VBA -Problems opening a new document in a running instance of BricsCAD.

Joe Dunfee

 Can anyone point me to a working example of some VBA code running in a different application, that is able to create a new document in BricsCAD v14 without creating a new instance of it?

I have spent around a day and a half trying to figure this out. But the best I have been able to achieve is to always create a new instance of BricsCAD for the new document.  The examples I have come across so far always do this behavior.  So, perhaps BricsCAD behaves differently from AutoCAD in this regard, and my efforts to find a working BricsCAD example have failed.

To simplify things, I am OK, with the application not checking if BricsCAD is running or not, since I can simply require that the user always have BricsCAD already running.

This issue was presented in my thread titiled, "Using SendKeys VBA command from Excel"

https://forum.bricsys.com/discussion/32147

The internal VBA help file for BricsCAD doesn't seem to provide this info as an example. (please correct me if I am wrong). Anyone know of a working example elsewhere, or where I am likely to find one?

-Joe

Joe Dunfee

 I should give a few more details, in case they are important. I am on Windows 7 Pro, and running BricsCAD Plantinum 32 bit.

IN trying to keep the tests as simple as possible, see the code below.  Running it with , or without BricsCAD already running, generates the error message on the line noted in a comment.

[code]

Sub test()

Dim acadApp

Dim acadDoc

Set acadApp = GetObject(, "BricscadacadApp.AcadApplication") '<- Error #429 generated here.</span>

Set acadDoc = acadApp.acadDocuments.Add  'open a new drawing document

End Sub

[/code]

Error 429 is "ActiveX component can't create object or return reference to this object "

Thank you for any ideas or advice.

-Joe

Roy Klein Gebbinck

Maybe this helps.

Joe Dunfee

 I take it you were refering to the "Run as Administrator" part of that thread.  In my case, the security settings already in my operating system require that I always run BricsCAD as an administrator, and before it runs, it asks me to OK permitting BricsCAD to make changes to the computer.

I did just try it by right-clicking on the BricsCAD icon in the start-up menu, and chose "run as administrator".  However, I got the same error at the same line.

-Joe

Joe Dunfee

 As I continue to make an effort to get back going with VBA, I am going to sites that talk about how to do it with AutoCAD.  And while I know a lot of the AuotCAD stuff is applicable to BricsCAD, I imagine that the specific task of opening BricsCAD itself and creating a document may be different.  Specifically, since these application examples don't work, that they must need to be tweaked in some way to be BricsCAD compatible.

I am using a web page written in 2010 by Will at "How to AutoCAD", because it takes a very basic approach and explains every part of it.

http://howtoautocad.com/excel-and-autocad-–-a-match-made-in-heaven-again/

The 1st question is in relation to the VBA References.  There are both BricsCAD  and AutoCAD references available to me.  So, I have been loading both. Attached is a screen grab showing what I have loaded.

His code for AutoCAD does not work as is.  I have also tried a few variations, but none have worked.  The autocomplete feature of VBA should, I think, be listing the types, as I start to type them. But, it does not.

Here is the code he provides;

  Sub Main()    Dim ACAD As AcadApplication 'Create ACAD variable of type AcadApplication    Set ACAD = New AcadApplication 'Set the ACAD variable to equal a new instance of AutoCAD    ACAD.Visible = True 'Once loaded, set AutoCAD® to be visible    ACAD.ActiveDocument.Utility.Prompt "Hello from Excel!" 'Print a message to the AutoCAD® command lineEnd Sub

Is there any BricsCAD documentation about how to manage this sort of conversion from AutoCAD VBA code to BricsCAD?

-Joe

VBA CAD references.JPG

Peter Busch

Public Sub NewDrawings()
   On Error Resume Next
   Dim NewDwg1 As AcadDocument
   Dim PATHandNAME As String
   Set NewDwg1 = ThisDrawing.Application.Documents.Add
   NewDwg1.Activate
   NewDwg1.WindowState = acNorm
   PATHandNAME = "C:\" & "ExistUserDefFold\" & "NewTestDoc" & ".dwg"
   NewDwg1.SAVEAS PATHandNAME
 End Sub

Peter

Joe Dunfee

 Thank you for the effort, but still no success, with or without BricsCAD already running. With or without a document already open.

Does it work on your system?

At first, nothing happened at all. Not even an error message. But once I remmed-out the On Error Resume line, and then ran it, it generated an error on the line that says,

   Set NewDwg1 = ThisDrawing.Application.Documents.Add

Attached is the error, as well as the references I have already loaded.

-Joe

VBA Brcscad error Feb9.JPG

VBA CAD references Feb8.JPG

Joe Dunfee

In some of the other related threads I described the solution. But should mention it here as well. I turned out that my issues were caused by the security settings in my Win 7 system. BricsCAD had to be set to "run as administrator", and so Excel needed to be set to do that as well. First the Excel.exe file, and then the shortcut that I normally used to open Excel needed the setting.

-Joe