Traverse Annotations Example (VBA)

This example shows how to visit all display dimension annotations in a selected sketch in an open model by using the IFeature::GetFirstDisplayDimension and IFeature::GetNextDisplayDimension methods.

First open a SolidWorks model, and select a sketch containing one or more Dimension objects. Use ISelectionMgr to access the selected sketch, and call IFeature::GetFirstDisplayDimension to obtain the first IDisplayDimension in the sketch. Then enter a loop that iterates while IDisplayDimension is not Nothing.

Inside the loop, retrieve the annotation that contains the IDisplayDimension with a call to IDisplayDimension::GetAnnotation, and get the position of the annotation by calling IAnnotation::GetPosition. The VARIANT array returned by IAnnotation::GetPosition can be modified and the position of the annotation can be updated to reflect this change with a call to IAnnotation::SetPosition. The next IDisplayDimension in the loop is obtained with a call to IFeature::GetNextDisplayDimension.

The code to move all IDisplayDimension annotations 100 mm to the right (in the x dimension) is as follows.

 

'---------------------------------------------

Option Explicit

 

    Dim swApp As SldWorks.SldWorks

    Dim Model As SldWorks.ModelDoc2

    Dim selMgr As SldWorks.SelectionMgr

    Dim CurAnnotation As SldWorks.Annotation

    Dim AnnotationPosition As Variant

    Dim CurFeature As SldWorks.feature

    Dim DispDim As SldWorks.DisplayDimension

    

Sub main()

        

    'Attach the program to SolidWorks application

    Set swApp = CreateObject("SldWorks.Application")

    'Get the model

    Set Model = swApp.ActiveDoc

    Set selMgr = Model.SelectionManager

    

   ' Get the selected sketch

    Set CurFeature = selMgr.GetSelectedObject5(1)

    'Get the first DisplayDimension in the selected sketch

    Set DispDim = CurFeature.GetFirstDisplayDimension

    

    'Iterate through all of the display dimensions in the sketch

    Do While Not DispDim Is Nothing

        'Retrieve the annotation from display dimension

        Set CurAnnotation = DispDim.GetAnnotation

        

        'Get the position of the annotation

        AnnotationPosition = CurAnnotation.GetPosition

        

        'If there is no problem obtaining the position

        If Not IsNull(AnnotationPosition) Then

            'Move the annotation to the right

            CurAnnotation.SetPosition AnnotationPosition(0) + 0.1, AnnotationPosition(1), AnnotationPosition(2)

        End If

        

        'Get the next display dimension

        Set DispDim = CurFeature.GetNextDisplayDimension(DispDim)

    Loop

    

End Sub