Changing draworder of entities

May 10, 2012

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An MText with background mask set can hide entities that are behind it. To send the MText to the back and make the entity behind it to be visible, we can set the DrawOrder in AutoCAD using the context menu option. This can also be achieved programmatically for an entity.

Here is a sample code to send a selected entity behind. i.e., change the draworder of the selected entity to bottom.

Using ObjectARX :

static void ADSProjectSendToBottom(void)
{
    ads_name ent;
    ads_point pt;
 
    Acad::ErrorStatus es;
    int ret = RTNORM;
    ret = acedEntSel(    _T("nSelect Entity: "), 
                ent,
                pt
              );
 
    if (RTNORM != ret)
        return;
 
    AcDbObjectId ent_id;
    if (Acad::eOk != acdbGetObjectId( ent_id, ent ))
        return;
 
    configureSortents();
 
    AcDbEntity *pEnt;
    es = acdbOpenObject( pEnt, ent_id, AcDb::kForRead );
    if (Acad::eOk != es)
        return;
 
    AcDbSortentsTable *pSt = GetSortentsTableOf( pEnt );
 
    pEnt->close();
    if (NULL == pSt)
        return;
 
    AcDbObjectIdArray entity_array;
    entity_array.append( ent_id );
 
    pSt->moveToBottom( entity_array );
    pSt->close();
 
    // Send regen command or use the 
    // undocumented ads_regen method.
    acDocManager->sendStringToExecute
                            (
                                acDocManager->curDocument(),
                                L"_regenn", 
                                false, 
                                true
                            );
}

Using AutoCAD .Net API :

[CommandMethod("SendToBottom")]
public void commandDrawOrderChange()
{
    Document activeDoc 
                = Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument;
    Database db = activeDoc.Database;
    Editor ed = activeDoc.Editor;
 
    PromptEntityOptions peo 
                = new PromptEntityOptions("Select an entity : ");
    PromptEntityResult per = ed.GetEntity(peo);
    if (per.Status != PromptStatus.OK)
    {
        return;
    }
    ObjectId oid = per.ObjectId;
 
    SortedList drawOrder 
                            = new SortedList();
 
    using (Transaction tr = db.TransactionManager.StartTransaction())
    {
        BlockTable bt = tr.GetObject(    
                                        db.BlockTableId, 
                                        OpenMode.ForRead
                                    ) as BlockTable;
        BlockTableRecord btrModelSpace =
                tr.GetObject(
                                bt[BlockTableRecord.ModelSpace],
                                OpenMode.ForRead
                            ) as BlockTableRecord;
 
        DrawOrderTable dot = 
                tr.GetObject(
                                btrModelSpace.DrawOrderTableId, 
                                OpenMode.ForWrite
                            ) as DrawOrderTable;
 
        ObjectIdCollection objToMove = new ObjectIdCollection();
        objToMove.Add(oid);
        dot.MoveToBottom(objToMove);
 
        tr.Commit();
    }
    ed.WriteMessage("Done");
}

Comments

11 responses to “Changing draworder of entities”

Alexander Rivilis

May 10, 2012

Hi Balaji!
It specifically did you write such a complex code to ObjectARX, and so simple in C#?
With the help of ObjectARX code can be as laconic as using C#. For example:
static void MoveBelow(AcDbObjectId &idDown, AcDbObjectId &idUp)
{
AcDbSortentsTable *pSortTab = NULL;
AcDbObjectId spaceId = AcDbObjectId::kNull;
AcDbEntityPointer pEnt(idDown,AcDb::kForRead);
if (pEnt.openStatus() == Acad::eOk) {
spaceId = pEnt->ownerId();
pEnt->close();
}
if (!spaceId.isNull()) {
AcDbObjectPointer pBTR(spaceId,AcDb::kForRead);
if (pBTR.openStatus() == Acad::eOk) {
if (pBTR->getSortentsTable(pSortTab, AcDb::kForWrite, true) == Acad::eOk) {
AcDbObjectIdArray ar; ar.append(idDown);
pSortTab->moveBelow(ar,idUp);
pSortTab->close();
}
}
}
}

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Reply
Balaji

May 10, 2012

Hi Alexander,
The C# sample is from my recent reply to a developer while the ObjectARX one is a bit old. I did not attempt to make them look similar. Thanks for your sample code. I will update the post.

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petcon

May 10, 2012

用点心

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Reply
Balaji

May 10, 2012

I used Google translate and got this “用点心” = “A Snack”.
Thanks to petcon, I am learning chinese :)

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Norman Yuan

May 11, 2012

Well, you cannot trust Google translator (or any electronic/onlne translator, for that matter) in this case.
the cobination of the 3 Chinese characters can have different meanings, depending on the context when it is used.
In this particular case, petcon’ really meant to ask to be more CAREFUL, or have more thought on what you were posting.
It only means to have some snack when someone points at some snack to you.

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Reply
Balaji

May 11, 2012

Thanks Norman :)
I get it now, and will be careful in future.
BTW the ObjectARX code that I posted does work. Anyway, I will be reposting the ObjectARX code to make it simpler.
Thanks again for explaining what those 3 chinese letters meant :)

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Alexander Rivilis

May 13, 2012

Hi Balaji!
Another idea. What about not using asynchronous sendStringToExecute method but using ads_regen function: http://adn.autodesk.com/adn/servlet/devnote?siteID=4814862&id=11845587&linkID=4900509 ?

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Balaji

May 14, 2012

Thank you.

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Anonymoose

June 3, 2012

SortedList<long, ObjectId> drawOrder = new SortedList<long, ObjectId>();
I don’t see the SortedList used anywhere. Is there some other code missing?

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Eddy Lucas

February 10, 2023

Thanks, i used this C# code and it worked good

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Amanda The Adventurer

June 26, 2023

This code assumes you are working with AutoCAD’s ObjectARX/VLAX interface. If you are using a different programming language or API, the syntax and method calls may vary.

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