Per-document data in AutoCAD .

NET applications - Part 1 - Through the Interface

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Per-document data in ObjectARX | Main | Per-document data in AutoCAD
.NET applications - Part 2
October 12, 2006
Per-document data in AutoCAD .NET applications - Part 1
The last few posts have focused on the history of MDI in AutoCAD and how to
store per-document data in ObjectARX applications. Now lets take a look at what
can be done for AutoCAD .NET applications...
There are two main approaches for storing per-document data in managed
applications loaded into AutoCAD Ill take a look at the first in this entry and
tackle the second technique next time.
Define commands as instance members of a class
In managed applications you can declare instance or static methods. Static
methods are those specified as static in C#or Shared in VB.NET. Methods that
are not shared/static are known as instance methods.
Static methods are global they do not use data that is specific to an instance
of the class they belong to. Its common to call static methods directly from the
class namespace (MyClass.myMethod()) rather than from specific instance of the
class (myObject.myMethod()). To declare a method as static, you use the static
keyword in C#and the Shared keyword in VB.NET.
Predictably enough, MSDN contains some good information on static classes and
static class members.
Instance methods can be considered local in scope they work on a specific
instance of a class. A method not declared as static/Shared will be an instance
method by default.
So what does this mean for us, as implementers of AutoCAD commands in .NET?
Heres what the documentation says:
"For an instance command method, the method's enclosing type is
instantiated separately for each open document. This means that
each document gets a private copy of the command's instance data.
Thus there is no danger of overwriting document-specific data when
the user switches documents. If an instance method needs to share
data globally, it can do so by declaring static or Shared member
variables."
So to get the benefits of per-document data in a .NET application, you simply
need to declare the relevant command(s) as instance (non-static). Heres some
sample C#code defining two separate commands: one is declared as static
(accessing static data and even contained within a static class) while the other is
an instance method:
usi ng Aut odesk. Aut oCAD. Appl i cat i onSer vi ces;
usi ng Aut odesk. Aut oCAD. Runt i me;
usi ng Aut odesk. Aut oCAD. Edi t or I nput ;
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Per-document data in AutoCAD .NET applications - Part 1 - Through the Interface

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[ assembl y: CommandCl ass( t ypeof ( CommandCl asses. Fi r st Cl ass ) ) ]
[ assembl y: CommandCl ass( t ypeof ( CommandCl asses. SecondCl ass) ) ]
namespace CommandCl asses
{
st at i c publ i c cl ass Fi r st Cl ass
{
pr i vat e st at i c i nt count er = 0;
[ Aut odesk. Aut oCAD. Runt i me. CommandMet hod( " gl ob" ) ]
publ i c st at i c voi d gl obal ( )
{
Edi t or ed = Appl i cat i on. Document Manager . Mdi Act i veDocument . Edi t or ;
ed. Wr i t eMessage( " \ nCount er val ue i s: " + count er ++) ;
}
}
publ i c cl ass SecondCl ass
{
pr i vat e i nt count er = 0;
[ Aut odesk. Aut oCAD. Runt i me. CommandMet hod( " l oc" ) ]
publ i c voi d l ocal ( )
{
Edi t or ed = Appl i cat i on. Document Manager . Mdi Act i veDocument . Edi t or ;
ed. Wr i t eMessage( " \ nCount er val ue i s: " + count er ++) ;
}
}
}
Heres what happens when you execute the two commands in two separate
documents:
[From first drawing...]
Command: gl ob
Count er val ue i s: 0
Command: gl ob
Count er val ue i s: 1
Command: gl ob
Count er val ue i s: 2
Command: l oc
Count er val ue i s: 0
Command: l oc
Count er val ue i s: 1
Command: l oc
Count er val ue i s: 2
Command: new
[From second drawing...]
Command: gl ob
Count er val ue i s: 3
Command: gl ob
Count er val ue i s: 4
Command: gl ob
Count er val ue i s: 5
Command: l oc
Count er val ue i s: 0
Command: l oc
Count er val ue i s: 1
Command: l oc
Count er val ue i s: 2
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So you can see that when you create and switch to a new document, the glob
command (a static method) continues counting from where it left off. The loc
command (an instance method) starts from zero, as a new instance of its
command class has been created.
If you choose to mix static and instance methods & data in your class, then you
will need to be a little careful about making sure the data gets initialized at the
right time and place. In the above example Ive kept things separate and have
simply used variable initialization to specify the initial values for the two counters
you will probably want to define your own constructors (static or instance) if you
have more complex scenarios to deal with.
In my next post Ill take a look at the Document.UserData container, the
alternative approach to managing per-document data in an AutoCAD .NET
application.
You might also like:
Per-document data in AutoCAD .NET applications - Part 2
Per-document data in ObjectARX
Some background to AutoCAD's MDI implementation and per-document data
Initialization code in your AutoCAD .NET application
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