AutoCAD and Visual Basic

[TheRobster]

I don't know if this is the right forum for this question but here goes...

Is it possible to automate AutoCAD using Visual Basic, either the old VB6 or the newer VB.Net languages?

To give a simple example....suppose you have a VB program that just has two text boxes, one for length and one for height. You enter the number of drawing units you require in each one and this instructs AutoCAD to create a rectangle based on those two figures.

Is something like this possible?

Thanks
-Rob

*Edit*

Doh! I was just messing around with AutoCAD and realised there is actually a version of VBA with it. :oops:

LoL, can anyone recommend a good VBA/AutoCAD book for me? :P

[David Bethel]

Any particular reason for using VB? Are you familar with it already? -David

[TheRobster]

I can already use VB fairly well - I learned to use it mainly for Excel. If I can also use it for AutoCAD then I would prefer this to learning Lisp.

[hendie]

There's nothing preventing you from using VB~ but why not use the already supplied VBA ?

[TheRobster]

That's what I meant - use the version of VBA supplied with AutoCAD. :)

[hendie]

to answer your other question ~ the Help files actually contain quite a lot of useful information. It can be a pain to find it sometimes but in most cases, it is already in there.
I've wasted countless pounds on books that promised the earth ~ so far they've all been crap. (There are a few that come very highly recommended but I can't remember them at the moment). ~ I've found that just spending time in the Helpfiles answers most of my questions ~ and those that I haven't been able to find in the Help topics can be found with a quick web search ~ or asking the right people !

[sab423]

Rob,

Here is a website that maybe of some use also.


http://www.vbdesign.net/activecad/


Have fun. 8)

[TheRobster]

Thanks for your help guys, I'll look into what you've suggested. :)

-Rob

[cheeseed]

I realize that it has been a long time since you posted, but I have just discovered this forum.

I found the following book to be extremely helpful. I am an engineer with one class in Basic that I learned in High School and another class in FORTRAN during my freshman year of college. Even with my "limited" programming knowledge, I was able to learn enough from this book to do alot of things that I previously thought were impossible.

The book is called "Mastering AutoCAD VBA" by Marion Cottingham.