How to add Reference Info to Master file?

I tried. If fact , using any positive number can make aaApi_CreateReferenceInformation2 () work, i.e. write a record in dms_refInfo table. However if this number is not the reference' Unique ID, this record doesn't make sense. If you use Scan Reference tool to scan refs, this number will be overwritten by the the reference Unique ID, so the PW still can't recognize the reference.

As I said above, my current problem is not about this argument, I can get it through MDL. My problem is even though I used the valid reference's unique ID, and PW recognizes the ref, but when I check out the master, and check it back in. The ref info is gone, so I must have missed some steps...

Firstly, let's analyze parameters of aaApi_CreateReferenceInformation2():

refElemId: reference file's id in master file(every reference will produce a element id in master file), it can get by mdl api
                       mdlModelRef_getAttachmentID("DgnModelRefP"), there is similar interface in Automation(same lib with VBA) to get this,
                       refElemId will be recorded to Table dms_refinfo's first field, through which mcm.ma(open dgn through pw will
                       load this automatically)can synchronize reference's path name between pw and microstation.

pMasterGuid:              a pw infomation, Master file's Guid.
masterModelId:           a Ms infomation, Master file's model id, often 0 to default model.
pReferenceGuid:        a pw infomation, Reference file's Guid.
referenceModelId:      a Ms infomation, Reference file's model id, often 0 to default model.
referenceType:           reference operation's type, e.g. AADMS_FTYPE_DGNV8 refers to v8i.
nestDepth:                  nesting depth if reference file reference another file...
flags:                           always AAREFINFO_PROP_FLAGS_DISPLAY_RASTER.

refElemId can't set to a positive number freely Otherwise ref info will miss.

I think this is the reason of your issue.

Another probable reason may be referenceType if you used v7 or other format file.

I tried many times: call aaApi_CreateLSet() then aaApi_CreateReferenceInformation2(), reference work perfectly just as scan tool's effect!

Firstly, let's analyze parameters of aaApi_CreateReferenceInformation2():

refElemId: reference file's id in master file(every reference will produce a element id in master file), it can get by mdl api
                       mdlModelRef_getAttachmentID("DgnModelRefP"), there is similar interface in Automation(same lib with VBA) to get this,
                       refElemId will be recorded to Table dms_refinfo's first field, through which mcm.ma(open dgn through pw will
                       load this automatically)can synchronize reference's path name between pw and microstation.

pMasterGuid:              a pw infomation, Master file's Guid.
masterModelId:           a Ms infomation, Master file's model id, often 0 to default model.
pReferenceGuid:        a pw infomation, Reference file's Guid.
referenceModelId:      a Ms infomation, Reference file's model id, often 0 to default model.
referenceType:           reference operation's type, e.g. AADMS_FTYPE_DGNV8 refers to v8i.
nestDepth:                  nesting depth if reference file reference another file...
flags:                           always AAREFINFO_PROP_FLAGS_DISPLAY_RASTER.

refElemId can't set to a positive number freely Otherwise ref info will miss.

I think this is the reason of your issue.

Another probable reason may be referenceType if you used v7 or other format file.

I tried many times: call aaApi_CreateLSet() then aaApi_CreateReferenceInformation2(), reference work perfectly just as scan tool's effect!

Thank you very much Lijun.

Actually I did exactly what you mentioned here, and I already knew refElemId can't be any arbitrary positive number, it must be the Element ID from the attachement, and I've writen the ref info successfully into the Master (see my post above). My problem is when I checked out this master, and checked it back in, the ref info is gone. And this issue is kind of random, sometime everything is fine, sometimes the ref info is missing. So I suspect I must have missed some other steps...

From your reply now I know I didn't miss any steps, so I focus on my code.  

Before in my wrapper function, refElemId is passed by value as long

LONG WINAPI PWWriteRefInfo 
(
LONG  MastPROJECT_ID,       /* i Master Project ID*/
LONG  MastDOCUMENT_ID,      /* i Master Document ID */
LONG  RefPROJECT_ID,       /* i Ref Project ID*/
LONG  RefDOCUMENT_ID,      /* i Ref Document ID */
LONG  RefEleId          /* i RefElementId*/
)
{

//.....
status = aaApi_CreateReferenceInformation2 (UINT64(RefEleId), &MastDocGuid, 0, &RefDocGuid, 0, AADMS_FTYPE_DGNV8, 0, AAREFINFO_PROP_FLAGS_DISPLAY_RASTER ); 
return (status == TRUE ? SUCCESS : -1);
}

 and In VBA,

RefEleId = DLongToLong(oReference.ElementID)

status = PWWriteRefInfo(m_lMasterProjId, m_lMasterDocId, m_lRefProjId, m_lRefDocId, RefEleId)

Now I pass the RefEleId ByRef

LONG WINAPI PWWriteRefInfo 
(
LONG  MastPROJECT_ID,       /* i Master Project ID*/
LONG  MastDOCUMENT_ID,      /* i Master Document ID */
LONG  RefPROJECT_ID,       /* i Ref Project ID*/
LONG  RefDOCUMENT_ID,      /* i Ref Document ID */
UINT64 * RefEleId      
) 
{
....
status = aaApi_CreateReferenceInformation2 (*(RefEleId), &MastDocGuid, 0, &RefDocGuid, 0, AADMS_FTYPE_DGNV8, 0, AAREFINFO_PROP_FLAGS_DISPLAY_RASTER );
return (status == TRUE ? SUCCESS : -1);
}

and in VBA

RefEleId = oReference.ElementID

status = PWWriteRefInfo(m_lMasterProjId, m_lMasterDocId, m_lRefProjId, m_lRefDocId, RefEleId)

so now everything seems fine, no random error.

Thanks again Lijun.

Memory storage is different between UINT64 and LONG, the root cause of your random problem. Cheers.

Your VBA can access both dgn files and pw data，so cool!