Launch AutoCAD 2015 from .Net process

Question

I was trying to load AutoCAD 2015 from .Net process so that I can send commands to the document to create/modify blocks.

I tried both of these approaches but none of them seems to work.

1st approach:

AcadApplication app = new AcadApplication();
app.Visible = true;

2nd approach:

var t = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("AutoCAD.Application", true);
dynamic obj = Activator.CreateInstance(t, true);

In both of the cases I am getting COM exception. Any help?

It's not a duplicate as mentioned in comments, I have tried both approaches mentioned in here.

COM exception -

Retrieving the COM class factory for component with CLSID {0B628DE4-07AD-4284-81CA-5B439F67C5E6} failed due to the following error: 80080005 Server execution failed (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80080005 (CO_E_SERVER_EXEC_FAILURE)).

@TheLethalCoder - That's not duplicate. Please read question details again. I did try both approaches mentioned there but neither worked for me. — Rohit Vats, Nov 27 '15 at 18:06
@ParrishHusband - 64 bit. COM exception appended in question. — Rohit Vats, Nov 27 '15 at 18:09
Sanity question, is this running in the context of a service? If not, has AutoCad been run (opened at least once) for the user? — Parrish Husband, Nov 27 '15 at 18:20
No this is just pure WPF application and on button click trying to launch AutoCAD. And yes AutoCAD 2015 is installed on opened on user machine. Tried with "AutoCAD.Application.20" as well but no luck. — Rohit Vats, Nov 27 '15 at 18:22
is AutoCAD fully licensed? Network license? Or showing that "Try or Buy" popup? — Augusto Goncalves, Nov 27 '15 at 20:19

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 30 '15 at 16:18

I would recommend attempting to get an existing instance of AutoCAD first before creating a new instance each time your application runs.

Creating an instance each time is very expensive.

try
{
  GetAutoCAD();
}
catch (COMException cx)
{
    try
    {
        StartAutoCad();
    }
    catch(Exception ex)
    {
      Log.Error(ex);
      throw;
    }
}

void GetAutoCAD()
{
    // try to Get an instance
    _application = Marshal.GetActiveObject(_autocadClassId);
}

void StartAutoCad()
{
    var t = Type.GetTypeFromProgID(_autocadClassId, true);
    var obj = Activator.CreateInstance(t, true);
    _application = obj;
}

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 27 '15 at 20:49

1

Finally I was able to make it run for me. (Posting here so on one had to waste time like I did)

Not sure what was an exact issue though. Strangely, running VS 2013 as normal user worked fine but in case I run it as an administrator, it always fails with above mentioned COM exception.

answered Nov 27 '15 at 20:49

Rohit Vats

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At first run, AutoCAD configures itself. May be it has never been run as Administrator. – Maxence Nov 30 '15 at 09:26
@Maxence - I run it as an administrator and then try to launch it from my code but still same issue. Does AutoCAD picks the configuration from first run only? I didn't run it as an admin after installation. – Rohit Vats Nov 30 '15 at 13:47
Your second approach is more flexible, I develop using the first approach, and then change the types to dynamic before deployment. That way I can keep up with new versions of AutoCAD using the string value "AutoCAD.Application" as a setting. – reckface Nov 30 '15 at 16:08

Launch AutoCAD 2015 from .Net process

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