[VBA-CE U14] Get active Windows Printer name

RobertArnold said:

I am trying to get some information about the active printer

MicroStation CONNECT Update 13 introduced the PrintManager object. There are a few other classes related to printing.

We wrote a Printer Enumerator for VBA a year or two ago.

Hi Jon,
I had seen a couple of your printer related pages.  I do appreciate your website and notes.  Right now I'm trying to find the active Microstation-Windows printer, rather than a list of printers.  Also, I see the PrintManager--which has events, but does not give a lot of info about the active settings.  Please let me know if I'm missing something.

I'm hoping that this should be a simple GetCExpressionValue command.  I wish that I knew all the different plotui parameters.

--Thanks,
--Robert

Hi Robert,

see the sample below. This used to work flawlesly in V8i, but it needs to be fixed for CONNECT.

Private Declare Function mdlDialog_find Lib "stdmdlbltin.dll" _
                                        (ByVal DialogID As Long, _
                                         ByVal ownerMD As Long) As Long
                                         
Private Declare Function mdlWindow_titleGet Lib "stdmdlbltin.dll" _
                                            (ByVal titleP As String, _
                                             ByVal titleChars As Long, _
                                             ByVal windowP As Long) As Long

Private Declare Function mdlSystem_findMdlDesc Lib "stdmdlbltin.dll" _
                                               (ByVal nameP As String) As Long    ' Returns a pointer to a structure

' Get printer name from window title
Public Function GetPrinterName() As String
    Dim status As Long
    Dim lngPw As Long
    lngPw = 0
    Const strTaskID As String = "PLOTDLG"
    Const lngDialogID As Long = 1200&

    status = mdlSystem_findMdlDesc(strTaskID)
    If status <> 0 Then
        lngPw = mdlDialog_find(lngDialogID, status)
    End If
    
    'if plot dialog is not open
    If lngPw = 0 Then Exit Function

    Dim strTitle As String
    strTitle = Space$(255)
    mdlWindow_titleGet strTitle, 255, lngPw
    
    strTitle = Utils.TruncateAtEOS(strTitle)
    
    Dim name As String
    name = strTitle
    name = Left(name, InStrRev(name, "(") - 1)
    name = Mid(name, InStr(1, name, "-") + 1)
    GetPrinterName = Trim(name)
End Function

And these are other published expressions (again in V8i) that I know of:

• plotdlgPrefs.plotDriverType ' 1=>BentleyPlotDriver 0=>WinPlotDriver
• plotUI.uiFormSizeX
• plotUI.uiFormSizeY
• plotUI.uiNumCopiesToPrint
• plotUI.uiDgnfilenm
• plotUI.uiPaperDimStr
• plotUI.uiPaperDimLabel
• plotUI.uiPrintDest
• plotUI.uiPlotArea
• plotUI.uiPlotViewIndex

Tom

Hi,

Per Artur Goldsweer, There is another CExpression: "plotUI.uiSysPrinterName" which returns the name of the selected printer. E.g. if  the expression "plotUI.uiPrinterName" returns "Windows printer", the expression "plotUI.uiSysPrinterName" returns the exact name of the selected Windows printer name.

That means that my expanded test looks like:

Sub ActivePrinterSettings()
    Dim Result As String
    CadInputQueue.SendCommand "DIALOG PLOT "
    Result = GetCExpressionValue("plotUI.uiPrinterName")
    Result = Result & vbNewLine & GetCExpressionValue("plotUI.uiSysPrinterName")
    Result = Result & vbNewLine & GetCExpressionValue("plotUI.uiPaperName")
    Result = Result & vbNewLine & IIf(GetCExpressionValue("plotUI.uiOrientation") = 0, "Portrait", "Landscape")
    Result = Result & vbNewLine & GetCExpressionValue("plotUI.uiFormSizeX") & ", " & GetCExpressionValue("plotUI.uiFormSizeY")
    MsgBox Result
End Sub

Thanks again for all the suggestions.

--Thanks,
--Robert