Invalid Tag Elements - Coding query

Unknown said:

My Excel sheet operates by checking for a specific tagset yet these invalid tags are not from my tagset

• How are you searching for the tag set?
• What do you mean by an 'invalid tag'?
• Can't you simply ignore the tag set containing the invalid tags?

Note that the IsValid property is a generic property of all graphic elements.  TagElement inherits it from base class Element.

Unknown said:

How are you searching for the tag set?

In a specific cell within the excel sheet, the name of the tagset is entered. I appreciate you don't have the full code to work from, the basis for my excel file came from this file within this topic on which you previously assisted with historical queries of mine. I have made quite a few modifications to the original file in both code and GUI of the worksheet but the basis for tag element scanning remains the same.

Unknown said:

What do you mean by an 'invalid tag'?

Its a tag element that you can be no longer edited using the edit tag command, If you click on it the status bar states that it is still a tag element but if you double-click it the message centre states its an invalid tag element. I'm unsure how Tags' break' like this but I do see it quite frequently ever since using V8i.

This is the error message that displays if comment out the error handler popup that tells me the dgn file has invalid tags.

Unknown said:

Can't you simply ignore the tag set containing the invalid tags?

I don't believe so as I don't see any way to know which tagset the invalid tag comes from. Its almost like the tag has lost its association/link to its parent tagset from which it came from.

Unknown said:

Note that the IsValid property is a generic property of all graphic elements.  TagElement inherits it from base class Element.

Thanks, good to know. I just had a quick look to see if there was anything in the tagelement class that possibly sounded like it could work with the validity of tag elements.

So because these invalid tag elements exist and I can't exclude them by tagset, I'm thinking something along the lines of  this is the way to proceed:

• check each tag first for its validity
• if it's valid, then proceed to the code that checks if its from the target tagset
• if it's invalid allow the macro move to the next tag element.

I've tried adding If oTag.IsValid = True Then after the If oTag.IsHidden = False Then line within the ImportTitleBlock tags sub however it hasn't solved the problem.

Have you any thoughts how to better implement the above or another way that will get round the issue?

Cheers Jon

Further progress to report:

I have managed to get the code to work on a Windows XP 32 bit machine running Excel 2007 however my Windows 7 Enterprise (64-bit) & Excel 2007 does not work. I have read that Data Execution Prevention (DEP) can affect Excel 2007 macros and our IT dept has been testing various DEP settings without success so I think I can rule that out as the cause of the crash. Seeing as we know the code is working, does anyone have any idea what might cause excel to flake out in Windows 7?

Unknown said:

I have read that Data Execution Prevention (DEP) can affect Excel 2007 macros

When I open an Office application that contains macros on my Win 7 x64 computer, the app. pops a warning dialog.  It gives me the option to continue with, or without, macros being enabled.  Possibly your corporate IT strategy is to disable macros without offering users an option.

DEP would not make your macros fail; it would stop them working entirely.  So we must look for some other reason why they don't work on Win 7 x64.

Yeah thats correct I did get the security message the very first time it ran and I ceased that happening again via the macro security settings in the trust centre. Our IT Dept doesn't have any group policy in place to restrict this. The only other result I've found when searching for Macro crashes in excel 2007 was to disable any other COM excel addins, I only have a single Adobe entry and disabling this made no difference. The workstation is brand new so I'm almost out of ideas. This may be a silly question however its still worth asking. You mention that you have Win 7 x64, have you managed to successfully report tags with your example code since you upgraded?

Unknown said:

Have you managed to successfully report tags with your example code since you upgraded to Win 7 x64?

Yes, but I'm  using only MicroStation VBA and not another application's VBA.

Here's an example of tag reporting (TextFileWriter.zip).

Thanks for the example, Jon.

I had actually successfully implemented the cell filtering code on the title block tags to work in another macro (MicroStation MVBA this time) on Friday so I can see the code works fine in MS, the issue is definately something to do with excel 2007/Windows 7 x64/ combination of both.

