I have run into this situation before and haven't figured out the answer. I start with a simple recorded macro that picks an edge of a cylidrical surface and extends it. The methods that do the work are SelectByID and InsertExtendSurface. ' ****************************************************************************** ' C:\DOCUME~1\kellnerp\LOCALS~1\Temp\swx1568\Macro1.swb - macro recorded on 02/12/05 by kellnerp ' ****************************************************************************** Dim swApp As Object Dim Part As Object Dim boolstatus As Boolean Dim longstatus As Long, longwarnings As Long Dim FeatureData As Object Dim Feature As Object Dim Component As Object Sub main() Set swApp = Application.SldWorks Set Part = swApp.ActiveDoc boolstatus = Part.Extension.SelectByID("", "EDGE", -0.0104893598479, 0.03815622208009, 0.1179905256888, False, 0, Nothing) Part.InsertExtendSurface 0, 0, 0.0811347 End Sub So now I want to pick edges from separate surfaces and have InsertExtendSurface operate on them one by one. The problem I have is how to get InsertExtendSurface to see each selected edge apart from the others because it doesn't operate on more than one surface body at a time.
Macros aren't really a good way to record selections. You need to learn how to handle the Selection Manager object (see SW API help). The selection manager is basically a collection (list) of what is selected. For macro, there are basically two ways to handle selections: 1.) pre-select objects prior to running the macro and have the selection manager sort through existing selections 2.) show a form to prompt for selections. Make sure the form is shown "vbModeless" i.e. Form1.show vbModeless Showing the form modeless will allow the user to access the SW document window for selecting objects.
I didn't post my attempt, but what I did was get the count of selected edges from the selection manager. The problem came when I tried to get the extend edge command to take just one of the selected edges using the GetSelecteObject5(i)method. I didn't want all of them because the extend edge command cannot operate on more than one body at a time. My preference would be to preselect the edges I want to extend before running the macro and have the macro just go through the edges one by one and extend them a set amount.
I have tried to use the "vbModeless" before, but all that happens is the Userform flashes on the screen and then it's gone. How do I get the Userfrom to stay on the screen *and* allow selection from the SW window? Thanks, Ken
After the user pre-selects the edges you will want to use the selection manager to add them to a collection, since your selections will be lost with the creation of a new feature. Dim SelectedEdges as New Collection Dim i as variant For each i in SelMan.GetselectedObjects SelectedEdges.Add (i) next 'now you can access each edge seperately in a similar loop For each i in SelectedEdges 'code to create the extended surface features next Regards, Corey
OK, well a collection data type is new to me and of course that is not covered in the help. Now that I know what to look for I can peruse MSofts online VB docs. When I do For each i in SelectedEdges will that behave the same as selectbyID would in making the edge available to the feature definition method? I guess the point I am missing is how do various methods know what is selected? This is probably something I don't know that much about in programming with objects.
The collection is going to store each object that is selected in the collection. A collection is similar to an array except it handles objects alot better and it is only 1 dimensional. And you are right in that you will not find anything in SWAPI help on collections. It is going to be found in VB docs as you thought In essence For each i in SelectedEdges will assign the objects stored in SelectedEdges one at a time to the variable i. You can then use them as you were in your former code. I was being lazy I don't know off hand how the methods you are using need to be supplied the objects. Most of the time SW relies on the selection order to determine what to do. So you will have to reselect the edges one at time using your collection to know what objects were origionally selected. In the first For each loop you may have to assign the edges to an edge object so that you can use them properly later. Unfortunately right know this is all the explaination I can give you. You may have to do some trial and error to get it working.
Tom Matheson on the Forum posted this. The key point I was missing was Select4 which apparently is what makes the entity selected as far as the ExtendEdge method is concerned. Sub main() Dim swApp As SldWorks.SldWorks Dim swPart As SldWorks.ModelDoc2 Dim selmgr As SldWorks.SelectionMgr Dim extend_e() As Variant Dim id_vals() As Variant Set swApp = Application.SldWorks Set swPart = swApp.ActiveDoc Set selmgr = swPart.SelectionManager tot_ent = selmgr.GetSelectedObjectCount ReDim extend_e(tot_ent - 1) ReDim id_vals(tot_ent - 1) For a = 1 To tot_ent Set extend_e(a - 1) = selmgr.GetSelectedObject2(a) Set id_vals(a - 1) = selmgr.CreateSelectData Next For n = 0 To tot_ent - 1 sel = extend_e(n).Select4(False, id_vals(n)) swPart.InsertExtendSurface 0, 0, 0.0254 Next End Sub
