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ACA
3rd party
.NET apps
Wraps a lot of
AutoCAD
ActiveX
ACA
ActiveX
AutoCAD
.NET
ACA.NET
ObjectARX
OMF
AutoCAD
ACA
ACA
3rd party
C++ apps
ACA
3rd party
VB/VBA apps
API’s
Directly utilize .NET assemblies
Overview
ACA API
via COM Interop (not really needed for ACA 2008 and later, but still works)
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.

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.

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.