The AutoCAD® Map 3D 2008 .NET API provides access to AutoCAD Map 3D functionality so you can modify and extend it for your own purposes. The API can be used by any .NET language.
The snippets in this guide are mainly in VB.NET, but most samples are available in VB.NET, C#, and C++.
Some of the short snippets in this guide write to the AutoCAD Map 3D console. Ensure that the console is visible. Press CTRL+9 to display the or hide console.
The Autodesk.Gis.Map namespace contains the .NET classes for AutoCAD Map 3D. Some of the general-purpose classes are defined directly within the top-level Autodesk.Gis.Map namespace, but most are grouped into lower-level namespaces below Autodesk.Gis.Map.
For the sake of cleaner code, all examples within this guide will assume the following Imports:
Imports Autodesk.Gis.Map
Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.DatabaseServices
Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices
In this guide, objects from namespaces within Autodesk.Gis.Map are partially qualified. For example, the Table class in the Autodesk.Gis.Map.ObjectData namespace is generally given as ObjectData.Table. This makes it simple to find the class details in the API Reference.
Certain chapters may define additional imports. For example, the chapter about Object Data defines
Imports Autodesk.Gis.Map.ObjectData