Edit - Paste Special - AutoCAD Entities

I'd like to copy/paste an Excel table via the clipboard into a drawing
(paste as AC Entities & specify insertion point). I don't see any "paste
special" commands in the AC type library. Can anyone give me a hint?
Beginning of code looks like:

AppActivate "Microsoft Excel"
Sheets("Sheet1").Select
Range(A1.G33).Copy
AppActivate GetObject(, "AutoCAD.Application.16").Caption

Thanks, Don

 

The AutoCAD ActiveX API has undergone only minimal
enhancements, and has never fully supported things
like paste special and other OLE related functions,
so the only way to achive this is via the command
processor.



AcadX for AutoCAD 2004 Beta 1
http://mysite.verizon.net/~vze2vjds/acadx/AcadX16.zip

 

Tony,

Thanks for the reply. "via the command processor" means what exactly - can
I get away with this paste opeation using SENDKEYS commands?

Thanks, Don

 

Well, I got it down to:
SendKeys "_pastespec" & "~" & "0.9,-3" & "~"
But I have to manually type a "A" and "{Enter}" within the Paste Special
dialog box. The SendKeys command won't send these commands.

Don

 

Well - I'm afraid that PASTESPEC has no command line
equivalent, so there's not much you can do about it,
other than completely implement the command yourself
in code (not something I would savor at all).

The basic problem is that this command may encounter
a variety of formats and displays them in a list box.
Developing a command line equivalent for that is not
trivial.



AcadX for AutoCAD 2004 Beta 1
http://mysite.verizon.net/~vze2vjds/acadx/AcadX16.zip

 

Well, I'm not that smart, so I'll live with a couple of keystrokes. I could
enter 30 or 40 pieces of data using AddText commands, but that's a lot
grief.

Why does SendKeys fail when the dialog box is open (they do get sent to AC
after the dialog box is closed - not where I want 'em)? I would think that,
if I can type it manually, SendKeys would do the same thing, but this is not
the case.

Thanks for your help, Don

 

Don,

I have had success sending keystrokes to dialog boxes by using the SendKeys statement just *before* they are invoked. As you are already using SendKeys though, I suggest you try invoking your _pastespec with *SendCommand* instead. So, you would have to use SendKeys first to send the "A" and "{Enter}" and immediately following that use SendCommand to send "_pastespec...".

I have no idea if this will work in your situation, I can only tell you that similar things have worked for me.

Good luck!

Wayne Ivory
IT Analyst Programmer
Wespine Industries Pty Ltd

 

In case what I'm saying is confusing, here is an example of where I've used it. Sometimes when debugging I'll stick a MsgBox statement in the code to stop proceedings. But it annoyed me that the message box always appeared in the middle of the screen and I'd have to drag it out of the way to see the drawing. Well, necessity is the mother of invention so after a bit of experimentation I discovered I could do this:

SendKeys "% m{DOWN 22}{RIGHT 32}{ENTER}" ' Drag the subsequent Message Box into the corner so we can see the drawing
MsgBox ""

Try it out in a test procedure, you'll see what I mean.

Regards

Wayne

 

YES!! - that does it. Thank's Wayne!

'Edit - Paste Special - AutoCAD Entities:
'Note: send the A & {Enter} before the SendCommand statement for dialog box:
SendKeys "A" & "~"
ac.ActiveDocument.SendCommand "_pastespec" & vbCr & "0.9,-3" & vbCr

Don

 

Sendkeys is a vb method, not acad. I just sends chars to the *active*
window. When the dialog pops up, the window it was sending to, goes out of
focus.