Irregular Error "Exception from HRESULT: 0x800A03EC"
Interesting. I haven't seen the process check used like this before.
It seems like you could eliminate a lot of redundant code, within your "If ExcelRunning" & "ElseIf ExcelRunning" block by just dealing with how you get the Excel app object, and the workbook, then continuing with the remainder of one half of the code used within one half of that If...Then block.
I noticed that you aren't resetting or destroying the "excelApp" object at the end, and that you aren't checking for the existence of the "Counter_End" SharedVariable, before attempting to use it, within the "ElseIf" portion of that block.
Have you checked your Processes to see if there aren't multiple instances of the Excel app running?
Do you think it may be possible that the SharedVariable is somehow disappearing or being lost between runs every once in a while, for some reason?
Wesley Crihfield
(Not an Autodesk Employee)
I did some shuffling around within your "BOM to Excel" local rule, testing my earlier theory about condensing it.
Here is the result, that seems to be working for me.
Sub Main()
Dim strDoc As Inventor.PartDocument = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument
Dim propSet As PropertySet = strDoc.PropertySets("Inventor User Defined Properties")
Dim i As Integer = 0
Dim j As Integer = 0
Dim Counter_Start As Integer = 1
Dim ExcelRunning As Boolean = False
'See if Excel is already running
For Each p In Process.GetProcesses
If p.ProcessName = "EXCEL" Then
ExcelRunning = True
End If
Next
Dim excelApp As Object
Dim excelWorkbook As Object
If ExcelRunning = False Then
excelApp = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
excelApp.Visible = True
excelApp.DisplayAlerts = False
excelWorkbook = excelApp.Workbooks.Add
ElseIf ExcelRunning = True Then
If SharedVariable.Exists("Counter_End") Then
Counter_Start = SharedVariable("Counter_End")
End If
excelApp = GetObject(,"Excel.Application")
excelApp.Visible = True
excelApp.DisplayAlerts = False
excelWorkbook = excelApp.ActiveWorkBook
End If
For Each prop In propSet
strPropName = prop.Name
If strPropName.Contains("Qty")
i = i + 1
End If
Next
With excelApp
.Range("C" & Counter_Start).Select
.ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = iProperties.Value("Project", "Stock Number")
.Range("A" & (Counter_Start+1)).Select
.ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "Qty"
.Range("B" & (Counter_Start+1)).Select
.ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "Code"
.Range("C" & (Counter_Start+1)).Select
.ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "Description"
End With
For j = 1 To i
ItemCode = "Item" & j & "_Code"
ItemQty = "Item" & j & "_Qty"
ItemDescription = "Item" & j & "_Description"
With excelApp
.Range("A" & (j+Counter_Start+1)).Select
.ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = iProperties.Value("Custom", ItemQty)
.Range("B" & (j+Counter_Start+1)).Select
.ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = iProperties.Value("Custom", ItemCode)
.Range("C" & (j+Counter_Start+1)).Select
.ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = iProperties.Value("Custom", ItemDescription)
End With
Next
excelApp.Columns.AutoFit
SharedVariable("Counter_End") = (j + Counter_Start + 1)
End Sub
I never got the same error as you did, however, I did get a different error only once, out of 20-25+ times running the rule. The error I got was pretty straight forward, and said that it couldn't create the object, referring to the "CreateObject("Excel.Application")" or the "GetObject" function. But I'm not sure which function it was trying to use at the time (the Create, or the Get). But I'm leaning towards it being the GetObject(), because the iLogic Rule Editor doesn't seem to recognize it. I'm wandering if you may need to be using a "AddReference" and/or "Imports", at the top (or header) of this rule.
Wesley Crihfield
(Not an Autodesk Employee)
After further testing of the two standard vb.net functions (CreateObject() & GetObject()), using simple MsgBox()'s after them, I found out that both do normally function correctly, and that when you remove that first comma within "GetObject(,"Excel.Application")" it then recognizes the function, so I put it back the way it was. I know that the first item is optional, so I'm not sure why the iLogic rule editor doesn't like it when it is used this way.
Wesley Crihfield
(Not an Autodesk Employee)
@william , here's two ways I found to get the 0x800A03EC error:
In both these workflows, start with no Excel running.
First way:
Run the rule once successfully. Then in the Excel application, manually close the workbook. Leave Excel running with no workbook open. Then run the rule again.
It fails on the line:
excelWorkbook = excelApp.ActiveWorkBookYou could fix this problem by adding a new workbook if one is not active.
Second way:
- Run the rule once successfully.
- Close the Excel application that was just created.
- Quickly run the rule again.
The problem here is that the Excel process does not end as soon as you close the window. Take a look in Task Manager and you can see that it's still running. But most likely the workbook has been closed.
I would recommend not trying to reuse the Excel application at all. The end user could do a lot of things in Excel between the rule runs.
But I can see that there is a performance advantage to reusing it.
One option might be to store the Excel application object itself in a shared variable. Use CreateObject to create it, and then store it in a shared variable and reuse it. Don't use GetObject at all. That way you know that you're dealing with only one process: the one you created. You will still need to check to see if the process is still healthy and if it has an active workbook.
Mike Deck
Software Developer
Autodesk, Inc.
