Trouble with centerplot and vba

Here's what I've gotten stuck with: when manipulating a drawing from a
vb6 module, calling (ActiveLayout.CenterPlot = True) puts the lower left
of the drawing in the exact middle of the plot area, (drawing not
centered at all) but the same code run from within a .dvb puts the
drawing's center in the middle (like I expect). The lower left corner
of the drawing is on the left edge of the plot area, centering the
content of the plot in the middle of the plot area.

It seems like an inconsistency between a VB module and a .dvb, but I
rather think that I have a setting wrong (or something). Below is the
code as I run it from VB.

Any ideas?

Alex


Dim x As Object
Dim acadDrawing As Object
Set x = CreateObject("AutoCAD.Application")

x.documents.Open fileName & ".dwg"
Set acadDrawing = x.activedocument

With acadDrawing.activelayout
.RefreshPlotDeviceInfo
.PlotWithPlotStyles = True
.ConfigName = "JPG 400x350.pc3"
.CenterPlot = True ' not the same behavior as within a dvb
.CanonicalMediaName = "UserDefinedRaster (400.00 x 350.00Pixels)"
.plotrotation = ac0degrees
.StyleSheet = "monochrome.ctb"
.RefreshPlotDeviceInfo
End With

acadDrawing.plot.PlotToFile fileName & ".jpg"

 

are you sure it's related to VB vs VBA?

Try running your code and then manually do PAGESETUP to see if all the plot
settings are identical between your VB and VBA runs. For example, if
"Layout" is chosen for "What to Plot", you can't center the plot, and your
VB statement would be ignored (or maybe error).... Point is, make sure
you're comparing apples to apples with all the plot settings.

Alternatively, I've run into the situation where my changes to plot settings
via code don't take effect until I open and close the PAGESETUP window.
Could this be happening to you? Does your plot area move when you run
PAGESETUP after running your VB program? If so, I have a (not pretty)
work-around that I used for this situation that I could post.

James

 

James,

Here's the thing: I stopped both sets of code and did PAGESETUP, and
both had exactly the same print settings. Inclusive, the plot origin
values were correct in the PAGESETUP dialog in both instances, but yet
when I have been checking the value of the origin in the code (as it is
running) it is wrong.

Heres the sample code I use:
v = acadDrawing.ActiveLayout.PlotOrigin
Debug.Print v(0) & "," & v(1)

where the origin should be something like (0, 45) (left edge slightly
off the bottom), the printed values (and later the actual plot) are way
off, to the tune of (194.23, 171.09). Like I said, the values in the
PAGESETUP dialog are right, but yet plotting output is wrong, but only
in the VB (external control of AutoCAD) code.

It seems that my problem is very similar to the problem you mentioned
about settings not taking effect until the PAGESETUP dialog is opened
and closed. So if you can, could you share your workaround.

Also, if you can think of anything I haven't yet tried to diagnose this
confusion I would be so thankful.

Thanks,

Alex

 

What I found when changing the plot area in my code was that I had to open
and close the PageSetup dialog in order for the print area to change on
screen (and in the plot). I just did a hack like:

Code:

.CenterPlot = true
SendKeys "{ENTER}"
ThisDrawing.SendCommand ("pagesetup" & vbCr)

Occasionally the ENTER key doesn't get sent to the dialog and the dialog is
left hanging open, but my work is all in-house so it's no big deal. We just
hit ENTER to close the dialog box and the macro continues on.

I saw in another thread that this problem may be fixed in ACAD 2005.

James