Autocad Vba Programming

C h a p t er Se v e n
Work i ng w i th Other
Other
Applications
T
he prima
prima ry feature of VB is tha t it is capable
capable of w orking
orking w ith
other programs tha t support
support au toma tion inside
inside of Window
Window s.
Some of th e programs
programs that support
support autom ation include the
Microsoft Office 97 progra m s Word,
Word, Excel, a nd Ac
Access
cess.. This
This cha pter
demo nstrates the ba sic
sic strategies
strategies of interfacing Auto
Auto CAD VBA
VBA w ith th ese
ese
tools.
tools. In particular
particular,, w e w ill
ill pay attention to interfacing AutoCAD
AutoCAD VBA
VBA
w ith Microsoft Excel.
Excel. This
This cha
cha pter is merely a n in trodu ction to using
au tom ation tools w ith th ese
ese other packages.
packages. There
There are oth er books av ail-
able that deal w ith the interfaces into the packages in mu ch mo re detail.
detail.
This cha
cha pter cont
cont inues w ith an exploration
exploration of th e techniqu es invo
invo lved
in building links
links betw een Auto
Auto CAD an d externa l data systems using
using
extended data (Xdata). We also cover the Dictionary and Xrecord objects
in how they can be used
used in relation
relation w ith external interfaces
interfaces..
Obj
bjec
ect Models
odels
Every program that supports ActiveX automation has an object tree that
is sim
sim ilar to t he Auto CAD object
object tree. The
The d ifference is th at th e tree for
the o ther a pplic
pplication
ation w ill
ill be spec
specifi
ificc to th at application
application just as the Auto-
CAD object library is dedicated to AutoCAD.
167
A u t o c a d V B A PRO GR A M M I N G
The object mod el in

in th e oth er application
application s w ill follow th e basic strategy
(figure
(figure 7.1
7.1)) of h aving th e application
application a t th e root. There
There w ill
ill be various
properties
properties,, meth ods, and events associated
associated w ith the application
application th at m ay
interest
interest yo u, but norm ally y our first
first step is
is into
into the do cumen ts. Inside
Inside the
collecti
collection
on o f documen ts w ill
ill be the one
docum ent th e applic
application
ation w an ts to access.
access.
Each of the applications in Office 97
has specific names for each of the levels
just
just d escribed.
escribed. In Microsoft Excel, a single
single
spreadsheet
spreadsheet documen t is a w ork sheet.
sheet.
Work sheets are contained inside of
Figure
Figure7.1: Generic
Generic object
object tree w orkbooks.
orkbooks. Thu
Thu s, w orkbooks are a t th e
docum ents object
object level,
level, and w ork sheets
sheets
are at the docum ent level. Inside
Inside the w ork sheets
sheets are cell
cellss that a re the
individual data items.
When you’re talking to a spreadsheet or some other automation inter-
face system
system yo u w ill
ill have to n avigate th rough th e object
object tree
tree to get at
w ha t yo u w an t. This
This is
is not as difficult
difficult as it
it ma y soun d: it is just a m atter
of learning
learning the va rious
rious branches
branches and w hat they can do for you . The
The
on line help an d object
object brow ser can be very h elpful
elpful in locating these items.
Before you can use the online browser to locate the items of interest,
you must first attach the object models you want to use. You link to an
object
object library th rou gh t he referen ces setting located in th e Tools pull-
dow n m enu of VBAIDE.
VBAIDE. Selecting
Selecting th e References option in th e Tools
men u brings up a men u o f th e ava ilable
ilable object
object references
references.. You
You might be
surprised
surprised at th e selecti
selection
on a va ilable. It’s
It’s genera lly pretty obviou s w hich
reference library
library to u se w hen it comes to speci
specific
fic application s. For exam -
ple,
ple, if you w an t to link in w ith Microsoft
Microsoft Excel,
Excel, page
page throu gh th e list
list to
th e Microsoft Excel option, t hen pick
pick it. The selected object
object library w ill
now become
become a vailable
vailable to your a ppli
pplicati
cation.
on. If more tha n on e option
option is
ava ilable,
ilable, pick
pick the mo st recent
recent edition
edition (highest
(highest release
release n um ber).
ber).
To m an ipulate
ipulate th e objects
objects from th e oth er environm ents, you should
have a good idea
idea of w hat y ou w an t to do and how . That is,
is, if
if you don’t
168
The object mod el in

in th e oth er application
application s w ill follow th e basic strategy
(figure
(figure 7.1
7.1)) of h aving th e application
application a t th e root. There
There w ill
ill be various
properties
properties,, meth ods, and events associated
associated w ith the application
application th at m ay
interest
interest yo u, but norm ally y our first
first step is
is into
into the do cumen ts. Inside
Inside the
collecti
collection
on o f documen ts w ill
ill be the one
docum ent th e applic
application
ation w an ts to access.
access.
Each of the applications in Office 97
has specific names for each of the levels
just
just d escribed.
escribed. In Microsoft Excel, a single
single
spreadsheet
spreadsheet documen t is a w ork sheet.
sheet.
Work sheets are contained inside of
Figure
Figure7.1: Generic
Generic object
object tree w orkbooks.
orkbooks. Thu
Thu s, w orkbooks are a t th e
docum ents object
object level,
level, and w ork sheets
sheets
are at the docum ent level. Inside
Inside the w ork sheets
sheets are cell
cellss that a re the
individual data items.
When you’re talking to a spreadsheet or some other automation inter-
face system
system yo u w ill
ill have to n avigate th rough th e object
object tree
tree to get at
w ha t yo u w an t. This
This is
is not as difficult
difficult as it
it ma y soun d: it is just a m atter
of learning
learning the va rious
rious branches
branches and w hat they can do for you . The
The
on line help an d object
object brow ser can be very h elpful
elpful in locating these items.
Before you can use the online browser to locate the items of interest,
you must first attach the object models you want to use. You link to an
object
object library th rou gh t he referen ces setting located in th e Tools pull-
dow n m enu of VBAIDE.
VBAIDE. Selecting
Selecting th e References option in th e Tools
men u brings up a men u o f th e ava ilable
ilable object
object references
references.. You
You might be
surprised
surprised at th e selecti
selection
on a va ilable. It’s
It’s genera lly pretty obviou s w hich
reference library
library to u se w hen it comes to speci
specific
fic application s. For exam -
ple,
ple, if you w an t to link in w ith Microsoft
Microsoft Excel,
Excel, page
page throu gh th e list
list to
th e Microsoft Excel option, t hen pick
pick it. The selected object
object library w ill
now become
become a vailable
vailable to your a ppli
pplicati
cation.
on. If more tha n on e option
option is
ava ilable,
ilable, pick
pick the mo st recent
recent edition
edition (highest
(highest release
release n um ber).
ber).
To m an ipulate
ipulate th e objects
objects from th e oth er environm ents, you should
have a good idea
idea of w hat y ou w an t to do and how . That is,
is, if
if you don’t
168
C H A P TE R S E V E N : Working w ith Oth er Appli
Applications
cations
know how to use the Excel

Excel spreads
spreadsheet
heet system,
system, y ou w ill
ill have difficulty
difficulty
understanding
understanding a ll that
that you can do w ith the objects
objects that are ava ilable
ilable.. It
w ill
ill be
be w orth you r w hile
hile to spe
spend
nd time learning
learning how to ma nipulate
nipulate the
system
ystem in its native mode in order to gain an apprec
appreciati
iation
on of w hat the
tool can do for a n a pplic
pplication
ation . The
The objects
objects and m an ipulation
ipulation tools
ava ilable
ilable to ActiveX
ActiveX are generally
generally q uite extensive, and you r application
application
programs
programs can ta ke advanta ge of virtually
virtually every
every feature of the oth er
softw are system.
system.
For you to have access to these tools they must be installed on the
com puter y ou a re using.
using. Tha
Tha t is,
is, yo u can no t possibly
possibly access
access th e object
object
mo del of Excel w itho ut Excel first
first being installed. For object
object mod els to
w ork, the parent task or host mu st be available to servic
servicee the req uests.
uests.
The sam e is true of AutoCAD and an y other program of such
sophisti
sophistication.
cation. The
The term a utom ation m eans just
just that — auto ma tion of th e
tasks on yo ur computer so it does them m ore q uickly
uickly an d efficiently
efficiently..
Inte
nterface to
to Microsoft
oft Excel
This secti
section
on w ill
ill show
show you how to interface to th e Microsoft
Microsoft Excel
Excel
spreadsheet system of Office 97. Excel is a spreadsheet system, so it is
exceptional at manipulating tabular data. AutoCAD-based applications
can take advantage of Excel to build reports based on information found
in th e draw ing. At
At first
first it ma y seem like
like
ma gic
gic to run
run a program
program from an other
program, but once you get used to
object-
object-oriented
oriented programm ing of this
na ture it seems
seems primitive
primitive to do it an y
other w ay.
The Excel object
object t ree starts a t th e
Excel application (figure 7.2). Given an
object
object pointer to th e application,
application, y ou
access
access the w orkbook object
object to get to th e
Figure
Figure7.2: Excel object tree
w orksheets level.
level. From
From t here y ou select
select
169
an in dividual w orksheet
orksheet an d a ran ge man ipulated
ipulated inside
inside of that sheet. A
ran ge can be a single
single cell or m ultiple cells
cells inside
inside th e sheet. There
There a re
nu merous meth ods, events,
events, an d properties
properties associated
associated w ith each of th ese
ese
levels
levels in
in t he system tha t y ou can explore
explore using
using th e online help an d object
object
brow ser
ser systems.
systems. We
We w ill
ill now turn o ur atten tion to th e details involved
w hen interfacing Excel
Excel an d AutoCAD using
using VBA.
VBA.
Interfacing Excel to AutoCAD
AutoCAD can result
result in elegan
elegan t solutions to
common problems found in the design and drafting field. Using the
strengths
strengths of ea ch system yo u could con struct
struct a bill
bill of m aterials system
system
tha t count s blocks
blocks or oth er tagged objects
objects in a dra w ing by building a
spreadsheet
spreadsheet detailing
detailing w ha t w as foun d. The
The spreadsheet
spreadsheet can th en be
further instructed to calculate
calculate th e costs
costs associated
associated w ith th e values found.
The n ext step w ould be to rea d th e spreads
spreadsheet
heet conten ts back into th e
draw ing to create
create a bill of ma terial table
table inside
inside the draw ing. A variation
of the same idea w ould be the construction
construction of ho le charts in
in a
spreadsheet
spreadsheet based on th e locations of circl
circles
es foun
foun d in th e draw ing. Once
in the spreadsheet, locations can be sorted and other data appended to
the report to finish it quickly. Even if you’re not an advanced systems
programm er,
er, you can en ha nce productivity
productivity by merging
merging the pow er of a
graphics system such as AutoCAD and a data table manipulation tool
such as Excel.
Excel Appl
pplicati
ation 1– Simpl
ple
e Datab
atabas
ase
e
Let’s
Let’s start w ith a sim
sim ple application
application exa mple. Excel serves
serves excellently
excellently a s a
sim
sim ple da ta base for inform at ion ba sed on ta bles of properties. Tha t is,
is, yo u
use Excel
Excel to keep track of various constants indexed by a key na me. This
This
is a simple spreadsheet of the most basic nature, in which each row in the
spreadsheet
spreadsheet repres
represents
ents a record a ssociated
ssociated w ith th e key n am e stored in
one of the columns (typically the first column, but it doesn’t have to be).
We w ill
ill use a simple
simple spreadsheet
spreadsheet of th is style to demo nstrate h ow to
obtain information from Excel via a VBA program running inside
AutoCAD. Obviously, the main advantage of doing this is that the end
170
C H A P TE R S E V E N : Working w ith Oth er Appli
Applications
cations
user can maintain the table of data using a table-editing tool (Excel) and
does not ha ve to w ork in
in a t ext editor or in
in th e source
source code
code of an
AutoLISP routine.
The follow ing is an exa mple spreads
spreadsheet
heet th at ha s the first
first column as a
key n am e an d th e next tw o ent ries
ries as scalar
scalar va lues.
lues. These
These scalars
scalars could
could
represent dimensions, tolerances, physical properties, or some other data
of int erest to our a pplication
pplication . The
The goa l of this exam ple is
is to access
access them
by name and retrieve the values from the spreadsheet, thereby
demon strating th e basic
basic strategies
strategies of opening a spreadsheet
preadsheet a nd obtaining
information from one via VBA.
In th e follow ing spreadsheet
spreadsheet (figure
(figure 7.3)
7.3), columns a re labeled
labeled w ith let-
ters (A
(A,B,C) a nd row s are nu mbered (1,2,3,4,
(1,2,3,4,5)
5) just
just as foun d in Excel.
EXAMPLE1.XLS– spreadsheet content

