This Client Server article is republished in its entirety from 2002 for reference purposes.
By Bentley Technical Support Group
22 July 2002
A variety of resources are available to help MicroStation V8 application developers take advantage of Visual Basic for Application (VBA) objects.
Getting help for MicroStation V8 Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) objects can be a little tricky if you are not familiar with VBA. There are several ways to obtain help using Bentley's VBA API.
MicroStation's V8 VBA Help
The MicroStation V8 Visual Basic for Applications Online Help tool is a comprehensive resource for working in VBA, and should be your first stop. You can launch this tool from Windows without being in MicroStation. Click on the Start button on the Windows desktop and then follow this sequence:
Programs > MicroStation V8 > Documentation > MicroStation V8 VBA
CHM help file can be found at Bentley\Program\MicroStation\MicroStationVBA.chm.
Bentley online help is a great resource for finding descriptions and examples for MicroStation VBA objects, object members and subs/functions.
Microsoft's Object Browser
Another way to find a method for an object is to utilize the Object Browser (Figure 1).
Figure 1: MicroStation V8 VBA Help dialog.
The Microsoft VBA Object Browser offers the ability to search into libraries for related classes and members. For example, if you needed to know how to set the height of a text element, the steps would be:
Select the MicroStation DGN library
Type in part of the member name you are looking for; in this case "height"
Click on the binoculars icon to activate the search.
The results from the search will be displayed in the Search Results list box (Figure 2). In this example the goal is to set the text height of a text element, so the item of interest is the TextStyle class.
Figure 2: The Object Browser dialog.
Using the library search tool can be a fast way to find information and resources while in the VBA editor. It is a quicker method than starting up Online Help and trying to sort all the results you might get from it.
Microsoft's VBA Help
Microsoft's VBA help is also delivered with MicroStation V8 (Bentley\Program\Install\VBA6\release\pFiles\Common\MSShared\Vba\Vba6\1033). If you have questions about VBA in general or Microsoft issues, this is a great first resource.
More Resources
The following are links to some of the many readily available resources on the Web for learning Visual Basic and Visual Basic for Applications programming. These links are only provided for a convenience; copyright laws may limit your use of the material you find.
Tutorials:
FindTutorials.com: The eLearning Web site
References:
Dr. Dobb's DevSearcher, a programmer's search engine:
Examples:
Microsoft Visual Studio.net code samples
VB/VBA Books:
Sams' Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6 in 24 Hours
By Greg M. Perry and Sanjaya Hettihewa
Published by Sams' Publishing
ISBN 0-672-31533-5
VB and VBA in a Nutshell
By Paul Lomax
Published by O'Reilly and Associates
ISBN 1-56592-358-8
Beginning Visual Basic 6 by Peter Wright
Published by Wrox Press
ISBN 1-86100-105-3
Visual BASIC 6 Weekend Crash Course
By Richard Mansfield
Published by John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 0-7645-4679-1
MicroStation On The Web
MicroStation On The Web is a MicroStation V8 feature that connects your use of MicroStation with a variety of Web-based resources. The site provides access to essential information including MicroStation news, tips, and training and some examples. Some VBA examples are currently located on this site.
See Also
MicroStation Desktop TechNotes and FAQs
Comments or Corrections?
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