Highligh method broken ?

Hi all,

I have created a VBA application on AutoCAD 2000i, using the Highlight
method on lw polylines. The users for this application run AutoCAD 2002. To
my great surprise, highlighting an object on AutoCAD 2002 does not work (it
does not work either on 2004). Has someone found a way to 'fix' it ?

Please don't tell me the example included in the help file works... I know !
Remove the call to MsgBox, and then it does not work.

Thanks

Gilles Plante

 

Remove the call to MsgBox, and then it does not work.

The Highlight method is kind of unpredictable, I think, but the example
works even if you get rid of the MsgBox.... but the highlight gets turned
back off immediately. Delete the "Highlight(False)" line and the objects
will all stay highlighted.

On my machine, with the MsgBox turned on, the screen doesn't redraw (and
thus I don't see the highlight) until I move the MsgBox. So I added a
"Regen" or "entry.Update" between the "Highlight" and the "MsgBox", thinking
that this would make the Highlight visible. Unexpectedly, either of these
commands turned the highlight off. I consider this to be a bug --
refreshing the screen should not turn off highlighting, IMO.

Unfortunately I can't think of a way other than Regen or Update to make the
screen redraw and thus make the highlight visible consistently.


James

 

Have you tried calling .Update after highlight?

Also, try using AcadApplication.Update as well

 

Tony,

I have tried .Update at the object and application level. It does not work.

From the example, I removed the call to MsgBox and added a call to insert a
delay of say 3 seconds. Objects never get highlighted.

Everything is fine on 2000i, but on 2002 and 2004, it just does not work.
And I can't find any trick to force it to show the highlight. I had to
change the object color to highlight it.

Gilles

 

FWIW, I just opened a blank drawing in 2k2, created a new vba project, cut &
paste the Highlight example from the help, commented out the msgbox &
entry.Highlight (False) lines and the items are correctly highlighted.

I'm guessing there's something else going on.

Jeff

 

Here's something you might try.

Instead of starting your VBA code using VBARUN or vl-vbarun,
try starting it using the following:

(defun C:VBARUNX ()
(vl-load-com)
(vla-runmacro
(vlax-get-acad-object)
(getstring "\nMacro name: ")
)
(princ)
)

See if when run using this, the highlighting works (without
having to modify the object).

 

Gilles,
Tony's suggestion to use the AcadApplication.update fixed it on my machine.
The objects highlight like they are supposed to if I make the following
change to the Highlight Example.

For Each entry In ThisDrawing.ModelSpace
entName = entry.ObjectName
entry.Highlight (True)
ThisDrawing.Application.Update 'added this line
MsgBox "The name of this object is " & entName, vbInformation,
"Highlight Example"
entry.Highlight (False)
Next


James

 

You need to be careful here, because it the display of the
message box may be what's causing AutoCAD to refresh the
view, and if you remove the call to MsgBox, it may not do
that.

The people that wrote the sample either didn't realize that
the message box display comes into play here, or they couldn't
figure out how to get it to work without the message box.

 

Tony, Gilles,
This code works for me, with no message box, but with Tony's Update line,
cycling the highlight through the model. Run it on a small model, though,
and not at 11:59pm. I use MDT6.0, based on ACAD 2002.

Sub Cycle_Highlight()
Dim entName As String
Dim entry As AcadEntity
For Each entry In ThisDrawing.ModelSpace
entName = entry.ObjectName
entry.Highlight (True)
ThisDrawing.Application.Update
Dim wait As Double, start As Double
wait = 3: start = Timer
Do: DoEvents: Loop Until Timer >= start + wait
entry.Highlight (False)
Next
End Sub

James

 

hi Gilles

I had the same problem few days ago.
I've tried the .update method and it failed

the solution I found is to put a sendcommand just after the highlight.

ex:

obj.highlight true
thisdrawing.sendcommand " "

it's not beautifull but it works for me