contentss
A B C
1 Na m e D im 1 D im 2
2 AA-1 1. 5 1. 5
3 AA-2 2. 5 1 . 75
4 AA-3 3. 5 1 . 85
Figure
Figure7.3: Example 1XLS—
5 AA-4 4. 0 2. 0
spread sheet contents
You w ill
ill create
create th e XLS
XLS file
file ah ead o f time u sing no rma l Excel
Excel opera-
tion s. The file na me t o use for ou r exa mple is “ EXA
EXAMPLE1.X
MPLE1.XLS”
LS” a nd t he
sheet name will be “Sheet 1”, the default. You can use normal Excel
operations to define
define th is table in the system
system if you w an t to try it yo urself.
urself.
Link
Link to
to Excel
The rem ain der of th e program m ing ta kes place inside
inside VBA
VBA in AutoCAD.
When yo u’re starting a new project,
project, the first
first step is
is to link the Excel
object library
library using th e Too ls-Res
ls-Resou
ou rces men u selection
selection w ith t he pro ject.
ject.
The specific
specific library to select w ill va ry depen ding on w ha t version of Excel
you have installed. For example, the name may appear as Microsoft Excel
171
8.0 Object Library if you ha ve Office 97 installed. Now ou r VBA program

w ill know how to talk w ith Excel. (Remember that you m ust have Excel
installed on you r comput er to access the library.)
VariableDeclarations
After adding the linkage references for Excel, the next step is to start cod-
ing the interface. After inserting a new mod ule into the project, w e type
in the follow ing declarations.
Dim ExL As Object
Dim XLWorkBook as Object
Dim excelSheet As Object
We use generic object cont ain ers for th ese va lues w hen interfa cing to
Microsoft Excel. You can use the object types from the Excel library as
w ell (w hen a vailable). When u sed as show n, th e objects are bound to th e
Excel objects at run tim e. This is ca lled late bindin g in programming. If
you use the definitions of specific objects from the Excel class, the object
types are considered early boun d
. Early binding helps applications run
faster, as the system does not do th e binding w ork w hen t he user is at th e
helm. Instead, in early binding th e linkage is done w hen the a pplication
is built, hen ce the system know s how to ma nipulate the references right
aw ay. The problem w ith early binding is tha t the va riables defined in this
ma nner canno t be used to h old any other types of objects if that w as
desired later in th e program. Since this application does not va ry th e
ty pes of objects held in th e object references, w e could also ha ve coded
the declarations as follow s.
Dim ExL As Excel.Application
Dim XlWorkBook As Excel.Workbook
Dim excelSheet As Excel.Worksheet
The primary adva nta ge of using ea rly binding is tha t th e system can
assist y ou in ty ping in object references. As yo u ty pe the va riable nam e
used, a list box o f ava ilable selection s w ill appea r. When th e generic
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C H A P TE R S E V E N : Working w ith Oth er Applications
object definition (late binding) is used, the system do esn’t kno w w ha t

kind of object y ou a re referencing during the coding a nd ca nn ot possibly
assist in the typing.
These definitions are global to o ur m odule, an d y ou can access them by
any of the subroutines or functions w e include in th at m odule. If w e
w anted to make these variables available to other modules, w e w ould
chan ge the Private statem ent to Pu blic. This allow s the va riables to be
addressed as part of our module (named Module1 by default) by other
source code m odu les. The v isibility, or scope, of va riables from on e mo d-
ule to a no ther is covered in mo re detail in a later chapter.
If speed of execution is an issue, and it no rma lly is, be aw are th at
run nin g Excel from in side Auto CAD w ill not be a s fast as if the same VBA
mo dule w ere runn ing inside Excel. Within larger application s, yo u ma y
w an t to h ave th e VBA in Excel handle the Excel side of the problem a nd
ha ve th e VBA in AutoCAD simply lau nch the m acro in Excel. The rea son
is th at the VBA code inside Excel is tightly coupled to Excel w hile the VBA
code runn ing inside Auto CAD is boun d at run time w ith Excel. Tha t mea ns
tha t every tran saction tha t takes place betw een AutoCAD and Excel must
go through a series of interfaces before getting to the other application. For
simple man ipulations this w ill not be an issue, but w hen w orking w ith
more advanced applications the time savings could be significant.
Excel LinkageFunction
Now w e need a function tha t w ill start Excel an d assign the object to the
variables dimensioned a bove. Staying in the code w indow for the m odule
just started, w e type the follow ing line of code.
Sub Set_Up_Excel
VBA fills in th e rest for us, addin g in a new subroutine d efinition to

the m odule. The pa rentheses are a dded, a s is the End Su b statemen t. All
w e hav e to do is fill in th e middle part. When y ou ty pe in th e Sub state-
ment w ith the nam e of a new function, the code editor w ill contain th e
follow ing after y ou press the Enter key.
173
Sub Set_Up_Excel ()
End Sub
The follow ing is w ha t w e filled in for th e function . This function w ill

start Microsoft Excel w ith th e “ EXAMPLE1.XLS” w orkbook (mu st be
located in th e default Excel document directory) an d “ Sheet1” w ork-
sheet loaded an d ready to go. Each line of the code is explained in th e
text th at follow s. All the code is presented t ogeth er for tho se just scan -
ning for examples.
Sub Set_Up_Excel()
On Error Resume Next
Set ExL = GetObject(“”, “Excel.Application”)
ExL.Visible = True
If (Err.Number <> 0) Then
Err.Clear
MsgBox “You must have Excel loaded on your computer!”
Exit Sub
End If
Set XLWorkBook = Workbooks.Open(“EXAMPLE1.XLS”)
Sheets(“Sheet1”).Select
Set excelSheet = ExL.ActiveWorkbook.Sheets(“Sheet1”)
End Sub
The first part o f the progra m w ill at ta ch th e Excel application o bject.

GetObject() is a VBA function that retrieves an application object given
the executa ble file nam e or th e class nam e of th e application. If Excel is
running, the class name “Excel.Application” will find a link and return
the a pplication object for our program to u se. If Excel is not run ning, th e
GetObject() fun ction w ill start Excel. If Excel is not ava ilable on the com -
puter, the program w ill fail. Tha t’s w hy the error ha ndler is turned on
before the call to G etObject(). If the error ha ndler w as not en abled an d
Excel w as not a vailable, the program w ould crash in an ugly m ann er.
174
This w ay w e can con trol the exit situa tion a nd issue a proper error mes-
sage tha t m akes sense to th e user.
By including th e empty string as the first param eter to th e getObject()
function, w e are instructing VBA to run Excel if it is not already runn ing
in th e computer. Leaving th e first para meter blank w ill cause an error if
an instance of Excel does not already exist in the machine.
Anot her w ay to access the w orkbook object is throu gh the create-
Object() fun ction. This fun ction beh av es just like getObject() except tha t
it w ill start th e application . If your a pplication know s it w ill be starting
Excel w hen it is going to run , then the createObject() function is a better
choice.
The n ext step is to open th e w orkbook using th e Open meth od of t he
Workbooks object in Ex cel. You ’ll supply th e complete file na me, w ith
extension, to the Open function. No directory was specified in the exam-
ple routin e. The file is assumed to be in th e Excel or system search pat h.
If it’s not in the search path , yo u’ll need to provide a com plete path n am e.
The extension XLS w ill not be appended au tom atically, w hich mea ns tha t
your application can use alternative extensions as a minimal form of data
security. The result of a successful o pen ca ll is a w orkbook object.
Workbooks conta in w orksheets, so t he n ext level into th e object tree
takes our a pplication to th e specific sheet w e w ish to h ave a vailable. The
example program selects “Sheet1”, the default sheet name in a new
w orkbook. The w orksheet o bject is then assigned to the variable
excelSheet.
The result of runn ing this fun ction is that th e w orkbook and w ork-
sheet are opened and their respective object references are stored in the
variables defined in the declara tion section.
Closing the Workbook

Something to remember for later coding is that after you have opened
and manipulated a workbook, you should close it using the Close
meth od. The w orkbook object close metho d releases the w orkbook for
175
oth er applicat ions (including Excel) to access. The follow ing subrou tine
show s how to close a w orkbook.
Sub Close_book ()
XlWorkBook.Close
End Sub
Searching the Worksheet

The fun ction w e need now is one th at searches the w orksheet to find a
ma tch. Specifically, w e are interested in searching for someth ing in on e of
the column s. In this application w e w an t to search th e spreadsheet for a
ma tch w ith a key n am e in column one. That mean s that the a pplication
w ill look for mat ches w ith va lues like “AA-1” , “ AA-2” , an d so forth.
When a ma tch is found, w e w ant th e values from the next tw o column s.
To locat e a pa rticular cell in a spreadsheet w e can u se th e Find ()
meth od th at is associated w ith a ran ge object in Excel. A ran ge object
defines a section of th e w orksheet. Worksheet ra nges are defined by ro w
an d column location such a s A1, w hich represents tha t single cell located
at column A, row 1. A range can specify more than one cell, such as a
column of cells in the spreadsheet designated as A1:A10 for column A,
row s 1 through 10. Ranges are typically rectangular an d can span
mu ltiple row s and colum ns as in A1:B3, w hich represents the cells found
w ithin columns A and B from row 1 through 3.
Given a range of cells, you can apply the Find() method to look for a
ma tching value. The find m ethod w ill return a ra nge of cells tha t ma tch
th e find req uirem ent s. The resulting ran ge can be a single cell or a grou p
of cells. When an application is dealing w ith a list of u niqu e key na mes,
there should be only one match. If there is a situation in which Find()
could locate m ore than one, then a ran ge is returned that y ou can
traverse using subseq uent calls to th e FindNext() metho d. Each call to
FindNext() w ill return th e next cell foun d to m atch the search criteria.
When there are no more selections, FindNext() is null. Our application
example expects the key names to be unique, meaning that no key is
repeated, so the FindNext() loop is not required.
176
The va lue return ed from th e find met ho d is a Ra nge object. The

address method of the Range object is used to obtain the location of the
cell that w as located a nd is returned a s a string. When the a ddress
meth od is used, a dollar sign w ill proceed each part of th e address so that
if a match was made with column A and row 3, the result would be
$A$3. You can chan ge the response of th e add ress method by u sing th e
variable parameters; how ever, the default approach is good eno ugh for
our purposes.
When you are searching a table using a specific column, you know the
column value and can remove it from the result string to extract just the
row number where the match was made. In our example, we are searching
the A column for a key n am e match a nd can thus remove the first three
chara cters of th e resulting address (the “ $A$” part) to obta in on ly th e row
num ber (3). Now if our application w ants to o btain the va lue of a particu-
lar column member of that row, it can access the Cells().Value directly.
The follow ing code segment searches the open w orksheet saved in the
object variable excelSheet. It searches column A betw een row s 1 and 10
to find a m atch w ith the value “ AA-3”. When the ma tch is found, the
data value found in column B is accessed and placed in the variable
Resulting_Value.
Dim Fnd As Excel.Range
Set Fnd = excelSheet.Range(“A1:A10”).Find(“AA-3”)
R$ = Fnd.Address
Rw = Val(Mid$(R$, 4))
Resulting_Value = excelSheet.Cells(Rw, 2).Value
To search th e entire colum n labeled a s A, yo u can specify the ra nge a s

(“A:A” ) instead of limiting th e range search to row s 1 through 10 as in
the code a bove. In Excel, this format is considered “A1” not ation . Most
spreadsheet users are used to den oting a reas or ranges in t he docum ent
w ith “ A1” nota tion. “ A1” not ation uses letters to represent th e colum ns
and num bers to represent the row s. In this notation the va lue B5 w ould
refer to the fifth entry in the second column.
177
When using the “A1” notation, you can shortcut the code entry by just
specifying t he desired ra nge inside of sq ua re brackets as in [A1:A10]
instead of Ran ge(“A1:A10”). Note tha t th e qu ota tion m arks are not
needed when defining the range using the shortcut approach.
There a re oth er w ay s to deno te ran ges of cells inside Excel from VB A.
An ea sy alternative is to use the Row s and Colum ns properties of a w ork-
sheet. You can use these properties to define a ra nge based on an entire
row or column . Using the column property, you w ould rew rite the code
as follow s.
Set Fnd = excelSheet.Columns(1).Find(“AA-3”)
The en tire first colum n o f th e spreadsheet is search ed to loca te th e

desired m atch. The Colum ns() property of th e w orksheet returns a ran ge
and that satisfies the Find method.
There is an oth er w ay to search a spreadsheet for som e informa tion:
you can use the Cells() property w ith index values of the row an d column.
You cou ld change th e exam ple search to read a s follow s.
R$ = “”
For I = 1 To 10
If excelSheet.Cells(I,1).Value = “AA-3” Then
R$ = excelSheet.Cells(I,2).Value
I = 11 ‘break out of the loop
End If
Next I
At the end of th e loop, the variable R$ w ould either hold the value
from the second column of the row in w hich th e “AA-3” m atch w as made
or it w ill be an empty string.
So w hich style shou ld your a pplication use? Use w ha tever makes sense
for the a pplication at h an d. The Find() meth od w ill locate a m atch inside
of a range faster than a direct iteration loop; however, it is limited to find-
ing exact m atches. If you n eed to test values to see if they fit a particular
range for a selection to be made, then the direct iteration approach will
178
probably w ork better for the a pplication . An exa mple is a program tha t
searches a database of available sizes and selects the one nearest in size
(but larger than ) a th eoretically ca lculated size. In th is case, there m ay
not be an exact match, and some logic must be applied to the spreadsheet
data in order to make a selection.
For most applications, you apply a specified range and an exact value
(often called a key) for the search. In th ose cases, the “ A1” n otat ion style
w ill w ork nicely in conjunction w ith a Find(). The ra nge to search could
be ha rd coded as in th ese exam ples, or it could be supplied in the form of
a range variable. And because strings can also be stored inside a spread-
sheet, there is not hing tha t w ould stop an a pplication from obtaining th e
ran ge value to use from some oth er cell in th e spreadsheet.
When yo u’re searching th rough a spreadsheet, the best solution for
any given application to use is the one that reads in a logical manner. For
example, if someone said to search the first column, then the Columns()
property seems to make the most sense. On the other hand, if someone
specified tha t th e application shou ld search th rough a specific set of row s
an d columns, then th e “A1” no tation w orks best. And if there is a n eed to
perform calculation s or com parisons w ith th e values, a direct iteration is
the only w ay to get the job done.
Another ExampleInterfacetoMicrosoft Excel

