Drawing File Thumbnail Preview

[Coolmo]

I need to show the thumbnail preview of a selected .DWG file from my server and/or hard drive by simply passing a path to some function or series of functions. I've looked everywhere online for a simple example of this and get the runaround and very difficult, sometimes wrong answers from everywhere. I even searched here for the words "thumbnail" and "preview" and nothing came up. There has to be a simple way to pass a filename (with path) to something that turns the DWG thumbnail (AutoCADS preview) into a bitmap that can then be shown in a picture box. Can anyone give me some insight as to how to do this? Preferably without mentioning the DWGthumbnail.OCX way of doing it? I heard that won't work in later versions of AutoCAD. I currently use C3D 2007 but want to "look to the future" in my programs. If a simple install of AutoCAD allows Windows Explorer to show these thumbnails with a simple click on a filename, I assume it can be done with VB.net for use inside of AutoCAD.

Thanks for any help on this.

[Ed Jobe]

I haven't messed with the thumbnail much. The ocx you mention was written by Randall Rath for vba. It reads the bits from the dwg header. Here is a post over at the swamp that might help.

[Coolmo]

I haven't messed with the thumbnail much. The ocx you mention was written by Randall Rath for vba. It reads the bits from the dwg header. Here is a post over at the swamp that might help.

Ed... You have helped me tremendously in almost every question I've posted so PLEASE, do not consider this a rant in your direction...in any way, form, or fashion...

(this section edited after the fact...)

You're right... it is indeed a swamp...

This one kinda begins and ends in the same fashion as all the rest. The variables included in the example are not "explained" as to where they came from and all the classes the code uses, and/or that are imported, are not described as to where they are "imported" from. ...............Brick..Wall..

Is this some sort of devine code that AutoCAD doesn't want the world to know about or what? I can't find it anywhere...!...?!!

Then again, I asked a long time ago about how to simply launch a windows form from the AutoCAD command line and/or a specific button click event (using VB.NET) and I got the most unbelievable,conveluted, runaround answer possible, including the most complicated error handlers possible and safeguards to secure you from EVERYTHING!!!! but it all came down to 2 lines of code which declared the form and then launched a NEW instance of the form...

The beauty is in the simplicity of all of this. We simply want to learn, not necessarily implement EVERY, SINGLE, POSSIBLE, "blow it up" scenerio backup that actually CAN be placed in our code.

Sorry for the rant. I really do apoligize.

[Kerry Brown]

You're right... it is indeed a swamp...

It is indeed
... a good place to become emersed in.