AutoCAD 2012, Vistual Studio 2010 Express, debugging

The first thing to consider as an AutoCAD .NET developer facing upgrading to version 18.2 is you need .NET 4.0 to debug your AddIn. Now VS 2008 doesn't support .NET, so you have to upgrade to Visual Studio 2010.

We have installed one of the VS 2010 Express versions available to download, and tried to set up the environment. After a little research we found that in previous Express versions you had to modify the *.proj.user file to include a start action (old Kean Walmsley post). That procedure didn't work on our test machine, but we copied a .vbproj config file from a debugging enabled project, and we realized that the key entries were

<StartAction> Program </StartAction>
<StartProgram> {AutoCAD Architecture 2012 path}\acad.exe </StartProgram>

in the <PropertyGroup> for debugging in the .vbproj will give you the desired effect.

Now there is the debugger breakpoint issue and its possible solutions. On a quick test we could effectively set breakpoints, due to be using the same .NET version as the debugger in VS.

Let me know your experience!

Cheers

VirtualBox > Windows7 > Autocad 2012

The stack doesn't work. It may depend on the workstation, but it is very unreliable. I have tried to install D3D compatibility and all, but the software just didn't render properly. Besides, I think VMWare suffers the same problem.

Cheers!

Python Module Managing

Ahhh package managing, infinite headache.

So the standard way to install modules in Python is the Distutils way:

python setup.py install

However there is no symetric uninstall. Simple ways to overcome this problem, more or less stylishly:

1. Use easy_install

2. In a *nix-like environment, install with a record, then pass the record to a delete command:

python setup.py install --record files.txt
cat files.txt | xargs rm -rf

3. Convert the package to a native package format, then use your OS package manager capabilities:

windown: python setup.py bdist_wininst
*nix like: python setup.py bdist_(deb|rpm)

Hope that any of these works for you.

Ubuntu Natty Narwhal Install

After reading the amount of problems updating to Ubuntu 11.04 (codename: Natty Narwhal) has given to some peers, I decided to reinstall my Ubuntu system instead of updating it. I have learned a couple of things in the process:

- Too many people have been having problems with the installation CD. Use the alternate CD (http://releases.ubuntu.com/natty/). It lets you perform an integrity check on itself and some other flexible options for uncommon situations. It has only a text mode installation and no WiFi drivers. So you must have a cable Internet connexion to install third party software (like nVidia drivers and Adobe Flash).

- If you haven't installed 3D capable drivers in the process, the latest and greatest desktop in Ubuntu, Unity, won't work for you. You will be most likely warned about this situation, and offered a "mock up" GTK2 desktop. No GNOME 3.

- I tried to install manually the latest nVidia proprietary drivers, but it kept complaining (X is running, Neuveau module is loaded,...) and finally I decided to let the package manager in Ubuntu do it for me.

- Shift+Alt+Up let you use the "expose" window switch effect.

- The ~ symbol in a spanish keyboard is at AltGr+ñ or AltGr+4.

- To disable Bluetooth at start up go directly to /etc/bluetooth/main.conf and look for InitiallyPowered. EDIT: Aparently a bug prevents the above setting from disabling bluetooth, but you can try

rfkill block bluetooth

in your .profile to kill at startup.

- The left bar on Unity is somehow customisable. The trick is to copy the default configuration to your config directory in /home and add some stuff. More here http://maketecheasier.com/8-really-useful-ubuntu-unity-quicklists/2011/05/07

- Candy eye bonus: letters are too big, worked nice for me with lower dots per inch (Appearance, Fonts). I installed the Faenza icons set, only because the browser navigation controls where too unpleasant for me (specially with Chromium).

A quick review for a non-hardcore GNU/Linux user.

Unity brings simplicity and structure to Ubuntu user experience. I like this move from Canonical, even more, taking into account the Wayland migration being announced. That is going to give Ubuntu a really modern approach to the desktop, while preserving the flexibility and compatibility. It is a pity they change their mind so often, and that the system is not so rock stable as it should be. But nice work. They need to attract users with fancy software or some kind of cultural movement. The base is already there, only to be polished.

That's all folks!

Advanced Matrix Library in C#. NET ...

... has finally been published @ 
codeproject.com 
under the Code Project Open License (CPOL).

Thx to Anas S.A. for sharing it!

Operations Supported

The cMatrixLibrary supports the following:

• Add 
• Cross Product of two vectors 
• Determinant 
• Dot Product of two vectors 
• Eigen Values and Vectors of a matrix 
• Identity 
• Inverse 
• LU decomposition of a matrix 
• Multiply 
• Pseudoinverse 
• Print Matrix (Returns a matrix as a string, so it can be viewed in a multi-text textbox or in a richtextBox ) 
• Rank of a Matrix 
• Solve Linear (Solves a set of n linear equations A.X = B, and returns X) 
• Subtract 
• SVD (Evaluates the Singular Value Decomposition of a matrix, returns the matrices S, U and V. Such that a given Matrix = U x S x V') 
• Transpose and 
• Vector Magnitude

[contents of this list of supported operations as published on the website at the publishing date of this post]

Count Source Lines of Code in Visual Studio

Yep, I know, SLoC are not a good measure. But it´s ok to know if you are facing a 10k or a 10M SLoC project. So, with MS VS just:

- Ctrl+Shift+F

- For each language you use look for:

C#

^~(:Wh@//.+)~(:Wh@\{:Wh@)~(:Wh@\}:Wh@)~(:Wh@/#).+

VB.NET

^~(:Wh@'.+)~(:Wh@/#).+

- Click on "Use:" Regular expresions

- Select your language source code files in "Look at these these file types:"

- Go to results and check the "Matching lines"

Que aproveche!

Very first steps with numpy in ironpython

Microsoft has given the IronPython project (along with IronRuby) to the community in 2010. That doesn´t mean it is dead at all, although the development has slowed down a bit.

But this situation doesn't prevent it to be extremely practical for rapid application development, and, thanks to the people at Resolver One, allows .NET developers leverage on some useful python libraries, like numpy . We need to use ironclad http://code.google.com/p/ironclad/ to import cpython native libraries in IronPython

1. install python 2.6

2. install numpy (1.3.0)

3. install ironpython (2.6.x)

4.unzip ironclad to c:\ironclad-...

5. go to directory and run ipy -X:Frames (ironclad needs frames) -X:ColorfulConsole -X:TabCompletion -X:AutoIndent

6. >>> import ironclad

7. add to sys.path cpython library paths:

>>> sys.path.append("c:\\Python26\\Dlls")

>>> sys.path.append("c:\\Python26\\Lib")

>>> sys.path.append("c:\\Python26\\Lib\\site-packages")

8. >>>import numpy

If you are still there without errors you can start to use numpy to solve your 5 dimensional hyperbolic equations, or just follow a few tutorials:

Tentative NumPy Tutorial

NumPy for Matlab Users

Grüße