My blogging has taken a nosedive in recent years, but I’m happy to report that I am doing great. I’ve been 100% focused on making sure there’s a viable alternative DWG platform for all you lost, lonely, and depressed CAD users out there. I’m going to keep this short and sweet, because as I write this I am still 100% focused on the task: putting finishing touches on BricsCAD V19 to be released “soon”. ...
Are you looking for a way to turn off the annoying InfoCenter that slows down (or sometimes locks up) your AutoCAD? Of course you are! Hop on over to the ManuSoft Freebies page and install AcadInfoCenterOff.msi, the most popular ManuSoft download of all time. ...
I have updated the automatic lisp loader modules (LspLoad.zip on my freebies page) to support BricsCAD V17 and ZWCAD 2017. Note that the source code for LspLoad is also available.
The ManuSoft web server has been humming along steadily for the last 7 years on an old Compaq server running Windows 2008. You may have noticed that it’s currently offline. Actually the server is still humming along just fine – it’s just that nobody can connect to it. ...
I’ve updated QuirkyPolyline and added support for Bricscad 14 – 15 and ZWCAD+ 2014 – 2015. The new QuirkyPolyline download is available on the ObjectARX freebies page. Share ThisTweetFacebookLinkedInTumblrStumbleDiggDelicious
New Visual Studio C/C++ users sometimes get tripped up by IntelliSense errors, so today I’ve decided to share the secret, undocumented solution: just turn them off! IntelliSense is a nice user interface feature when it works, but it has nothing whatever to do with building and running your C/C++ code. IntelliSense errors do not equal compiler errors, and trying to “fix” them is fruitless. ...
Recently I had to debug an intermittent access violation exception in one of my AutoCAD plug-ins. I needed to get the exception while the debugger was attached so I could break the process and analyze the state of memory before AutoCAD’s global exception handler got control. Unfortunately, sometimes it took several hundred runs before the exception occurred. ...
AutoCAD 2015 includes a new feature called Application Manager. I’m sure it serves a lofty purpose, but it comes across a lot like the slimy Norton and Adobe updaters that are really just Trojans in disguise. It gets installed by default, with no option to prevent installation. To Autodesk’s credit, they do provide instructions for preventing installation of Application Manager, and instructions for removing it after the fact. Uninstalling requires several additional clicks, as if they really, really want you to think twice before taking such a drastic measure. ...
Rumors about the death of AutoLISP have been floating around for many years, but fear not, those rumors are greatly exaggerated. Bricscad and ZWCAD both have excellent support for lisp plugins, so well-written lisp code is truly cross-platform and enjoys a large and growing audience. Unlike other languages, the vast majority of lisp code works unmodified on any hardware architecture, in any version of Windows, and inside any host application that supports it, including AutoCAD versions released more than a decade ago. On top of that, OpenDCL gives lisp developers the power of a modern event-driven user interface that can put their lisp plugins on the same playing field as plugins written in any other language. This is a powerful combination, and given lisp’s low entry cost, it is not surprising to see lisp continuing to enjoy strong support in the developer community. ...
One of the cardinal rules of C++ exception handling is “don’t catch what you can’t handle”. Of course there are always, er, exceptions to the rule, but the basic principle always holds. The consequences of violating the rule are less severe in the .NET world, but even there it’s a good rule of thumb. ...
I have updated the automatic lisp loader modules (LspLoad.zip on my freebies page) to support Bricscad V14 and ZWCAD+ 2014. Note that the source code for Lspload is also available.
The automatic lisp loader modules (LspLoad.zip on my freebies page) have been updated to add support for AutoCAD 2014 and Bricscad 13 64-bit. The modules are now digitally signed so that AutoCAD 2014 loads them quietly.