GstarCAD 2024 GRX Programming Guide

Contents

• #1. What is GRX?
• #2. Programming Environment
• #3. Install GstarCAD SDK
• #4. Programming Instruction
  • #4.1. Create GRX Project under Win 64-Bit
    • #4.1.2. Input Project Saving Path and Project Name
    • #4.1.3. Finish Creating New Project
    • #4.1.4. Create New CPP File
    • #4.1.5. Set Compile and Link Configuration
    • #4.1.6. Add Code
    • #4.1.7. Compile Program
    • #4.1.8. Run Program
  • #4.2. GRX Programming with MFC Library
    • #4.2.2. Input Project Saving Path and Project Name
    • #4.2.3. Choose DLL Type
    • #4.2.4. Finish Creating New Project
    • #4.2.5. Create New Resource and Corresponding Class
    • #4.2.6. Create Three New C++ Class File
    • #4.2.7. Add Code
    • #4.2.8. Set Compile and Link Configuration
    • #4.2.9. Compile Program
    • #4.2.10. Run Program
• #5. How to Use Project Property Sheet File
• #6. Description of GRX Class Library
  • #6.1. GcRx
  • #6.2. GcEd
  • #6.3. GcDb
  • #6.4. GcGi
  • #6.5. GcGe
• #7. Copyright

1. What is GRX?

GRX is the Runtime eXtension programming environment of GstarCAD, which is the latest application development SDK provided with GstarCAD. It provides Object-oriented development environment and APIs based on C++, which can be used to develop GstarCAD application programs, extension CAD classes and protocols, and create new commands in GstarCAD.

GRX is compatible with ARX application programs of AutoCAD® on the source-code level. By simply configuring projects, ARX programs running on the AutoCAD® can be easily ported to the GstarCAD.

GRX SDK allows direct access to GstarCAD database, graphics system and user-defined commands, etc. In addition, it can also be used with VLISP and other programming languages.

Developers only need few configurations to migrate ARX application for AutoCAD® to GRX application for GstarCAD.

The following works can be accomplished with GRX:

• Access the GstarCAD database

• Interact with the GstarCAD editor

• Create user interfaces using the Microsoft® Foundation Classes (MFC) (Windows only)

• Support the multiple document interface (MDI)

• Create custom classes

• Build complex applications

• Interact with other programming environments

2. Programming Environment

• Microsoft® Visual Studio Enterprise 2017 (Version 15.9.17)

• Windows SDK 10.0.17763.0

• CPU:

Basic: 1.6 GHz CUP

Recommended: 3.0 GHz CPU and above

• RAM:

Basic: 2 GB

Recommended: 8 GB and above

• Operation System (OS)

Windows 11

Windows 10 (version 1507 and above):

Home, Professional, Education and Enterprise (not support LTSC and Windows 10 S)

Windows 8.1 (with 2919355 update):

Core, Professional and Enterprise

Windows 7 SP1 (with the latest update):

Home, Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate

• Monitor Resolution:

1028x800 and above true color display, including 4K (3840x2160) display

• GstarCAD SDK 2024

• GstarCAD 2024

• .NET Framework 4.8 and above

3. Install GstarCAD SDK

Download GstarCAD SDK (' GRXSDK.ZIP ' file) from GstarCAD website:

https://www.gstarcad.net/download/

Unzip GRXSDK.ZIP file to the local disk (e.g. 'C:\grxsdk' ) and there will be 5 directories generated (in 'C:\grxsdk' ) which are: arx , inc , inc-x64 , lib-x64 and utils .

arx contains the header files, library files and sample programs used for porting ARX programs to GRX

programs. It contains the following directories:

• Inc: Header files used for porting from ARX to GRX

• inc-x64 : Files used by COM and .NET (for 64-bit)

• lib-x64 : GRX libraries (for 64-bit)

• Samples : Sample projects, including Dotnet, fact_dg, HelloADS, HelloA and SimplePalette.

