In this blog post, I will discuss an error that occurs while automating tasks in AutoCAD using the pythoncom module.- The pythoncom module is a AutoCAD automatization module in Python. Also, I will provide a solution for the same. The error that I will handle is the “Call was rejected by callee” error.

Cause of the “Call was rejected by callee” error

The main reason for getting this error while working with AutoCAD automation using pythoncom is the speed of call-making. I.e. the speed of making calls.

The subsequent calls that we make to perform certain tasks in AutoCAD are faster than the application can handle.

This eventually throws an ‘Call was rejected by callee’ error.

Solution to the “Call was rejected by callee” error

To solve this issue, we can use the ‘sleep’ method by importing the ‘time’ module into Python.

time.sleep(5)

This method shall be executed after executing certain heavy functions which consume a considerable amount of computer resources while performing tasks. We have to pass parameters as seconds to suspend a process of the current thread for a specified time.

As mentioned in the code above I am suspending the execution for 5 seconds.

Exemplary application to solve the error

The code mentioned below represents a subprocess of a code. I need to turn the viewport on to perform certain tasks on the viewport. But while working with multiple viewports I end up getting the “Call was rejected by callee” error.

To mitigate the same, I am forcing the process to wait for 0.5 seconds and then continue.

def turn_on_viewport(viewport):
    viewport.ViewportOn = True
    print("Viewport On: " + str(viewport.ViewportOn))
    time.sleep(0.5)

For further more blog posts covering AutoCAD automatization please check our other blog posts related to pyautocad and pywin32.

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Tanmay Sawant

Civil engineer interested in automation in core subjects such as civil, mechanical and electrical, using IT skills comprising cloud computing, devops, programming languages and databases along with the technical skills gained while working as a civil engineer since past 3 years.