Simple exam ples demon strate h ow easily yo u can use Excel to create
reports from AutoCAD draw ing informa tion. This function w ill create a
hole chart from all the circles foun d in th e draw ing. A hole chart is a
table tha t lists holes foun d in the dra w ing along w ith their X-Y location.
The h ole chart is typically used for drill program min g or for locating
bolted attachments in an assembly.
This simple fun ction set w ill create a chart w ith sequent ial hole nu m-
ber, X, Y location of center point , an d th e radius of th e hole. The h ole
num ber will then be w ritten back into th e draw ing at the center point of
the circle using the current defau lt text h eight. This exam ple demon-
179
strates just how simple it is to build a pow erful reporting too l for Auto-
CAD w ith Excel.
The a pplication is broken dow n int o small mod ules to m ake th e code
easier to read. The first listing conta ins the globa l variable declara tion s for
the m odule. There are tw o va riables that w e w ill declare as global (ava il-
able to all functions and subroutines in the module), and they are a link
to the active Excel spreadsheet and an AutoCAD selection set collection.
Dim excelSheet As Object
Dim SS As AcadSelectionSet
The m ain program m acro is called Holes and it is defined in the fo llow -
ing listing. The Holes fun ction calls oth er fun ctions tha t perform t he
detail operations. First th e Excel object is foun d a nd linked. (Note th at w e
have removed the normal error checking from this example to keep the
code simple and brief.) Once the link ha s been established w ith Excel, th e
function Get_Circles is called to obtain a selection set collection of all the
circles found in th e draw ing. The collection is then u sed by the
subrout ine Send _Holes_To_Excel th at read s each object a nd places the
coordinates and radius in a spreadsheet.
We sort th e spread sheet using th e Sort() m etho d of Ex cel. The So rt()
meth od implements the stan dard sorting ava ilable in the Excel system. In
this application w e w ill sort by the X, Y, an d Radius va lues in a scending
order. After the sort, the spreadsheet data is read ba ck into the program
in sorted order. A text note is then placed at each hole indicating its posi-
tion in th e sorted list, and th e ha ndle is replaced w ith the h ole num ber in
the spreadsheet. When this function is completed, th e ho les w ill be labeled
in AutoCAD and a supporting report is ready to be finished in Excel.
Sub holes()
Dim Excell As Object
Set Excell = GetObject(, “Excel.Application”)
Set excelSheet = Excell.ActiveWorkbook.Sheets.Add
Set SS = Get_Circles
Send_Holes_To_Excel
180
excelSheet.Range(“A1”).Sort _
key1:=excelSheet.Range(“B1”), _
key2:=excelSheet.Range(“C1”), _
key3:=excelSheet.Range(“D1”)
Set_Hole_Numbers
End Sub
The Sort() metho d can be a tad con fusing a t a q uick glance. From t he
exam ple above, it appears as thou gh the sort w ould do on ly a single
cell—certainly not the desired operation. Actually, the value supplied is
either a ran ge or the first cell of a region. In this case, w e are sorting a
region th at is designa ted a s sta rting a t “ A1” . The sort fields are defin ed by
assigning the para meter va riables Key1, Key2, an d so forth to the first
sort fields in th e spreadsheet. For ou r exam ple w e are sorting by the X,
th en Y, then th e radius valu es. You ca n sort th e fields in a scendin g (the
defau lt) order or in descendin g order. To h ave a field, such a s the Y values,
sort in descending order, use the Order2 parameter va riable and set it to a
value o f xlDescending. Order1 w ill chan ge the sort order of the first key
field, a nd Order3 w ill chan ge the o rder of th e third set. There are u p to
three sort fields that can be defined in the Sort() method.
Let’s turn ou r atten tion to the first of th e subroutines called from t he
ma in fu nction . The G et_Circles function w ill build a selection set collec-
tion of circles found in the drawing.
Function Get_Circles() As AcadSelectionSet
Dim Cir1, Cir2 As Variant
Dim CirA(0 To 0) As Integer
Dim CirB(0 To 0) As Variant
CirA(0) = 0
CirB(0) = “CIRCLE”
Cir1 = CirA: Cir2 = CirB
Set Get_Circles = ThisDrawing.SelectionSets.Add(“HOLES”)
181
If Err.Number <> 0 Then
Err.Clear
Set Get_Circles = ThisDrawing.SelectionSets.Item(“HOLES”)
End If
Get_Circles.Clear
Get_Circles.Select acSelectionSetAll, , , Cir1, Cir2
End Function
The va lue tha t w ill be return ed from t he G et_Circles fun ction is a

selection set collection. The fun ction is defined as being o f th e ty pe selec-
tion set, and w e can use the name in our program as a variable to house
th e selection set collection w hile it is being constructed. G et_Circles uses a
filter to con struct th e selection set collection. The filter is to look for
circles only and can be expanded to include layer names and other crite-
ria as w ell.
Given the selection set collection, the n ext step is to w rite the va lues
out t o Excel in the w orksheet already started. At the beginning of th is
subroutine, the w orksheet is expected to be em pty.
Sub Send_Holes_To_Excel()
Dim Ent As AcadCircle
CN = 1: CX = 2: CY = 3: CR = 4
R = 1
Dim PTV As Variant
For Each Ent In SS
excelSheet.Cells(R, CN).Value = Ent.Handle
PTV = Ent.Center
excelSheet.Cells(R, CX).Value = PTV(0)
excelSheet.Cells(R, CY).Value = PTV(1)
excelSheet.Cells(R, CR).Value = Ent.Radius
R = R + 1
Next Ent
End Sub
182
This function loops throu gh th e selection set collection (stored in global

variable SS, w hich w as set in the ma in program a s the result of calling
Get_Circles). Each entity is assumed to be a circle object, meaning that
certain va lues are know n to be ava ilable such as the center point a nd
radius. As this subroutine reads through the selection set collection each
ent ity is placed in th e varia ble Ent for processing. The first column of th e
spreadsheet is set to th e entity h an dle. Han dles are the best w ay to link
entity objects w ith externa l data structures; w e w ill be discussing th em in
mo re detail later in th is chapter. The second an d th ird colum ns of th e
spreadsheet are th en set to the X a nd Y values of th e circle center point.
The fou rth colu mn is set to the ra dius value fou nd in t he circle object.
The va riable R holds the row nu mber as the program a dds each hole
location to the spreadsheet. After the user w rites the h ole location an d
size informa tion to the spreadsheet, th e subroutine en ds and control is
returned back to the main program.
The m ain program th en sorts th e spreadsh eet as a lready discussed. The
sorted spreadsheet contains the data sequenced by X, Y, and Radius values.
The n ext subroutine w ill read th e spreadsheet an d place hole nu mbers at
each circle location . There are tw o operation s that w ill take place as this
fun ction itera tes throu gh th e spreadsheet. The first is to place the h ole
nu mber in the dra w ing. The secon d is to replace the h an dle entry in th e
spreadsheet w ith the seq uentia l hole nu mber.
Sub Set_Hole_Numbers()
Dim PTV As Variant
Dim PTC(0 To 2) As Double
I = 1
TH = ThisDrawing.GetVariable(“TEXTSIZE”)
While excelSheet.Cells(I, 1).Value <> “”
PTC(0) = excelSheet.Cells(I, 2).Value
PTC(1) = excelSheet.Cells(I, 3).Value
PTC(2) = 0#
ThisDrawing.ModelSpace.AddText Str$(I), PTC, TH
183
I = I + 1
Wend
End Sub
The fu nction begins by obta ining th e current defau lt text size for th e
draw ing. This value w ill be used w hen adding th e text objects for the
ho le num ber. A While loop is started t ha t w ill iterate so lon g as the cell in
the first colum n of the current row nu mber (in va riable I) ha s a n on-
blank entry. Han dles are never blan k, thus w hen th e program en counters
a bla nk cell, it ha s hit the en d of th e list. This version o f th e fun ction
doesn’t do anything with the handle other than test to see if one is there.
The X an d Y va lues for the cent er of th e circle are retrieved fro m t he
spreadsheet an d placed into a n array of dou bles. This array is set into the
va rian t va riable PTV w hich is needed by th e addC ircle() function . You
mu st u se va riants w hen sending a nd getting points from objects. The rea-
son h as to do w ith the w ay the BASIC language (as implemented in
VBA) passes para meters interna lly a nd t he fa ct tha t a rray references are
handled better using a variant pointer.
The row nu mber is incremented, a nd the loop continu es un til the last
hole has been read and the text placed in th e draw ing, at w hich point the
subroutine finishes.
This function set demon strates the basics an d perform s a very useful
operation as w ell (shou ld you n eed hole cha rts an d a n um bering system
for ho les). VBA provides a pow erful w ay to tie various tools together so
that each can be used in its ow n w ay to ma ke the application dream a
reality.
Using Handles
The last exam ple used han dles but didn’t really do a ny thing w ith them
other than look for a blank handle indicating the end of the list in the
spreadsheet. Handles are strings that un iquely identify each object in a
draw ing. AutoCAD assigns hand les as the objects are created a nd n ever
reuses the same h an dle in the draw ing. There a re tools in AutoCAD’s
184
programm ing systems for converting h an dles to en tity objects. As such,

ha ndles present a w ay tha t entity object references can be mov ed to an
external system such as a spreadsheet for later reference.
In VBA, a handle is converted to an entity object through the Handle-
ToObject() met ho d. This meth od is associat ed w ith t he d ocum ent object
and can return values only w hen th at document is the current document.
Tha t is, y ou can get ha ndles conv erted into objects only in th e currently
opened drawing.
Using this conversion ut ility you can upda te the draw ing based on the
values in th e spreadsheet as in the follow ing exam ple, w hich looks at th e
same spreadsheet. In th is subroutine, the v alues in the spreadsheet a re
read one at a time and the radius values checked against the original
draw ing objects. If cha nged, the draw ing object is updated a nd th e lay er
chan ged to lay er “ CHANGED” . The lay er is assum ed to exist before the
macro is run.
Sub update_radii()
Dim Excell As Object
Set Excell = GetObject(, “Excel.Application”)
Set excelSheet = Excell.ActiveWorkbook.Sheets(“Sheet32”)
Dim Ent As AcadCircle
I = 1
While excelSheet.Cells(I, 1).Value <> “”
HN$ = excelSheet.Cells(I, 1).Value
Set Ent = ThisDrawing.HandleToObject(HN$)
If Ent.Radius <> excelSheet.Cells(I, 4) Then
Ent.Radius = excelSheet.Cells(I, 4)
Ent.Layer = “CHANGED”
End If
I = I + 1
Wend
End Sub
185
Object IDversusHandle
An alternative to handles are Object ID values. Object ID values use less
storage space compa red w ith ha ndles (in m edium an d larger draw ings).
An Object ID is a lon g integer va lue instead o f a string. Thu s, once th e
entity handle names exceed four characters in length, the length of a
ha ndle is longer tha n t he object ID storage space. Anoth er attra ctive fea-
ture of Object ID values is that they are integers an d can be compared
more quickly than character strings.
Object ID values are mostly used in ObjectARX applications and are
available to VBA programmers for that purpose. ObjectARX applications
use the object ID va lues w hen con necting w ith th e various objects in the
draw ing databa se. Some of the VBA utilities an d event ha ndling functions
supply o r requ ire object ID values as w ell.
To get a n o bject ID va lue from an existing object, u se the ObjectID
property o f the o bject. If w e ha ve an entity object stored in th e object
variable Ent, th en th e expression Ent.ObjectID w ill return th e object ID
value. Object ID values are read-only and cannot be set by an application.
You can convert object ID values to objects via the utility method
ObjectIDtoObject() available in th e current dra w ing da taba se. This
method is used in a manner just like the handle conversion utility to
obtain the object. Also, like the handle conversion utility, the object ID
conversion utility can be used only in th e current draw ing to obtain an
entity object. Tha t is, if you ha ve an other draw ing open (from the
docum ents collection ) you can no t access the objects inside w ith just an
object ID v alue.
The problem w ith object ID va lues is tha t th ey w ill change a s the
draw ing is saved an d reloaded. Tha t is, they are n ot persistent inside th e
draw ing file. Handles never chan ge in a draw ing file; once used, a han dle
is nev er repeated. This ma kes ha nd les th e ideal to ol for linking Auto CAD
draw ing objects w ith ou tside applications. Object IDs are n ot w ell suited
for that sort of interface unless the application will not exit the drawing
during the life span of the external data.
186
Linkingwith Other Applications

