Plotting A Window To DWF using ObjectARX COM and LISP

By Fenton Webb

Issue

I want to Window plot a drawing to DWF, I’m using COM to plot the DWF but how do I setup the Plot Settings so that it plots using a couple of Window coordinates?

Solution

In ObjectARX you need to use the AcDbPlotSettingsValidator class to setup the Plot. Here is some code which shows you what to do. Note this is using the Window coordinates as the extents of the drawing. This is purely for test purposes – if you want to plot the extents then use setPlotType (pLayout, AcDbPlotSettings::kExtents). There is also a Visual LISP example following the ObjectARX code.

#import "acax19ENU.tlb" no_namespace    #include "acaplmgr.h"    static void ASDKTS66871_PlotWindow_COM_testPlot(void)    {      // Use ActiveX interface to get the application object      IAcadApplicationPtr pAcad = acedGetAcadWinApp()->GetIDispatch(FALSE);            //get the path to plotter configuration      _bstr_t szPrinterPath;      szPrinterPath = pAcad->Preferences->GetFiles()->GetPrinterConfigPath() + _bstr_t("\DWF6 ePlot.pc3");      // get the current database      AcDbDatabase *curDocDB = acdbHostApplicationServices()->workingDatabase();       // get a pointer to the layout manager      AcApLayoutManager *pLayoutManager = (AcApLayoutManager *)acdbHostApplicationServices()->layoutManager();       const ACHAR *layoutName = pLayoutManager->findActiveLayout (true);      // get the current layout      AcDbLayout *pLayout = pLayoutManager->findLayoutNamed (layoutName
, true);        // if we got it ok      if (pLayout != NULL)      {        Acad::ErrorStatus es;        // get the plotsetttings class         AcDbPlotSettingsValidator *pPlotSettingsValidator = acdbHostApplicationServices()->plotSettingsValidator();         // if we got it ok        if (pPlotSettingsValidator != NULL)        {          // Refresh the layout lists in order to use it          pPlotSettingsValidator->refreshLists (pLayout);          // change the current layout plotter          es = pPlotSettingsValidator->setPlotCfgName (pLayout, szPrinterPath);             // set the window to plot as the extents of the drawing          es = pPlotSettingsValidator->setPlotWindowArea (pLayout,             curDocDB->extmin ().x,            curDocDB->extmin ().y,            curDocDB->extmax ().x,            curDocDB->extmax ().y);          // set the orgin          es = pPlotSettingsValidator->setPlotOrigin (pLayout,             curDocDB->extmin ().x,            curDocDB->extmin ().y);          // set to plot centred          es = pPlotSettingsValidator->setPlotCentered (pLayout, true);          // setup the plot type to window          es = pPlotSettingsValidator->setPlotType (pLayout, AcDbPlotSettings::kWindow);          // set the scale          es = pPlotSettingsValidator->setStdScaleType (pLayout, AcDbPlotSettings::StdScaleType::kScaleToFit);               // we have to close the layout here because the last parameter of           // findLayoutNamed is true, leave layout open          pLayout->close ();        }        }                // get the current document      IAcadDocumentPtr pDoc = pAcad->GetActiveDocument();       // create a plot object       IAcadPlotPtr pPlot = pDoc->GetPlot();       // lets plot       pPlot->PlotToFile("c:\test.dwf", szPrinterPath);    }          Note: You do not necessarily need to use COM to plot. Instead you can use ObjectARX functions. A good sample ships with the ObjectARX 2009 SDK. ( ..ObjectARX 2009sampleseditorAsdkPlotAPI )

Here is a Visual LISP example:

(defun c:testPlotWindow ( / acadObject acadDocument activeLayoutObject plt p1 point1
     pPt1 pPt1sa pt1 p2 point2 pPt2 pPt2sa pt2 )
  (vl-load-com)
  (setq acadObject (vlax-get-Acad-object))
  (setq acadDocument (vla-get-ActiveDocument acadObject))
  (setq activeLayoutObject (vla-Get-ActiveLayout acadDocument))

  (setq plt (vla-get-plot acadDocument))

  (vla-put-configname activeLayoutObject "DWF6 ePlot.pc3")
  (vla-put-canonicalmedianame
    activeLayoutObject
    "ISO_full_bleed_A3_(420.00_x_297.00_MM)"
    )
  (vla-put-paperunits activeLayoutObject acMillimeters)
  (vla-put-plotrotation activeLayoutObject ac0degrees)
  ; How to control the Plot Style Table
  ; (vla-put-StyleSheet activeLayoutObject "HP LaserJet 4MV.ctb")

  (setq p1 (getpoint "nSelect Window Point No 1 (Lower Left): "))
  (setq point1 (list (car p1) (cadr p1)))
  (setq pPt1 (vlax-make-safearray vlax-vbDouble ‘(0 . 1)))
  (setq pPt1sa (vlax-safearray-fill pPt1 point1))
  (setq pt1 (vlax-make-variant
       pPt1sa
       (logior vlax-vbarray vlax-vbDouble)
       )
)

  (setq p2 (getpoint "nSelect Window Point No 2 (Upper Right): "))
  (setq point2 (list (car p2) (cadr p2)))
  (setq pPt2 (vlax-make-safearray vlax-vbDouble ‘(0 . 1)))
  (setq pPt2sa (vlax-safearray-fill pPt2 point2))
  (setq pt2 (vlax-make-variant
       pPt2sa
       (logior vlax-vbarray vlax-vbDouble)
       )
)

  (vla-SetWindowToPlot activeLayoutObject pt1 pt2)
  (vla-put-plottype activeLayoutObject acWindow)

   (vla-plottofile plt "c:\test.dwf" "DWF6 ePlot.pc3")

  )