Using XML and Autocad [Archive]

jason.cyr13

2007-03-19, 08:44 PM

Good morning All.

This question is directed to Ed. Is there a class on read/writing to a file using VBA? The reason I am asking is that I have created a program in VB.NET that gathers information from the user and creates an XML file.

My ultimate goal is to have the information that is in the file placed into attribute blocks from the file. If the user edits the info is the block it is written to the XML file, and the file can be updated through the GUI that I have created. I have tried some searches on the internet, but haven't found a lot of information. Maybe I am asking the wrong question.

If you or anyone else has some info that I can peruse, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks.
Jason

Ed Jobe

2007-03-19, 09:45 PM

Are you sure you want to mix vba and .NET?

jason.cyr13

2007-03-19, 10:08 PM

My bad for not fixing that. I have even less experience with .net in autocad than VBA. I'd rather use one programming language for this project that I am working through. I know that .NET has XML built into it, that's why the original app was done in .NET.

I suppose I could make a DLL of the whole thing and use it entirely in autocad, which would definately have some advantages. For now, I would just like to get the info from the file to the blocks, and have the file updated when the blocks are changed.

It is Monday after all, and some days there just isn't enough caffeine to get me going. ;)

Ed Jobe

2007-03-19, 10:13 PM

I would recommend sticking with .Net. As you mentioned, it has xml support built in. More importantly, are the other tools to work with data. Build a schema of your data, link it to a dataset and output the data. There are a lot more details. For more information, see some of the sources listed in the 'getting started' sticky thread at for this forum.

PellaCAD

2007-07-16, 10:05 PM

I would recommend sticking with .Net. As you mentioned, it has xml support built in. More importantly, are the other tools to work with data. Build a schema of your data, link it to a dataset and output the data. There are a lot more details. For more information, see some of the sources listed in the 'getting started' sticky thread at for this forum.
Ed...where is the "sticky note" referred to in your reply to this XML thread??

Still looking around for a place to get started with this XML-Data-AutoCAD project.

Thanks!

Pete