Through the Interface

Getting the full path of the active drawing in AutoCAD using .NET

,

I had a question come in by email about how to find out the full path of a drawing open inside AutoCAD. Here's some C# code that does just this:

using Autodesk.AutoCAD.Runtime;

using Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices;

using Autodesk.AutoCAD.DatabaseServices;

namespace PathTest

{

  public class Commands

  {

    [CommandMethod("PTH")]

    public void DrawingPath()

    {

      Document doc =

        Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument;

      HostApplicationServices hs =

        HostApplicationServices.Current;

      string path =

        hs.FindFile(

          doc.Name,

          doc.Database,

          FindFileHint.Default

        );

      doc.Editor.WriteMessage(

        "\nFile was found in: " + path

      );

    }

  }

}

Here's what happens when you run the PTH command, with a file opened from an obscure location, just to be sure:

Command: pth

File was found in: C:\Temp\test.dwg

Update:

Tony Tanzillo wrote in a comment:

I think you could also read the Filename property of the Database to get the full path to the drawing, keeping in mind that if the drawing is a new, unsaved document, the Filename property returns the .DWT file used to create the new drawing.

Thanks, Tony - shame on me for missing the obvious. In my defence, I wrote the post in between meetings in Las Vegas, if that's any excuse. 🙂

20 responses to “Getting the full path of the active drawing in AutoCAD using .NET”

  1. Prabhav Mishra Avatar
    Prabhav Mishra

    Hello Sir,

    I am trying to link AutoCAD LT 2008 with Excel spreadsheet via VB.Net .
    using data link manager option provided in the Tools.

    Can u sggest me how can I link an excel sheet with autocad so that
    wat changes we made in excel sheet it will reflect in AutoCAD automatically.

    Programming Language: VB.net
    OS: XP
    Machine: 32bit

    Please revert me back, I wil be thankful to you.

    Reply
  2. Tony Tanzillo Avatar
    Tony Tanzillo

    Hi Kean.

    I think you could also read the Filename property of the Database to get the full path to the drawing, keeping in mind that if the drawing is a new, unsaved document, the Filename property returns the .DWT file used to create the new drawing.

    Reply
  3. Kean Walmsley Avatar
    Kean Walmsley

    Thanks, Tony - that would certainly be much easier. 🙂

    Kean

    Reply
  4. Tony Tanzillo Avatar
    Tony Tanzillo

    Hey - What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas 😛

    Reply
  5. Kean Walmsley Avatar
    Kean Walmsley

    Maybe what's coded in Vegas should also stay in Vegas? 😉

    Reply
  6. Rob Avatar
    Rob

    Kean,
    Is it possible to determine the number of drawings open?

    Reply
  7. Kean Walmsley Avatar
    Kean Walmsley

    This should get you what you need:

    Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices.Application.DocumentManager.Count

    Kean

    Reply
  8. Aleksandr Avatar
    Aleksandr

    I've just recently discovered that reading Filename property of Database property is not reliable way of getting full path. If autosaving is turned on then Filename is a path of the temporary saved file with extension '.sv$'. Does anybody know a more reliable way?

    Thanks.

    Reply
    1. Ben Avatar
      Ben

      Yes I"m finding that problem too. Did you find a solution to that issue?

      Reply
  9. Kean Walmsley Avatar
    Kean Walmsley

    How does my original code work in this scenario?

    Kean

    Reply
  10. Aleksandr Avatar
    Aleksandr

    The original code works fine. Thanks Kean!

    Reply
  11. Mark Avatar
    Mark

    I'm a bit late, but the DWGNAME and DWGPREFIX system variables store this information as well. String concatenating DWGPREFIX & DWGNAME will give the full path and filename of the drawing.

    Reply
  12. Kean Walmsley Avatar
    Kean Walmsley

    Better late than never, Mark! 🙂

    It's true you could also use sysvars, although I think Database.Filename is probably cleanest, overall.

    Kean

    Reply
  13. Jon Avatar
    Jon

    Kean,

    I receive either "eFileError" or "eWasOpenForWrite" error when running the following... Any Clue?

    Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices
    Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.Runtime
    Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.DatabaseServices

    Public Class Class1
    <commandmethod("getfilename")> _
    Public Sub MyMethod()

    Dim doc As Document = Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument
    Dim hs As HostApplicationServices = HostApplicationServices.Current
    Dim path As String = hs.FindFile(doc.Name, doc.Database, FindFileHint.Default)

    End Sub

    End Class

    Reply
  14. Kean Walmsley Avatar
    Kean Walmsley

    Jon,

    It's not clear whether your method is a command or whether it's being called from a modeless UI (which might make a difference, but then again it might not... typically you'd need to lock the document if using the code from a modeless UI, but then we're not really doing anything here that would need the document to be locked, as far as I can tell).

    This code has worked for me, but there may be something about your specific context that's different.

    Incidentally, did you check whether Database.Filename worked for you?

    Regards,

    Kean

    Reply
  15. Jon Avatar
    Jon

    My method is a command, not sure why this part didnt copy in originally...

    <commandmethod("getdrawingpath")> _

    I will try your code directly and see what happens.

    Database.Filename does work, but as mentioned above it changes to a temp file after auto save.(Which I cant take chances on)

    Thanks,

    Jon

    Reply
  16. Kean Walmsley Avatar
    Kean Walmsley

    Ah - it's because the CommandMethod attribute is enclosed in angled brackets in VB, and TypePad interprets it as an (invalid) HTML tag.

    Let me know how you get on: if you can describe the steps to reproduce the problem consistently, I'll do what I can to help.

    Kean

    Reply
  17. Martin Müller Avatar
    Martin Müller

    Hi Kean,

    Just to complete for future readers: Toni Tanzillo is not quite right. The database Filename property shows the autosave name (.sv$), if the file was not saved until last autosave, even if it is a named dwg.

    To get the document path, one should use the Document.Name, keeping in mind that if the file is unsaved, this value does not have a path prefix. Use the following code to check that:

    using System.IO;
    using System.Diagnostic;
    using Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices;

    Document oDocument = Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument;
    if(Path.GetDirectoryName(oDocument.Name).Equals(string.Empty))
    Debug.Assert(false, "Hoops! Usaved document.");

    Reply
  18. Ben Avatar
    Ben

    Hi folks, for completeness i'll add the following:

    string drawingPath = Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument.Database.Filename;

    And if you just want the filePath (without the drawing extension you can do);

    Path.GetDirectoryName(drawingPath)

    hope this helps.

    Ben

    Reply
    1. Kuba Szostak Avatar
      Kuba Szostak

      ApplicationServices.Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument.Name could be also used.

      Reply

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