What is a macro, where does it go, and when is it useful?

I have seen topics and postings about them, and I see a tool bar for
it. I f anyone could be kind enough to define it incontext to SW, it
would be much appreicated.

 

Simply put it gives you the ability to customize SW or any other program
that alows it. To do what you want it to do.
For example :

start a new part.
hit the record button.
creat a sketch of a rectangle
extrude the rectangle to any length.
hit the stop button.
save the Macro file.

Now open another new part.
hit the play button and select the macro you just saved.
if all goes well it will make a box with the same dims you had before.

You can then use this to make a macro that will prompt a user for the
dimensions of that box
Then when a user plays the macro it will create a box the size they want.

Once you are proficient at writing macros you can use them to automate steps
that you always do in succession.

ALL the time.

 

the

Actually you can run them from any location. You must have them in this
folder if you want to assign them to a HotKey on the keyboard. You can put
them in a central location for access over the network if you want.

 

I haven't looked yet - is it still that way in 2004? What a shame that all
hotkey macros can't be run from the network.

WT

 

I am not 100% sure of this, but I believe that if you put the location of
the macro's in <Tools/Options/File Locations> the Hot Keys should pick them
up.

 

Cool!

Now, (SolidWorks) explain the logic of that to me. How does it make sense
to not allow hotkeys to access macros somewhere not in the "macros" folder,
but if you link them to a toolbar button, the button can have a hotkey. I
understand what you did, and it's a cool workaround, but kind of a rough
one. The number keypad macros Lee Bell and I worked on would be too
extensive to link all 28 of them to buttons, so therefore they go in the C:
drive folder, not on the network where they belong. However, for one or two
macros, your solution might be just the thing. Thanks for the idea.

You know, as I think about this, it's not much different from assigning
hotkeys in Windows. You can't (that I know if) assign a hotkey to an EXE
file, but if you put a shortcut to it on your desktop, you can assign a
hotkey to that shortcut. Accomplishes the task, but a bit kludgey.

WT

 

Another finiky detail. If you assign your 28 to an unused toolbar. It
doesn't have to be active for it to work. For example add them to a useless
toolbar like Web and close the web toolbar. Now your hot keys all work. I
don't know how to do it but I am pretty sure you should be able to make your
own toolbar. Or atleast automate adding buttons for however many users you
have. Otherwise you just take an hour per computer and make sure you shut
down Solidworks before it crashes, so your tools don't get lost again. I
hate it when that happens!!!

Corey