ActiveX/VBA Technical Newsletter - January 2000

XDSoft

ActiveX/VBA Technical Newsletter - January 2000  
This document is part of    AutoCAD VB(A) Newsletter Archive     



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Dear AutoCAD ActiveX/VBA Developer,

Table of Contents
-----------------
1 - R14.01 ActiveX objects not all registered properly
2 - AutoCAD r14.01 / AutoCAD 2000 ActiveX object registration conflict
3 - New WHIP! Control solutions
4 - New or Updated Solutions
  
  

1 - R14.01 ActiveX objects not all registered properly
------------------------------------------------------

** IACADAPPLICATION AND IACADDOCUMENT NOT REGISTERED PROPERLY

Question:

I just installed AutoCAD R14.01 and I cannot use early binding with
AcadApplicaton and AcadDocument. The followng VB code fails:

<code_begin>
Dim oAcad As AcadApplication
Set oAcad = GetObject(,"AutoCAD.Application")
<code_end>

If I dim oAcad As Object then everything works fine.

Answer:

The IAcadApplication and IAcadDocument interfaces are not registered
properly. You need to merge the following entries into your registry
to fix the problem:

-Cut here-
REGEDIT

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Interface\{372FA490-600C-11cf-93EB-0800099EB3B7} = IAcadApplication
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Interface\{372FA490-600C-11cf-93EB-0800099EB3B7}\TypeLib = {9B5492B0-EC9A-11ce-935A-0800099EB3B7}
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Interface\{372FA490-600C-11cf-93EB-0800099EB3B7}\ProxyStubClsid32 = {00020424-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Interface\{9B5492B1-EC9A-11ce-935A-0800099EB3B7} = IAcadDocument
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Interface\{9B5492B1-EC9A-11ce-935A-0800099EB3B7}\TypeLib = {9B5492B0-EC9A-11ce-935A-0800099EB3B7}
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Interface\{9B5492B1-EC9A-11ce-935A-0800099EB3B7}\ProxyStubClsid32 = {00020424-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}
-Cut here-

Steps to fix the problem:
1. Cut and paste the above code into a text file.
2. Change the file extension to .reg
3. Double-click on the file. (This launches regedit.exe which should
   then report a that it successfully merged the entries into the
   registry)
  
  

2 - AutoCAD R14.01 / AutoCAD 2000 ActiveX object registration conflict
----------------------------------------------------------------------

** IACADUTILITY NOT REGISTERED PROPERLY

A system having ACAD 2000 and Acad R14.01 installed and ACAD 2000 being
invoked at least once (and the VBAIDE).

Question:

While attempting to access the Utility object (from VB using early binding)
the following error message is displayed "Method 'Utility' of object
IAcadDocument failed"

I cannot use early binding with AcadDocument and AcadUtility. The following
VB code fails to access AutoCAD R14.01:

<code_begin>
Dim oAcad As AcadApplication
Dim oAdoc As AcadDocument
Dim oUtl As AcadUtility
Set oAcad = GetObject(,"AutoCAD.Application.14")
Set oAdoc = oAcad.ActiveDocument
Set oUtl = oAdoc.Utility
<code_end>

Answer:

There are two solutions to this problem......
1. To use late binding for AcadApplication, AcadDocument and AcadUtility
object. And of course you can use early binding for all others.

2. The IAcadUtility interface entries (version = 1.0) is overwritten
(version = 1.1) whenever ACAD 2000 is invoked, and hence generates the above
error message. Merge the following entries into your registry to fix the
problem:

-Cut here-
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Interface\{E4F81D8A-6D4A-11cf-93FB-0800099EB3B7}\TypeLib]
@="{9B5492B0-EC9A-11ce-935A-0800099EB3B7}"
"Version"="1.0"
-Cut here-

Steps to register:
1. Cut and paste the above code into a text file.
2. Change the file extension to .reg
3. Double-click on the file. (This launches regedit.exe which should then
   report a that it successfully merged the entries into the registry)

In addition to this, also please refer <Solution 12258>.
  
  

3 - New WHIP! Control solutions
-------------------------------

** CONTROL WHIP CONTROL IN A HTML PAGE

Question:

Can you show me how to show different dwf files after I've place the Whip
ActiveX in a html page? Please provide both JScript and VBScript versions.

Answer:

You'll need to have some HTML, ActiveX and Java/VB Script knowledge to
achieve this. You can follow the steps below.

1. You can use pretty much any HTML editor. I'm using Visual J++ 6.0 or
Word 2000 here, to place the Whip Control in the page. Notice that the
basic parameters of the control are set.

<code_begin>

<OBJECT classid="CLSID:B2BE75F3-9197-11CF-ABF4-08000996E931" height=405
id=Whip1 name=Whip1 style="LEFT: 0px; TOP: 0px" width=595>
<PARAM NAME="_Version" VALUE="65536">
<PARAM NAME="_ExtentX" VALUE="15742">
<PARAM NAME="_ExtentY" VALUE="10715">
<PARAM NAME="_StockProps" VALUE="161">
<PARAM NAME="BackColor" VALUE="16777215">
<PARAM NAME="BorderStyle" VALUE="0">
<PARAM NAME="Appearance" VALUE="0">
<PARAM NAME="Filename" VALUE="file://E:\acad2k\SAMPLE\opera.dwf">
<PARAM NAME="View" VALUE="">
<PARAM NAME="namedview" VALUE="">
<PARAM NAME="userinterface" VALUE="On">
<PARAM NAME="layerson" VALUE="">
<PARAM NAME="layersoff" VALUE="">
<PARAM NAME="LocalTmpFilename" VALUE="">
<PARAM NAME="GreekImages" VALUE="1">
<PARAM NAME="HighlightUrls" VALUE="0">
<PARAM NAME="LoadStreamAutomatically" VALUE="1">
<PARAM NAME="MergeDwf" VALUE="0">
<PARAM NAME="ForceArrowKeys" VALUE="0">
<PARAM NAME="ProxyAccessType" VALUE="0">
<PARAM NAME="CursorMode" VALUE="0">
<PARAM NAME="dropfile" VALUE=""></OBJECT>

