ACA is built on top
of AutoCAD. This means that ACA actually derive from the base AutoCAD
functionality and the ACA API further derives to provide and deliver robust
functionality. Previously, two main API’s were supported by ACA: OMF and ACA
ActiveX. Just as AutoCAD Architecture is built on top of AutoCAD, those ACA
API’s extend the base AutoCAD API. OMF is a C++ based API, designed using
ObjectARX, and extends ObjectARX. OMF is also used internally by the
development team to develop the ACA product. |
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ACA ActiveX extends
AutoCAD ActiveX. But does not derive from AutoCAD’s base objects. It does
reuse some of the API but there is no actual derivation. With COM the object
opening or closing etc is not required. All these implementations are
included in our APIs. |
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Similarly, in the
ACA.NET API, AutoCAD.NET wraps lots of ObjectARX, and ACA.NET wraps lots of
OMF. You can use .NET Interop to access the COM API, so everything available
in the COM API can also be used in a .NET application. The COM API is now
deprecated, and a lot of work has been done to ensure that everything is
available in native ACA.NET. |