Looking for some VBA Guidance

[ZenCad1960]

Here is the situation. We are using customized profiles and palettes to setup each of our clients standards. This includes various things like plot styles, fonts, palettes, plotters etc.

 

Three things I would like to create (if possible):

 

1) When Autocad is started, the script, macro or VBA code would compare the profiles on the local machine and add any profile not on the machine. THe profiles are located on the server in a read only situation. After the Autocad is loaded, all the profiles for all our clients are now available on all the users machines.

 

2) After above idea is run, a dialog box appears asking the user which profile to set current.

 

3) While in a session of AutoCAD, the user may need to switch profiles to make corrects to a different clients drawings, I would like a button that callsa dialog box asking which profile to make current while not closing CAD. I realize the user can go to options and change it but would like it via dialog box for nothing more than to be able to speed change.

 

I know this is quite a list but if anyone has done this or knows of a site that would help me figure this out I would appreciate any and all help. I have some VBA experience in Excel but not CAD and a little VB experience but do not concider myself a programmer at all. so any indepth tech talk will sound like the Charlie Brown Teacher talking!

 

Any Ideas?

Thanks in advanced for all your help!

 

Zen

[BIGAL]

I am pretty sure you can set up your Autocad desktop icon to start Acad with the desired profile.

 

If you right click on the icon and select properties you will get something like this

"C:\Program Files\AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008\acad.exe" /p "COGG"

 

change the Cogg to your profile name

 

You can have multiple icons on your desktop for the same program.

[ZenCad1960]

I am pretty sure you can set up your Autocad desktop icon to start Acad with the desired profile.

 

If you right click on the icon and select properties you will get something like this

"C:\Program Files\AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008\acad.exe" /p "COGG"

 

change the Cogg to your profile name

 

You can have multiple icons on your desktop for the same program.

 

Yeah I know you can do that but I was looking more for help in AutoCAD VBA code that would ask the user which profile they would like to load without ever leaving a session of autoCAD.

 

Any thoughts here?

[ZenCad1960]

I would like to further this discussion if possible. Well rather than further it, just break it down into smaller chunks. Let's start wit hthe first one.

 

"When Autocad is started, the script, macro or VBA code would compare the profiles on the local machine and add any profile not on the machine. THe profiles are located on the server in a read only situation. After the Autocad is loaded, all the profiles for all our clients are now available on all the users machines."

 

So let me describe a bit more in detail what I am looking for here. We currently have about 15 clients. Each client has their own profile. Each profile contains the following settings:

• A folder location of their specific Title block
  
• A folder Location for any specific font they use no generally specified in general AutoCAD
  
• A set of client specific Palettes which further defines items such as Text formatting, dimension formatting, specific client blocks, specific plot styles, specific plotter configurations, and a few other things

Each client has a folder in a read only location on our server in which all these are housed. These are updated randomly depending on the need and status of the client.

 

I have exported a copy of all the default profiles as they came out of the box at installation time. These too are house in the ARG folder which housed all the ARG files (one for each client).

 

Here are the things I would like to happen when a user first first up autocad in the morning:

 

The VBA Code should:

• Fire up when a new session (either first one of the day or an additional one to the one already started).
  
• It would deleted all profiles located in the "Options" "Profiles" tab
  
• It would then import all of the profiles from the secure network location in the now empty (other than the Autocad.arg which is current at the time of first starting).
  
• Pop up a dialog box revealing all the available profiles (minus the ".arg" asking the user to select which profile they would like to work in.
  
• Once selected, it would then set the selected profile current.

I have a lisp routine that will list the available profiles and managed to make a button in each clients palette group that when selected will go to the server and list all the availalbe profiles, the use then selects which one they want to use, it then sets that one current.

 

I just need help getting started with the initial vba code that will delete the current profiles, inport the ones from the server and ask which one the user wants to activate.

 

Is anyone up to helping me out with this? All help is greatly appreciated! :-)

 

Zen

 

p.s. does anyone know of any autocad vba sites that would have anything about dealing with profiles using vba? I have tried looking but to no avail.

[ZenCad1960]

Is there no one that know of a resource that I can turn to for information on this? Out of all the coders and lisp writing guru's no one has any ideas? Hard to believe... Just point me in the right direction here!