Linking graphic data in AutoCAD w ith param eters an d associated data -
bases requires you to think carefully about the tools involved and which
on e does w hich job best. AutoCAD is obviou sly superior in graph ics
ma nipulations w hen compared w ith applications such a s Word or Excel.
On the oth er han d, these other applications manipulate w ords and data
charts much better than AutoCAD.
At first it w ould appear tha t the delinea tion betw een the different
application s is pretty cut a nd dried. This is no t th e case. Excel is very goo d
at making charts as well as manipulating tables. At the same time, Auto-
CAD includes custom dictiona ry objects for storing ta bles of da ta internal
to the drawing. And Word provides table-generating features that make
for very goo d charts an d m aterial lists.
So how do you know w hat w ay to turn w hen looking at integrated
applications of this na ture? G enerally, the best answ er is to consider w ha t
needs ma nipulating an d w hat tool is best a t tha t m anipulation. Con sider
an application in w hich a da ta ta ble conta ining a set of standa rd sizes is
referenced. Storing that table inside each and every AutoCAD drawing
may seem ludicrous at first glance. If someone needs to change the stan-
dard values, he or she might ha ve to change them in every draw ing. It
w ould be much easier to cha nge them in a spreadsheet or databa se, then
ha ve the new er values ava ilable for all draw ings. How ever, suppose that
the standards are changed every so often but that an associated appli-
cation must work with the standards that applied when the drawing was
created. Under th ose circum stances, it m ight be better to store the data
table inside the draw ing or at least in a da taba se closely associated w ith
just that draw ing.
The circumstan ces of the a pplication an d ho w the da ta w ill be needed
w ill greatly influence w ha t too l is used to accomplish t he job. For m ost
applications, the clear delinea tion betw een AutoCAD as the graph ics
engine, Excel as the table engine, a nd Word a s the reporting en gine is
enough to get started. In general, the more you know about a particular
187
application, th e mo re you w ill be able to exploit its abilities w hen inter-

facing AutoCAD w ith it. The reason is that th e sam e softw are tha t
services the operator comm an ds processes the aut oma tion to ols yo u can
use. Objects are a pow erful w ay for one application to link up w ith
another.
StoringDatainAutoCAD
So far w e’ve looked at ha ndles as a w ay to store a reference to an Auto-
CAD entity object in an other database. But w hat about linking some
oth er data base’s key in a n AutoCAD draw ing? Since a key is typically
text, it could be stored as a very sma ll text object in the dra w ing. But
keys are not graphic objects, a nd it is not desirable to ha ve text o bjects
cluttering u p the draw ing. To a id applications facing th is dilemma , Auto-
CAD has some other mechanisms for storing non-graphical information
in a draw ing.
There are tw o tools that can be used to store non-graphical informa -
tion inside a dra w ing. The first is a dictiona ry, w hich can hou se lists of
objects. The secon d is extend ed da ta . The prim ary difference is tha t
extended da ta is atta ched to existing objects in a draw ing, so it is limited
in the am ount of data that can be added. Dictionaries can contain inde-
pendent objects, a nd these objects can be of a ny size.
Dictionary Object
A dictionary is a collection of objects; it can contain any objects the
application requires. Dictionary objects are members of the dictionaries
collection , a s w e discussed in C ha pter 6. The o bjects tha t m ake u p a dic-
tionary can be of our ow n custom design (you mu st use ObjectARX to
create a truly custom object). Dictionary objects can also be other Auto-
CAD draw ing objects such as lines, a rcs, a nd circles. In this ma nn er, a
diction ary can be used to store a selection set betw een edit session s,
mu ch like a group but w ithout a ny operator control options. Lastly,
there is an object available in AutoCAD that is found only in dictionaries
188
called an Xrecord. Dictionaries can be made up of Xrecords or any com-

bination of entity objects.
Xrecord Objects
When interfacing w ith externa l systems or using custom design softw are,
Xrecords present a n interesting m ethod o f storing data inside a dra w ing
that is not directly attached to an entity object. An Xrecord is a non-
graphical object that can contain any number of parameters, just like a
graph ic object. Tha t m ean s you ca n store point s, strings, integers, real
numbers, and so forth. Xrecords are located using a dictionary and a key
na me. The key n am e is a string tha t is stored w ith th e Xrecord inside the
dictiona ry. Since your a pplication stores the key n am e, it should a lso
know how to retrieve it for later use.
Xrecords provide a w ay to store the values of various variables tha t
might be used in an application. A program can w rite Xrecords con taining
th e valu es of key va riables in respon se to a sa ve-event ta king place. Tha t
w ay, w hen the program is started again in the same draw ing at a later
time, th e variable values can be retrieved.
AccessingaDictionary
Creating a dictiona ry o bject in VBA is simply a m atter o f adding a new
mem ber to the dictiona ry collection of th e draw ing. When th e draw ing is
saved, the dictionary is saved w ith it. The follow ing code segment w ill
create a new dictionary o bject in th e current draw ing.
Dim Dict As AcadDictionary
Set Dict = ThisDrawing.Dictionaries.Add( “My Dictionary”)
You n eed to create a d ictiona ry o bject only o nce; doing so a second

time w ill result in a n error trigger. If a particular dictionary object already
exists in th e draw ing, yo u’ll access it using the Item() meth od. The
follow ing code w ill access the dictiona ry object nam ed “M y Dictionary ”
an d if it is not foun d, w ill create it.
189
‘ Dictionary objects should be global
Dim Dict As AcadDictionary
Set Dict = ThisDrawing.Dictionaries.Item ( “My Dictionary”)
Err.Clear
Set Dict = ThisDrawing.Dictionaries.Add(“My Dictionary”)
End If
The dictiona ry o bject can be u sed to reference the objects w ithin t he

diction ary. Wha t yo u w ill find in a diction ary is entirely up to th e appli-
cation tha t ma intains the dictionary. In mo st cases, the dictiona ry w ill
con ta in object references. The o bjects in the diction ar y a re accessed just
like a collection in th at y ou u se na mes or the index nu mber to obta in
the reference.
For most applications the dictionary serves as a w onderful place to
store variable values an d param etric data . A dictiona ry can also be used to
store tables of data reflecting standa rds in effect w hen th e draw ing w as
created. As a result, the most common member of a custom dictionary is
the Xrecord. Because Xrecords can contain any data and make use of the
same n um bering system as AutoCAD objects, they a re very easy for m ost
AutoC AD program mers to u se.
XrecordContents
An Xrecord conta ins variable data: o ne Xrecord does not ha ve to look like
th e next in t he diction ary collection . The da ta fo r an Xrecord is supplied
in tw o a rrays. The first a rray conta ins integer group codes that specify th e
kind o f data tha t w ill be foun d at t he same offset in th e second arra y. The
second a rray is of type variant, mean ing that it can conta in an ything.
When accessing o r w riting a n Xrecord, these tw o a rrays are u sed. They
must be the same size, and the data contents are entirely up to the appli-
190
cation . The on ly integer codes not perm itted are 5 an d 105, as these are
reserved for AutoCAD h an dles. New Xrecords w ill ha ve ha ndles added
automatically when they are first created. All of the remaining group
codes are at th e disposal of the a pplication . Tha t is, yo u can use group
code 40 over and over again for a sequence of real numbers, or you can
use 40, 41, an d so forth. Wha tever w orks best for th e application.
To a dd a n Xrecord object to a dictiona ry, first open th e dictiona ry. We
recom men d th at you dimension objects such a s dictiona ries in global
memory so that they may be accessed by all modules in the application
that need to get at them. With the dictionary already open, the next step
is to a dd th e Xrecord object to it w ith th e AddXRecord() meth od. The
AddXrecord() method creates an Xrecord object that is atta ched to the
dictiona ry collection. The Xrecord data is then w ritten to the object using
the SetXRecordData method.
To learn ho w an Xrecord object is created, con sider the fo llow ing code.
A new Xrecord object is attached t o a n a lready open dictiona ry object ref-
erenced by th e varia ble Dict as in th e previous code segmen t. The subrou -
tine w ill store a real num ber, an in teger, an d a string, w hich are all
provided as param eters to t he fun ction. The key param eter is the key
na me th at w ill be used for accessing th e Xrecord in th e dictiona ry a t some
time in the future.
Sub WriteXrecord(Key As String, R As Double, I As Integer, S As String)
Dim Xtyp(2) As Integer
Dim Xvar(2) As Variant
Xtyp(0) = 40: Xvar(0) = R
Xtyp(1) = 60: Xvar(1) = I
Xtyp(2) = 1: Xvar(2) = S
Dim Xrec As AcadXRecord
Set Xrec = Dict.AddXRecord(Key)
Xrec.SetXRecordData Xtyp, Xvar
End Sub
191
The fun ction just provided m ight be used by an application th at h as

th ree varia bles to be stored for fu tu re referencing. This function could be
part of a mod ule tha t reacts to th e begin-save even t. The first step w ould
be to o pen th e dictiona ry o bject by a ccessing a n existing on e or creating a
new one. Next you’ll w rite the va riables. Tha t w ould end th e begin-save
event reactor. You’ll need to do additiona l programm ing for the draw ing-
open reactor, in w hich a module w ould open th e dictiona ry an d read the
three va riables back into the a pplication .
Reading Xrecords
To read a n Xrecord yo u m ust first know the key n am e it w as stored
un der. The on ly alterna tive is to loop th rough th e dictiona ry on e item a t
a time and examine the contents of each. In either case, the Item()
meth od is used w ith th e dictiona ry object to o btain th e Xrecord object.
From there, you’ll use the GetXRecordData() method to get at the group
codes an d da ta stored inside.
<XrecordObject>.GetXRecordDa ta() uses tw o varian t param eters.
When the fun ction retu rns, these tw o w ill reference arrays of data . The
first w ill cont ain a n a rray of integer values, an d the second w ill be an
array of variants.
The n ext code exa mple w ill read th e Xrecord created in the previous
exam ple given th e key na me a s a param eter. The va lues read from t he
Xrecord are put back into th e param eter variables to be used by th e
calling program. You’ll use the fun ction GetXRecordDa ta() m ethod to
return th e Xrecord con ten ts given th e Xrecord o bject reference. To o bta in
the Xrecord object reference, the Item() method is applied against the
already open dictiona ry o bject Dict.
Sub ReadMyXrecord(Key As String, R As Double, I As Integer, S As String)
Dim Xtyp, XVar As Variant
Dim XR As AcadXRecord
Set XR = Dict.Item(Key)
XR.GetXRecordData Xtyp, XVar
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For J = LBound(Xtyp) To UBound(Xtyp)
If Xtyp(J) = 1 Then S = XVar(J)
If Xtyp(J) = 40 Then R = XVar(J)
If Xtyp(J) = 70 Then I = XVar(J)
Next J
End Sub
In this function, the values returned from the Xrecord read are pro-
cessed int o va riables that are pa ssed back to th e calling fu nction . They
could just as easily been placed into global variable locations for the appli-
cation o r returned a s a result of a function in stead. The key item to
remember is that Xrecords are under th e control of th e application
program m an ipulating them . They can conta in an y ty pe of data desired
and can be of any length. Note that they a re not protected from other
programm ers w ho u nderstand how to na vigate the object system of
AutoCAD, but th ey a re w ell protected from th e norm al AutoCAD user.
GroupCodesinXrecords
Using grou p codes in a n application is entirely up to the a pplication s
developer w ho is w orking w ith Xrecord objects. How ever, w e strongly
recomm end tha t the follow ing standa rds be follow ed in order to remain
consistent w ith th e AutoCAD draw ing data base. There are oth er group
codes that can be used: these are m erely suggestions.
Codes What they are
1-9 Strin gs. Do n ot use code 5, it is for th e en tity han dles!

