It is assumed that the reader is familiar with creating i-drop content for AutoCAD blocks, and inserting the i-drop definition onto a HTML page.

Please refer to Building an i-drop site to get a better understanding of these steps.

Autodesk Architectural Desktop r3 introduces the ability to i-drop individual styles (or groups of styles) directly into the Style Manager from a web page.

Autodesk Architectural Desktop r3.3 extends this functionality by allowing the same styles to be dropped directly into the drawing area.

The requirements for a page containing Architectural Desktop styles are the same as for DWG files (refer to Building an i-drop site for more detail)

• The DWG file containing the Architectural Desktop style(s).
• JPG/GIF image file showing your customer a representation of the style(s).
• XML Object File describing the embedded styles.

I am assuming that you have created the appropriate graphic. For more information see Step 1 in Building an i-drop site.

The next consideration is to create or use a DWG that contains the style(s) that you want to be made available.

For download purposes, we want to make the DWG as small as possible. The most efficient method of creating a DWG containing only the information required by the styles is to use the Style Manager feature to create a new drawing and copy the required styles in it, e.g.

In Autodesk Architectural Desktop r3 or later, open a drawing containing the styles you wish to use.

1. Open the Style Manager feature
2. Select the New Drawing toolbar icon, and choose the location of your DWG file
3. Drag and drop only the styles required from the first drawing to the second drawing (note that dependencies may cause additional styles to be copied)
4. Close the Style Manager and select Yes to save the changes to the external drawing
5. The drawing created in step "4" is the one you should use on your web site and in your iDrop definition.

Now let's discuss the XML file that you must have for each Style (or set of Styles). Note that multiple drawing files can be referenced, and even a different drawing for each Style.

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<package>

<!-- if you want to validate against the schema, uncomment the next line and remove the previous one -->

<!-- package xmlns="x-schema:idrop.xdr" -->

<proxy defaultsrc="cwall.jpg">

   <caption>My Caption</caption>

</proxy>

<dataset>

 <datasrc clipformat="CF_IDROP.AEC">

  <datafile/>

  <aecStyles xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">

  <aecStyle name="CWall01" type="AecDbCurtainWallStyle">

  <URL xlink:title="Sample Curtain Wall" xlink:href="cwall.dwg"/>

  </aecStyle>

  </aecStyles>

 </datasrc>

</dataset>

</package>

If you have by now become familiar with the standard AutoCAD i-drop mechanism, the XML above looks familiar.

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Let's go some of the more pertinent lines of XML and describe its purpose. For a description of the tags in the above example that are not described below see the general i-drop steps.

<proxy defaultsrc="cwall.jpg">

This is the link to the graphic file used to represent this particular style.

<caption>My Caption</caption>

This element defines the caption that will be displayed with the i-drop representation on the HTML page.

<dataset>

This is normally the link to the main drawing file in other i-drop scenarios, but becomes irrelevant with ADT Styles and so the defaultsrc=" " attribute is omitted to remove i-drop behavior in a vanilla AutoCAD environment (with defaultsrc=" " included, the referenced drawing will be inserted as a block in non-ADT environments)

<datasrc clipformat="CF_IDROP.AEC">

This is the start of ADT specific i-drop information

<datafile/>

This line does not require the src attribute for Architectural Desktop style definitions. The <aecStyle> element contains the link to the drawing file.

<aecStyles xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">

 This is the main container element for the individual style(s), and also declares use of the xlink schema (a schema designed for specifying referenced URIs).

<aecStyle name="CWall01" type="AecDbCurtainWallStyle">

This references the style name (as it appears in the Style Manager), and the name of the database object that the style represents (listed later)

<URL xlink:title="Sample Curtain Wall" xlink:href="cwall.dwg"/>
This defines the legend or key that describes the tags you are using in XML, and links to the drawing file containing the individual style.

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i-drop multiple styles in one drop

The example above shows an i-drop package that downloads one Style (plus of course dependent styles in the same download drawing).

But what if you wanted to create a package that downloaded numerous styles at once. You might want to does this, for example, if you want to make available all the standard office styles in one easy download from the office intranet.

