learn programming with .NET? What good books or – ideally – free resources have you used to get started with programming? Please post a comment or send me an email.

Free API webcasts on using Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) in your AutoCAD applications

Fenton Webb, from DevTech Americas, is presenting two sessions on using WPF in your AutoCAD .NET applications. These will be of particular interest to developers wanting to take their ribbon interfaces to the next level in AutoCAD 2010, but will be of relevance to anyone wanting to understand more about WPF and how it can be used within AutoCAD.

The first session is coming up quickly, on June 2nd (next Tuesday), but if you’re reading this soon after I’ve posted you should still have time to register. The second session is scheduled for July 14th.

Both sessions will be recorded and available for download from our API training schedule which can also be accessed via this easy-to-remember URL: http://www.autodesk.com/apitraining.

DevLabs reminder

Just a quick reminder about the DevLabs my team is running, the first of which is being held next week in our UK office.

Here’s some additional information that was sent out in a recent technical newsletter for ADN members:

If you don’t have time to attend a training class, but you value the opportunity to work on your code with the help of an Autodesk expert, then DevLab is for you. Bring your laptop to our FREE DevLab and work on your code as you normally – the difference is that you have a team of DevTech experts (the same people who provide API support, training and consulting to ADN members) available to review your code, answer your questions, and make suggestions. Stay at DevLab for a week, or just for one or two days – you’re free to come and go as you please. (And did we mention it was FREE?).

If you are confused about what DevLabs are all about, here are some sample use cases:

1. You have new requirements for your product but you are unsure of what direction to take or which technology to use. You need to ask questions and then take time to think once you get the answers in order to decide what direction you want to take. Setting up a full Mentoring engagement is too much for your particular requirements. Perhaps you have a few questions that you need to describe in person early on and once answered, you can continue your investigation and your everyday work; but then again, after some time in carrying on with your work, you may get stuck and require further consultation. Feel free to sit in a DevLabs session and either work as normal or ask questions.
2. You are developing new features in your product, coding as you go. You know how to do most of the development required, but you just get stuck on certain details because you are unfamiliar with the technology. These things can take a lot of time to research! You know that if you ask a question and get an answer, you will be able to continue programming until you get stuck again and then require more direct consultation.
3. You are looking for a chance to meet and share ideas with Autodesk experts and other programmers, but you are very busy and just can’t justify spending time at a conference or specific training class. You want to be able to get on with your normal work, but at the same time, benefit from being able to discuss issues that you or other developers encounter. It’s totally up to you when you ask for help, or listen in. If you just sit and work on your own thing for the whole time, that’s fine.

Our trial DevLabs are:

• Farnborough, UK
• June 1–5, AutoCAD and Autodesk Inventor APIs
• San Francisco, USA
• June 22–26, AutoCAD APIs
• Bangalore, India
• September 8–11, Geospatial and Revit APIs
• September 14-17, AutoCAD and Autodesk Inventor APIs
• Beijing, China
• August 17–21, AutoCAD and Autodesk Inventor APIs
• August 24–28, Geospatial and Revit APIs

Email dev-consult@autodesk.com for more information or to register.