10-29 Poin t lists.
30-39 Z va lu es. Som etim es th ese a re a lso used for poin t lists.
40-49 Rea l n u mber sca la r v alu es. Ty pica lly u sed fo r sizes a n d sca le fa ct ors.
50-59 Rea l n um ber a ngu la r va lues. Ty pica lly used for a ngles.
60-69 In teger n um bers, cou nters, a nd va lu es for n um eric co ded it em s.
70-79 In teger n um bers, bit cod ed fla gs com bin ed in to sin gle in tegers.
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In th e previous exam ples, th e group codes used w ere 1 for the string,
40 for the real nu mber, an d 60 for the integer. They could just as w ell
ha ve been 1, 2, 3 if the application creating th em w an ted the codes in
that order.
Xrecords ma y use group code num bers 1 throu gh 369. You sho uld no t
use group codes 5 an d 105, as they are for AutoCAD. AutoCAD w ill add
the entity handle information required to these codes. You may use all
other codes in any manner you desire.
ExtendedData
The other w ay to atta ch data that is non -graphical to a draw ing is to use
extended data. You attach extended data directly to objects in the
draw ing data base; these can con tain n um bers, points, and strings. The
only rea l limit to keep in m ind w ith extended da ta is that a n object can
have only about 16 kilobytes of data attached to it. Now, that is a lot of
data to a ttach to an object in a draw ing, and it w ould not be good to
attach even h alf that amo unt to objects throughout the da tabase. Opera-
tors w ill mo st definitely complain abo ut th e excessive disk space being
consumed.
When setting up extended data, you’ll use a group code system much
like the Xrecord objects w ith th e exception tha t extended da ta grou p
codes are a ll numbered in th e 1000 series. Extended da ta a ttachm ents
mu st use these group codes w hen a ttaching da ta to a n entity o bject.
Code Extended data type
1000 Strin g.
1001 Application n am e.
1002 C on t ro l st rin g fo r n est ed in fo rm a tio n . Open bra cket fo r st a rt o f t h e
nest, close bracket for the end o f it.
1003 La yer n a me. If t he la yer n a me is ch a nged in th e d ra w in g, t his field
w ill be updated to reflect th at cha nge.
1004 B in a ry d at a st ora ge. Da ta ca n no t be accessed by Au to LISP a nd is u sed
primarily by ObjectARX applications.
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Code Extended data type
1005 Ha nd le to an ot her o bject . C an be used to lin k o ne o bject to an ot her.

1010 Point.
1040 Real n um ber.
1041 D ist an ce — w ill be sca led w ith th e pa ren t o bject .
1042 Sca le fa cto r — w ill be sca led w ith th e pa ren t object.
1070 Integer.
1071 Lon g in teger.
Every object in the AutoCAD drawing database can have extended

data attached to it. But before you can use extended data, the application
ID m ust first be a dded t o th e registered a pplication s collection . The Add()
method is used to add the name of your application to the registered
applications collection object in th e current draw ing, as in the follow ing
line of code.
ThisDrawing.RegisteredApplications.Add “MyApplication”
An a pplication na me n eeds to be added only once to a do cument. Once

it has been added, it w ill be saved w ith the draw ing and can be used w hen
addressing exten ded da ta for objects.
There are tw o m ethods associated w ith a ll AutoCAD objects tha t y ou
use to a ccess the exten ded da ta. They are SetXdata () and GetXdata (). The
SetXdata() meth od is used to add extended da ta to a n o bject. The regis-
tered application na me m ust be supplied w ith the da ta provided to SetX-
data(). If there is already data attached to the entity w ith the sam e nam e,
it is overw ritten. When w riting extended dat a to a n object, you m ust
update a ll the informa tion associated w ith the application, or som e data
ma y be lost. If the application n am e is not supplied or ha s not been regis-
tered w ith the draw ing, the extended data w ill not be attached to the
object.
The ex ten ded d at a itself is supplied in tw o va riables. The first va riable
is an array of integer group codes. The second is a varian t array of w ha t-
ever data is needed an d m atches the group codes. You m ust use the
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group code with the data type that matches the data being supplied—oth-
erw ise, the extended data w ill not be w ritten properly.
When retrieving extended dat a from a n object, you ’ll use tw o varian t
objects. These objects are a ctually a rrays conta ining th e extended data in
th e same fa shion a s it w as supplied to th e object in th e first place. Appli-
cations can rely on the o rder of group codes being preserved in extended
data , un less som e other a pplication chan ges them becau se it used the
same name.
SimpleXdataExample
The exa mple presented w ill create a line, th en a dd extended data indicat-
ing the date a nd time th e object w as added to th e draw ing. The AutoCAD
system v aria ble “ CDATE” is used for th is purpose. “ CDATE” cont ain s the
current date an d time stored as a real num ber that can be preserved w ith
th e entity object. The fo rma t of th e “ CDATE” v aria ble is thus: th e yea r,
mon th, an d day va lue are concatenated into the front part of the number
(before the decimal point), and the time of day values make up the part
that appears to the right of the decimal point.
The first step is to crea te th e line object. You ’ll creat e a new line from
(1,1) to (2,1). It is left on the current lay er an d no oth er changes are
ma de to it. The line is then added t o th e mo del space of the current
draw ing an d the line object variable saved in variable Lin.
Dim Lin As AcadLine
Dim PV1 As Variant, PV2 As Variant
Dim PT1(0 To 2) As Double
Dim PT2(0 To 2) As Double
PT1(0) = 1#: PT1(1) = 1#: PT1(2) = 0#
PT2(0) = 2#: PT2(1) = 1#: PT1(2) = 0#
PV1 = PT1: PV2 = PT2
Set Lin = ThisDrawing.ModelSpace.AddLine(PV1, PV2)
196
As in Xrecords, extended da ta records use tw o arra ys tha t conta in the

integer group codes and variant data values that comprise the extended
da ta . The n ext section o f code initia lizes th e arra ys, retrieves the “ CDATE”
value, adds the registered application name to the drawing, and places
the extended data onto the line object.
Dim PT(1) As Integer
Dim PV(1) As Variant
Dim RR As Double
RR = ThisDrawing.GetVariable(“CDATE”)
PT(0) = 1001: PV(0) = “CREATED”
PT(1) = 1040: PV(1) = RR
ThisDrawing.RegisteredApplications.Add “CREATED”
Lin.SetXData PT, PV
The SetXData meth od is used w ith th e line object to a dd th e extended

data array s to the object. G roup codes 1001 an d 1040 w ere used to h old
the registered application na me a nd the rea l num ber value for t he CD ATE
system variable. If you need to store an additional real number, the group
code 1040 is used again. On e problem th at can come up is if mu ltiple
applications are w orking w ith the same extend ed data . In tho se cases, it is
possible that the o rder of th e dat a elemen ts could get con fused. We
highly recommend that you keep extended data grouped in small data
packs if there is a requirement for multiple applications to be messing
w ith th e data . Each of t he da ta packs is assigned a registered application
name, making it easy to retrieve just the data sought after.
This next section of code w ill locate t he line w ith t he “ CREATED”
extended da ta an d read th e saved v alue for th e CDATE system va riable.
In order to a ccom plish th e task, the fun ction mu st first locate the line.
This is don e w ith th e selection set ut ility fu nction . The fun ction G etda te()
is presented in pieces, follow ed by a description of ea ch section of code.
Function Getdate()As Double
Dim SS As AcadSelectionSet
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Set SS = ThisDrawing.SelectionSets.Add(“TEMP”)
Set SS = ThisDrawing.SelectionSets.Item(“TEMP”)
Err.Clear
SS.Clear
End If
‘function continues
The fu nction starts by defin ing a selection set object na med S S. When
you add the selection set “ TEMP” to t he selection set collection of th e
draw ing, an error w ill result if it is already in th ere. Thu s w e enable the
On Error trap to fo rce VBA to contin ue in th e event a n error is reported.
If the error number is not 0, then VBA had a problem adding the name
“ TEMP” to th e selection set collection . Tha t m ean s it is alrea dy in th ere,
an d w e must use the Item() method to get it. Because selection set is
already defined, it ma y a lso cont ain o bjects. The Clear m etho d is employed
to clear out a ny objects tha t ma y be in th e selection set na med “ TEMP” .
At this point in th e code, th e varia ble SS is a selection set object w ith
not hing in it. The n ext step is to locate th e “ LINE” object tha t conta ins
the extended data.
Dim FT(1) As Integer, FV(1) As Variant
Dim vFT As Variant, vFV As Variant
FT(0) = 0: FV(0) = “LINE”
FT(1) = 1001: FV(1) = “CREATED”
vFT = FT: vFV = FV
SS.Select acSelectionSetAll, , , vFT, vFV
You’ll use the Select method from the selection set object to locate the
desired graphics. We are interested in finding a “LINE” object that has
extended da ta atta ched to it. The techn ique inv olved in building th e filter
198
for extended data is som ew ha t different in VBA com pared w ith Auto-
LISP/Visua l LISP. In stead of searching for a –3 group cod e, it searches for
th e 1001 group code. The 1001 group code con ta ins the a pplication na me
tha t w ill be exactly the same a s the application na me supplied in the
function th at w rote the extended da ta in th e first place. For our applica-
tion , tha t na me is “ CREATED” .
The filter list is built by first defining tw o a rray s. The first arra y con -
tains the integer group codes for the data w e are filtering. In this exam ple
w e are looking for a “ LINE”, th us group code 0 is used. Entity na mes are
alw ay s associated w ith group code 0. The extended da ta a pplication n am e
is represented by the 1001 value. In the second array, the values for these
va riables are set. The second a rray is of th e ty pe Varia nt so th at it ca n
hold any type of data: string, double, or integer.
Due to the way variants are stored in the VBA system, a second assign-
men t is ma de for t he a rrays to an oth er pair of Varian t va riables (vFT,
vFV). All the input elements for the selection set building function are
ready, and Select() is called on to put entities into the selection set SS.
The a cSelectSetAll is an AutoCAD consta nt th at tells th e select meth od t o
search the entire draw ing databa se.
At the end of this section of code, the selection set variable SS now
contains a “LINE” object that has the extended data attached to it. If the
“ LINE” object is not fou nd in the dra w ing, the selection set w ill be empty.
If SS.Count > 0 Then
Dim Ent As AcadLine
Set Ent = SS.Item(0)
Ent.GetXData “CREATED”, vFT, vFV
GetSavedDate = vFV(1)
Else
GetSavedDate = 0#
End If
End Function
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The selection set Cou nt property tells us how ma ny objects w ere found
ma tching the filter description w e just used. If the Co un t is greater tha n
0, then the Select() meth od w as successful in locating objects tha t fit our
criteria.
We know tha t the object w e w an t is a line, so w e define an AcadLine
object. If the extended data had been attached to any AutoCAD object, a
better choice w ould h ave been t o use the AcadObject definition instead.
How ever, due to th e w ay VBA w orks w ith libraries an d objects, the gen-
eral rule of thumb is that w hen yo u know exactly w hat object type w ill
be encoun tered, use that definition. This w ill improve the performa nce of
the applications.
The a pplication looks at th e first line in th e selection set w ith Item (0).
The G etXData() meth od is used w ith th at en tity object to retrieve tw o
variants that are arrays containing the extended data. Since our applica-
tion w rote only tw o pieces of data to th e extended data, the n ame of the
application an d the data value, w e know for certain tha t the value saved
can be foun d in th e second elem ent. Thu s, use vFV(1) to get the sav ed
value and place it in the return value of the function.
If the selection set coun t w as 0, the function didn’t find a ny “ LINE”
objects w ith the exten ded data atta ched. At this point, th e return result of
the fu nction is set to 0.
A more advanced look at extended data manipulations is presented in
a later chapter. Extended data provides a pow erful w ay to associate non-
graph ical data t o existing graphical objects. There are ot her techn iqu es
tha t can be used as w ell, including Xrecords w ith ha rd ow nership rela-
tionships. How ever, these are mo re difficult to m an age un der VBA, an d
mo st a pplication s w ill find ext ended da ta t o suffice.
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C h a p t er T w e l v e
Gotcha’s and Tips
E
very programming language has its quirks and special rules.
VBA is no exception. Some o f the w ay s it w orks contrasts w ith
other langua ges you ma y a lready know ; this cha pter discusses
some of th e interesting featu res yo u w ill encoun ter. Subjects covered in
this chapter are:
• Handles data types comparison
• Uses control keys to maneuver
• Creates User defined Objects
• Ha n dles d a tes
• Handles Arguments
• P o in t er Ar gu m e nt s
• Short Circuit Evaluation
• Access objects on th e sam e level
• Creates colum ns and uses multiselect in th e listbox control
• Deals w ith Variable nam e shortcuts
• Deals with the Command line in AutoCAD
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C H A P T E R TW E L V E : G otch a’s an d Tips
If you don ’t know w hat some of th ese things are, do not despair. Some
of these are advanced topics and we will endeavor to explain them as we
get into the va rious nua nces of the VBA program ming environm ent.
Divergent DataTypeComparison
VBA variables can be declared w ithout assigning a d ata type. Tha t
mea ns it is possible to compare va riables that are n ot o f th e same ba sic
data type. VBA automatically assigns a default data type of Variant
w hen o ne it not declared. It is a good idea to get into th e habit of
assigning the da ta type w hen ever you plan to use a v ariable. This is
helpful from a m ainten an ce point of view an d for checking divergent
data types. Before discussing a techniqu e for avo iding problems w ith
divergent da ta t ypes com parison, a discussion of h ow VBA han dles data
ty pes is in order. The da ta t ype of y ou r varia ble sho uld be determ ined
by th e type of data you w ish to store. Table 12.1 show s the va rious data
types you can declare in VBA.
Table12.1: VBADataTypes
Data type Value it can hold Comments
B yte 0 to 255 Sm a ll positive in tegers.

