VB and AutoCAD

Hey guys,
Is there a way of seting a VB form to be child to AutoCAD window?

 

I' think I found one way of doing this. Calling my VB applications through
VLAX or VBA environment. I believe there will be a better way of doing
this....

 

hi
could you tell me what is VLAX .

i often see it ,but know nothing about it
thank you

 

Hi youngman

VLAX or VLR are extended AutoLISP functions in Visual LISP.

Cheers

 

Yes. Create a BAS module containing the following:

Code:

Option Explicit
'
Public Const GWL_HWNDPARENT = (-8)
'
Public Declare Function SetWindowLong Lib "user32" Alias "SetWindowLongA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal nIndex As Long, ByVal wNewLong As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As Any, ByVal lpWindowName As Any) As Long
Public Declare Function GetWindowText Lib "user32" Alias "GetWindowTextA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal lpString As String, ByVal aint As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function GetWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal wCmd As Long) As Long
'
Public Function FindAcadWindow(sTitle As String) As Long

Dim hWndTmp As Long
Dim nRet As Integer
Dim TitleTmp As String
Dim hWndOver As Integer

'First find all the open windows so we can
'loop through them and find the right one.
hWndTmp = FindWindow(0&, 0&)

Do Until hWndTmp = 0
TitleTmp = Space$(256)
nRet = GetWindowText(hWndTmp, TitleTmp, Len(TitleTmp))

If nRet Then
'Let's prepare to compare
TitleTmp = UCase$(VBA.Left$(TitleTmp, nRet))
'Now we see if the window we chased down actually
'has the caption we want.
If InStr(TitleTmp, UCase(sTitle)) >= 1 Then
FindAcadWindow = hWndTmp
'Check to make sure it is not the AutoCAD Today OR AutoCAD Startup Window
If InStr(1, TitleTmp, "TODAY") >= 1 Then
FindAcadWindow = 0
ElseIf InStr(1, TitleTmp, "STARTUP") >= 1 Then
FindAcadWindow = 0
ElseIf InStr(1, TitleTmp, "HELP") >= 1 Then
FindAcadWindow = 0
Else
Exit Do
End If
End If 'If InStr(TitleTmp, UCase(sTitle)) >= 1 Then
End If 'If nRet Then

hWndTmp = GetWindow(hWndTmp, GW_HWNDNEXT)
Loop


End Function

In your Form module do the following:

Code:

Option Explicit
'
Dim OriginalParenthWnd As Long
Dim lHwnd As Long
'
Private Sub Form_Load()
Dim sAcadCaption As String
'
sAcadCaption = "AutoCAD whatever"
lHwnd = FindAcadWindow(sAcadCaption)
OriginalParenthWnd = SetWindowLong(Me.hwnd, GWL_HWNDPARENT, lHwnd)
End Sub
'
Private Sub Form_Unload(Cancel As Integer)
Call SetWindowLong(Me.hwnd, GWL_HWNDPARENT, OriginalParenthWnd)
End Sub

(Hope I got everything.)

Regards

Wayne Ivory
IT Analyst Programmer
Wespine Industries Pty Ltd

 

Thank you for your posted VB code. It did work on some condition but did not
make my VB application truly "child". Here is why. When I minimize the
AutoCAD my test VB application got "minimized" (visible=false) with AutoCAD.
Which was good. Then I close the AutoCAD and my test VB application stayed
running invisible. Regardless from which state AutoCAD was closed the result
was same. I had to shut it down through the task manager. Well, I can
workaround this problem by putting a timer on my VB application to check if
AutoCAD is running and shut down it if needed. I will be thankful to know if
there is another (better) way of accomplishing this same task.



Thanks