Publishing model views to a multi-sheet DWF/PDF

By Balaji Ramamoorthy

An approach to create a single multi-sheet PDF or DWF file that displays portions of your drawing as separate sheets is to create model views and get them published.

Here is a sample code to publish two model views named “Test1” and “Test2” as separate sheets in a multi-sheet DWF file.

using Autodesk.AutoCAD.PlottingServices;
using Autodesk.AutoCAD.Publishing;
 
[CommandMethod("PublishViews2MultiSheet")]
static public void PublishViews2MultiSheet()
{
    Document doc = Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument;
    Database db = doc.Database;
    Editor ed = doc.Editor;
 
    StringCollection viewsToPlot = new StringCollection();
    viewsToPlot.Add("Test1");
    viewsToPlot.Add("Test2");
 
    // Create page setup based on the views
    using (Transaction Tx = db.TransactionManager.StartTransaction())
    {
        ObjectId layoutId = LayoutManager.Current.GetLayoutId
                        (LayoutManager.Current.CurrentLayout);
 
        Layout layout 
            = Tx.GetObject(layoutId, OpenMode.ForWrite) as Layout;
 
        foreach (String viewName in viewsToPlot)
        {
            PlotSettings plotSettings 
                           = new PlotSettings(layout.ModelType);
            plotSettings.CopyFrom(layout);
 
            PlotSettingsValidator psv 
                                = PlotSettingsValidator.Current;
 
            psv.SetPlotConfigurationName
                (   plotSettings, 
                    "DWF6 ePlot.pc3", 
                    "ANSI_A_(8.50_x_11.00_Inches)"
                );
            psv.RefreshLists(plotSettings);
            psv.SetPlotViewName(plotSettings, viewName);
            psv.SetPlotType
                (
                    plotSettings, 
                    PlotType.View
                );
            psv.SetUseStandardScale(plotSettings, true);
            psv.SetStdScaleType
                (
                    plotSettings, 
                    StdScaleType.ScaleToFit
                );
            psv.SetPlotCentered(plotSettings, true);
            psv.SetPlotRotation
                (
                    plotSettings, 
                    PlotRotation.Degrees000
                );
            psv.SetPlotPaperUnits
                (
                    plotSettings, 
                    PlotPaperUnit.Inches
                );
 
            plotSettings.PlotSettingsName 
                    = String.Format("{0}{1}", viewName, "PS");
            plotSettings.PrintLineweights = true;
            plotSettings.AddToPlotSettingsDictionary(db);
 
            Tx.AddNewlyCreatedDBObject(plotSettings, true);
            psv.RefreshLists(plotSettings);
 
            layout.CopyFrom(plotSettings);
        }
 
        Tx.Commit();
    }
 
    //put the plot in foreground
    short bgPlot = (short)Application.GetSystemVariable("BACKGROUNDPLOT");
    Application.SetSystemVariable("BACKGROUNDPLOT", 0);
 
    string dwgFileName 
            = Application.GetSystemVariable("DWGNAME") as string;
    string dwgPath 
        = Application.GetSystemVariable("DWGPREFIX") as string;
    using (Transaction Tx = db.TransactionManager.StartTransaction())
    {
        DsdEntryCollection collection = new DsdEntryCollection();
        ObjectId activeLayoutId 
            = LayoutManager.Current.GetLayoutId
                        (LayoutManager.Current.CurrentLayout);
 
        foreach (String viewName in viewsToPlot)
        {
            Layout layout = Tx.GetObject(
                                            activeLayoutId, 
                                            OpenMode.ForRead
                                        ) as Layout;
 
            DsdEntry entry = new DsdEntry();
 
            entry.DwgName = dwgPath + dwgFileName;
            entry.Layout = layout.LayoutName;
            entry.Title = viewName;
            entry.NpsSourceDwg = entry.DwgName;
            entry.Nps = String.Format("{0}{1}", viewName, "PS");
 
            collection.Add(entry);
        }
 
        // remove the ".dwg" extension
        dwgFileName = dwgFileName.Substring(0, dwgFileName.Length - 4);
 
        DsdData dsdData = new DsdData();
 
        dsdData.SheetType = SheetType.MultiDwf;
        dsdData.ProjectPath = dwgPath;
        dsdData.DestinationName 
                = dsdData.ProjectPath + dwgFileName + ".dwf";
 
        if (System.IO.File.Exists(dsdData.DestinationName))
            System.IO.File.Delete(dsdData.DestinationName);
 
        dsdData.SetDsdEntryCollection(collection);
 
        string dsdFile 
                = dsdData.ProjectPath + dwgFileName + ".dsd";
 
        //Workaround to avoid promp for pdf file name
        //set PromptForDwfName=FALSE in dsdData using StreamReader/StreamWriter
 
        dsdData.WriteDsd(dsdFile);
 
        System.IO.StreamReader sr = new System.IO.StreamReader(dsdFile);
        string str = sr.ReadToEnd();
        sr.Close();
 
        // Replace PromptForDwfName
        str = str.Replace("PromptForDwfName=TRUE", "PromptForDwfName=FALSE");
 
        // Workaround to have the page setup names included in the DSD file
        // Replace Setup names based on the created page setups
        // May not be required if Nps is output to the DSD
        int occ = 0;
        int index = str.IndexOf("Setup=");
        int startIndex = 0;
        StringBuilder dsdText = new StringBuilder();
        while(index != -1)
        {
            // 6 for length of "Setup="
            String str1 = 
            str.Substring(startIndex, index + 6 - startIndex ); 
 
            dsdText.Append(str1);
            dsdText.Append(
                String.Format("{0}{1}", viewsToPlot[occ], "PS"));
 
            startIndex = index + 6;
            index = str.IndexOf("Setup=", index + 6);
 
            if (index == -1)
            {
                dsdText.Append(
               str.Substring(startIndex, str.Length-startIndex));
            }
            occ++;
        }
 
        // Write the DSD
        System.IO.StreamWriter sw 
                        = new System.IO.StreamWriter(dsdFile);
        sw.Write( dsdText.ToString());
        sw.Close();
 
        // Read the updated DSD file
        dsdData.ReadDsd(dsdFile);
 
        // Erase DSD as it is no longer needed
        System.IO.File.Delete(dsdFile);
 
        PlotConfig plotConfig 
            = PlotConfigManager.SetCurrentConfig("DWF6 ePlot.pc3");
 
        Publisher publisher = Application.Publisher;
 
        // Publish it
        publisher.PublishExecute(dsdData, plotConfig);
 
        Tx.Commit();
    }
 
    //reset the background plot value
    Application.SetSystemVariable("BACKGROUNDPLOT", bgPlot);

Here is a sample drawing to try the code :

Download Sample