• Dotnet : .NET programming samples

• 1. Addline : .NET programming sample of adding solid lines
• 2. Hello : .NET programming sample of outputting prompt information
• 3. Vbhello : Sample of .NET programming with VB .NET

• fact_dg : Sample of LISP function definition

• HelloADS : Sample of ADS programming

• HelloARX : Sample of GRX programming

• SimplePalette : Programming sample of how to create a set Palette windows

• Utils: Directory contains sub-directories of GRX extended applications, including APIs for extended

function development, e.g. BREP for boundary representation.

Inc: Header files used for programming the GRX

inc-x64 : Files used by COM and .NET (for 64-bit)

lib-x64 : GRX libraries (for 64-bit)

Utils : Directory contains subdirectories of GRX extended applications, including APIs for extended function development, e.g. BREP for boundary representation.

4. Programming Instruction

4.1. Create GRX Project under Win 64-Bit

• 4.1.1. Run Microsoft® Visual Studio 2017

Please click File → New → Project to launch the New Project dialog window. Select Visual C++ in the Installed on the left side and click Empty Project in the middle window.

4.1.2. Input Project Saving Path and Project Name

Input ' HelloWorld ' at the name field in the New Project dialog window.

4.1.3. Finish Creating New Project

Click OK button to finish creating a new project.

4.1.4. Create New CPP File

In Visual Studio 2017 dialog window, find the 'HelloWorld' project you just created in the Solution Explorer . Select the 'HelloWorld' project and right click on it, then select Add → New Item . After the Add New Item - HelloWorld dialog window pops out, select Code under Visual C++ then select C++ File (.cpp) in the middle window.

4.1.5. Set Compile and Link Configuration

Select the project 'HelloWorld' in the Solution Explorer and select Property at the right click menu. After selecting the Properties option, the HelloWorld Properties Pages pops out.

1. Select General in Configuration Properties and set as below:

Target Extension : . grx

Configuration Type : Dynamic Library (.dll)

Character Set : Use Unicode Character Set

2. Select General in C/C++ and set as below:

General/Additional Include Directories : C:\grxsdk\arx\inc

Language / Conformance mode : No

3. Select Linker and set as below:

General / Additional Library Directories : C:\grxsdk\arx\lib-x64

Input / Additional Dependencies :

AecModeler.lib;gcad.lib;gcax.lib;gcbase.lib;gcbr.lib;gccore.lib;gcdb.lib;GcDbConstraints.lib;GcDbPoi ntCloudObj.lib;gcdyn.lib;GcGeolocationObj.lib;gcgs.lib;GcImaging.lib;GcModelDocObj.lib;gplot.lib; Input / Module Definition File : C:\grxsdk\arx\inc\AcRxDefault.def

4. Click Apply and then click OK to finish the compiler and linker configuration.

5. Compile the project and make sure that the compilation is successful. Otherwise repeat the above steps

to reconfigure the project settings.

4.1.6. Add Code

Add the following codes to 'HelloWorld.cpp'.

#include "windows.h"
#include <tchar.h>
#include <arxHeaders.h>

void initApp();
void unloadApp();
void HelloWorld();

void initApp()
{
    //register a command with the GstarCAD command mechanism
    acedRegCmds->addCommand(_T("HELLOWORLD_CMDS"), _T("Hello"), _T("Hello"),
ACRX_CMD_TRANSPARENT, HelloWorld);
}
void unloadApp()
{
    acedRegCmds->removeGroup(L"HELLOWORLD_CMDS");
}
void HelloWorld()
{
    //print "Hello World" in GstarCAD command line
    acutPrintf(_T("\nHello World!"));
}

extern "C" AcRx::AppRetCode gcrxEntryPoint(AcRx::AppMsgCode msg, void *pkt)
{
    switch (msg)
    {
    case AcRx::kInitAppMsg:
        acrxDynamicLinker->unlockApplication(pkt);
        acrxDynamicLinker->registerAppMDIAware(pkt);
        initApp();
        break;
    case AcRx::kUnloadAppMsg:
        unloadApp();
        break;
    default:
        break;
    }
    return AcRx::kRetOK;
}

4.1.7. Compile Program

In Visual Studio 2017, click Build→Build Solution to create 'HelloWorld.grx' file in

'C:\GRX\HelloWorld\x64\Release' directory.