Well fortunately this is accounted for, and all that is required are additional <aecStyle name="??" type="??"> elements for every Style you wish to see downloaded.

Once again remember that you do not need to include styles that will already be downloaded as a dependency of another. For example if wall style "My WallStyle 01" refers to Endcap Style "My EndcapStyle 01" you only need to include the former in the XML package for both to be downloaded.

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<package>

<!-- if you want to validate against the schema, uncomment the next line and remove the previous one -->

<!-- package xmlns="x-schema:idrop.xdr" -->

<proxy defaultsrc="cwall.jpg">

   <caption>My Caption</caption>

</proxy>

<dataset>

 <datasrc clipformat="CF_IDROP.AEC">

  <datafile/>

  <aecStyles xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">

  <aecStyle name="CWall01" type="AecDbCurtainWallStyle">

  <URL xlink:title="Sample Curtain Wall" xlink:href="cwall.dwg"/>

  </aecStyle>

  <aecStyle name="Wall01" type="AecDbWallStyle">

  <URL xlink:title="Sample Wall" xlink:href="wall.dwg"/>

  </aecStyle>

  <aecStyle name="Door01" type="AecDbDoorStyle">

  <URL xlink:title="Sample Door" xlink:href="doors.dwg"/>

  </aecStyle>

  </aecStyles>

 </datasrc>

</dataset>

</package>

The above example has a few interesting characteristics:

• Not all Style Types are the same.
  It is possible to include Styles of any type, so long as the Style Manager supports them.
• Each Style comes from a different source drawing.
  It is entirely up to you whether the Styles are located in one or multiple drawings.

So basically that is it. All that remains is to change the definitions above to contain your styles (with the filename, style name and type references changed to your appropriate names), create the preview images and hook up your i-drop definition to your web page. As always, it is recommend that you test your page thoroughly in an Autodesk Architectural Desktop 3.x product before going live.
For more information on how to insert i-drop into a HTML page, refer to Step 2 of 'Building an i-drop site'.
Supported Styles in Autodesk Architectural Desktop 3.x
The following table maps the <aecStyle type=" "> attribute to the friendly name shown in (the U.S. English version of) the Style Manager, including those available with International Extensions installed.

AecDb2dSectionStyle	2D Section/Elevation Styles
AecDbDimensionStyle	AEC Dimension Styles
AecDbPolygonStyle	AEC Polygon Styles
AecDbAreaModifier	Area Calculation Modifier Styles
AecDbAreaGroupStyle	Area Group Styles
AecDbAreaGroupDef	Area Groups Templates
AecDbAreaProposalNames	Area Name Definitions
AecDbAreaStyle	Area Styles
AecDbCleanupGroupDef	Cleanup Group Definitions
AecDbCurtainWallLayoutStyle	Curtain Wall Styles
AecDbCurtainWallUnitStyle	Curtain Wall Unit Styles
AecDbDoorStyle	Door Styles
AecDbEndcapStyle	Endcap Styles
AecDbLayerKeyStyle	Layer Key Styles
AecDbMaskBlockDef	Mask Blocks
AecDbMvBlockDef	Multi-View Block Definitions
AecDbProfileDef	Profiles
AecDbPropertySetDef	Property Set Definitions
AecDbRailingStyle	Railing Styles
AecDbRoofSlabEdgeStyle	Roof Slab Edge Styles
AecDbRoofSlabStyle	Roof Slab Styles
AecDbScheduleDataFormat	Schedule Data Formats
AecDbScheduleTableStyle	Schedule Table Styles
AecDbSlabEdgeStyle	Slab Edge Styles
AecDbSlabStyle	Slab Styles
AecDbSpaceStyle	Space Styles
AecDbStairStyle	Stair Styles
AecsDbMemberStyle	Structural Member Styles
AecDbWallModStyle	Wall Modifier Styles
AecDbWallStyle	Wall Styles
AecDbWindowAssemblyStyle	Window Assembly Styles
AecDbWindowStyle	Window Styles

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