B oolean -1 or 0 Yes or No va lues.
Currency -922,337,203,685,477,648 to Use for money calculations w hen accuracy is
922, 337, 203, 685, 477, 647 im po rt a n t. M a xim u m of f if te en dig it s t o t h e
left of the decimal and up to four digits to
the right.
Da te J an . 1, 100 to Dec. 31, 9999 Data a nd tim e.
Decim al Varian t subty pe Declare your va riable as a varian t and then
use the CDEC() function to convert th e vari-
able to a decimal data type. Beha ves like the
currency da ta type but is mo re precise.
Double Approx. 4.94E-45 to 1.8E308 64-bit double precision floating point.
Integer -32768 to 32676 Sm a ll positive an d n egative n um bers.
Lo ng -2,147, 483,648 t o La rge w h o le n um ber, bo th po sit iv e a n d
2,147,483,647 n egative.
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Data type Value it can hold Comments
Sin gle Appro x. 1.4E-45 to 3.4E48 32-bit sin gle precisio n floa tin g po in t
Strin g 0 to 2 billion ch ara cters Text
Va ria n t C a n co n ta in a n y t ype o f d a ta Th e d efa u lt d a ta t y pe w h e n y o u d o n o t
in clu din g Em pt y o r Nu ll decla re o ne. Ca n ho ld da ta of a ny ty pe.
Most of the data types are self-explanatory, except the Variant type.
Variant is very special in VBA. It can hold any of the other data types so
yo u can use it as a general catch-all. There are some th ings to w atch o ut
for with the Variant, however. Since it can contain any type, you might
be tempted to use it almost to the ex clusion of t he o thers. This w ill cause
problems such as divergent data type comparison. Other disadvantages
of using it exclusively are that it takes more storage space, and maintain-
ing the code is mo re difficult because it is no t obvious w ha t ty pe of data
you are holding.
Despite these disadvantages, there are many good uses of Variant vari-
ables. One is for passing pointers to a rray s as argum ents. Since VBA does
not allow you to pass an array into a subroutine or function, you pass in
a pointer to the array, an d the subroutine or function can then a ccess
the a rray th rough th e pointer. Anoth er advan tage of a Variant v ariable is
its ability to conta in a NULL or Empty va lue. This is very useful w hen
dealing w ith da taba se records since the Microsoft J et engine returns all
data in variant form. Switching it to other data types and back would be
a waste of time. Another good use is when you’re working with listbox
values. A listbox value is a variant. You need to declare a variant type to
take its value and use it. If the user has not selected anything in the list-
box, you could get a NULL value. You should check that you have a
value before proceeding.
When y ou a re not sure w hat type of data you r variant might contain
and you need to find out before processing it; you can use a special VBA
function to determine th e data type of th e data stored. The fun ction is
called VarType. Pa ss yo ur Varian t va riable to th e fun ction a nd it w ill
return the data type of the data in the variable.
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Tw o special valu es (Null an d Em pty) a re used w ith Varian t va riables.

To test fo r th ose special va lues yo u m ust u se the IsNull or IsEmpty tests.
Once you get a response from th e test, you can th en do further tests or
process the data.
One adva nta ge of the Null value is how it beha ves w ith VBA
operators. When you use an operator like plus (+ ) w ith a NULL value
variable and a string or num ber, yo u get NULL as a result. Bu t w hen you
use the am persan d (&) operator w ith a NULL value v ariable an d a string
or nu mber you get the string or num ber back. This is w ha t allow s you to
get aroun d the problem of divergent data types that could contain NULL
values. An exam ple is show n below .
Dim groupname As Variant
groupname = frmGroupNames.1stGroupNames.Value
If Len(groupname & "")>0 Then ‘#1 - this works
In the exa mple, the Variant v ariable group na me is loaded w ith the
conten ts of th e listbox (lstG roupNam es) selection. There is no gu ara ntee
tha t an yth ing is selected or tha t a va lue w as passed. If you w ere to check
for the length of th e variable and it contained NULL, the program w ould
stop w ith a n error. The Len fun ction m ust ha ve a string passed to it. Line
#1 is th e w orkarou nd t o th e problem. VBA binds the zero-length string
w ith th e Varian t va riable. When the v ariable is NULL, it return s a zero-
length string tha t the Len fun ction can deal w ith. When th e variable ha s
someth ing in it, a zero-length string is added, but th at does not a ffect th e
original string. This sam e meth od can be used w ith da ta base recordsets.
You can also use it w ith nu mbers instead o f strings. Just remem ber that
you mu st use the a mpersan d—not a plus sign.
Using Control Keys to Maneuver in VBA

The standa rd Microsoft fun ction keys apply w hen you ’re cutting a nd
pasting inside the IDE and function key {F1} gets you help just like in
291
an y Microsoft produ ct. There a re a few special VBA con trol keys
sequen ces that can really m ake you r life easier w hen programm ing.
Finding code in your project is one of the most difficult things about
object-oriented code. Other common useful tools are the ability to shift
(indent) blocks of code and the a bility to step through y our code on e
line a t a time in debug m ode. VBA ha s given y ou some shortcuts for
accom plishin g these thin gs. These cont rol keys seq uen ces are
• Ta b
• S hif t + Ta b
• {F2}
• Sh ift + {F2}
• C trl + S hift + {F2}
• {F8}
We indent our code for maintenance purposes. It is easier to read the

code w hen it is lined u p vertically. To in den t code blo cks yo u u se the Tab
or shift + Tab key sequ ence. The pro cess is sim ple. Ju st high light th e
lines of code, th en use the key sequ ence. The Tab key m oves th e code
block to th e right w hile the Shift + Tab key sequen ce moves the code
block to the left.
The {F2} key ta kes yo u t o th e Object brow ser covered in Ch apter 3.
One of th e most useful key seq uen ces is the Sh ift + {F2} key sequen ce.
You use this to bounce around in the module definition, variable
declaration , or object brow ser. You place yo ur cursor over a va riable or
procedure an d use the key sequence. VBA w ill take you to th e
declaration of the variable or to the declaration of the procedure. When
you place your cursor over an object, the key sequ ence takes you to th at
object’s definition in th e Object B row ser.
The Ctrl + Shift + {F2} key sequen ce returns you to th e last position of
yo ur cursor (unless yo u a re in th e Object Brow ser). These features are
very ha ndy for moving q uickly a round th e code modules, checking tha t
292
yo u ha ve properly declared a va riable w ithin th e current scope, or seeing

an object’s definition an d getting back to w here you started.
When debugging you r code, the {F8} function key is of prima ry im por-
tan ce to you. It allow s you to step into (through) yo ur code one line at a
time. You can place a break point on a line of code near the suspect
code, and th e program w ill halt processes at th at line in a w ait state.
You can th en use the {F8} key to m ove one line at a time th rough th e
problem area, viewing variables or watching the flow of your program.
There are ot her key sequ ences tha t w ork w ith {F8}. You ca n see them o n
the Debug pull-down menu.
ClassModulesin VBA
VBA has the a bility to define a class similar to lan guages like C+ + or
Delphi. Classes allow yo u to define y our ow n objects. They are th e
definition of the object. In AutoCAD terms, you could compare a class to
a block table definition and an object to the block occurrence in the
draw ing. One class definition w ith m ultiple objects derived from it. You
define properties and methods for your objects in the class module. You
can th en use the class definition over an d over aga in in the form of
objects w ithin the program. Since one program can reference an other
program ’s code, you can sha re the object w ith oth er program s. The
difference betw een a VBA object defined in a class mo dule an d on e
defined in C+ + or Delphi is tha t th e VBA object cann ot inherent like in
the o ther lan guages. Inh erence is an import feature of h igher level
object-oriented lan gua ges. It allow s yo u to define a paren t object and
spaw n o ther o bjects (copies) from the pa rent. The o ther o bjects can ha ve
additional methods or properties added to the original parent object’s
metho ds and properties that a re uniqu e to th e child. When a parent
object’s method or property is altered, all children objects’ methods and
properties chan ge in accorda nce. In VBA, you a re allow ed to create
instan ces of the origina l parent object (mu ch like in C+ + ), but th e child
object does not stay linked to th e parent. This mean s tha t chan ges ma de
293
to the parent object are not reflected automatically in the child objects
derived from the parent . This is w hy VBA is not a true o bject-oriented
programm ing language; a lthough it ma y seem like a sma ll difference, it
can be importan t w hen dealing w ith large families of objects.
Still, you can create you r ow n o bject w ith VBA. You can create a person
object tha t ha s properties like age, height, w eight, race, religion , an d an y
other informa tion y ou n eed to access about a person in a class modu le.
Tha t object is then av ailable to hold inform ation in yo ur program . You
need only declare the object in y our procedure, then loa d the informa tion
into it. Objects can be very h an dy w hen w orking w ith data base recordsets.
Other uses for yo ur ow n created objects include but a re not limited to:
• Wrapping API procedures
• Wrapping Registry calls
• Handling reading and w riting with ASCII files
• Creating new properties for forms
• Defining real w orld compon ents of your designs such as structural

mem bers or survey da ta
• Holding stan dard calculations used to solve engineering problems
• Implementing individual client or governmen t styles an d stan dards
A form is a special class modu le VBA provided for us. It con tain s
collections of controls that w e can use. When you create a form, y ou a re
filling in details about the form a nd a dding your ow n m ethods (subrou-
tines) an d properties.
To show how this all w orks, w e ha ve provided a sma ll exam ple pro-
ject. Open up the Employee.dvb provided on the sample CD and call the
TestEmp m odu le from y our imm ediate w indow . The m odu le has a stop
in it to allow you to step though the code one line at a time using the
{F8} key. You can see the values assigned to the properties of the
employee by placing your cursor over the property as you press the {F8}
key. This meth od o f stepping th rough the code is also u seful because yo u
see how the program m oves through the class modu le code.
294
The mo dule has hard lined an age and n am e into a new ly created
object called employee. It does nothing more than put up a message box
w ith the employee’s na me an d age in it to show tha t the object took the
data . Look at the Employee class modu le to see the property an d m ethod
definitions relating to the employee o bject. The d eclara tions in th e class
module are the properties, and the procedures in the class module are
the m ethods. VBA even recognizes them an d uses them in the modu les
w ith the Intellisense feature. After you create a n ew instan ce of the
employee object in a module and set it, you can see the properties and
meth ods by ty ping in th e object’s nam e an d a period (.). The In tellisense
featu re of VBA sho w s th e properties an d meth ods defined in th e class
modu le for employee.
TheSpecial Character for DateandFormat

The Da te an d Form at fun ctions return a Varian t data ty pe. Because of
this, it is important to either use a string or to w rap a da te string you
w ish to convert to a da te w ith the special poun d symbol (#). Otherw ise,
VBA interprets the separa tor sym bols as mat hem atical operat ors. The
exam ple below illustrates the differences.
Dim MyDate, ADate, BDate, MyStr As Variant
Adate - 1/27/93
MyStr = Format(ADate, "Long Date") 'Line #1
BDate = "1/27/93"
MyStr = Format(BDate, "Long Date") 'Line #2
MyDate = #1/27/93#
MyStr = Format(MyDate, "Long Date") 'Line #3
Line #1 returns MyStr as the incorrect date of Saturday, December 30,

1899. This is becau se the VBA is dividing th e nu m bers in ADa te (gett ing
3.982477E-04 ), and then the Format function is converting the number
to a d ate. Line #2 returns MySt r as the correct dat e w ith a va lue of Wed-
nesday, J an ua ry 27, 1993. This is because BDa te conta ins a string value,
295
and the Format function will handle a Variant data type containing a
string da te. Line #3 also return s My Str as the correct dat e w ith a va lue of
Wednesday, J an ua ry 27, 1993. This is becau se MyD ate uses the special
date chara cters aroun d it, an d the Format function ha ndles a Variant
data type containing special date characters.
Collecting a da te from a user on a form an d converting it can cause
unpredictable results unless you know the da ta ty pe of the control you
got the data from. A text box w ill return a string tha t w orks w ith the
Forma t function, but a listbox value returns a variant, a nd it might n ot
be in string format. It is safest to use the special date characters around
data tha t you collect and w ant to convert into the date format w ith the
Format function. You can see the example by opening the Dates.dvb pro-
ject supplied on the CD and stepping through it by calling the PlayDate
subroutine in the Immediate window.
NamedandOptional Arguments
First a brief definition of terms. An argument is the data being passed
into a procedure from outside the procedure. A parameter is the data
accepted inside the procedure from the calling procedure. Most program-
mers use the terms intercha ngeably, but they really apply to th e point of
view you are taking w hen discussing the data passing. Here w e are dis-
cussing passing in the data , so w e are ta lking about argumen ts.
VBA allow s yo u to pass argum ents into a procedure (subroutine or
function) by th ree methods. You can supply the a rguments in th e order
they are declared in th e procedure, by n am e (in no particular order), or
by a declared optional argument.
Given a sample subroutine called ShowEmp you can see how to call
using th e various methods. You can run the sample routine by o pening
the Arguments.dvb project supplied on the CD and copying the samples
(supplied as com men ts in th e routine) into th e imm ediate w indow . The
procedure declaration is show n below an d the declaration is w ha t is
needed to explain the concept.
296
Public Sub ShowEmp(strName As String, intAge As Integer, dteBirth_