4.1.8. Run Program

Run GstarCAD and input 'appload' at the command line, or select Tools→Loading Applications from menu to

launch Load/Unload Applications dialog window. Select 'HelloWorld.grx' and click Load to load it into

GstarCAD.

Close the Load/Unload Applications dialog window and input ' hello ' at command line, ' Hello World! ' will be displayed at the command line as shown below.

4.2. GRX Programming with MFC Library

• 4.2.1. Run Microsoft® Visual Studio 2017

Please click File → New → Project to launch the New Project dialog window. Select Visual C++ in the Installed on the left side and click MFC/ATL in the pull-down menu. Click MFC Dynamic-Link Library (DLL) in the middle window.

The following sample shows how to create a ' SimplePalette ' project.

4.2.2. Input Project Saving Path and Project Name

Input ' SimplePalette ' at the name field in New Project dialog window, as shown below.

4.2.3. Choose DLL Type

Click OK, the MFC DLL dialog window pops out. Select MFC Extension DLL and click OK .

4.2.4. Finish Creating New Project

Click OK on New Project dialog window to finish creating ' SimplePalette ' project.

4.2.5. Create New Resource and Corresponding Class

Launch the Resource View of Visual Studio 2017 (Ctrl+Shift+E), right click on ' SimplePalette.rc ' and select Add Resource… in the drop-down menu to pop out Add Resource dialog window. Select Dialog in the Resource Typ e window and click New to add a new dialog. Change the ID of newly created ' IDD_DIALOG1 ' dialog to ' IDD_DIALOG_PALETTE '. Right click on ' IDD_DIALOG_PALETTE ' and select Properties to set Border as ' None ', Style as ' Child' . Then add an Edit control and a Button from Toolbox (Ctrl+Alt+X) and change the button Caption to ' Check ' and the ID to ' IDC_BUTTON_CHECK ', as shown below.

Right click on the newly created ' IDD_DIALOG_PALETTE ' dialog and select the Add Class… to pop out Add MFC Class dialog window. Set Class Name as ' CDlgPalette ' and click OK .

4.2.6. Create Three New C++ Class File

In the Solution Explorer of Visual Studio 2017, right click on the project ' SimplePalette ' and select Add → Class… to pop out Add Class dialog window, as shown below. Add 3 new classes named as ' CFirstPalette ', ' CSecondPalette ' and ' CSimpleBar ' and set the Base class as ' CAdUiPalette ', ' CAdUiPalette ' and ' CAdUiPaletteSet ' respectively.

4.2.7. Add Code

Add the following codes to the end of 'stadfx.h' file (If the version of Visual Studio 2017 is higher than 15.9.17,

it automatically generates a 'pch.h' file which is equivalent to the 'stdafx.h').

#include <arxHeaders.h>

(For the class codes of 'CDlgPalette', 'CFirstPalette', 'CSecondPalette' and 'CSimpleBar', please refer to samples

(.cpp and .h files) of 'DlgPalette', 'FirstPalette', 'SecondPalette' and 'SimpleBar' in

'C:\grxsdk\arx\samples\SimplePalette')

Add the following codes to 'SimplePalette.cpp':

// SimplePalette.cpp: Define the initialization routine for the DLL.
//

#include "stdafx.h"
#include "CSimpleBar.h"

CSimpleBar* gpBar = NULL;

static void doIt()
{
    if (gpBar)
    {
        acedGetAcadFrame()->ShowControlBar(gpBar, TRUE, FALSE);
    }
    else
    {
        acedInitGet(0, L"Float Dock");
        ACHAR result[132] = { 0 };
        int rc = acedGetKword(L"\nFloat or Docking?", result);
        bool bFloat = true;
        if (rc == RTNONE)
        {

            bFloat = true;
        }
        else if(rc != RTNORM)
        {
            return;
        }
        else
        {
            bFloat = _wcsicmp(result, L"Float") == 0;
        }

