puppetsw / stringmaster

Autodesk Civil 3D CogoPoint Stringer

StringMaster

What is StringMaster

String master is a plugin for Autodesk Civil 3D 2017-2023 which connects/strings CogoPoints together matching the description keys specified.

This project was developed for personal use but you may find it useful. Please feel free to discuss or contribute.

Usage

Load the stringmaster.civil.dll plugin into Autodesk Civil 3D with netload.

Display the palette with the stringmaster command.

Screenshots

Building the source

1: Prerequisites

• Git
• Visual Studio 2022
• Autodesk Civil 3D

2: Clone the repository.

git clone https://github.com/puppetsw/StringMaster

This will create a local copy of the repository.

3: Build the plugin

To build the plugin make sure that you have references to the following Autodesk DLLs from your Autodesk Civil 3D installation directories.

• accoremgd.dll
• acdbmgd.dll
• acmgd.dll
• AecBaseMgd.dll
• AeccDbMgd.dll

Make sure to set the Copy Local property of each Autodesk reference to False.

Contributors

Want to contribute to this project? Feel free to open an issue or pull request.

stringmaster's Issues

Add colour picker for descriptions

A colour picker to choose the overriding object colour for each description key.

FEATURE: Import from Description Keys

Replicate Layer Selection Dialog

Replicate the layer selection dialog from Civil 3D.

Also the layer creation dialog.

Delete confirmation or undo/redo

Show a confirmation message when deleting a description key, or give the ability to undo a deletion.

BUG: Layers don't update when changing active drawing

Layer picker

BUG: Color selection dialog shows twice

Clear button

Button to clear the description key data grid.

BUG: Zero length polyine drawn when only one point of same code

BUG: Crash when adding new description key

Allow Layer ComboBox to take a new field (new layer)

There is no way to create a new Layer on the fly. The layer has to exist in the current drawing for it to work.

BUG: If layer doesn't existing in drawing, it's not shown in palette

Since swapping to the ComboBox for layers. If the layer doesn't exist in the current drawing the ComboBox field is empty.

Remove description from DescriptionKey

Not sure why I included this. But I don't see a reason for it anymore.

Add status bar to show current file

Show current loaded description key file somewhere.

BUG: Editor window doesn't update until it has focus after clicking the 'string' or GO button.

After clicking the "GO" button to connect the strings, the editor window in the background doesn't update until the palette has lost focus or the editor window is clicked/moved around.

Probably just needs a Editor.ScreenRefresh or something similar (I can't remember the exact method) after the stringing is complete.

Code cleanup

• Remove unused code
• Clean up main stringer method.

BUG: Background colour behind help and checkmark button not transparent

Add icons for toolbar

Autodesk Civil 3D tends to use Icon only toolbars for their palettes.

Example

New description key file button

Should probably ask to save if changes made. Will need to adjust viewmodel and add service for displaying dialog boxes?

Filter stringer by point group, point numbers, raw description

Ability to filter which points are to be connected by selecting a point group, point numbers or raw description.