<coce_end>

Notice that there is a default dwf file opera.dwf is specified. The control's
name is Whip1.
  

2. To demonstrate how you can switch a dwf file. I've placed two buttons just
below the control. One is named "Show colorwh.dwf" and the other is named
"Show opera.dwf" with the IDs set to Button1 and Button2 respectively.

3. We need a general function that will execute to switch the data source. To
simplify the matter, I hard-coded directory path and file names. You can
modify them as you see fit.

<code_begin>

<script language=JScript>
function changeDwf(ctrl, which)
{
  if(which == 1)
   ctrl.StreamName = "E:/acad2k/sample/colorwh.dwf"
  else if(which == 2)
   ctrl.StreamName = "E:/acad2k/sample/opera.dwf"
}
</script>

<script language=VBScript>
function changeDwf2(ctrl, which)
  if which = 1 then
   ctrl.StreamName = "E:/acad2k/sample/colorwh.dwf"
  elseif which = 2 then
   ctrl.StreamName = "E:/acad2k/sample/opera.dwf"
  end if
end function
</script>
  

<code_end>

4. Now I'm adding the action handlers for the buttons to finish it up.
You can use changeDwf() and changeDwf2() interchangeably.

<code_begin>

<INPUT type="button" id=button1 onclick="changeDwf(Whip1, 1)"
value="Show colorwh.dwf" name=button1>&nbsp;
<INPUT type=button id=button2 onclick="changeDwf(Whip1, 2)"
value="Show opera.dwf" name=button2>

<code_end>

Notice how the parameters are passed into the function changeDwf() and
changeDwf2().
  
  

** COMPUTERCOORDINATE()

Question:

There is a Whip control interface method ComputeCoordinate() which has a
return value VARIANT? What does it contain?

Answer:

In C++, this is the signature of the method,

VARIANT CWhip::ComputeCoordinate(long from_space, long to_space, double x, double y);

The return type VARIANT, is a VARIANT of type SAFEARRAY, an array of two
doubles that represent the converted points.

All the other parameters of the method are [in] parameters.

The following code snippet shows how to extract the double array. Notice
that it is used for a 3d point but ComputeCoordinate() is returning a
2d point.

// for a 2d point, declare the parameter as pt[2]
// and check the safearray bounds by 2 as well
//
HRESULT getDblArrayFromVariant(double pt[3], const VARIANT* pVal)
{
if (!(pVal->vt & VT_ARRAY && pVal->vt & VT_R8))
  return E_INVALIDARG;

SAFEARRAY* sPt = pVal->parray;

if (SafeArrayGetDim(sPt) != 1)
  return E_INVALIDARG;

long lLbound;
long lUbound;
SafeArrayGetLBound(sPt, 1, &lLbound);
SafeArrayGetUBound(sPt, 1, &lUbound);

if ((lUbound - lLbound + 1) != 3)
  return E_INVALIDARG;
  
HRESULT hr;
// compare i to 2 for a 2d point
for (long i = 0; i < 3; i++)
  if ((hr = SafeArrayGetElement(sPt, &i, &pt))!=S_OK)
   return hr;

return S_OK;
}
  
  

4 - New or Updated Solutions
----------------------------

16832: CREATING AN ARX ACTIVEX SERVER APPLICATION
/cgi-bin/solution.pl?SID=16832

30524: HOW TO CREATE A SELECTION SET IN VBA USING SELECTBYPOLYGON
/cgi-bin/solution.pl?SID=30524

42014: SELECT FILE WITH STARDARD FILE OPEN DIALOG OF AUTOCAD
/cgi-bin/solution.pl?SID=42014

42345: TRANSLATE DWG COORDS TO SCREEN COORDS
/cgi-bin/solution.pl?SID=42345

45042: HOW TO LOCATE A MENUITEM IN AN ACAD MENU
/cgi-bin/solution.pl?SID=45042

45177: GETTING COORDINATES FOR THE CORNERS OF A VIEWPORT
/cgi-bin/solution.pl?SID=45177

45307: HOW DO YOU RUN THE ACADSTARTUP PROCEDURE WHEN AUTOCAD STARTS?
/cgi-bin/solution.pl?SID=45307

46544: TROUBLE USING VOLOVIEW OCX CONTROL IN ARX
/cgi-bin/solution.pl?SID=46544

46547: CLOSE ALL DOCUMENTS
/cgi-bin/solution.pl?SID=46547

46549: ELLIPSIS BUTTON IN PROPERTIES WINDOW
/cgi-bin/solution.pl?SID=46549

47182: GET IMAGE CLIP BOUNDARY COORDINATES
/cgi-bin/solution.pl?SID=47182

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