        CSize sizeDefault(400, 450);
        CRect rcDefault(CPoint(150, 200), sizeDefault);

        gpBar = new CSimpleBar;

        DWORD dwStyle = WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | CBRS_SIZE_DYNAMIC | CBRS_GRIPPER;
        if (bFloat)
        {
            dwStyle |= CBRS_FLOATING;
        }
        else
        {
            dwStyle |= CBRS_LEFT;
        }

        gpBar->Create(L"Simple", dwStyle, rcDefault, acedGetAcadFrame());
        gpBar->SetAutoRollup(FALSE);
        gpBar->EnableDocking(CBRS_ALIGN_LEFT | CBRS_ALIGN_RIGHT |
CBRS_ALIGN_BOTTOM);
        if (bFloat)
        {
            acedGetAcadFrame()->FloatControlBar(gpBar, CPoint(100, 100), CBRS_ALIGN_TOP);
        }

        else
        {
            acedGetAcadFrame()->DockControlBar(gpBar, AFX_IDW_DOCKBAR_RIGHT);
        }
    }
}

void initApp()
{
    acedRegCmds->addCommand(_T("ASDK_SAMPLES_SIMPLEPALETTE"),
        _T("ASDK_SIMPLEPALETTE"), _T("SIMPLEPALETTE"), ACRX_CMD_MODAL,
        doIt);
}

void unloadApp()
{
    acedRegCmds->removeGroup(_T("ASDK_SAMPLES_SIMPLEPALETTE"));

    if (gpBar)
    {
        gpBar->DestroyWindow();
        delete gpBar;
        gpBar = NULL;
    }
}

extern "C" AcRx::AppRetCode
acrxEntryPoint(AcRx::AppMsgCode msg, void* appId)
{
    switch (msg) {
    case AcRx::kInitAppMsg:
        acrxDynamicLinker->unlockApplication(appId);

        acrxDynamicLinker->registerAppMDIAware(appId);
        initApp();
        break;
    case AcRx::kUnloadAppMsg:
        unloadApp();
    }
    return AcRx::kRetOK;
}

4.2.8. Set Compile and Link Configuration

1. In the Solution Explorer , right click the project ' SimplePalette ' and select Properties to pop out the SimplePalette Properties Pages dialog window. The following settings in this section are completed in this dialog window.

2. Select General in Configuration Properties and set as below:

Target Extension : .grx

Configuration Type : Dynamic Library (.dll)

Character Set : Use Unicode Character Set

3. Select General in C/C++ and set as below:

General-Additional Include Directories : C:\grxsdk\arx\inc

Generation / Runtime Library as ' Multi-threaded DLL (/MD)' .

Language-Conformance mode : No

4. Select Linker and set as below:

General-Additional Library Directories : C:\grxsdk\arx\lib-x64

Input-Additional Dependencies :

AecModeler.lib;gcad.lib;gcax.lib;gcbase.lib;gcbr.lib;gccore.lib;gcdb.lib;GcDbCon straints.lib;GcDbPointCloudObj.lib;gcdyn.lib;GcGeolocationObj.lib;gcgs.lib;GcIm

aging.lib;GcModelDocObj.lib;gplot.lib;

Input-Module Definition File : C\grxsdk\arx\inc\AcRxDefault.def

Advance-Target Machine : MachineX64 (/MACHINE:X64) (for 64-bit)

5. Click OK to finish the settings.

6. Compile the project and make sure that the compilation is successful. Otherwise repeat the above steps

• to reconfigure the project settings.

4.2.9. Compile Program

In Visual Studio 2017, click Build → Build Solution to create ' SimplePalette.grx ' file in the ' C:\GRXMFC\SimplePalette\x64\Release ' directory.

