VBA in 2018 AutoCAD

[olubunmi.oluwole]

An AutoCAD user in our company requested to enable VBA in the concurrent AutoCAD 2018 served off a license server on our local area network. If we activate this (download VBA and update the package) it will be available to all users of the AEC and PDM collections running off the server.

Question:

1. Was there specific reason(s)  VBA is not bundled with AutoCAD 2018 as part of the default tool?

2. If we activate VBA and a high % of users use it at the same time. Would there be any impact on the performance of AutoCAD?

3. Would you recommend regular users (not developers)  have access to VBA in AutoCAD?

Regards

Olubunmi Oluwole

Business Systems Analyst

[Alfred.NESWADBA · Accepted solution]

Hi,

>> Was there specific reason(s)  VBA is not bundled with

>> AutoCAD 2018 as part of the default tool?

I guess that has only historical reasons, I would not know any (technical) reason why not put it in the default setup.

>> If we activate VBA and a high % of users use it at the same

>> time. Would there be any impact on the performance of AutoCAD?

Just installing the VBA-Enabler does not mean that it needs processor power.

Also if a VBA macro needs processor power it takes the power of the local CPU.

>> Would you recommend regular users (not developers)  have access to

>> VBA in AutoCAD?

AutoCAD also has LISP included, so if you have users being able to create their small tools to be more efficient, they will use what they have, and so give them the tools. If anyone is not able to write his own tools/macros this user will not start VBA-IDE.

- alfred -

[Ed__Jobe]

To add to what Alfred said, you don't need to install vba on everyone's computer if you are worried about it. Just do a local install. The enabler doesn't check for a license since it runs within acad.

[olubunmi.oluwole]

Thanks Alred and Ed. I am now well informed and will make the decision to support the user.