Beyond the Paper

API Overhaul

I am pleased to say that we are finally making some progress on the API front and our development team has agreed to look at our current API and kick off an overhaul of sort.

Needless to say that this is long overdue and I am very excited that this is finally taking shape. Well, "good things take time"!

This change will be reflected in next years release and will not affect Autodesk Design Review 2009. The numerous new features and improvements did not leave any room for the much needed API work in the 2009 release time frame.

It is planned that the makeover will include not only the addition of missing functionality and correction of problems, but also the removal of API that are not being used or are no longer relevant, due to being linked only to legacy products.

This is were YOU come in!

Enclosed is a list of API that are currently slated for the "grinder" and it is crucial that you let us know if you are using any of the stated API. The selection was made based on earlier customer feedback and an internal evaluation.

• IRasterToDWF
• IMarkupEvents
• IAdTempFileHolder
• IAdSectionTypePrivate
• IAdPrintDialog
• IAdPageNavigatorCtrl
• IAdContent
• IAdContent2
• ISheetListCtrl2
• ISheetListCtrl3
• IMarkupPropertiesCtrl2
• IMarkupCtrl
• IMarkupCtrls
• IPropertiesCtrl
• ISectionPropertiesCtrl
• IThumbnailCtrl
• IThumbnailCtrl2
• IThumbnailCtrl3
• IAdECompositeViewerPrivate2
• IEModelEditorToolPrivate
• IText3DToolGather
• IAdPagePaper
• IAdEPlotBookmark
• IAdEPlotDocument
• IAdEPlotPage
• IAdEPlotPagePrivate
• IAdDocument
• IEPlotDrawList
• ISelectionInserter
• IAdEPlotViewer
• IAdEPlotViewer2

Please reply to this post or send your feedback directly to volker.joseph@autodesk.com. Feedback can consist of anything API - even API you would like to see or is not working for you at this point. Please ensure to include an explanation or supporting documentation with your feedback, thank you.

Now is the time to speak up!

--Volker

DWF + WPF = 3D Collaborator

The DWF Toolkit makes application development possible for Autodesk partners.

Autodesk is a Microsoft technology partner. The Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation provides a foundation for building applications and high fidelity experiences in Microsoft Windows Vista, blending together application UI, documents, and media content, while exploiting the full power of your computer.

InterKnowlogy is also a Microsoft technology partner. Leveraging the technology of the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), InterKnowlogy built a 3D Collaborator for AutoCAD© Drawings. It allows you to annotate on the 2D or 3D surface of AutoCAD Drawings that have been published as DWF. 3D Collaborator is another example of an independent use of the free Autodesk DWF Toolkit. Although the download includes some prewired sample DWF files, InterKnowlogy updated 3D Collaborator this month to make opening your own DWF files easier.

InterKnowlogy 3D Collaborator

Please take 3D Collaborator for a spin with your own DWF files and tell us what you think. In this age of ever expanding bandwidth, does size matter? How is the speed? How would you like to see the metadata presented? You can email scott.sheppard@autodesk.com with your thoughts or simply post a comment on this blog page. Your comments are welcome.

Can I distribute Autodesk Design Review 2008 to others?

Yes. You can redistribute Autodesk Design Review 2008 to anyone without prior approval from Autodesk, subject to the terms of the license agreement.

If you examine your license agreement (license.rtf file gets installed) for Autodesk Design Review 2008, you will find:

"The Software is licensed to You as a single product, and its components may not be separated for distribution or use.  You may copy and distribute the Software and User Documentation only in its entirety, and you will not redistribute: (i) Software (whether it is integrated with other technology as a component or as a standalone product) that does not provide end users access to the complete Software Install process, including this Agreement; or (ii) incomplete, modified, reverse engineered, or otherwise altered copies of the Software or User Documentation."

Based on the license agreement, a common strategy is for application developers to include SetupDesignReview.exe with their applications and have their users run it as a prerequisite to installing their applications. The MSI file is also available. The ability to include the free Autodesk Design Review 2008 with applications will add value to the DWF experience and helps DWF go Beyond the Paper.

