AutoCAD VBA Programming

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Estella Montgomery
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1 AutoCAD VBA Programming TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES John Gibband Bill Kramer Freeman fbooks San Francisco

2 Table of Contents Introduction Chapter 1: The AutoCAD VBA Environment 1 AutoCAD Programming Solutions 1 How AutoLISP Differs from VBA 3 Visual BASIC versus Visual BASIC for Applications 7 Essential VBA Vocabulary and Concepts 8 Getting Comfortable with the IDE 12 Starting the VBA IDE 13 What's in the IDE? 14 Developing Applications with VBA inside AutoCad 17 Chapter 2: VBA Application Jump-Start 20 Description of the Application 20 Start Your IDE 21 Design the Form 21 First Lines of Program Code 23 Form Properties 24 Add a List Box Control 25 Programming the Starting Sequence 26 Global Variable Declarations 27 Counting Blocks Macro 28 Test Run the Main Macro 33 List Box Reactor Function 34 Test the Program 37 Final Test 38 Chapter 3: Understanding the AutoCAD Object-Oriented Database 39 Object-Oriented Programming Introduction 39 What's an Object? 41 The Management Features of Objects 42 Object Concept Example 43 Computer Science Description of Objects 46 How Objects Are Stored in a Computer 47 About Creating New Objects 49 The AutoCAD Object Tree 49 The Document Object 52 Collection Objects 53 The Block Collection Object 53 Entity Objects 54 Learning about Objects in VBA 56 xiii

3 Chapter 4: The AutoCAD Object Model 59 Methods, Properties, and Events 59 Exploration of the AutoCAD Object Tree 60 Getting to the Application Object 61 The Application Object 62 Accessing the Document Object in VB 66 The Documents Collection 67 Document Object Methods 70 Document Object Properties 71 Document Object Events 74 Event Programming Example 77 Utility Object Functions 78 Collections of Objects 83 Entity Objects 85 Curved Entity Objects 89 Text Entity Objects 93 Preferences 94 Example Sequence 96 Chapter 5: Working with Entity Collection Objects 102 The Collection Object 102 Selection Sets Collection 103 Building a Collection of Entity Objects 104 Accessing Selection Set Members 106 More Selection Set Methods and Properties 107 Selection Set Collection Iterations 108 ModelSpace and PaperSpace Collections 111 Even More Selection Set Methods 112 Filtering the Selection Set 117 Refining the Filters - Numeric Tests 120 String Tests in Filters 123 Combining Multiple Tests 124 Selection Set Maintenance Issues 128 Working with Collections 130 Chapter 6: Drawing Tables 131 AutoCAD Drawing Tables 131 Tables Are Collections 132 The Dictionary Collection 133

4 The DimStyles Collection 134 The Groups Collection 136 Groups versus Dictionaries 138 The Layer Collection 139 The Linetypes Collection 142 The Registered Apps Collection 143 The Text Styles Collection 143 The UCS Collection 145 The Views Collection 147 The View Ports Collection 148 View Port Object 150 The Paper Space View Port Object 152 The Blocks Collection 154 Creating a New Block Definition 155 Reading a Block Definition 156 Working with Attribute Objects in a Block 162 Chapter 7: Working with Other Applications 167 Object Models 167 Interface to Microsoft Excel 169 Excel Application 1-Simple Database 170 Link to Excel 171 Variable Declarations 172 Excel Linkage Function 173 Closing the Workbook 175 Searching the Worksheet 176 Another Example Interface to Microsoft Excel 179 Using Handies 184 Object ID versus Handle 186 Linking with Other Applications 187 Storing Data in AutoCAD 188 Dictionary Object 188 Xrecord Objects 189 Accessing a Dictionary 189 Xrecord Contents 190 Reading Xrecords 192 Group Codes in Xrecords 193 Extended Data 194 Simple Xdata Example 196

5 Chapter 8: Managing Multiple Projects 201 Putting Complete Applications Together 201 Loading Projects to Run 204 Embedded Projects 205 Projects on Disk 205 Re-using Code 207 Running a Macro from Another Project 208 Sharing Data between Projects 210 Late and Early Binding in VBA 211 Multiple Projects in Release Chapter9: API Calls from VBA 214 What's an API? 214 The API Viewer 216 INI File Calls 217 How the PrivateProfileString APIs Work 218 Registry Calls 225 The Registry Editor 226 The VBA Registry Functions 227 System Calls 230 Computer Name 232 User's Login Name 232 System and Local Time 233 The Windows Temporary Directory 234 System Environmental Variable 234 Free Disk Space 235 Conclusion 236 Chapter 10: VBA Toolbox Routines 237 Definition of Terms 238 Toolbox Overview 238 Acquiring Data Items from a Data String 239 Add Back Slashes Result to a Path String 240 Add Trailing Back Slash to a String Path 241 Convert an Object's Entity Type to English 242 Count the Number of Occurrences of a Delimiter in a String 243 Create a Directory Path 244 Determine the Tense of a Word 245 Display a Fatal Error Message 246

6 Find a File 247 Find a Line in a List Box Control 248 Find an Application Window 249 Format a Point in a String 250 Get the Current View's Corner Points 251 Get the Extension from a String 252 Get the Left Substring from a String 253 Get the Path from a String 254 Get the Right Substring from a String 255 Päd a String with Spaces 256 Remove a String's Null Terminator 257 Replace all Requested Characters in a String with Another Character 258 Retrieve the System's Windows Directory 259 Show a Progress Spinner 260 Strip an Extension from a String 262 Strip the Path from a String 263 Verify a Control Exists on a Form 264 Verify a File's Existence 265 Verify a Listbox Item Exists 266 Chapterll: VB versus VBA 267 Quick Comparison of VB and VBA 268 Which Language for Which Situation? 272 Differences at the System Level 273 Porting Issues from VB to VBA 273 Porting Issues from VBA to VB 274 Attaching Your VB Application to the AutoCAD Object Model 274 VB and VBA Help 276 VB and VBA Help Conclusion 287 Chapter 12: Gotcha's and Tips 288 Divergent Data Type Comparison 289 Using Control Keys to Maneuver in VBA 291 Class Modules in VBA 293 The Special Character for Date and Format 295 Named and Optional Arguments 296 Using an Array of Doubles versus a Variant as an Array Passing an Array to an Object's Methods 300 Collections and Procedures 300

7 Short Circuit Evaluation 302 Accessing Objects on the Same Level as Your Current Object 303 Listbox Columns 305 Multiselect in a Listbox 308 Variable Name Shortcuts 309 Command Line Workaround 309 Passing Forms and Controls as Parameters 311 Multipage Form Controls 312 Conclusion 312 Chapter 13: Programming Style 313 Commenting Your Code 314 Keeping Code Concise and Simple 316 Proper Use of Subroutines and Functions 318 Scope, Precedence, and Life of Variables 319 Error Trapping 322 Do You Need to Change Your Programming Style for VBA? 323 Event-Driven versus Procedural-Driven Language 324 The Hungarian Naming Convention 326 Conclusion 330 Chapter 14: Class Modules and Objects 331 Not All Objects Are Equal 331 The VBA Class Module 332 Objects Example 1: Extended Data Manipulations 334 Making a Class Module 335 Properties 337 Methods 341 The Extended Data Example Project 345 Extended Data Object Conclusion 348 Objects Example 2: Hole Chart 349 An Object in an Object 350 The Inner Object 352 The Hole Charting Example Project 355 Hole Chart Application Conclusion 357 Creating Your Own Object 357

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