Customer Reviews

Programming AutoCAD in ObjectARX (Autodesk's Programmer)

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While I agree with the previous words, I must add the following to their reviews: If you are not comfortable with C++, don't even look at this book. The first thing you will see is that rather than:

Private Sub Command1_Click() MsgBox "Hello World!" End Sub

you have instead two(!) pages of code to even register the Hello World application in the proper ObjectARX (class-based) method. Add to that the fact the the ObjectARX model uses a mind-boggling array of macros, includes, etc, and you will quickly feel out of your depth.

There are VERY good reasons to do ObjectARX programming, most of which have to do with the ability to add your own custom classes to the AutoCAD object model, and creating your own entity types from scratch. If you don't need to do that yet, go get a beginning VC++/MFC book and study that. Meantime, VBA is extremely fast for all but the most demanding applications, and is worth very careful study.

I would also add: AutoCAD has some of the BEST documentation in the world. If you have already downloaded the ObjectARX SDK (which I assume since you are perusing a book about it), don't overlook the excellent documentation in PDF format. Not many people know about it, but it is there if you look.

This book is a must for anybody who wants to learn ObjectARX. The CD-Rom has tons of great coding examples. The projects are really interesting to study from. My recommendation on learning ObjectARX is to buy & study the ObjectARX Primer & the Ransen's ObjectArx CD Course first, study this book next & you will be well on your way to become an ObjectARX expert.

This book teach you how to build a first level application for AutoCAD. You learn the basics: to develop your own custom entity, to register commands... But there is nothing about advanced features: deep cloning, COM features (OPM, Design Center...), relationships between objects...

This is the book I was looking for. This book has given enough inputs for writing application. Full credits to Mr. Charls McAuley. Excellent example on drawing Windows coupled with DCL and then MFC support. Any one who is little comfortable with C++ and AutoCAD 2000, can very rapidly digest ObjectARX technology with this book. Go for it. Many thanks to Mr. McAuley for wonderful piece of work.

This is NOT a book for beginning C++ programmers. The author does warn of that in the beginning, and this reviewer believes it is worthwhile to stress again. The reader should be at least an intermediate programmer in C++. It is further recommended that the reader have a good understanding of Microsoft MFC as well. The author assumes the reader has these minimum competancies as he does not waste space trying to teach them.

Having said that, this reviewer started writing ObjectARX applications within the first 2-3 weeks of reading the book. The author provides sound basics and good examples. It covers many topics within the ObjectARX environment but does not go into great detail on any particular one. The book assumes that the reader will use the on-line reference to find out the nitty-gritty on a particular item. Admittedly, this reviewer found himself after the first month of programming relying primarily on the on-line reference provided with ObjectARX, rather than the book. Still, the book gets you pointed in the right direction. The biggest complaint this reviewer had, if he had to name one, is the index. It is quite lacking.