Attach a property set to an object

By Mikako Harada

Issue

I want to attach a property set to an AEC object, using AutoCAD Architecture .NET API. How can we do that?

Solution

PropertyDataServices provides a convenient method to do the job. You can use its method: 

    PropertyDataServices.AddPropertySet(object, propertySetDefinitionID).

The code below demonstrates the usage. The command asks the user to select an AEC object and to type the name of property set definition, and then attach the given property set to the given object.

    ' Attach a property set to an object.

' Minimum error checking for code readability. 
  ' In practice, you may want to check if a specific prop set is 
  ' already attached before you are attaching again.
 
   _
  Public Sub AttachPropertySet()
 
    ' Top most objects.
 
    Dim doc As Document =
      Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument
    Dim db As Database = doc.Database
    Dim ed As Editor = doc.Editor
 
    ' (1) select an AEC object to attach a property set 
 
    Dim optEnt As New PromptEntityOptions(
      vbLf & "Select an AEC object to attach a property set")
    optEnt.SetRejectMessage(
      vbLf & "Selected entity is NOT an AEC object, try again...")
    ' "Geo" is the base class for AEC object. 
    ' Use this if you want to apply to all the AEC objects. 
    optEnt.AddAllowedClass(GetType(Geo), False)
    ' If you are interested in only Door object, use this instead. 
    'optEnt.AddAllowedClass(GetType(Door), False)  
 
    Dim resEnt As PromptEntityResult = ed.GetEntity(optEnt)
    If resEnt.Status  PromptStatus.OK Then
      ed.WriteMessage("Selection error - aborting")
      Exit Sub
    End If
 
    ' We have an object to attach a property set. 
 
    Dim idTargetObj As ObjectId = resEnt.ObjectId
 
    ' (2) Ask for the name of property set definition to attach. 
 
    Dim optStr As New PromptStringOptions(
      vbLf +
      "Enter the name of property set definition to attach.")
 
    Dim resPropSetDef As PromptResult = ed.GetString(optStr)
    If resPropSetDef.Status  PromptStatus.OK Then
      ed.WriteMessage("String input error - aborting")
      Exit Sub
    End If
 
    ' We have the name of property set definition. 
 
    Dim propSetDefName As String = resPropSetDef.StringResult
 
    ' Find the property set definition with the given name. 
 
    Dim dictPropSetDef = New DictionaryPropertySetDefinitions(db)
    Dim idPropSetDef As ObjectId =
      Utils.findStyle(dictPropSetDef, propSetDefName)
 
    If idPropSetDef = Nothing Then Return
 
    ' If we come here, we have a prop set def id and an object id.  
 
    ' (3) Attach the given property set to the given object. 
 
    Try
      Using tr As Transaction =
        db.TransactionManager.StartTransaction
 
        Dim obj As AcObject =
          tr.GetObject(idTargetObj, OpenMode.ForWrite, False, False)
 
        ' PropertyDataServices provide a convenient method to do 
        ' the actual work.
 
        PropertyDataServices.AddPropertySet(obj, idPropSetDef)
 
        tr.Commit()
 
      End Using
 
    Catch ex As Exception
      ed.WriteMessage(
        "error in AttachPropertySet: " + ex.ToString + vbCrLf)
    End Try
 
  End Sub

And here is the helper functions, Utils.findStyle() I used in the above code:

Public Class Utils
 
  ' Helper function: findStyle().
  ' 
  ' Find a style (or dictionary record) with the given name 
  ' from the given dictionary, and return its object id.  
 
  Public Shared Function findStyle(ByRef dict As AecDb.Dictionary,
                                   ByVal key As String) As ObjectId
 
    Dim doc As Document =
      Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument
    Dim ed As Editor = doc.Editor
    Dim db As Database = doc.Database
    ' The id of the style we are looking for. Return value 
    Dim id As ObjectId = Nothing
 
    Try
      Using tr As Transaction =
        db.TransactionManager.StartTransaction
 
        ' Do we have a property set definition with the given name?  
 
        If Not dict.Has(key, tr) Then
          ' If not, return 
          ed.WriteMessage("cannot find the style: " + key + vbCrLf)
          Return Nothing
        End If
 
        tr.Commit()
      End Using
 
      ' Get the id of property set definition from the name
 
      id = dict.GetAt(key)
 
    Catch ex As Exception
      ed.WriteMessage(
        "error in findPropertySetDef: " + ex.ToString + vbCrLf)
    End Try
 
    Return id
 
  End Function
  
End Class