Visual Basic - ActiveModelReference.AddElement - question about the global origin vs the UCS

RE: Visual Basic - ActiveModelReference.AddElement - question about the global origin vs the UCS

Jon Summers — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 13:18:46 GMT

[quote user="Manslick"]Those links do not work on my system[/quote]

It's not clear which links you mean. If you mean the examples provided in VBA help (see Jan's answer below) then there might be a problem with an HTML help (.chm) document stored on a server.

Read this article to see why a help document may not display if you open it from a network server.

RE: Visual Basic - ActiveModelReference.AddElement - question about the global origin vs the UCS

Manslick — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 12:55:26 GMT

Jan, yes - when I fnally found the help file down in the navigator folder, it did work properly.

RE: Visual Basic - ActiveModelReference.AddElement - question about the global origin vs the UCS

Manslick — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 12:49:35 GMT

Well, when I open help from the network, the link works.

RE: Visual Basic - ActiveModelReference.AddElement - question about the global origin vs the UCS

Jan Šlegr — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 12:47:04 GMT

[quote user="Manslick"]I click on Example and nothing happens.[/quote]

And you did not try any other way how to find the example? To search for it using help search function or to try to find the example in Content tab, chapter Examples?

Regards,

Jan

RE: Visual Basic - ActiveModelReference.AddElement - question about the global origin vs the UCS

Manslick — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 12:42:51 GMT

I don' know Jan, I click on Example and nothing happens.

I get to the help files as Bob wrote above. F2 in the VBA editor takes me to the Object Browser and F1 opens this screen, but I can go no farther.

RE: Visual Basic - ActiveModelReference.AddElement - question about the global origin vs the UCS

Jan Šlegr — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 12:31:49 GMT

[quote user="Manslick"]I was not able to see the examples. For unknown reasons those links do not work on my system. [/quote]

It's weird, examples are inseparable parts of MicroStation VBA help. So if you have the help file, you also have all examples. And at least you have to see the example in the list of examples.

Don't you open the help file from network folder? In such case .chm content is blocked by default.

With regards,

Jan

RE: Visual Basic - ActiveModelReference.AddElement - question about the global origin vs the UCS

Manslick — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 12:26:07 GMT

Hi Jan, I was not able to see the examples. For unknown reasons those links do not work on my system.
But I was afraid I would get the answer you just gave. Now I know what to do.
Thank you.

RE: Visual Basic - ActiveModelReference.AddElement - question about the global origin vs the UCS

Jan Šlegr — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 12:15:00 GMT

Hi Manslick,

did you study Transform to and from ACS example mentioned by Bob?

In VBA API, methods like AddElement always work with global coordinate system and they are not aware of ACSManager setting. If you want to create an element in ACS coordinates, you have to converts its coordinates into global system before AddElement methods is used. This is your responsibility, how to do it is demonstrated at the mentioned example.

With regards,

Jan

RE: Visual Basic - ActiveModelReference.AddElement - question about the global origin vs the UCS

Manslick — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 11:52:03 GMT

Hi Bob and thanks fo responding. I used the ACSManager like this:

ACSManager.DefineACS NewOrigin, NewAngle, msdACSTypeRectangular

This moved the ACS graphic on the screen.
But when the progam looped back to the point routine that calculates th points to place the next graphic, it ignored the new ACS and placed the new object at the old 0,0,0 point. It's like it does not know the ACS was moved.

This is the code for adding the graphic.
Set line = Application.CreateLineElement1(Nothing, Points)
ActiveModelReference.AddElement line
Is something missing in this code that should refer to the new ACS?

RE: Visual Basic - ActiveModelReference.AddElement - question about the global origin vs the UCS

Robert Hook — Fri, 24 Jul 2015 20:29:51 GMT

MicroStation VBA provides an ACSManager to provide interaction with the current ACS/UCS coordinate system. The MicroStation VBA help provides a sample of using the ACSManager titled: "Transform to and from ACS" and another example showing how to extract the origin can be found under the topic titled: "Rotating Elements", Example 5.

A quick and accurate way to explore the VBA object model for any conceptual concepts is to use these key strokes: Alt+F11 (Open VBA Editor, F2 (Open Object browser and perform a keyword search), Click on an item of interest in the Object Browser to provide context, then click: F1 (Open help for the item of interest). Note: When using the help topics, check to see if an "Example" hyperlink is available to provide you a convenient way to jump to some sample code on a given topic.

HTH,
Bob