Please feel free to contact us should you have any additional questions. Thank you.

--Volker

API in Focus III

This is the 2nd follow up to the "API in Focus" blog article, an idea we introduced on April 27th 2007.

The enclosed link allows you to download the second half of a document, covering the overall subject of "HTML and URL Parameters Supported in Design Review 2008".

HTML and URL Parameters Supported in Design Review 2008 Part 2 of 2

The enclosed content covers the following subjects and provides sample code for:

• PageSheetIndex
• NamedView
• View
• HighlightHyperlinks
• HyperlinksEnabled
• HyperlinkTooltipVisible
• SingleClickHyperlink
• PaperVisible
• ToolbarVisible
• UserInterfaceEnabled
• MarkupsVisible
• NotifyMissingFonts

The use of the HTML/URL parameters in your APIs lets you control the look and feel of the UI, as well as control the user's initial view of the DWF.

By using the parameters, you can accomplish these tasks without having to do additional coding in JavaScript.

--Volker

API Questions and Answers

A customer from Munich approached us with the following interesting questions:

"I've embedded Design Review 2008 in some webpage, accessing the API through Javascript. It works fairly well, but there's one thing I can't figure out:

• How can I select (and deselect) objects from Javascript?
• In the samples (eg. Object Highlighting) they use AdView.DocumentHandler.ObjectNodes, but this does not work (IE gives an undefined error - sample doesn't work). It's a bit strange, since the samples try to use it, but it isn't even stated in the API documentation.
• So, is there any way to select objects from Javascript?"

Anil Narra, one of our developers, replied: "First off, our object APIs went through two distinct iterations. The original object API was 2D only so we wrote a new unified object API which works the same for both 2D and 3D. Both the IAdViewerEvents::OnSelectObject event and IAdECompositeViewer::ObjectsSelected property are of the former group and while not deprecated for 2D, have never really worked for 3D so you shouldn’t be using them (it doesn’t surprise me that ObjectsSelected blows up for 3D sections).

That said, we have attempted to come up with a unified object API which operates the same for both 2D and 3D. Here is the gist of what you need to do:

1. Trap for the newer OnSelectObjectEx event but don’t handle it so that the default event handling will still occur. Unfortunately the new selection set isn’t created until such time as the default handler does its thing so you can’t look at the selection set inside your event handler. So instead, set a global boolean called “OnSelectObjectExCalled” to true (the purpose of this will become clear in a minute).

2. Right after the selection set changes, there will be a repaint (to highlight the new selections) so trap out the ensuing OnBeginDraw event (or OnEndDraw if you rather) and see if OnSelectObjectExCalled is true. If so, the selection set is now valid and you can fetch it via the IAdContent::Objects(ObjectType::Selected) property (be sure and set the OnSelectObjectExCalled member back to false). It would have been nice had we created a post “OnSelectObjectHappened” type event in which the new selection set would already exist but we didn’t so you’ll have to resort to this repaint trapping scheme instead.

3. The IAdContent::Objects(ObjectType::Selected) property returns an IAdCollection of IAdObject’s. These are the object’s themselves so you don’t need to use the IAdContent2::Object property (returns the IAdObject for an object with the given id). For each item in the collection, you can invoke its “Properties” property to get an IAdCollection of all the IAdProperty items possessed by the object.

Ps: You can also control the selection set programmatically. First call IAdContent::CreateUserCollection to return an empty IAdUserCollection. You can then add to it the IAdObject interfaces of those objects you want selected. Once complete, you can “set” the IAdContent::Objects(ObjectType::Selected) property to your collection to effect the desired selection."

Thank you, Anil.

--Volker

API Call Causes Premature Termination

We had reports of customers who experience an early product termination when calling "ADViewer.Viewer.Document.SourcePath" and no document has been loaded prior to making the call.

