Class Objective

You learn
AutoCAD deepClone API and cloning techniques
Benchmarks, performance and implementation considerations
Aspects of controlling cloning operations in AutoCAD
We do not discuss and assume knowledge of
How to program in .NET or ObjectARX
The basics of the AutoCAD .Net or ObjectARX API
AutoCAD product usage
About the Presenter
Cyrille Fauvel
Autodesk Developer Network

Cyrille is a member of the M&E workgroup of the Autodesk Developer Network (ADN)
team, providing developer support, training, and conference presentations on
AutoCAD, RealDWG, Inventor, Maya, 3ds Max, FBX API.

He joined Autodesk in 1994 as an AutoCAD developer based in Switzerland and

California, USA. Later moved to the Developer Support group, and Consulting division.

Cyrille graduated in Mechanics and Electronics in France, worked as a teacher and

C++ developer for a 3rd party developer on AutoCAD. He is fluent in six programming
languages, tries to learn Japanese which turns out to be more difficult than learning
English, has two kids, plays the guitar and piano, likes reading, love sailing on oceans,
sports, and especially hand-ball.
Autodesk Developer Network

Access to almost all Autodesk software and SDK’s

Includes early access to beta software
Members-only website with thousands of technical articles
Unlimited technical support
Product direction through conferences
Marketing benefits
Exposure on autodesk.com
Promotional opportunities
One to three free API training classes
Based on user level

www.autodesk.com/joinadn
Agenda

Overview
1 Cloning! What is it?
Why should I care?

Basics
2 Shallow Clone, deep Clone & wblock Clone
Who is using cloning?

API
3 Cloning and ID Translations
ObjectARX or .Net?

A concrete example
4
Modify the default AutoCAD behavior

Additional information
5
Inspect, spy, learning more
Overview

Cloning! What is it?

Why should I care?
Cloning

Cloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of

genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms
such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in
biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA
fragments (molecular cloning), cells (cell cloning), or organisms. The
term also refers to the production of multiple copies of a product such as
digital media or software.
The term clone is derived from κλῶνος, the Greek word for "trunk,
branch", referring to the process whereby a new plant can be created
from a twig. In horticulture, the spelling clon was used until the twentieth
century; the final e came into use to indicate the vowel is a "long o"
instead of a "short o". Since the term entered the popular lexicon in a
more general context, the spelling clone has been used exclusively.
Cloning (disambiguation)

Cloning is the process of making an identical copy of something.

Cloning may also refer to:

Cloning (programming), the copying of a programming object

Disk cloning, the copying of the contents of a computer hard disk to a
storage medium or file
Phone cloning, the transfer of identity between one mobile telephone
and another
Reduplication, aka "cloning", in linguistics refers to a process by which
the root or stem of a word is repeated
Molecular cloning, the process of identifying and isolating a specific
gene
Cloning

Clone is not Copy

For this presentation

Clone = make a new instance of an object which has the same

property’ values of the original object

Copy = copy the value of an object property

First user is AutoCAD

AutoCAD uses deepClone and/or wblock

Copy, Mirror, Array operations
Wblock operations
Insert operations
Explode operation
Copy & Paste
Entity drag operation
Reference editing
…
Any other plug-ins which want to control cloning operations to:
Prevent clones
Make sure objects required for a clone will be present
Maintain the integrity of a user defined structure across AutoCAD commands
…
Basics

Shallow Clone, Deep Clone & Wblock Clone

Who is using cloning?
Cloning methods

Shallow Cloning
Copy of a singleton ObjectARX C++ object
AcRxObject::clone()
RTTI and C++ object copy
copyFrom() to copy properties

Deep Cloning
clones an object and its hard/soft ownership references
but do not clone hard/soft pointer referenced objects
however, copies the pointer reference values
Wblock Cloning
clones an object and its hard owner and hard pointer references
but ignores any soft references
and reset non cloned references to null
First user is AutoCAD

AutoCAD uses deepClone and/or wblock

Copy operations
deepClone
Wblock operations
wblock
Insert operations
deepClone (insert)
Copy & Paste
Wblock & deepClone (insert)
Entity drag operation
deepClone
…
'Ownership' and 'Pointer References'

4 types
Combination of [ Hard or Soft ] and [ Ownership or Pointer ]

Hard
Reference required for the object to survive in a database
Soft
Reference not required (can be ignored depending of the context)

Ownership
Parent – Child relation ship
Pointer
Cooperative object the object is referencing for its definition
References

ObjectARX
AcDbHardOwnershipId
AcDbSoftOwnershipId
AcDbHardPointerId
AcDbSoftPointerId
.Net
ObjectId

No custom objects in .Net

Use overrules instead
Cloning reference logic follows reference found in the filing
protocol
dwgInFields() / dwgOutFields()
Object ownership

