Modernization, optimization and porting of a large existing AutoCAD add-on. Extensive code that has grown over the last 12 years and is now being renewed and restructured by us. Porting of the AutoCAD addon from ObjectARX to ARX.NET and BricsCAD.
Client: CAD provider
Techniques: AutoCAD, AutoCAD Civil, BricsCAD, AutoCAD .NET API (ARX.NET), ObjectARX, C#, C++, MFC, COM, Visual Studio 2013, TFS and UML.
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As a B2B software service provider, we used our experience in CAD to modernize a software that had grown over 12 years. Our client, itself a large software company, developed this addon for AutoCAD and Civil for structural and civil engineering.
Several hundred thousand lines of code were ported and modernized from C++ (COM, MFC, and ObjectARX) to C# (WinForm, AutoCAD's API). This was preceded by a feasibility study and financial calculation for this large project. In the financial calculation, we showed how the development effort with C++ for AutoCAD addons will behave over the next few years due to high migration efforts and in what timeframe the porting to a modern programming language will pay for itself.
The porting concerned the user interface with main and context menu, ribbon, property window, commands and dialogs. The CAD part contained CAD elements (entities), reactors, Xdata, and much more. On the way it was already noticeable that the program code became shorter and simpler.
After the porting, a three-day training period was conducted to prepare the employees for the change to AutoCAD .NET API with C#. Previously, they had already been trained by us for AutoCAD's ObjectARX and C++.
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