In addition to accessing commands from the command prompt and menu interfaces, AutoCAD provides application programming interfaces (APIs) that you can use to control drawings and databases. The type of interface you use depends on your application needs and programming experience.
The programming interfaces introduced here are ActiveX® Automation, VBA (Visual Basic® for Applications), AutoLISP®, Visual LISP™ , ObjectARX™ , and .NET. The type of interface you use depends on your application needs and programming experience.
Topics in this section
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ActiveX Automation
ActiveX Automation is a technology developed by Microsoft® and is based on the COM (component object model) architecture. You can use it to customize AutoCAD, share your drawing data with other applications, and automate tasks.
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AutoCAD VBA
Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is an object-based programming environment designed to provide rich development capabilities. The main difference between VBA and VB (Visual Basic 6) is that VBA runs in the same process space as AutoCAD, providing an AutoCAD-intelligent and very fast programming environment.
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AutoLISP and Visual LISP
AutoLISP is based on the LISP programming language, which is simple to learn and very powerful. Because AutoCAD has a built-in LISP interpreter, you can enter AutoLISP code at the command prompt or load AutoLISP code from external files. Visual LISP (VLISP) is a software tool designed to expedite AutoLISP program development.
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ObjectARX
ObjectARX technology provides the foundation for design software applications to share intelligent object data. You can run third-party ObjectARX application programs or write your own.
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.NET
With the Microsoft .NET Framework, you can create applications that interoperate with AutoCAD using programming languages like VB .NET and C#.