Macro to Toggle "Show Component Descriptions". 1

[felix7502]

Does anyone have a 2007 macro to toggle "Show Component Descriptions" from the Tree Display?
Thanks,
Sylvia

 

[TheTick]

Dim swApp As SldWorks.SldWorks
Dim aMod As SldWorks.ModelDoc2
Dim FM As SldWorks.FeatureManager
Dim CurSet As Boolean

Sub main()
On Error GoTo ExitStrategy

Set swApp = Application.SldWorks
Set aMod = swApp.ActiveDoc
Set FM = aMod.FeatureManager
CurSet = FM.ShowComponentDescriptions
If CurSet Then CurSet = False Else CurSet = True
FM.ShowComponentDescriptions = CurSet
ExitStrategy:
Set FM = Nothing
Set aMod = Nothing
Set swApp = Nothing
End Sub

Honesty may be the best policy, but insanity is a better defense.

http://www.EsoxRepublic.com

-SolidWorks API VB programming help

 

[handleman]

Or, in a one-liner:

Sub main()
Application.SldWorks.ActiveDoc.FeatureManager.ShowComponentDescriptions = Not Application.SldWorks.ActiveDoc.FeatureManager.ShowComponentDescriptions
End Sub

 

[TheTick]

I knew someone was going to ding me on line count! I did start more compact but some things were not working as advertised. That oddball "If" statement is there because "CurSet = Not Cusret" was not yielding expected result. There were other VB problems, too.

 

[handleman]

I'm guessing your difficulties stemmed from the difference between VBA's Boolean and SolidWorks' VARIANT_BOOL. As I posted elsewhere earlier today, VBA's Boolean True is 1. SW's VARIANT_BOOL True is -1. If you notice, when you record a macro the recorder declares the default Boolstatus variable as a Long rather than a Boolean. VBA usually handles that fairly well, but certain logical comparison constructions come out unexpectedly. If you notice, when you record a macro the recorder declares the default Boolstatus variable as a Long rather than a Boolean. I'm sure SW had a good reason to do what they did, but it sure doesn't make much sense to me, and has really caused me some major head-scratching.

 

[felix7502]

Sorry, I can't get either of them to work. Is there a secret you're not sharing? Sylvia

 

[TheTick]

Perhaps the secret of copy-and-paste?

Start a brand new macro, delete EVERYTHING, and paste in the code.

I tried handleman's code. Works for me.

 

[felix7502]

Nice sarcasm. Mine says "Run time error 438". Sylvia

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Both work fine for me also.

 

[TheTick]

Could be a problem w/ your VBA.

 

[TheTick]

438 ~= "Object does not support this method". Most likely due to VBA not properly connecting w/ SW. Check undet "Tools --> References" in your macro editor to be sure SW API is selected. Also try a reboot (yay!).

 

[Regg]

handleman,

My experience is that most SW API calls return 1 for true bool value wereas VBA returns -1 (cint(True)). What am I missing here?

Regards,

Regg

 

[felix7502]

We just upgraded to 2008 over the weekend. It works great now. Thanks for your help. Sylvia

 

[TheTick]

Wow! Installing SW2008 actually fixed something?

 

[fcsuper]

LOL.

They are working for me in 2007

Matt Lorono
CAD Engineer/ECN Analyst
Silicon Valley, CA
Lorono's SolidWorks Resources
Co-moderator of Solidworks Yahoo! Group
and Mechnical.Engineering Yahoo! Group

 

[handleman]

Regg,

After re-reading the pertinent section in the API help, it looks like they are saying that there's no way (other than by testing) to know whether any given call that returns a true or false value will return a 1 or -1 for "true". This is not quite what I had posted previously. The help suggests to always compare the returned value to "false". Sorry for any confusion or frustration my previously incorrect posts may have caused!

 

[macduff]

Sylvia,
What's this macro for? You can turn this on manually, no?
I must be missing something here...

Macduff
Colin Fitzpatrick
Mechanical Design Engineer
Solidworks 2007 SP 5.0
Dell 390 XP Pro SP 2
Intel 2 Duo Core, 2GB RAM
nVida Quadro FX 3450 512 MB

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

... but that would be a mouse move and TWO clicks!!

 

[handleman]

Sometimes you want a keyboard shortcut for a command that can't be mapped. The only solution for that is to write a macro. This one is a whole lot simpler than another that I wrote to save two mouse clicks.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

I guess it depends on how often a function is needed as to whether a macro {assigned key or not) makes sense.

If the function is only used once a week and saves 10 clicks, IMO its not worth assigning and remembering a key. (I have too little working grey matter left for such things). If it's used several times a day but saves only one click then it's probably worth allocating a few brain cells for.