How to detect when AutoCAD is running for a background plot?

<?xml encoding=”UTF-8″>By Philippe Leefsma

Q:

I need to detect when AutoCAD is running in background plot in order to handle this appropriately concerning my custom applications.

What is the best way to achieve this?

A:

One suggestion is to check using Win32 API “GetCommandLine” the command line string used to run AutoCAD and parse it to see if it contains the “-b” and “-pl” switches.

Here is my demand loaded arx startup procedure:

virtual AcRx::AppRetCode On_kInitAppMsg (void *pkt)

{

      // TODO: Load dependencies here

      // You *must* call On_kInitAppMsg here

      AcRx::AppRetCode retCode =AcRxArxApp::On_kInitAppMsg (pkt) ;

      // TODO: Add your initialization code here

      ACHAR* cmdline = GetCommandLine();

      std::ofstream ofs(

          L“c:\Temp\log.txt”,

          std::ios::out | std::ios::binary);

      std::wstring wstr(cmdline);

      ofs.write((char *) wstr.c_str(), wstr.length() * sizeof(wchar_t));

      ofs.close();

      return (retCode) ;

}

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p class=”MsoNormal”>–

Once a background plot has been run, the content of my log file is as follow:

<font size="3"><em>"C:Program FilesAutodeskACADM 2009acad.exe" </em></font>

<font size="3"><em>-pl  -b C:DOCUME~1leefsmpLOCALS~1TempBG074D~1BGPlot.scr</em></font>