As Date, , optional height as integer)
Passi n g in th e Declar ed Or der The defa ult w ay to call the sub-

routine w ould be to call it and pass the argum ent in the order you
defined th em. The call for th is meth od m ight look like this.
Call ShowEmp (“My Name”, 22, #2/3/76#)
Or
ShowEmp “My Name”, 22, #2/3/76#
The n am e is a string in th e first position, age is an in teger in the

second position, and the birth date is in the third position.
Passi n g by N ame You can pass the a rgument s into the procedure by
nam e in an y order you w ish. The method is to give the nam e of the argu-
ment in the procedure’s declaration follow ed by a colon, equa l sign, a nd
the va lue. For the same procedure call to Show Emp listed abo ve, the call
w ould look like this:
Call ShowEmp (bDate:=#2/3/76#, Name:=”My Name”, Age:=22)
Or
ShowEmp Age:=22, bdate:=#2/3/76#, Name:=”My Name”
The position of the a rgument does not m atter w hen y ou u se the

nam ed argument method.
Optional Ar gum ent s The sam ple routine supplied for th e tw o previ-
ous argument m ethods show s how the third optional argument m ethod
w orks. Each of the exam ples show n w ill w ork fine even thou gh the
height a rgum ent w as not present. Tha t is because the Option al declara -
tion was used for the height argument. When you want to pass the
height into the routine, just add it to the list of arguments.
There is only on e rule for o ptiona l argum ents. They mu st be declared
last in th e procedure’s declara tions. You can put in as ma ny as you w ish
as long as they are last in the list. When you use the optional height
argumen t, y our call might a ppear like this:
297
Call ShowEmp (“My Name”, 22, #2/3/76#, 72)
Or
ShowEmp Age:=22, bdate:=#2/3/76#, Height:=72, Name:=”My Name”
Notice tha t even th ough the declaration ha d to be last in the procedure,

the call does not h ave to m ake it last w hen using nam ed arguments.
Using anArrayof Doubles

versusa Variant asan Array
VBA for AutoCAD does not allow you to pass an array to a procedure.
To q uo te Autod esk from its 14.01 Release FAQ statem ent , “ Suppo rt for
early binding requires tha t a ll properties of, and argumen ts to, meth ods
w hich pa ssed da ta as an arra y m ust n ow be passed as a VARIANT. This
includes all 2D and 3D coordina tes, w hich ha ve previously been passed
as arrays.”
The tru th is tha t w hile VBA can pa ss arra ys as argum ents to proce-
dures w ithou t causing an error, procedures can no t declare arra ys in th eir
declaration list. This can som etimes be a bit con fusing because you can
define a n a rray in th e calling procedure and pass it into an other pro-
cedure—but only if you define the incoming parameter as a Variant. We
ha ve illustrated below the w ay to pass an array t o a procedure.
Dim Pnt(0 To 2) As Double
Dim Ent As Object
Call GetEnt(Ent, Pnt)
Public Sub GetEnt(Ent As Object, Pnt As Variant)
High-level languages such as C use pointers to pass around variables

an d array s. The on e trap tha t yo u can fall into in VBA is thinking that
you can define the array in the calling procedure and set a va rian t
pointer to it, then pass the pointer to the called procedure (much like
298
in C). This meth od simply does not w ork in VBA. Since there is no
pointer capability in VBA, the passed-in variant is treated as the array,
an d th e original a rray is never filled. This is because the v arian t is
passed-in by reference as its ow n variable and n ot a s a pointer to th e
arra y it w as set eq ua l to. This w ho le process exists because you ca nn ot
pass arra ys into procedures imposed by VBA on t he procedure’s declara-
tion list. B elow w e ha ve illustrated a typical situation of passing a
Varian t into a procedure. The called procedure can then use varian t as
an arra y an d fill it u sing subscripts. The filled array is then ava ilable in
the calling routine after the called procedure is finished.
Dim Pnt As Variant
Dim Ent As Object
Call GetEnt(Ent, Pnt)
Public Sub GetEnt(Ent As Object, Pnt As Variant)
The Pn t va riable con tain s an arra y point created by the selection

object. You can access each of the elements in the Pnt variable as though
it w as a declared array.
The sam e problem exists in t rying t o pass the arra y ba ck to the ca lling
procedure. An array canno t be used to receive data from a procedure.
Alw ay s use a varian t in both th e calling procedure an d the called proce-
dure in tha t situation . The project called Array.dvb supplied on the CD
w ith this book has three procedures you can experiment w ith to see
th ese differences. They are
• Pass_Declared_Array
• Undeclared_Array
• Pass_Undeclared_Array
To check them o ut, y ou m ust load th e project and call each on e from
the imm ediate w indow in the Visual B asic Editor.
299
Passing an Arrayto an Object’s Methods

Passing a n a rray to a n object’s meth od w orks great, but it is different
from passing one to a procedure. Some of the Autodesk object methods
want an array of doubles passed to them for holding data (usually a
point). Several of the mo del’s utility object methods w an t an array of
dou bles for poin ts. They includ e:
An glefromAxis G etAngle
G etCorner G etDistan ce
G etEn tity G etOrientation
PolarPoin t Tran slateCoordin ates
Another AutoCAD model object that uses the array of doubles as an

argum ent fo r its meth od is the Selectionset object. The m etho ds are
• SelectAtPoint
• S ele ct B y P oly g on
• SelectOnScreen
There are m an y m ore exam ples in th e Auto CAD object model. In gen -
eral, w hen a model object’s metho d needs a point, it needs an array of
doubles. We have show n th e syn tax for that ty pe of operation below.
Dim ptPick(0 To 2) As Double
ThisDrawing.Utility.GetEntity mobjBlockRef,ptPick,"Select a Block"
CollectionsandProcedures
Collections are similar to arra ys but w ithou t all of the storage restric-
tions. You do not have to declare the size of a collection before using it,
and you do not have to change the declaration of the collection as you
add mo re items. The on ly restriction placed on y ou w ith collections is
tha t y ou can not store user-defined da ta ty pes in them .
Dim colOne As New Collection
colOne.Add 1
colOne.Add 2
300
colOne.Add 3
Dim i As Long
For i = 1 To colOne.Count
Debug.Print "colOne(" & i; ") = " & colOne.Item(i)
Next i
The a bove code illustrates how to spin th rough a collection to retrieve

items. Collections are indexed from 1, not 0, as in an array. You have a
Coun t property to find out h ow ma ny items are in th e collection. The
Item metho d allow s you to retrieve data from a collection w hile the Add
and Remove methods allow you to put data into and delete data from a
collection. Below w e ha ve illustrated creating a collection, a dding items
to it, spinning throu gh it, an d printing th e items.
Dim colOne as Collection
Set colOne = New Collection
Passing a collection to another procedure to be loaded is similar to

passing an array, except that you do no t need to use a Variant containing
the collection. You can pass the collection directly, a nd th e procedure
w ill load it. One feat ure of the collection object is tha t yo u can d eclare it
in one line an d initiate it in a noth er. The exam ple show n a bove
illustrates the one-line method of declaring and initiating the collection,
called colOne, at the same time. Another metho d is show n below.
Dim colOne as Collection
Set colOne = New Collection
This ability t o split the declaration an d initiation of a collection a llow s

you to pass in a declared and initiated collection or just a declared collec-
tion a nd let the called procedure load the collection. Unfortun ately, y ou
cann ot pass back a collection, so you m ust alw ay s use an existing collec-
tion tha t is passed in, similar to th e arra y problem. This is a min or prob-
lem an d just a noth er trait of the lan guage. Several collection exam ples
are provided on the CD in the Collection.dvb project. Run an y of th e fol-
low ing procedures to see ho w collections beha ve.
301
• Pass_Collection
• Pass_Declared_Collection
• Pass_Undeclared_Collection
• Return_Collection
You can load the project and run a ny of the procedures in th e imme-
diate w indow . The Retu rn_Collection procedure w ill fail. This is done to
illustrate that Collections cannot be passed back from a function.
Short Circuit Evaluation

Short circuit evaluation is the order the lan guage deals w ith in a com-
plex condition statement. In AutoLISP, the language checks the first part
of the condition, then m oves on to the next part of th e complex state-
men t w hen the first condition is valid. This is very conven ient: it lets
you check to see if a variable has a value bound to it before you compare
it w ith something in the sam e line of code. In VBA, you can either syn c
the da ta ty pe for comparison o r do everything a ll on one line of code—
or y ou can first check to see if the v ariable exists. Then place the code
for the comparison inside the true condition of the statement. Earlier in
the chapter, w e gave you an exam ple of syn cing the divergence data
type for comparison. Tha t exam ple allow ed you to check on on e line of
code a va riable that m ight conta in a NULL. The exa mple sho w n below
illustrates the longer w ay of testing first, then cont inuing to process.
Dim groupname As Variant
groupname = frmGroupNames.1stGroupNames.Value
If Not IsNULL groupname Or Len(groupname) > 0 Then ' #1 -

'causes an error
If Not IsNULL groupname ' #2 - first

'see if its null or not
If Len(groupname) > 0 Then ' #2a - now

'check if it has data in it
302
The line #1 cau ses an error in VBA w hen the v ariable conta ins a
NULL because it is an exam ple of short circuit eva luation (w hich does
no t w ork in VBA). VBA does not stop evalua ting th e line of code just
because the last thing it evalua ted w as invalid. In Auto LISP (different
syn tax, sam e principle), it w ould w ork because the language w ould stop
evaluating the line of code w hen th e groupname w as NULL.
Lines 2 and 2a are on e w ay of doing it in VBA. VBA w ould never get
to th e 2a line of code because it w ould evaluate th e line 2 code and
mo ve past the true condition w hen the va riable con tain ed NULL. The
more elegant w ay o f testing w as show n in the divergence data ty pe com-
parison section, ea rlier in t his chapter.
The bottom line is tha t w hen y ou get an error on you r condition
statement of invalid data type, chances are that you have run into short
circuit evaluation. You can solve the problem by the above example or
by syncing the data type as show n in th e divergence data ty pe compari-
son section of th is cha pter.
AccessingObjectsontheSameLevel
as Your Current Object
The Auto CAD object mod el ha s a hiera rchy. The Auto CAD application is
the top object, w ith everyth ing in it un der it. When y ou a re w orking
w ith an object and you n eed to w ork w ith a nother object on th e same
level of the hierarchy, you need to specify the parent object first. Under
the application object are the preference and document objects. While
w orking w ith the docum ent object, you can a ccess th e Preferences object
by explicitly u sing t he a pplicat ion o bject in th e call to th e object. Figure
12.1 illustrates part of the object model’s hierarchy.
The Applicatio n o bject represents the a pplicat ion ’s fram e cont rols an d
path settings and provides the m eans to n avigate dow n th e object hierar-
chy. This can be con fusing because the a pplication a ppears to be un der
the special object called ThisDraw ing, but it is actua lly th e oth er w ay
aro un d. ThisDraw ing is the special shortcut na me for the docum ent.
303
Figure 12.1: AutoCAD Object Model
Given th e follow ing code, you could access the preferences w hile w ork-
ing on the docum ent (same level).
Dim preferences As AcadPreferences
Set preferences = ThisDrawing.Application.Preferences
Dim strConfigFile As String
strConfigFile = preferences.ConfigFile 'line #1
The code in the exam ple sets the AcadPreferences object to the Prefer-
ences object by starting from th e documen t (ThisDraw ing), and m oving
up the h ierarchy to the a pplication object, then dow n to the Preferences
object, w hich is at t he same level as the do cumen t object. It can th en
access any object un der th e Preferences object as show n in line #1. You
can see how the object path is going up and then back down by review-
ing the o bject model. Using th e explicit definition o f the w ho le object
trail or using th e With statem ent a llow s yo u to a ccess an y object in th e
object mo del at an y time.
304
ListboxColumns
Listbox columns are one o f those things that y ou w ould think obvious,
but even intermediate level programmers can stumble on it the first
time. It’s not hard, but columns in lists are very flexible, and you can do
ma ny th ings w ith them. For example:
• You can ha ve up to ten columns in a listbox.
• Columns can be different sizes.
• C o lu m n s ca n b e h id de n .
• You can specify w hich column w ill return a value on selection.
• You can load data into the columns or specify a tw o-dimensional

array that is linked to the listbox and its columns.
• You can create a column header w ithin the listbox.
Multiple columns
Creating the columns in a listbox is easy. Simply enter how ma ny
column s you w an t into the Colum nCou nt property o f the listbox object.
Column Size
Controlling th e w idth a nd visibility of th e colum ns is not as obvious,
even thou gh th ere is a Column Width property on the listbox. The
ColumnWidth property uses points per inch (much like a font) to
measure the w idth. When y ou set a colum n position to 0, the column is
not show n. If you do no t specify a w idth, the default is to split up the
column s int o eq ua l sizes. The m inimu m size is 72 point s, but yo u can
ma ke them smaller. A sam ple of column w idths for a listbox w ith three
column s is show n below.
ColumnWidth | 40 pt; 40 pt; 40
305
It shou ld be noted th at you could use inches instead of points in the

above example. Consult your VBA online help for ColumnWidths to see
a mo re detailed discussion o f th is property.
Column Visibility
To m ake th e second colum n in visible the C olum nWidths property w ou ld
be set as show n below.
Listbox Column Specification

