Inserting Blocks Into Multiple Documents

[Caden.Sowers]

Could anyone help with the issue I'm having? I'm using VBA and and fairly new to it. What I want to have happen is for me to be able to open a new document and then insert a block into the new document. It will work the first time I run it but after opening the second document I get a runtime error when attempting to insert the block again. The end goal is to be able to do this many times via loops but you gotta start small... Any help would be appreciated!

Option Explicit

Dim acadApp As AcadApplication
Dim blk As AcadBlock
Dim entRef As AcadBlockReference
Dim aDoc As AcadDocument
Dim point(0 To 2) As Double
Dim tempFile As String

Public Sub Main()
    tempFile = "C:\Users\Caden\AppData\Local\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2014\R19.1\enu\Template\acad.dwt"

    point(0) = 1
    point(1) = 1
    point(2) = 1
    Set acadApp = ThisDrawing.Application
    'Open new doc
    Set aDoc = acadApp.Documents.Add(tempFile)
    'Save new doc                                              
    aDoc.SaveAs ("E:\1")    
    'Insert block                                                              
    Set entRef = aDoc.ModelSpace.InsertBlock(point, "E:\PLC_Terminal.dwg", 1, 1, 1, 0)   
 
    aDoc.Save
    'Open new doc
    Set aDoc = acadApp.Documents.Add(tempFile) 
    'Save new doc                                           
    aDoc.SaveAs ("E:\2")                                                                  
    
    'This is causing the run-time error
    'Insert block
    Set entRef = aDoc.ModelSpace.InsertBlock(point, "E:\PLC_Terminal.dwg", 1, 1, 1, 0) 
   
End Sub

[cwilkes]

I don't have your whole file, so I can't guarantee this will work but I would try starting your aDoc as an array. When declaring, use these lines in place of the current one:

Dim aDoc() as AcadDocument
Redim aDoc(1 to [total amount of documents you'll need]) as AcadDocument

you can redim to a different amount of documents at any time, but if you'd like to keep the old documents already loaded into your object variable (aDoc()), you'll want to use ReDim Preserve aDoc(1 to [total]) as AcadDocument

Here's a nice little tutorial on arraying, if you need it: http://patorjk.com/programming/tutorials/vbarrays.htm#typesofarrays

So when you get to opening them, declare an integer value. I used "i" in this example. Then you'll want to use something like this code:

For i = 1 to Ubound(aDoc) 'basically saying that it will run the code inside the For/Next 
                          'once for each different aDoc you ReDim'ed for.
    Set aDoc(i) = acadApp.Documents.Add(tempFile) 'on first run, it will set aDoc(1), on the
                                                  'next aDoc(2), and so on until it hits the 
                                                  '"Ubound" of the array
    aDoc(i).SaveAs ("E:\" & i) 'will save the first file as E:\1, then E:\2 and so on
    set entRef = aDoc(i).ModelSpace.InsertBlock(point, "E:\PLC_Terminal.dwg",1,1,1,0)
    aDoc(i).save
Next

 If you open your documents this way, each is assigned an instance of the array so that aDoc(i) isn't already filled with another document when it comes time to load one. I can't guarantee you this will work for your particular issue, but it seemed like you may have needed an intro to arrays and For/Next.

Here's the first For/Next loop I found in my code samples where I actually didn't even have to plan ahead on how many objects my array has. You can ReDim inside of loops, if need be.

For i = 0 To 26
    If cdsheet.Cells(8 + (i * 2), 74) > 0 Then
        noelecct = noelecct + 1
        ReDim Preserve elecstr(0 To i) As TElec
        elecstr(i).Quantity = cdsheet.Cells(8 + (i * 2), 74)
        elecstr(i).Description = cdsheet.Cells(8 + (i * 2), 77)
    End If
Next

In this case, the loop runs a definite number of times (27). If it detects a value in a given Excel spreadsheet (cdsheet) cell (in row,column format), it will add another instance to the array then fill that instance with a value. That's good practice with arrays so that they aren't full of empty values.

Good luck, let me know if this was of 0 help to your problem haha, maybe I can take a closer look.