I'm not sure where I go from here with the existing excel project. I'm thinking that I may have to consider starting from scratch with a MicroStation Macro where I should be able to do most of the work but while I think I will be able to get the data (within the array) to populate the excel worksheet (I might need to output the contents to a CSV file then read the CSV within Excel), the grey area that I've not yet fully resolved is how to ensure the amended contents are correctly applied to the correct file. I'm hoping that my existing export excel macro will work fine and that I wont have to export to the CSV and have the MS MVBA read the contents and apply the changes. Have you any ideas that might be a better method to achieve the desired results?

Unknown said:

Have you any ideas that might be a better method to achieve the desired results?

No doubt I'm biassed, but FlexiTable can update tags. It can also hunt through the DGN files in a folder to match the one that you need to updated. It's also compatible with Excel.

But I suppose you want a VBA solution. The sticking point seems to be an internal difference in Variant between MicroStation VBA and Office VBA. The only solution I can see is that which you propose: pass data between your MicroStation VBA app. and your Excel VBA app. in a neutral format. Because you're not calling a function across a Windows process boundary you avoid the internal compatibility problem. A suitable format is CSV or, for more complex data, XML.

Regards, Jon Summers
LA Solutions

Question for you Jon,

Using your method for getting the tags into an array, how do you use the join function in this instance in order to produce a delimited string? Most examples use a function or have each value of the array specified before using the Join function. Is there is quick way of doing it?

Thanks

Here's what I have and the line in bold is where it throws up an invalid procedure call or argument error.

 While myElemEnum.MoveNext
        Set oCell = myElemEnum.Current
        
        If oCell.IsGraphical Then
            If oCell.HasAnyTags Then
                
                Dim mytag() As TagElement
                Dim i As Integer
                Dim strValue As String
                Dim StrMyArray As String
                Dim oTagSets As TagSets
                Dim oTagSet As TAGSET
                Set oTagSets = ActiveDesignFile.TagSets
                For Each oTagSet In oTagSets
                    If oTagSet.Name = sTagset_Name Then
                        mytag = oCell.GetTags
                        'For i = LBound(mytag) To UBound(mytag)
                        'strValue = mytag(i).Value
                        StrMyArray = Join(mytag, ",")
                            Debug.Print "CStr(StrMyArray)"                           
                            Next i
                        End If
                    Next
                End If
            End If
            Wend


Mismatched Data Types

Unknown said:

Dim strJoined As String
Dim mytag() As TagElement
strJoined = Join(mytag, ",")

The VB/VBA Join function expects an array of Strings. It doesn't understand an array of TagElement.

To do what you want, you must copy the TagElement.Value data to a new String array, then use Join.

If you do that in MicroStation VBA, it should work. If you are using Excel VBA, then you collide with the Variant problem.

Regards, Jon Summers
LA Solutions

Thanks Jon.

I understood your solution but I wasn't sure how to achieve it in code however, I've found that I can actually get the same result without the Join function using

For Each oTagSet In oTagSets
    If oTagSet.Name = sTagset_Name Then
        Dim sJoined As String
        mytag() = oCell.GetTags
        sJoined = ""
        sJoined = oDgnFile.Name
        For i = LBound(mytag) To UBound(mytag)
            sJoined = sJoined & "," & CStr(myModel) & "," & CStr(mytag(i).Value) & ","
            Next i
            sJoined = Left(sJoined, Len(sJoined) - 1)
            oTextStream.WriteLine
        End If
    Next


This does output data to the CSV file however I have some issues I need to refine but I will post them in a new topic (which I'd be grateful if you could look at) to save cluttering this one any further.

Thanks

Thanks Jon.

I understood your solution but I wasn't sure how to achieve it in code however, I've found that I can actually get the same result without the Join function using

For Each oTagSet In oTagSets
    If oTagSet.Name = sTagset_Name Then
        Dim sJoined As String
        mytag() = oCell.GetTags
        sJoined = ""
        sJoined = oDgnFile.Name
        For i = LBound(mytag) To UBound(mytag)
            sJoined = sJoined & "," & CStr(myModel) & "," & CStr(mytag(i).Value) & ","
            Next i
            sJoined = Left(sJoined, Len(sJoined) - 1)
            oTextStream.WriteLine
        End If
    Next


This does output data to the CSV file however I have some issues I need to refine but I will post them in a new topic (which I'd be grateful if you could look at) to save cluttering this one any further.

Thanks