4.2.10. Run Program

Run GstarCAD and input ' appload ' at the command line, or select Tools → Loading Applications from menu to launch Load/Unload Applications dialog window. Select ' SimplePalette.grx ' and click Load to load it into GstarCAD.

Close the Load/Unload Applications dialog window and input ' simplepalette ' at command line, ' Float or

Docking? ' will be displayed at the command line. Press Enter key and a dialog window will pop out as shown below.

5. How to Use Project Property Sheet File

The Project Property Sheet is used to quickly set the project configurations of a new project. It also helps to reduce the possibility of misoperation on project settings.

The project properties can be applied independently to any combination of build configuration (Debug or Release) and target GstarCAD platform (Win32, x64 or ARM).

GRX SDK provides the project property sheet for configurations of Additional Dependencies , Additional Include Directories and Additional Library Directories .

1. Take project ' HelloWorld ' as a sample to set configurations by using project property sheet file. Open project ' HelloWorld ', click View → Other Windows → Properties Manager , as shown below.

2. In Properties Manager dialog window, right click on Release|x64 and then select Add Existing Property Sheet… .

3. Add property sheet file ' C:\grxsdk\arx\inc\arx.props'. It contains property sheet file ' dbx.props ' which is used to add the following dependencies:

• ' AecModeler.lib;gcad.lib;gcax.lib;gcbase.lib;gcbr.lib;gccore.lib;gcdb.lib;GcDbConstraints.lib;GcDbPointClo udObj.lib;gcdyn.lib;GcGeolocationObj.lib;gcgs.lib;GcImaging.lib;GcModelDocObj.lib;gplot.lib ;'

In the same way, add ' C:\grxsdk\arx\inc\rxsdk_releasecfg.props '. It contains ' rxsdk_common.props ' which

is used to add Additional Include Directories and Additional Libray Directories . In addition,

• ' C:\grxsdk\arx\inc\ rxsdk_debugcfg.props ' is necessary if it's a debug project.

4. In Solution Explore of Visual Studio 2017, right click on project ' HelloWorld ' and select Properties . Click C/C++ and then click General , change the Additional Include Directories to ' C:\grxsdk\arx\inc '. Click Linker and then click Input , change Additional Dependencies to ' grxport.lib ' and change Module Definition File to ' C:\grxsdk\arx\inc\AcRxDefault.def '.

5. Refer to 4.1.7 and 4.1.8 to compile the project and run the program.

6. Description of GRX Class Library

The following libraries are frequently used in programming with GRX. These libraries have same functions with

the corresponding ARX libraries.

• GcRx : same as AcRX of ARX , classes for binding an application and for runtime class registration and identification

• GcEd : same as AcEd of ARX , classes for registering commands and for event notification

• GcDb : same as AcDb of ARX , GstarCAD database class

• GcGi : same as AcGi of ARX , graphics classes for rendering entities

• GcGe : same as AcGe of ARX , utility classes for common linear algebra and geometric objects

6.1. GcRx

The GcRx class library provides system-level functionality such as DLL initialization and linking, and runtime

class registration and identification as below:

• Object runtime class identification and inheritance analysis

• Runtime addition of new protocol to an existing class

• Object equality and comparison testing

• Object copy

6.2. GcEd

The GcEd class library is used to define and register new GstarCAD commands which operate in the same manner as the original ones.

6.3. GcDb

The GcDb classes are components of the GstarCAD database. This database stores all the information for the

graphical objects that compose a drawing, and the non-graphical objects (such as layers, linetypes, and text styles) that are also part of a drawing.

6.4. GcGi

The GcGi class library provides the graphic interface used for drawing CAD entities.

6.5. GcGe

The GcGe class library provides classes used for performing common 2D and 3D geometric operations, including utility classes such as vectors and matrices and basic geometric objects such as points, curves, and surfaces.

7. Copyright

Copyright reserved: Gstarsoft Co.,Ltd

Copying and referencing any part of this document is allowed. No part of this document may be changed

without permission. Please keep this statement when copying or referencing this document.