Hard Owner
Soft Owner
Hard Pointer
Soft Pointer
Entity ownership

Hard Owner
Soft Owner
Hard Pointer
Soft Pointer
Can we get things more complicated?
Entities are objects

Hard Owner
Soft Owner
Hard Pointer
Soft Pointer
A DWG database

Hard Owner
Soft Owner
Hard Pointer
Soft Pointer
Extension dictionary

Using extension dictionary can simplify a lot cloning operations,

because:
The object hard ‘owns’ it extension dictionary versus having to
reference an object in the NOD
deepClone will find & clone it
Wblock will find & clone it as well
The extension dictionary hard ‘owns’ its elements
deepClone will clone its elements
Wblock will clone them as well
Sounds a good solution to avoid to think about cloning. Well
consider the following:
Each DWG object is about ~300b footprint
An object with an extension dictionary and an 1 object in it is ~ 1k
Make a DWG 3 times bigger with no useful data in yet
Cloning phases

Default cloning phase

AutoCAD clones objects by following the ID references
Application cloning phase
AutoCAD may give control to a plug-in to do additional cloning and will
follow the ID references as required
ID translation phase
AutoCAD translate clone IDs to new ID & handles for object in ‘Flux’
In Flux

Clones in ‘Flux’ mode, means object being cloned, versus

created and mapped to an original object
Requires ID translation

You cannot intervene during this ID translation process process

Use the AcRxEventReactor class for monitoring activities and

steps
Primary object

If the key object is part of the primary set of objects cloned

An object can tell if it's being cloned by referencing or not

That's what the isPrimary flag is all about
Cloning contexts

kDcCopy / _COPY, _MIRROR, _ARRAY, Drag’n Drop

kDcExplode / _EXPLODE
kDcBlock / _BLOCK
kDcXrefBind / _XREF, _-BIND
kDcSymTableMerge / _IGESIN, _DXFIN, _XREF, _-ATTACH
kDcInsert / _INSERT, _PASTECLIP, Drag’n Drop
kDcWblock / _WBLOCK, _COPYCLIP, _DXFOUT
kDcObjects / _BLOCK, _REFEDIT, _REFCLOSE
kDcXrefInsert / _XREF _-INSERT
kDcInsertCopy
kDcWblkObjects / _REFEDIT, _REFCLOSE
AcDbObject::deepClone()
AcDbObject::wblockClone()
Never use AcDbObject::deepClone() or
AcDbObject::wblockClone() directly
You are missing the context
But you can call them in custom object implementation or reactors

Instead use
Within the same database
AcDbDatabase::deepCloneObjects()
Across databases
AcDbDatabase::wblockCloneObjects()
AcDbDatabase::wblock()
AcDbDatabase::insert()
API

Cloning and ID Translations

ObjectARX or .Net?
AcDbDatabase
Autodesk.AutoCAD.DatabaseServices.Database
ObjectARX and .Net
Use these to start a cloning operation
void abortDeepClone(AcDbIdMapping&);
Acad::ErrorStatus deepCloneObjects(AcDbObjectIdArray&, AcDbObjectId&, AcDbIdMapping&, bool);
void forceWblockDatabaseCopy();

Acad::ErrorStatus insert(AcDbObjectId&, const ACHAR*, AcDbDatabase*, bool);

Acad::ErrorStatus insert(AcDbObjectId&, const ACHAR*, const ACHAR*, AcDbDatabase*, bool);
Acad::ErrorStatus insert(const AcGeMatrix3d&, AcDbDatabase*, bool);

Acad::ErrorStatus wblock(AcDbDatabase*&);
Acad::ErrorStatus wblock(AcDbDatabase*&, AcDbObjectId);
Acad::ErrorStatus wblock(AcDbDatabase*&, const AcDbObjectIdArray&, const AcGePoint3d&);
Acad::ErrorStatus wblock AcDbDatabase*, const AcDbObjectIdArray&, const AcGePoint3d&,
AcDb::DuplicateRecordCloning);
Acad::ErrorStatus wblockCloneObjects(AcDbObjectIdArray&, AcDbObjectId&, AcDbIdMapping&,
AcDb::DuplicateRecordCloning, bool);
AcRxEventReactor / AcEditorReactor
Autodesk.AutoCAD.DatabaseServices.Database
ObjectARX and .Net
void beginDeepClone(AcDbDatabase*, AcDbIdMapping&);
void beginWblockObjects(AcDbDatabase*, AcDbIdMapping&);
void beginInsert(AcDbDatabase*, const AcGeMatrix3d&, AcDbDatabase*);
void beginInsert(AcDbDatabase*, const ACHAR *, AcDbDatabase*);
void beginWblock(AcDbDatabase*, AcDbDatabase*);
void beginWblock(AcDbDatabase*, AcDbDatabase*, AcDbObjectId);
void beginWblock(AcDbDatabase*, AcDbDatabase*, const AcGePoint3d*&);
void wblockNotice(AcDbDatabase*);
void otherInsert(AcDbDatabase*, AcDbIdMapping&, AcDbDatabase*);
void otherWblock(AcDbDatabase*, AcDbIdMapping&, AcDbDatabase*);
void beginDeepCloneXlation(AcDbIdMapping&, Acad::ErrorStatus*);
void endDeepClone(AcDbIdMapping&);
void endWblock(AcDbDatabase*);
void abortDeepClone(AcDbIdMapping&);
void abortWblock(AcDbDatabase*);
void abortInsert(AcDbDatabase*);
Acad::ErrorStatus veto();
RefEdit

