Object ARX software development kit
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Author | Mazhar Basa |
| Profession | Civil Engineer | |
| M.Sc. Comp. Fluid Dynamics | ||
| Location | Ankara, TURKEY | |
Hello everybody,
Today I would like to introduce Object ARX Software Development Kit (SDK). You can download your free copy of ARX SDK from www.objectarx.com or www.autodesk.com/objectarx. Click on Samples and Documentation and download executable achieves depending on the version of AutoCAD for which you want to develop ObjectARX applications.
Extract them into your hard drive, and you will get the content as shown in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1 Contents of ObjectARX SDK
For different version contents of SDK changes, however general structure and usage is same only some utilities, documentation and samples change depending on the new features introduced in each version of AutoCAD and also in ObjectARX. Of course, the contents of lib and inc folders also change, but you cannot already use them to develop applications for other versions.
Now, let’s go over each of each folder in SDK.
ARXLABS
In this folder you will find the tutorial help file for developing ObjectARX applications. If you are not familiar with concept of programming with C++ and Visual Studio, it will be hard to follow these tutorials. However, if you follow the instructions one by one it would be a great practice to develop your first ObjectARX application.
DOCS
In this folder you will find the other help files. The main file is arxdoc, which includes all of the other help files. But I suggest you to create a shortcut to your desktop or elsewhere for arxdev, which will be the main reference as it includes definitions of all of AutoCAD’s components that can be used in development of ObjectARX applications.
LIB – INC
These two folders are where you can find the library and header files that Visual Studio will be linked to, in order to create ObjectARX applications.
SAMPLES
Here you can find the samples for ObjectARX projects. They are also classified for different subjects. Unfortunately they include only the files that make up the project, so they need to be compiled with Visual Studio to create the ObjectARX application.
CLASSMAP
In this folder there is an AutoCAD drawing file that shows the classes included in the SDK and their hierarchy. These classes are originally the real classes that are used in AutoCAD. What the SDK does is, it gives the programmer access to these classes by the library files and header files in inc and lib folders so that we can use these classes and their full functionality to develop our applications or create our own classes from them.
REDISTRIB
In this folder there are some files that can be included in redistribution packages, so that we can create our own installation files.
UTILS
In this folder, you can find utility files. Depending on the AutoCAD version, there are different utility programs in this folder. The most important utility program to be used, especially if you are new to ObjectARX programming, is ARXWizards. When you install ARXWizards, then your Visual Studio will obtain the functionality to create ObjectARX applications from templates and other wizards for implementing members and classes inside Visual Studio in a very easy way.
That’s all for today. Have a nice day.
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December 27th, 2006 18:38
Hi, I would like to know if you know a website where I can find several examples.
Thank you for your help.
December 28th, 2006 10:21
Hi Johnny,
First I suggest the samples in SDK, then http://arxdummies.blogspot.com/ which is prepared by Fernando Malard. He is a real specialist in ARX development. I learned a lot from him. You can find several examples there.
You can also check http://discussion.autodesk.com/forum.jspa?forumID=34 which is the official AutoCAD ObjectARX development forum, you can find not only small examples but also answers to lots of questions, and solutions to common problems you will encounter while developing ARX applications.