The issue has now been resolved and development have indicated that getting an empty document path is not a defect, as no one should try to use the API to get information about the document before the document is loaded. This, however, should not lead to a crash.

The crash no longer occurs now and the call is returning a blank string, which is as expected.

Our recommendations to user is that one should not try to use the API to get information about a document before the document is loaded.

Please let us know should you have any additional questions about the issue.

Thank you.

--Volker

API in Focus II

This is a follow up to the "API in Focus" blog article, an idea we introduced on April 27th 2007.

We slightly changed the concept and are now planning to cover the content in two articles and in a shorter time frame than originally anticipated. We figured that it would be better to provide more content at a time, instead of spreading it out over a longer period.

The enclosed link allows you to download the first half of a document, covering the overall subject of "HTML and URL Parameters Supported in Design Review 2008". We are still waiting for sample code for the second half and will publish it as soon as we have received it.

HTML and URL Parameters Supported in Design Review 2008 Part 1 of 2

The enclosed content covers the following subjects and provides sample code for:

• BackColor
• HyperlinkColor
• PaperColor
• ObjectHighlightColor
• ObjectSelectedColor
• LayersOff
• LayersOn
• LayersExpression

The use of the HTML/URL parameters in your APIs lets you control the look and feel of the UI, as well as control the user's initial view of the DWF.

By using the parameters, you can accomplish these tasks without having to do additional coding in JavaScript.

--Volker

Visual Studio 2005 & MSIE7 causing DWF Script Errors

Users reported script errors when opening a DWF located on a network drive, when using the Visual Studio 2005 Web Browser Component on a PC running Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.

Errors are similar to the ones shown below:

   

It took us a while to figure this one out. It appears that this is really a Microsoft issue and further discussions with Microsoft and additional testing showed that there are two possible workarounds or solutions for this particular problem:

1. Add registry entries per Microsoft Knowledgebase 934366, or
2. Add the server name (ex. file://server) to the Trusted Sites list in the MSIE7 security settings

Either one of these two solutions will resolve the problem for Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 on Vista or Windows XP.

There is nothing we can change in Autodesk Design Review 2008 to address this issue.  The shown changes for MSIE 7 will address this issue for customers using MSIE7 with Autodesk Design Review, DWF Viewer or DWF Composer.

The root problem here is that Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 behavior for network shares changes when the "Allow active content to run in files from My Computer" option is checked or enabled.

Users may check this option to eliminate the warning message that happens when dragging & dropping a file from a local drive letter.  The subsequent behavior for network shares is unexpected and inconsistent with how MSIE6 worked.

--Volker

API in Focus

We have decided that it would be a good idea to focus on the API functionality of Autodesk Design Review with a number of articles. Said that, we are well aware that there are still some voids that need filling but we feel that a renewed focus on the API will provide addtional thrust to move API Pro's and Newbie's forward together. This itself will hopefully provide more feedback and give us a much better understanding of the user's needs.

So, over the coming weeks we are planning for about a dozen or so API articles - covering functionality as well as offering the accompanying sample codes. Sample codes will be made available through the Sample Code section of the blog, during and after the publication of the content.

--Volker

Autodesk Design Review 2008: Updated API Documentation

Autodesk Design Review 2008 was released on April 2. Technical Writer, Kim Schaefer, reports that the Autodesk Design Review 2008 API document has undergone a major revamping. It has always been available as a compiled HTML (CHM) file but for 2008, it been completely reformatted. The CHM now prints out correctly. The previous CHM printed in a huge font size. For 2008, all of the associated methods, events, and properties are now included in the index. There is a new topic describing document conventions and another one with links to all of the content that is new for this release. The updated CHM also includes instructions for embedding an Autodesk Design Review ActiveX control into a Web page and using JavaScript to create custom interfaces or gather data from a DWF once it has been loaded.

The HTML page loads the control from DesignReviewDll.dll in the same way that the Autodesk Design Review application, a small EXE, communicates with the control.

Thanks Kim. Check it out.

--Scott