Pause for PDF

I have a VBA routine that plots to PDF files then it renames and moves the files to another location on disk.

I have to wait until the PDF printer (Adobe Acrobat) is done printing before I can rename or move it. Right now I have an arbitrary Pause length of 3 seconds. Sometimes this is long enough and sometimes this isn't.

Is there a way to pause until the PDF plotter is done? The problem is this is a seperate program that is not AutoCAD.

Thanks in advance for your help.

David

 

Possibly trigger your file move with the EndPlot event?

(I didn't think through that answer, fully, just my first thought.)

 

Nevermind........would likely leave you with the same problem, just taking
much more time to get there.

......maybe use FileSystemObject and check the file status? I would think
the file being open would be detectable, but I haven't tried any such
operation.

 

Here is my current code. It checks to see if the file is there and if it is readonly then it pauses 8 seconds.

oPlot.SetLayoutsToPlot vLayoutList
plotReturnValue = oPlot.PlotToDevice(pc3Current)

tempLayoutPdfFilePath = tempPath + "\" + plotSheetNumber + "." + plotFileExt

While Dir(tempAcrobatPathFile, vbDirectory) = ""

Wend

While Dir(tempPath + "\*.pdf", vbReadOnly) = tempAcrobatPathFile

Wend

pauseTimer (8)

Name tempAcrobatPathFile As tempLayoutPdfFilePath

 

Yep. Generate a "folder watcher" and either monitor the file's status or
write events on the file's actions. Been while since I did it in vb6 - its
a lot easier in .NET. Do a google or codehound and you should be able to
get sample code on it.

-- Mike
___________________________
Mike Tuersley
CADalyst's CAD Clinic
Rand IMAGINiT Technologies
___________________________
the trick is to realize that there is no spoon...

 

this may not work for your needs but there is the movefile api that you can
use with the constant to only perform the move on reboot.

Private Declare Function MoveFileEx Lib "kernel32" Alias "MoveFileExA"
(ByVal lpExistingFileName As String, ByVal lpNewFileName As String, ByVal
dwFlags As Long) As Long
Private Const MOVEFILE_DELAY_UNTIL_REBOOT = &H4