Embedding MS-Office Documents Into AutoCAD Drawings Using Design Automation - embed

Question

I have a need to embed MS-Office documents (Excel, Word) into AutoCAD using Design Automation. Searching around the web, it seems that this is not possible because the MS-Office applications, which would act as an OLE Client, would need to be running on the Forge Server. Could someone confirm that this is the case?
If I am correct in my above statement, my next best alternative would be to embed .EMF files created from each page of the document I want to embed; alternatively using raster images would also be acceptable. Creating the .EMF or raster files is not a problem. I just can't find a solution for embedding the file that does not involve copying them to the clipboard and using the PASTECLIP command. This approach has worked for me in the AutoCAD application using a C# AutoCAD.NET plugin, an OLE2Frame object is created, but it fails in accoreconsole (because PASTECLIP uses a UI class which is not available). This leads me to think that the same would occur while running the bundle in Design Automation.
The best I have been able achieve so far is to write a raster image files to the working directory and linking the raster images to the AutoCAD document using RasterImageDef and RasterImage (code below). Is this the only way I can do this? Can I do something similar using an EMF image, which is vector based, instead of a raster image? Or is there a way to actually embed an EMF (preferred) or raster image instead of just linking the images?
The code below fails if I use .EMF files, because RasterImageDef and RasterImage do not support the the EMF file; the EMF file being a vector format, not a raster format?
[CommandMethod("TEST")]
public void Test()
{
Document doc = Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument;
Database db = doc.Database;
Editor ed = doc.Editor;
// Get the file name of the image using the editor to prompt for the file name
// Create the prompt
PromptOpenFileOptions options = new PromptOpenFileOptions("Enter Sequence file path");
options.PreferCommandLine = true;
// Get the file name, use no quotes
PromptFileNameResult result = null;
try { result = ed.GetFileNameForOpen(options); }
catch (System.Exception ex)
{
DisplayLogMessage($"Could not get sequence file location. Exception: {ex.Message}.", ed);
return;
}
// Get the rtf filename from the results
string filename = result.StringResult;
DisplayLogMessage($"Got sequence filename: {filename}", ed);
// Load the Sequence.rtf document
Aspose.Words.Document seq;
using (FileStream st = new FileStream(filename, FileMode.Open))
{
seq = new Aspose.Words.Document(st);
st.Close();
}
DisplayLogMessage($"Aspose.Words Loaded: {filename}", ed);
Transaction trans = db.TransactionManager.StartTransaction();
// Get or create the image dictionary
ObjectId imageDictId = RasterImageDef.GetImageDictionary(db);
if (imageDictId != null)
imageDictId = RasterImageDef.CreateImageDictionary(db);
// Open the Image Dictonary
DBDictionary imageDict = (DBDictionary)trans.GetObject(imageDictId, OpenMode.ForRead);
double x = 0.0;
double y = 0.0;
try
{
// For each page in the Sequence.
for (int i = 0; i < seq.PageCount; i++)
{
DisplayLogMessage($"Starting page {i + 1}", ed);
// extract the page.
Aspose.Words.Document newSeq = seq.ExtractPages(i, 1);
Aspose.Words.Saving.ImageSaveOptions imgOptions = new Aspose.Words.Saving.ImageSaveOptions(Aspose.Words.SaveFormat.Emf);
imgOptions.Resolution = 300;
DisplayLogMessage($"Extracted page {i + 1}", ed);
string dictName = Guid.NewGuid().ToString();
filename = Path.Combine(Path.GetDirectoryName(doc.Name), dictName + ".Emf");
// Save the image
SaveOutputParameters sp = newSeq.Save(filename, imgOptions);
DisplayLogMessage($"Saved {dictName}.Emf", ed);
RasterImageDef imageDef = null;
ObjectId imageDefId;
// see if my guid is in there
if (imageDict.Contains(dictName))
imageDefId = (ObjectId)imageDict.GetAt(dictName);
else
{
// Create an image def
imageDef = new RasterImageDef();
imageDef.SourceFileName = $"./{dictName}.Emf";
// load the image
imageDef.Load();
imageDict.UpgradeOpen();
imageDefId = imageDict.SetAt(dictName, imageDef);
trans.AddNewlyCreatedDBObject(imageDef, true);
}
// create raster image to reference the definition
RasterImage image = new RasterImage();
image.ImageDefId = imageDefId;
// Prepare orientation
Vector3d uCorner = new Vector3d(8.5, 0, 0);
Vector3d vOnPlane = new Vector3d(0, 11, 0);
Point3d ptInsert = new Point3d(x, y, 0);
x += 8.5;
CoordinateSystem3d coordinateSystem = new CoordinateSystem3d(ptInsert, uCorner, vOnPlane);
image.Orientation = coordinateSystem;
// some other stuff
image.ImageTransparency = true;
image.ShowImage = true;
// Add the image to ModelSpace
BlockTable bt = (BlockTable)trans.GetObject(db.BlockTableId, OpenMode.ForRead);
BlockTableRecord btr = (BlockTableRecord)trans.GetObject(bt[BlockTableRecord.ModelSpace], OpenMode.ForWrite);
btr.AppendEntity(image);
trans.AddNewlyCreatedDBObject(image, true);
// Create a reactor between the RasterImage
// and the RasterImageDef to avoid the "Unreferenced"
// warning the XRef palette
RasterImage.EnableReactors(true); // in the original was true
image.AssociateRasterDef(imageDef);
}
trans.Commit();
}
catch (System.Exception ex)
{
DisplayLogMessage("ERROR: " + ex.Message,ed);
trans.Abort();
}
}

Answer 1

Raster images are always linked. There's no way to embed them. The only way to embed an image is to use AcDbOle2Frame (C++) or Autodesk.AutoCAD.DatabaseServices.Ole2Frame (C#). In theory, it is possible to create these objects without the "OLE server" being present but I haven't tried so I don't know if enough APIs are exposed to make it happen.
You should try it and see how far you can get.
Albert

Answer 2

There is way to embed raster image, it is not straightforeward, you need to use C++\ObjectARX API, please refer this https://github.com/MadhukarMoogala/EmbedRasterImage/tree/EmbedRasterImageUsingDBX