MicroStation Visual Basic for Applications
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LA Solutions staff have written a number of technical articles. These include programming, MicroStation®, GeoGraphics™, and relational databases. Some articles describe aspects of MicroStation software development, and others provide code examples.
You may also find the BE Newsletter useful. It is published by Bentley Systems.
MicroStation® Visual Basic for Applications™ (MVBA)
We've written a miscellany of VBA tips, plus some longer articles listed here. We also answer that common question: "Where is VBA Help?"
MVBA is Bentley Systems' adaptation of the Microsoft VBA toolkit. It provides a subset of Visual Basic™ (VB) functionality and is similar to the VBA implementations in Microsoft Word™, Excel™ and applications from third-parties. A MicroStation installation includes a VBA Help file, which provides extensive documentation and example code.
See our books page for information about books that may be interesting to MicroStation developers.
Where MVBA differs from other VBA implementations is its support for MicroStation. Just as VBA for Microsoft Word provides programming models for words and paragraphs, MVBA provides programming models for graphic elements, reference models, keyin commands, and many other features unique to MicroStation.
MVBA uses VB syntax and is easy to learn: there are many books and other tutorials available for Visual Basic beginners. The Interactive Design Environment (IDE) is similar to the IDE in Word and Excel, and not too dissimilar to the IDE in VB itself.
VBA Tools
VBA Interactive Development Environment
VBA's Interactive Development Environment (IDE) provides a lot of tools to help you. Explore the IDE. Take a VBA training class.
VBA Debugger
VBA includes debugging tools.
Function key F8 lets you step through your code and examine the state of your variables.
The Debug object is your friend.
Debug.Print "Trace message" gives you information that only you can see in the IDE.
See also the MicroStation
Message Center that can provide debug data to your users.
Mouse Wheel Support
One irritating failing of VBA, and Visual Basic as well, is its lack of support for a mouse wheel. That is, you can't use the wheel on your mouse to scroll through code in the VBA IDE. However, Microsoft has published a fix for this problem. Visit this link to learn how to enable mouse-wheel scrolling in both VB and VBA.
Record a Macro
One of the simplest ways to get started with VBA is to record a macro. Use MicroStation menu Utitilities|Project Manager to pop the VBA Project dialog. The record macro buttons let you capture your user actions as a VBA recording.
| Topic | Title | Article Location | Sample Code |
|---|---|---|---|
| ActiveX Controls | ColorPicker | Bentley ColorPicker OCX | |
| Administration | Configuration Variables | Configuration Variables and VBA | Configuration Variables and VBA |
| Databases | Databases | Databases and MicroStation | |
| Element Manipulation | Create a Shape Element | Create Shape page | CreateShape.zip |
| Locate an Element given its ID | Locate Element page | ElementLocator.zip | |
| Mark Circle Centre | Add markup to identify the centre of a circle (or ellipse) page | MarkCircleCentre.zip | |
| Move an Element | Move Element page | MoveElement.zip | |
| Events | Design File Events | Design File Events page | OpenCloseEventHandler.zip |
| Files | File Locations | File Locations page | |
| Excel™ | MicroStation™ VBA and Excel™ | VBA and Excel page | |
| GeoGraphics | Find Maps about a Point | GeoGraphics page | |
| Levels | Level Control & Manipulation | Level Control | Source code included |
| Iterating Level Libraries (DGNLIBs) | Level Libraries | Source code included | |
| Measurement | Measure Area of Closed Shapes, Grouped Holes & LineStrings | Measure Area page | Contained in article and MeasureArea.mvba module |
| Measure the Length of a MultiLine | Measure Lines page | Contained in article | |
| Measure the Distance Between Parallel Lines | Measure Lines page | Contained in article | |
| Computing Intersections | PDF Document | ComputingIntersections.zip | |
| Miscellaneous | Navigating the TCB | Navigating the TCB page. (Also Navigating the TCB with BASIC) | |
| Clipboard: Cut and Paste with VBA | Using the Windows Clipboard | Source code included | |
| Arithmetic: truncation & rounding with VBA | Numeric Formatting | ||
| Is an MDL Application Loaded? | Is MDL Loaded page | Source code included | |
| Is an element a Grouped Hole? | Grouped Hole Page | Source code included | |
| MicroStation VBA Tips | MVBA Tips page | Contained in article | |
| Referencing the MicroStation VBA Object Library elsewhere; referencing other libraries in MicroStation VBA | Referencing VBA Object Libraries | Included in article | |
| Using MicroStation's Message Center | Message Center page | Contained in article | |
| Starting a Batch File | PDF Document | ShellBatch.zip | |
| Validating Configuration Variables | Configuration Validator | ||
| Verifying a DGN File | Check Design File page | Sample code that shows how to check if a file is a DGN file | |
| References | Log Reference Attachments | PDF Document | LogRefs.zip |
| Reference Attachment Operations | Reference Attachment Operations page | Attach a reference; set a reference clip boundary | |
| Scanning | Searching through a Model for specified elements | Scanning a Model | Included in article |
| Searching through a Model for named cells | Scanning a Model for named cells | FindCell.zip | |
| Enumerating Models or Cells |
Enumerating Models page |
How to examine the models in a DGN file (a model is a cell; a cell is a model) |
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| Tags | Reading and Writing Tag Data | Tag Data Overview | Included in article |
| Writing Tag data into a Text File | PDF Document | TextFileWriter.zip | |
| Text | Text Element Analysis & Manipulation | Text Element page | |
| Reading a Text File into Coordinates | PDF Document | TextFileReader.zip | |
| Analysing Text Enter Data | Text Enter Data page | ||
| Text Styles | Text Styles page | ||
| Undo Grouping | Group Operations in an Undo Group | Undo Grouping page | |
| Views | MicroStation View Capture | Capture View page | CaptureView.zip |
| View Settings and Control | View Settings and Control page | ||
| Windows | File & Folder Browsing | Files and Folders | Example VB and VBA code available |
| Open an Office Document | Open a Word™, Excel™ or other document in MicroStation | ||
| UNC and Drive Paths | Compare a UNC path with a Drive path using VB or VBA | ComparePaths.zip | |
| MicroStation Title | Set MicroStation Title article | SetMicroStationTitle.zip | |
| Progress Bar | Progress Bar article | ProgressBarExample.zip | |
| Windows Common Dialogs | Common Dialogs page | Contained in article | |
| Win32 Window Handle | Window Handle page | Contained in article |
Visual Basic is not VBA
Microsoft provides Visual Basic for Applications to software vendors in its VBA Toolkit.
The vendor uses the VBA Toolkit to implement and customise VBA for their application.
VBA generates binary code that is tightly coupled to the host application.
The code is in a container whose nature depends on the vendor's policy.
For example, a Microsoft Excel™ VBA project is stored in an Excel workbook or add-in.
A MicroStation VBA project is stored in a .mvba file.
Visual Basic cannot read a .mvba binary file.
If you want to move VBA code to a VB project, then you should export the source code from the VBA project.
Export code from the VBA Interactive Development Environment (IDE) by
right-clicking in the Project window and choose the Export option from the pop-up menu.
