About VBA and ActiveX Compatibility

The latest release continues to support the VBA development environment, but you need to download and install the runtime and development environment separately.

When migrating to the latest release, not all VBA projects or applications that utilize the AutoCAD ActiveX APIs might work. While ActiveX is designed to be supported across multiple releases, based on the targeted release of the project or application, some code statements might be written to target a specific AutoCAD or library release.

The following table lists the filename of the AutoCAD object library that is supported by AutoCAD-based product release.

Release Release Number AutoCAD Type Library AutoCAD/ObjectDBX Type Library
AutoCAD 2016 20.1 acax20<language>.tlb axdb20<language>.tlb
AutoCAD 2015 20.0 acax20<language>.tlb axdb20<language>.tlb
AutoCAD 2014 19.1 acax19<language>.tlb axdb19<language>.tlb
AutoCAD 2013 19.0 acax19<language>.tlb axdb19<language>.tlb
AutoCAD 2012 18.2 acax18<language>.tlb axdb18<language>.tlb
AutoCAD 2011 18.1 acax18<language>.tlb axdb18<language>.tlb
AutoCAD 2010 18.0 acax18<language>.tlb axdb18<language>.tlb
AutoCAD 2009 17.2 acax17<language>.tlb axdb17<language>.tlb
AutoCAD 2008 17.1 acax17<language>.tlb axdb17<language>.tlb
AutoCAD 2007 17.0 acax17<language>.tlb axdb17<language>.tlb
AutoCAD 2006 16.2 acax16<language>.tlb axdb16<language>.tlb
AutoCAD 2005 16.1 acax16<language>.tlb axdb16<language>.tlb
AutoCAD 2004 16.0 acax16<language>.tlb axdb16<language>.tlb
AutoCAD 2002 15.2 acax15.tlb axdb15.tlb
AutoCAD 2000i 15.1 acax15.tlb axdb15.tlb
AutoCAD 2000 15.0 acax15.tlb axdb15.tlb
Note: <language> represents the language of the object library. For example, <language> might be enu on English installations and fra on French installations.

For a general history of the changes made to the ActiveX API, see “Introduction > ActiveX API History“ in the ActiveX Developer’s Guide (<drive>:\Program Files\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\acad_aag.chm).

Note: Starting with AutoCAD 2014-based products, custom applications must work under secure mode; when the SECURELOAD system variable is set to 1 or 2. When operating under secure mode, the AutoCAD-based product is restricted to loading and executing files that contain code from trusted locations; trusted locations are specified by the TRUSTEDPATHS system variable. For more information, see About Protecting Against Malicious Code.

Other AutoCAD ActiveX Library References

The following lists filenames of the other AutoCAD ActiveX APIs used by earlier releases and the object library files that they have been replaced with the latest release:

Related Concepts