Create and Open a Drawing

To create a new drawing or open an existing drawing, use the methods of the DocumentCollection object. The Add method creates a new drawing file based on a drawing template and adds that drawing to the DocumentCollection. The Open method opens an existing drawing file.

Create a new drawing

This example uses the Add method to create a new drawing based on the acad.dwt drawing template file.

VB.NET

Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices

Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.DatabaseServices

Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.Runtime

<CommandMethod("NewDrawing", CommandFlags.Session)> _

Public Sub NewDrawing()

  '' Specify the template to use, if the template is not found

  '' the default settings are used.

  Dim strTemplatePath As String = "acad.dwt"

  Dim acDocMgr As DocumentCollection = Application.DocumentManager

  Dim acDoc As Document = acDocMgr.Add(strTemplatePath)

  acDocMgr.MdiActiveDocument = acDoc

End Sub

using Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices;

using Autodesk.AutoCAD.DatabaseServices;

using Autodesk.AutoCAD.Runtime;

[CommandMethod("NewDrawing", CommandFlags.Session)]

public static void NewDrawing()

  // Specify the template to use, if the template is not found

  // the default settings are used.

  string strTemplatePath = "acad.dwt";

  DocumentCollection acDocMgr = Application.DocumentManager;

  Document acDoc = acDocMgr.Add(strTemplatePath);

  acDocMgr.MdiActiveDocument = acDoc;

VBA/ActiveX Code Reference

Open an existing drawing

This example uses the Open method to open an existing drawing. Before opening the drawing, the code checks for the existence of the file before trying to open it.

VB.NET

Imports System.IO

Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices

Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.DatabaseServices

Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.Runtime

<CommandMethod("OpenDrawing", CommandFlags.Session)> _

Public Sub OpenDrawing()

  Dim strFileName As String = "C:\campus.dwg"

  Dim acDocMgr As DocumentCollection = Application.DocumentManager

  If (File.Exists(strFileName)) Then

      acDocMgr.Open(strFileName, False)

  Else

      acDocMgr.MdiActiveDocument.Editor.WriteMessage("File " & strFileName & _

                                                     " does not exist.")

  End If

End Sub

using System.IO;

using Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices;

using Autodesk.AutoCAD.DatabaseServices;

using Autodesk.AutoCAD.Runtime;

[CommandMethod("OpenDrawing", CommandFlags.Session)]

public static void OpenDrawing()

  string strFileName = "C:\\campus.dwg";

  DocumentCollection acDocMgr = Application.DocumentManager;

  if (File.Exists(strFileName))

      acDocMgr.Open(strFileName, false);

  else

      acDocMgr.MdiActiveDocument.Editor.WriteMessage("File " + strFileName +

                                                     " does not exist.");

VBA/ActiveX Code Reference