.NET API functions to interrogated Civil 3D drawings for possible data shortcut dependencies

[ralstogj]

BlackBox

Long time member and reader, but mainly posted over in the Autodesk forums between 2008 & 2014 when work was a bit quieter. Last few years have been hectic in the land development industry in NZ.

Been having a depressing time of late trying to either find or train and retain good staff and keep up with the work. This the case I have come to the conclusion that I need to start working smarter not harder over the last few months which was always my philosophy years ago.

Yes your old post shows what I have to do but not sure I will find the time to investigate further in the short term.

Regards

Justin

[BlackBox]

Long time member and reader, but mainly posted over in the Autodesk forums between 2008 & 2014 when work was a bit quieter. Last few years have been hectic in the land development industry in NZ.

Yeah... Guess I should have looked at your join date instead of the post count, huh? Haha

Been having a depressing time of late trying to either find or train and retain good staff and keep up with the work.

Sorry to hear that; don't be depressed... Look at everything you do have and the opportunity you have moving forward, then say GOOD.

This the case I have come to the conclusion that I need to start working smarter not harder over the last few months which was always my philosophy years ago.

It takes both emotion (work harder) and logic (work smarter) to reach your maximum potential.

[Edit] - Dare I say, to reach your [Xtreme] potential?

Yes your old post shows what I have to do but not sure I will find the time to investigate further in the short term.

I'll see what I can do.

[BlackBox]

Yes your old post shows what I have to do but not sure I will find the time to investigate further in the short term.

I'll see what I can do.

Well, just as an update to this:

In part due to your request and in part because it's been long overdue, I've started a new Framework (more importantly a single Solution/Project, for each ACAD and C3D) for my various apps, which now includes this topic.

I've successfully implemented a new Autodesk.Civil.DatabaseServices.Entity.GetReferencePath() extension method, which retrieves the DREF Source Path (as string) for any AECC Entity where IsReferenceObject == true that can be found in ShortcutFolders.xml file**. To test this in production, I've also implemented a C3d-GetReferencePath LispFunction method, for use with ObjectDBX to grant your request for a DREF variant of BFindSurface (aka a forthcoming BFindDref LISP), and a ContextMenuExtension (aka right click menu) for real-time querying during work.

Still needs some work; there are a few DREF types that I simply don't use for my daily work, as I don't use Plans Production Tools (PPT), etc so I need to set that up and make sure it works for all supported DREF types, and I'm currently using XmlDocument (as that's what I had originally coded this in several years ago) and would like to instead use XDocument/XElement for LINQ performance gains.

While performance is a common theme in my offerings, this even more so, as I'll also be using this functionality to support the ability to 'Match Source' Layers, Styles, etc for things like DREF Pipe Networks... I already have this too, but currently resort to manually selecting the Source DWG via dos_getfiled selection dialog... Being able to instead simply select the Part(s) to sync without first needing to know the Source DWG (so long as that WorkingFolder is found in ShortcutFolders.xml) will significantly benefit overall efficiency.

[Edit] - ** I'm also planning to leverage this to allow for a two-way sync of ShortcutFolders.xml files, where a new project added by User1 will sync their local ShortcutFolders.xml file up to a network-shared ShortcutFolders.xml file, which will in turn sync down to User2, who will then immediately have access to the same project when they open a drawing associated with that WorkingFolder (instead of having to manually add that WorkingFolder to preclude the 'project not found' message).

Cheers

[BlackBox]

Oh it's happening....

2018-12-21_15-55-05.png

[ngwalters412556]

Oh it's happening....

2018-12-21_15-55-05.png

Were you able to implement a stable version of this that you're comfortable distributing? DREFs have a good amount of trouble updating names of structures/pipes; it'd be nice to have a starting point as it seems like what you were doing was already 90% there.

Regards,

[bliza3017785670]

Thanks for everyone for sharing your information

[BlackBox]

... not sure I will find the time to investigate further in the short term.

Were you able to implement a stable version of this that you're comfortable distributing? DREFs have a good amount of trouble updating names of structures/pipes; it'd be nice to have a starting point as it seems like what you were doing was already 90% there.

Looks like I too was unable to revisit this in the short term. Haha

Posting this as a reminder for myself; as a quick update with regard to being '90% there', the app pictured above works great for DREFs associated with the drawing's current 'Project Association' but currently fails if not found within that associated project's XML files. So, I simply need to iterate ALL 'known' projects, right? Right... And then mitigate duplicate names by checking for handles, overcoming the fact that User A might have the project association, but User B does not, etc. It is in this last part that I've also discussed creating a mechanism to sync projects to<<-->>from the server, so User A creates a new Working Folder/Project and that is synced to server, where User B has never gone into that project but that new project is synced down to their local computer, and vice-versa.

Anyway, thanks for the reminder on this.

Cheers