MVBA causing Microstation to lock up?

I regularly use the ActiveAngleAssistant.mvba with V8i and it usually works fine. I recently had an issue where that MVBA caused MicroStation to lock up. It's set to pre-load in my workspaces which wouldn't allow MicroStation to get past the splash screen. It took me half a day to figure out what was going on. The MVBA has not changed and I even replaced it with files directly downloaded from here and got the same result. It was only affecting my machine and there were no program or Windows updates since the day before when it was still working. I ended up using a restore point on my computer from last week to fix the problem. Anyone have any ideas what might have changed or gone wrong? 

  • I seem to be running into this issue with many of my customers recently. The only solution I have found is deleting the VBA file.. Luckily I have just about finished up phasing out all VBA.
  • If it happens again I will probably get rid of it as well. I only use it for rotating text to match the rotation of an element. There are other ways to do that but nothing as quick and easy as that VBA that I know of.
  • Are you running Microsoft Office 365 or 2016? I recently ran into this issue also. We were only having the problem with computers that had Office 365 (2016) installed and only after a recent update dated October 11, 2016 (Version 1605 Build 6965.2092). Microsoft released an Office update on November 2, 2016 (Version 1609 Build 7369.2054) that resolved the issue with the ActiveAngleAssistant.mvba not loading. I went back and forth between the 2 updates and verified that it locks up on the older build and loads fine on the new build. Also, reverting back to an update prior to Build 6965.2092 would fix the issue also. Note that to get the Nov 2nd build your Office Update would need to be on the Current Channel for updates rather than the Deferred Channel which is the default.
  • I'll have to look into that. Since I used a restore point it has been working fine, but I do have MS Office 2016 installed. It's the Home and Office version though, not 365.
  • It looks like the latest update for Home and Business was also updated on October 11th, so it is likely the same update I have (I'm running Office 2016 Pro Plus for the desktop apps). Unfortunately, the November 2nd update has only been released on Pro Plus so far. They typically push out the updates once a month for the non-pro plus version, so you should see the fix in the next few weeks. Your system restore probably rolled your Office install back a version, so make sure you keep Automatic Updates turned off so it doesn't update back to the Oct 11th build.

    Here is the fix in build 7369.2054 from Microsoft TechNet that I think applies to the ActiveAngleAssistant problem: "Fix an issue with VBA form controls that can cause transparent label controls to appear opaque, can cause existing forms to no longer appear or work as expected, and can cause the Office application to stop responding when attempting to open a macro-enabled file that contains form controls."

    Even though it says Office application, the MicroStation VBA uses shared common files with the Office Platform.