One of the nice features of using columns in a listbox is the ability to
access any of the columns on a selected item. You can set the BoundCol-
umn property of the listbox to the column number you want values
from w hen an item is selected in the listbox. This w orks even w hen the
Bou ndColum n is set to a colum n th at th e user can’t see! This allow s you
to build a tw o-dimensional array in w hich one element of the array is
visible to the user but the other isn’t. When the user selects from their
visible list, y ou can use th e invisible list to process the da ta item . This is
a great feature for things like associating a color in English that the user
sees, but processing t he a ssociated color n um ber behind the scenes.
Loading Listbox Columns

There a re three m etho ds for loading listbox column s. Actually, only on e
exam ple is a m ethod; the ot her tw o a re properties of the listbox. They are
• AddItem
• List
• Colum n
AddItem Method
The AddItem m ethod a llow s you to a dd data to a single colum n or m ul-
tiple colum ns in a listbox. G iven a listbox called lstItemWindow w ith a
ColumnCount of 1, the code to load an array of data into the listbox
w ould look like that show n below .
306
Dim intI As Integer
With IsItemWindow
For intI = 0 To UBound(SampleArray)
.AddItem SampleArray(intI, 0)
Next intI
End With
To a dd da ta to m ultiple column s (after chan ging the Column Coun t

to 2) using the AddItem metho d, the code w ould look like that show n
below.
Dim intI As Integer
With IsItemWindow
For intI = 0 To UBound(SampleArray)
.AddItem SampleArray(intI, 0)
Column(1,.ListCount - 1) = SampleArray(intI, 1)
Next intI
End With
Notice that th e only difference betw een the single loa ding exam ple
an d the on e for tw o column s is the line of code ma rked in italic. You
mu st first use the AddItem meth od to put the da ta into the first column,
then immediately use the Column property to add the next piece of data.
List and Column Properties

Both of the a bove AddItem exam ples use a tw o-dimensional array (pre-
viously constructed a nd loaded). There a re tw o different properties of
the listbox that allow you to link a two-dimensional array directly to a
listbox w ithou t ha ving to loa d each item individua lly. The List property
is just on e line of code as sho w n below .
1stListWindow.List = SampleArray 'load using list property
Ju st setting th e listbox property equa l to th e array is enough to a ccess

all of the data in the array. The Column property behaves the sam e w ay
307
except for the fact that it inverts the X,Y of the array to Y,X. When you
ha ve need of th is feature, you shou ld use the column property instead o f
the List property. The loa d w ould look like tha t show n below .
1stColumnWindow.Column = SampleArray 'load using Column
property
Column Headers
Column headers are available w hen y ou set the ColumnHeads property
of the listbox to True. But th ey w ill w ork only w ith a row sources
att ach ed. This is no t a fea ture th at can be current ly used w ith AutoCAD.
To review the va rious column features, y ou can open the
Column s.dvb project (supplied w ith this book) and run the Colum nSam -
ples ma cro.
Multiselect in a Listbox
There a re three t ypes of selection y ou can use in a listbox:
• fmMultiSelectSingle to select a single item at a time.
• fmMultiSelectSingle to select mu ltiple items one at a time.
• fmMultiSelectSingle to select multiple items in groups using the

shift key.
Single item selection is the default, but you can select any of the three
using th e Mu ltiSelect property o f th e listbo x. The supplied sam ple project
Colum ns.dvb h as three list boxes on the fo rm. The left on e is a single
select box, the middle one is a multiselect box, and the right one is an
extend ed m ultiselect box . To review the variou s multiselect fea tures, yo u
can o pen the Co lumns.dvb project (supplied w ith th is book) and run the
Column Sam ples macro. After loading some da ta into th e boxes, try
selecting in each box to see the difference in how they w ork.
308
VariableNameShortcuts
VBA has the ability to recognize the old Basic shortcut variable naming
conven tions (type-declarat ion cha racters). This is very ad van ta geous for
those programmers who already know the shortcuts but very confusing
for those who don’t want to dump a portion of their childhood from
mem ory just to mem orize them. The shortcuts are cryptic an d ha rd to
understand un less you kno w them or ha ve a chart. An exam ple of the
ty pe-declara tion cha ra cter in an Int eger is th e percent sign (%). This is
counterproductive during programm ing or m aintena nce. It is better to
spend your time working on the design of the program than trying to
understand a cryptic variable data type. It is best not to use the old
shortcuts for these reasons. Programmers maintain code much more than
they create new code (just like editing in Auto CAD is don e more th an
creating n ew geometry). Why add extra effort to deciphering the code?
Command Line Workaround

This section is provided becau se VB A in Aut oCAD Relea se 14 w as a
you nger implementa tion in AutoCAD, a nd not all objects w ere exposed
yet. Because of this, you actually need a command line workaround for
dealing w ith objects that a re not in th e VBA object model yet.
Autodesk said it couldn’t be done, so n atura lly w e ha d to find o ut
how to do it. (We must give credit w here it is due to Andy B aron an d
Mike Gun derloy of Application Developers. They researched a nd w rote
the code that makes it possible to use the command line from a VBA
application .) We also need to stress that y ou sho uld no t use this w ork-
aro un d for an yt hing ot her th an no n-supported objects in VBA. The
exam ple provided is for ext erna l references. VBA for Auto CAD Release
14 does not ha ve an Xref object, thereby limiting it from w orking w ith
externa l references. It is on e of the few legitima te reasons for havin g
access to the command line from VBA at this time, and it is the main
reason this section is included in th is book.
309
The Problem
The linka ge code in VBA beha ves much like a DDE linkage in VB on the
surface. There is no w ay to mo nitor w ha t’s ha ppening on th e comma nd
line. You a re stuck w ith jam ming a comma nd dow n th e pipeline and
ho ping for the best. To furth er com plicate the m att er, you ca nn ot w ork
arou nd th e problem like yo u can in VB becau se w hile VBA is run ning,
the comm an d you sent dow n th e pipeline is not executed. It happens
only w hen VBA is done.
In VB w ith DDE, a common method w as to stay in a loop until a sem-
aphore w as set. You w ould launch th e code to AutoCAD, then sw itch to
a w ait state subrou tine looking for the sema phore. The laun ched code
w ould set the sema phore as the last thing it did and y our w ait state code
in VB w ould see the chan ge and allow the program to continue. This
w orked because VB w as in its ow n m emory pool, not AutoCAD’s, an d it
did not have to close dow n to run the comma nd. Because the command
will not run until the VBA macro ends, you cannot put VBA into a wait
state looking for a sema phore. It w ould just h an g there since the sema-
phore w ould never get set because the launched code w ould not run
un til VBA stopped. A perfect cat ch-22. Fortuna tely, there is a solution .
The Solution
The supplied project called Com ma nds.dvb h as a sendcom ma nd m acro
definition tha t illustrates how you can use the w orkaround. The w ork-
around in VBA is to send one string to AutoCAD to be processed and
tack on the AutoLISP (command “-vbarun” “sendcommand”) line at the
end of w ha tever code you ’re sending do w n th e pipeline. The result is
tha t VBA sends the comm an d an d dies. Then the com ma nd line is
executed in AutoCAD, and the last line of the stream is the call to load
the ‘sendcomma nd’ m acro again. To u se this in production w ould m ean
tha t y ou w ould n eed to save the va riable state in VBA before closing
dow n a nd restore it again w hen starting up (a simple enough procedure
using the registry or a temporary file).
310
This solution is no t pretty a nd needs testing to determine if it blow s

the comm an d stack or causes any other m emory problems—but it does
work.
Passing Forms and Controls as Parameters

A sma ll problem a rises w hen you w an t to a ccess the information o f a
form or control w hen not in the form’s module. You can ’t directly do it.
You must pass the form or control into the procedure to access its prop-
erties and methods from any other module than the form’s module.
While VBA doesn’t pass array s into procedures, it does allow yo u to pass
objects. The fo rm an d its cont rols are a ll objects. The ru le of th um b is to
pass the form w hen you w an t to a ccess any of its controls or pass a spe-
cific control w hen y ou w ant to just w ork w ith it.
Occasiona lly, yo u m ay even pa ss in both . The project file Contro l.dvb
(on supplied CD ) ha s an exa mple of th is situa tion in th e Tabs procedure
of th e Ba sGlobal mod ule. The form is passed in to allow the procedure to
spin th rough a ll of the controls on the form , but a n individual control (a
m ultipa ge cont rol) is passed in for q uick access to its properties. The ro u-
tine could just as easily h ave been w ritten to accept the form a nd th e
mu ltipage’s nam e. Then the code w ould ha ve ha d to find th e requested
control as it spun through the various controls of the passed-in form.
One technique is not a ny better than the oth er—they are just different
w ay s of approach ing the design. The synta x of the procedure taking a
form a nd control is
Public Sub Tabs(Form As UserForm, Ctrl As Control)
One problem th at a rises w hen try ing to ma nipulate a form or its con-
trols from a procedure tha t is outside the form’s modu le is that you don’t
get the benefit of the Intellisense design feature in the outside module as
yo u design. This mean s that y ou n eed to kno w the o bject’s properties
an d meth ods to access them (no hints as you ty pe). One metho d of get-
ting around this problem is to design the module inside the form proce-
dure and then m ove it over to the support module. Natura lly, you w ill
311

Autocad Vba Programming

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Autocad Vba Programming

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The object mod el in

The object mod el in

know how to use the Excel

EXAMPLE1.XLS– spreadsheet content

8.0 Object Library if you ha ve Office 97 installed. Now ou r VBA program

Dim XLWorkBook as Object

Dim excelSheet As Object

Dim XlWorkBook As Excel.Workbook

Dim excelSheet As Excel.Worksheet

object definition (late binding) is used, the system do esn’t kno w w ha t

VBA fills in th e rest for us, addin g in a new subroutine d efinition to

The follow ing is w ha t w e filled in for th e function . This function w ill

On Error Resume Next

Set ExL = GetObject(“”, “Excel.Application”)

If (Err.Number <> 0) Then

MsgBox “You must have Excel loaded on your computer!”

Set XLWorkBook = Workbooks.Open(“EXAMPLE1.XLS”)

Set excelSheet = ExL.ActiveWorkbook.Sheets(“Sheet1”)

The first part o f the progra m w ill at ta ch th e Excel application o bject.

Closing the Workbook

Searching the Worksheet

The va lue return ed from th e find met ho d is a Ra nge object. The

Set Fnd = excelSheet.Range(“A1:A10”).Find(“AA-3”)

Resulting_Value = excelSheet.Cells(Rw, 2).Value

To search th e entire colum n labeled a s A, yo u can specify the ra nge a s

The en tire first colum n o f th e spreadsheet is search ed to loca te th e

If excelSheet.Cells(I,1).Value = “AA-3” Then

I = 11 ‘break out of the loop

Another ExampleInterfacetoMicrosoft Excel

Dim Excell As Object

Set Excell = GetObject(, “Excel.Application”)

Set excelSheet = Excell.ActiveWorkbook.Sheets.Add

Dim Cir1, Cir2 As Variant

Dim CirA(0 To 0) As Integer

Dim CirB(0 To 0) As Variant

Cir1 = CirA: Cir2 = CirB

On Error Resume Next

Set Get_Circles = ThisDrawing.SelectionSets.Add(“HOLES”)

If Err.Number <> 0 Then

Set Get_Circles = ThisDrawing.SelectionSets.Item(“HOLES”)

Get_Circles.Select acSelectionSetAll, , , Cir1, Cir2

The va lue tha t w ill be return ed from t he G et_Circles fun ction is a

Dim Ent As AcadCircle

Dim PTV As Variant

For Each Ent In SS

excelSheet.Cells(R, CN).Value = Ent.Handle

excelSheet.Cells(R, CX).Value = PTV(0)

excelSheet.Cells(R, CY).Value = PTV(1)

excelSheet.Cells(R, CR).Value = Ent.Radius

This function loops throu gh th e selection set collection (stored in global

Dim PTV As Variant

Dim PTC(0 To 2) As Double

While excelSheet.Cells(I, 1).Value <> “”

PTC(0) = excelSheet.Cells(I, 2).Value

PTC(1) = excelSheet.Cells(I, 3).Value

ThisDrawing.ModelSpace.AddText Str$(I), PTC, TH

programm ing systems for converting h an dles to en tity objects. As such,

Dim Excell As Object

Set Excell = GetObject(, “Excel.Application”)

Set excelSheet = Excell.ActiveWorkbook.Sheets(“Sheet32”)

Dim Ent As AcadCircle

While excelSheet.Cells(I, 1).Value <> “”

HN$ = excelSheet.Cells(I, 1).Value

Set Ent = ThisDrawing.HandleToObject(HN$)

If Ent.Radius <> excelSheet.Cells(I, 4) Then