KernelCAD Documentation

KernelCAD controls can be created dynamically at runtime. The Initialisation Context facilitates the process of runtime control creation. It addresses the problem that controls are created using generic methods of a particular language or IDE. The method is not aware of properties of KernelCAD. KernelCAD creation process on the other hand can work quite differently depending on the environment and requested properties.

The Initialisation Context is a single global set of properties, slightly different from the normal properties of KernelCAD. This set of properties is not dependent on any particular instance of a control and is always accessible even if no control have been created yet.

The main property of the context is the Active property. It is false by default. If it was set to true any KernelCAD controls will use the context to during creation to determine the type of the control requisted and its initial properties.

Properties of Initialisation Context

Property	Description	Type	Default
Active	If true any control created at runtime will copy or use the properties below before its creation	Boolean	false
ModelPath	Will be copied to ModelPath of the control	String	Empty
ShowGlobalAxes	Will be copied to ShowGlobalAxes	Boolean	False
BackgroundColor	Components of background color to be used in DIBackColor property	Color	rgba(0.8, 1.0, 0.8, 1.0)
RenderSolid	Will be copied to RenderSolid	Boolean	True
TransparBackgrEnabled	Will be copied to TransparBackgrEnabled	Boolean	False
Visible	If false and supported by the IDE the control will be created invisible. It is recommended to set it to false to avoid flicker on start	Boolean	True
HandleComposited	If true and the KernelCAD control is being created as child of a window, which (or any of its ancestors) has WS_EX_COMPOSITED extended window style on, the control will be created in Dual Mode. In the case, if this property is false, the control might not work properly	Boolean	True

Extended properties

There is a single ForceDual extended property. This property should be used as the last resort for cases of complex and unusual views, hosting a runtime created KernelCAD control, which do not provide full support for 3D rendering. After this property was set to true (false is the default) any controls will be created in Dual Mode regardless of runtime properties of the container.

To access the property call IControlInitialisationContext_KC.GetExtendedProperties() (See below) and use IKCContext.SetBoolParam(0, value) and IKCContext.GetBoolParam(0)

Using Initialisation Context

The context is accessed via IControlInitialisationContext_KC interface.

To obtain IControlInitialisationContext_KC interface obtain IGlobalAPI_KC and use IGlobalAPI_KC.LockInitialisationContext() method.

Call IControlInitialisationContext_KC.Activate(true) for context to be used during control instantiation

Release the context as soon as possible with IControlInitialisationContext_KC.ReleaseContext to make it available for other threads. It is recommended to call IControlInitialisationContext_KC.Activate(false) prior to that.