Outside The Box blogs, Autodesk University anecdotes, articles, blog digests, and product news in chronological order. See Writing for the same material by subject.

Registering an ARX/BRX module as a COM server

· Programming

If you’re developing ARX modules that need to be registered as a COM server, you’re faced with some decisions about how to register them. In the old days before anyone cared about user permissions, registration could be safely accomplished at runtime, even via AutoLISP. Unfortunately runtime COM server registration just doesn’t work reliably any more under limited user accounts, not to mention registry redirection on 64-bit platforms. There is only one reliable way to register COM servers, and that’s doing it at install time under elevated privileges. …

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OpenDCL 6

· LISP, Programming

You may not have noticed, but AutoLISP is still alive and kicking. This is evidenced by the growing community of developers and hobbyist programmers using the latest release of OpenDCL, the free graphical user interface library for AutoLISP applications. If you’re not familiar with OpenDCL, check out the newly released OpenDCL 6.

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A tale of two tethers

· Personal

Those of you using your Android phone as an internet connection may be paying more than you need to pay. Many phone companies here in the US charge extra to enable tethering capability, either by providing their own OEM tethering app or by enabling the phone to serve as a Wi-fi hotspot. …

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