topic Re: Running VBA after Open menu item in VBA Forum

Running VBA after Open menu item

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:11:07 GMT

I'm trying to run a VBA program every time the Open command is issued from the pull-down menu. I'm using the following macro in the menu:
^C^C_open;-vbarun;N:/ACAD/KEN/VBA-Testing/Notification2.dvb!Module1.Notification;lwdefault;0;

The program opens a file, as normal, but then doesn't do the rest of the macro (i.e. open the the vba program and run it). Then when I close the file, the macro continues to run (i.e. opens the vba program, runs it, and changes the lineweight default).

So it looks like the there is something with the OPEN command that doesn't finish until the drawing is closed. Yet, I can edit the file and go on to other commands. It's just the macro won't finish until the file is closed.

Any insight to this issue would be helpful.

Thanks,
Ken

Re: Running VBA after Open menu item

arcticad — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:53:25 GMT

You can't run VBA code while a modal Dialog Box is displayed.

Your code will wait untill the dialog is closed.

Re: Running VBA after Open menu item

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 16:05:22 GMT

Thanks for the reply. Here's the sequence that is happening:
1. select Open from the menu
2. dialog box opens
3. select drawing
4. dialog box closes
5. drawing opens
6. Then I can do normal editing, but the rest of the macro hasn't run yet.
7. I close drawing
8. macro continues wtih VBA load and lwdefault change

So the dialog box is closing, but he code doesn't continue until the drawing is closed.

I think I may have found another way to do this, using the EndOpen event. I'm experimenting with it now.

Thanks,
Ken

Re: Running VBA after Open menu item

arcticad — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 16:58:49 GMT

This is how I would handle this.

I would use the AcadDocument_Activate() event to have it run the code.

If you only want the code to once per the drawing being opened:

1. Open Drawing.
2. Drawing Activates.
3. Run Your Code.
4. Store Custom Dictionary Entry in the drawing.
(Use this to check if the program has already run during this session)

Add a check on AcadDocument_BeginSave(ByVal FileName As String) to remove the Dictionary entry when saving.

Re: Running VBA after Open menu item

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:26:26 GMT

That's a possibility, but I only want this to run once when the drawing is open. The Activate event would trigger whenever the drawing window is highlighted (i.e. whenever you switch between drawings).

I'm still trying to figure out why the Open menu command won't run this immediately after opening a drawing.

Thanks,
Ken

Re: Running VBA after Open menu item

arcticad — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 18:18:41 GMT

Store a value in the drawing and have your code check for that value.

Then it will only run once.

I'm not sure about the opening problem. But this works for me.

Re: Running VBA after Open menu item

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:16:21 GMT

Hi,

Why not call the vba program from the AcadDoc.lsp file?

Regards

Laurie

arcticad wrote:
> Store a value in the drawing and have your code check for that value.
>
> Then it will only run once.
>
> I'm not sure about the opening problem. But this works for me.

Re: Running VBA after Open menu item

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:37:33 GMT

Laurie,
thanks for the info. There's a couple reasons, but I may still look at it.
1. I haven't done much programming in AutoLisp, and so wasn't aware of that routine/file.

2. I was trying to find a simple way to distribute to end-users. My end-users use the same menu, and adding to the Open command seemed the simplest method.

3. We run batch processing (vba programs), for which I don't want this program to run on (the program sends an email notifcation to a distribution list when a drawing is manually opened for editing - due to running on two servers). The batch files would bypass the menu OPEN command, but would be affected by anything that is set to globally intercept and OPEN event.

I did get the EndOpen event to work (triggering it with the acad2009.lsp file), but I ran into the issue described in #3 (above) when I run batch files (i.e. the program running when I don't want it to).

So I may try using the acaddoc.lsp file. Do you know what the code in that file would need to be?

Thanks,
Ken

Re: Running VBA after Open menu item

arcticad — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:57:37 GMT

There is a very good reason to avoid Calling VBA from a lisp file.
Especially on Startup.

Lisp code can not run as the same time as VBA.

The Lisp routine will call the VBA function and then try to continue on.

The Lisp file will not wait untill the VBA is finished.

The Result, Autocad Will Stop. You won't be able to Esc out of it.

If you want to have your code load only when Autocad is Visible: Not BatchPlotting in the background then you can check if Autocad is on the screen.

Add this to a .lsp file. it doesn't matter what the name is. And Add it to your startup Suite.

[code]

(DEFUN startup_errortrap (errmsg) (PRINC (STRCAT "\n" errmsg)) (SETQ *error* temperr) (PRINC))

(DEFUN s::startup ()
(VL-LOAD-COM)
(SETQ temperr *error*)
(SETQ *error* startup_errortrap)
(IF (= (VLAX-GET-PROPERTY (VLAX-GET-ACAD-OBJECT) "Visible") :VLAX-TRUE)
(PROGN (VL-VBALOAD "c:\myprogram\program1.dvb"))
)
)

[/code]

Re: Running VBA after Open menu item

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 04:31:19 GMT

Hi,

The simplest code to run a VBA program from lisp is:

(VL-LOAD-COM)
(VBA-RUN "C:\\MyprogramPath\\MyProgramName.dvb!MyMacroName")

Or you could place it in a function and then run the function like this:

(defun fred ()
(VL-LOAD-COM)
(VBA-RUN "C:\\MyprogramPath\\MyProgramName.dvb!MyMacroName")
)
(fred}

You can make this the last entry in the Lisp file so that no extra lisp
is needed to run afterwards to obviate the problems implied by arcticad.

Personally I haven't experienced those problems.

Regards

Laurie

KWashburn wrote:
> Laurie,
> thanks for the info. There's a couple reasons, but I may still look at it.
> 1. I haven't done much programming in AutoLisp, and so wasn't aware of that routine/file.
>
> 2. I was trying to find a simple way to distribute to end-users. My end-users use the same menu, and adding to the Open command seemed the simplest method.
>
> 3. We run batch processing (vba programs), for which I don't want this program to run on (the program sends an email notifcation to a distribution list when a drawing is manually opened for editing - due to running on two servers). The batch files would bypass the menu OPEN command, but would be affected by anything that is set to globally intercept and OPEN event.
>
> I did get the EndOpen event to work (triggering it with the acad2009.lsp file), but I ran into the issue described in #3 (above) when I run batch files (i.e. the program running when I don't want it to).
>
> So I may try using the acaddoc.lsp file. Do you know what the code in that file would need to be?
>
> Thanks,
> Ken

Re: Running VBA after Open menu item

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:34:07 GMT

Thanks arcticad and Laurie for the valuable information. I'll give it a try.

Ken