VBA Attach Reference File - Choose Orientation?

Unknown said:

Is there a chance to attach a reference file and define the orientation

References and Attachments

Reference models are termed Attachment in VBA.  Attach a model as a reference like this...

Dim oReference As Attachment
Set oReference = ActiveModelReference.Attachments.Add (FileSpecification, ModelName, LogicalName, Description, MasterOrigin, ReferenceOrigin [, TrueScale [, DisplayImmediately]])

You can see that there's no parameter to specify orientation, so you must use the methods of the new attachment.  Use Attachment.Rotate to specify a rotation, then Attachment.Rewrite to make it permanent.

Orientation and Rotation

What is presented to the user as orientation is, in VBA terms, a view rotation where the view is one of the standard views.  Attachment.Rotate rotates an attachment relative to a view rotation.  From VBA help...

Attachment.Rotate rotates the Attachment about the View's axes, not the model's axes. Use ViewSpecifier to select the view.

If the Attachment is clipped by an element, the clip element is rotated and immediately written to the file. In that case, the Attachment should always be written to the file to keep it in synch with its clipping element

Unknown said:

Is there a chance to attach a reference file and define the orientation

References and Attachments

Reference models are termed Attachment in VBA.  Attach a model as a reference like this...

Dim oReference As Attachment
Set oReference = ActiveModelReference.Attachments.Add (FileSpecification, ModelName, LogicalName, Description, MasterOrigin, ReferenceOrigin [, TrueScale [, DisplayImmediately]])

You can see that there's no parameter to specify orientation, so you must use the methods of the new attachment.  Use Attachment.Rotate to specify a rotation, then Attachment.Rewrite to make it permanent.

Orientation and Rotation

What is presented to the user as orientation is, in VBA terms, a view rotation where the view is one of the standard views.  Attachment.Rotate rotates an attachment relative to a view rotation.  From VBA help...

Attachment.Rotate rotates the Attachment about the View's axes, not the model's axes. Use ViewSpecifier to select the view.

If the Attachment is clipped by an element, the clip element is rotated and immediately written to the file. In that case, the Attachment should always be written to the file to keep it in synch with its clipping element

Hi Jon - I expected your answer ;-)

That's okay - it would have been nice to have the "standard" orientation directions like "front" or "back" available, but it's no problem to use the rotation instead.

Thanks for your help!!

Unknown said:

That's okay - it would have been nice to have the "standard" orientation directions like "front" or "back" available

Look at the View object in VBA help.  There's a comment about View Rotation:

Rotation specifies the View's rotation. A program can set a View's rotation by using the Rotation property, or by using one of a set of methods that set the View's rotation to a standard value. For example, the statements vw.Rotation = Matrix3dIdentity and vw.SetToTop are equivalent. Also, the statements vw.Rotation = Matrix3dFromAxisAndRotationAngle(0, Pi) and vw.SetToBottom are equivalent