RefEdit uses the wblock() mechanism

Checkout
Checkin
Only modified objects will be clones in checkin

See the AcApLongTransactionReactor class

void beginCheckOut(AcDbLongTransaction&, AcDbObjectIdArray&);
void endCheckOut(AcDbLongTransaction&);
void beginCheckIn(AcDbLongTransaction&);
void endCheckIn(AcDbLongTransaction&);
void abortLongTransaction(AcDbLongTransaction&);
Acad::ErrorStatus veto();
Custom objects

ObjectARX Only
AcDbObject
Autodesk.AutoCAD.DatabaseServices.DBObject
.Net implements these method, but you cannot override them
You can call them in a cloning context/operation
API Sealed in ARX now
Acad::ErrorStatus deepClone(AcDbObject*, AcDbObject*&, AcDbIdMapping&,
Adesk::Boolean) const;
Acad::ErrorStatus wblockClone(AcRxObject*, AcDbObject*&, AcDbIdMapping&,
Adesk::Boolean) const;
Use the subXXX() version instead
Acad::ErrorStatus subDeepClone(AcDbObject*, AcDbObject*&, AcDbIdMapping&,
Adesk::Boolean) const;
Acad::ErrorStatus subWblockClone(AcRxObject*, AcDbObject*&, AcDbIdMapping&,
Adesk::Boolean) const;
Overrule API

Overrules registered on per class basis

PEX protocol

See ‘CP230-1V - .Net Overrule API’ for details

Can ‘modify’
Draw aspect,
Grips,

Avoid the need of a custom object

Available overrules

PropertiesOverrule
DrawableOverrule
OsnapOverrule
TransformOverrule
GripOverrule
SubentityOverrule
HighlightOverrule
GeometryOverrule

ObjectOverrule
Overrule API

ObjectARX and .Net

AcDbObjectOverrule
Acad::ErrorStatus deepClone(const AcDbObject*, AcDbObject*, AcDbObject*&,
AcDbIdMapping&, Adesk::Boolean);
Acad::ErrorStatus wblockClone(const AcDbObject*, AcRxObject*, AcDbObject*&,
AcDbIdMapping&, Adesk::Boolean);

Autodesk.AutoCAD.DatabaseServices.ObjectOverrule
DBObject DeepClone(DBObject, DBObject, IdMapping, [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.U1)] bool);
DBObject WblockClone(DBObject, RXObject, IdMapping, [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.U1)] bool);
A concrete example

Modify the default AutoCAD behavior

ARXCloning sample

CLONE1 command
Performs a shallow clone of a non-database resident object.
CLONE2 command
Performs a shallow clone of a database resident object into the same
database
CLONE3 command
Performs a shallow clone of a database resident object to another
DWG database

Very basic code one simple object such as a line or circle.

OPLine project

OPLine1
Custom entity derived from AcDbPolyline
And a companion custom object derived from AcDdBObject stored in
the NOD

OPLine2
Try to replicate the above structure without custom object but using
reactors instead

OPLine3
Same but using the new overrule API
Additional information

Inspect, spy, learning more

Learning more

CP230-1V - .Net Overrule API

CP240-2V

AutoCAD .NET: Practical Examples of Customizing AutoCAD

Entity Behavior
Stephen Preston – Autodesk, Inc.
Learning more AutoCAD API

Online Help, Developer's Guide and SDK Samples

AutoCAD Developer Center

http://www.autodesk.com/developautocad
Free DevTV for .NET API

Webcasts and Trainings on Programming and News

http://www.adskconsulting.com/adn/cs/api_course_sched.php > AutoCAD API

Through the Interface

http://through-the-interface.typepad.com
Materials

Handout
AU10_CP220-3C_ARX_Cloning_2011_API.docx

Presentation
AU10_CP220-3C_ARX_Cloning_2011_API.pptx

Sample code and models

AU10_CP220-3C_ARX_Cloning_2011_API.zip
 Thank you!

[email protected]
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All rights reserved.
Hard Owner
Soft Owner
Hard Pointer
Soft Pointer