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My first VBA application in AutoCAD

9 Comments Nov-26-2007 | Posted by Özgür Özkurt | Printable Version | Level |

AutoCAD 13 & higher versions

There is no doubt that the most important difference of Autocad from any other CAD software is its various tools of customization and automation. Some macro programmes can be written and managed in Autocad to ease the routine works. Although VBA (Visual Basic Application) has the whole control, loop etc. mechanisms of Basic Language, it lacks some options compared to the other versions of Visual Basic. The one who knows even a little about Basic Language and/or uses one of Visual Basic IDE can get used to VBA for Autocad very easily.

VBA.IDE that is integrated in Autocad can be opened by clicking the ‘Visual Basic Editor’ in macro line in Tools menu. If ‘Toolbox’ does not exist, just select it form the ‘View’ menu.

Figure.1

The Toolbox Menu icludes the controls the interfaces of the macros that you prepare.

Figure.2

A new form will be added when you apply the steps seen in Figure.2. The desired control is selected by clicking in the “Toolbox Menu” and it is placed by clicking the appropriate button in the form.

Let us attach a Command Button, two Text Box and a Label to our form by the method shown in Figure.1.

Figure.3

Change the box as ‘Sum‘ that corresponds to ‘Caption’ box in the ‘Properties’ window by selecting the CommandButton of the form we have added. Set the ‘TextAlign’ property in the same window as it is in the figure below.

Figure.4

Figure.5

We have just prepared the form that we will use. Next step is assigning an event to the Button.

Double click the button in the form. The code page and the lines below should be opened.

Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()

'''your code here

End Sub

Add the

Label1.Caption = Val(TextBox1.Text) + Val(TextBox2.Text)

Code between the lines above. Now we can run the macro. It can be done by selecting the ‘Run Sub/UserForm’ in the Run Menu.

Figure.6

The sum of the numbers are printed automatically in the label control when you write some numbers into the two Text Box and click the button.

Label1.Caption

expression means the caption property of the label control that we have just changed in the Properties window.

TextBox1.Text

expression means the Text property of the TextBox1. By means of the Val() function, the content is changed into a numerical value.

The same process is done for the TextBox2. They are summed and transferred to the caption property of the + label control.

VBA Mathematical Operations and Process Priorities

^ Exponential operator.
* Multiplication operator.
/ Real division operator. (Ex:5/2=2.5)
\ Integer division operator. (Ex:5\2=2)
Mod Mod operator. (Ex:5 Mod 2)
+ Summation operator.
- Subtraction operator.

We gave general information about the usage of VBA in Autocad and explained how a VBA macro is run. Besides, some basic properties of Visual Basic Language was studied. But this is not the limit of the usage of VBA for Autocad and OLE (ActiveX, COM). We will study this subject in more detail in coming lessons.

Regards.

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