Solidworks VBA Macro - Hide Component

5 minute read

Objective

In this article, we understand “how to” Hide selected Component in Assembly document from VBA macro.

This is most updated method of Hiding selected Component in an assembly document.

Results We Can Get

Below image shows the result we get.

We Hide selected Component in simple manners.

There are no extra steps required.

To get the correct result, please follow the steps correctly.

Macro Video

Below 🎬 video shows how to Hide selected Component from SOLIDWORKS VBA Macros.

Above video is just for visualization and there is no explanation.

I have explained every line in this article.

It is advisable to watch video, since it helps you to better understand the process.

VBA Macro

Below is the VBA macro for Hide selected Component.

                        Option Explicit

' Variable for Solidworks Application
Dim swApp As SldWorks.SldWorks

' Variable for Solidworks document
Dim swDoc As SldWorks.ModelDoc2

' Variable for Solidworks Component
Dim swComponent As SldWorks.Component2

' Program to Hide Selected Component part
Sub main()
  
  ' Set Solidworks Application variable to current application
  Set swApp = Application.SldWorks
  
  ' Set Solidworks document variable to currently opened document
  Set swDoc = swApp.ActiveDoc
  
  ' Check if Solidworks document is opened or not
  If swDoc Is Nothing Then
    MsgBox "Solidworks document is not opened."
    Exit Sub
  End If
  
  ' Get the selected component and set it to the Solidworks Component variable
  Set swComponent = swDoc.SelectionManager.GetSelectedObject6(1, -1)

  ' If there are error
  If swComponent Is Nothing Then
    ' Inform user and exit function.
    MsgBox "Failed to get selected part."
    Exit Sub
  End If
  
  ' Select the component
  swComponent.Select False
  
  ' Hide selected component
  swDoc.HideComponent2
  
End Sub

                      

Prerequisite

There are some prerequisites for this article.

Knowledge of VBA programming language is ❗required.
We use existing parts in Assembly document.
Both components are fully constraint as shown in below image.
We select the part which we want to Hide.

We will apply checks in this article, so the code we write, should be error free mostly.

Steps To Follow

This VBA macro can be divided into following sections:

Create Global Variables
Initialize Global Variables
Hide selected Component

Every section with each line is explained below.

I also give some links (see icon 🚀) so that you can go through them if there are anything I explained in previous articles.

Create Global Variables

In this section, we create global variables.

Option Explicit

Purpose: Above line forces us to define every variable we are going to use.
Reference: 🚀 SOLIDWORKS Macros - Open new Part document article.

                        ' Variable for Solidworks application
Dim swApp As SldWorks.SldWorks

Purpose: In above line, we create a variable for Solidworks application.
Variable Name: swApp
Type: SldWorks.SldWorks
Reference: Please visit 🚀 online SOLIDWORKS API Help.

                        ' Variable for Solidworks document
Dim swDoc As SldWorks.ModelDoc2

Purpose: In above line, we create a variable for Solidworks document.
Variable Name: swDoc
Type: SldWorks.ModelDoc2
Reference: Please visit 🚀 online SOLIDWORKS API Help.

                        ' Variable for Solidworks Component
Dim swComponent As SldWorks.Component2

Purpose: In above line, we create a variable for Solidworks Component.
Variable Name: swComponent
Type: SldWorks.Component2.
Reference: Please visit 🚀 online SOLIDWORKS API Help.

These all are our global variables.

They are SOLIDWORKS API Objects.

                        ' Program to Hide Selected Component part
Sub main()

End Sub

In above line, we create Program to Hide Selected Component part.
This is a Sub procedure which has name of main.
This procedure hold all the statements (instructions) we give to computer.
Reference: Detailed information 🚀 VBA Sub and Function Procedures article of this website.

Initialize Global Variables

In this section, we initialize global variables.

                        ' Set Solidworks Application variable to current application
Set swApp = Application.SldWorks

In above line, we set value of swApp variable.
This value is currently opened Solidworks application.

                        ' Set Solidworks document variable to currently opened document
Set swDoc = swApp.ActiveDoc

In above line, we set value of swDoc variable.
This value is currently opened part document.

                        ' Check if Solidworks document is opened or not
If swDoc Is Nothing Then
  MsgBox ("Solidworks document is not opened.")
  Exit Sub
End If

                      

In above code block, we check if we successfully set the value of swDoc variable.
We use 🚀 IF statement for checking.
Condition: swDoc Is Nothing
When this condition is True,
- We show and 🚀 message window to user.
- Message: SOLIDWORKS document is not opened.
- Then we stop our macro here.

Hide selected Component

In this section, we perform Hide selected Component action.

                        ' Get the selected face and set it to the Solidworks Face variable
Set swComponent = swDoc.SelectionManager.GetSelectedObject6(1, -1)

In above line, we set value of swComponent variable.
We set the value from GetSelectedObject6 method.
This GetSelectedObject6 method is part of SelectionManager object.
This SelectionManager object is part of swDoc object.

                        ' If there are error
If swComponent Is Nothing Then
  ' Inform user and exit function.
  MsgBox "Failed to get selected part."
  Exit Sub
End If

                      

In above code block, we check if we successfully set the value of swComponent variable.
We use 🚀 IF statement for checking.
Condition: swComponent Is Nothing
When this condition is True,
- We show and 🚀 message window to user.
- Message: Failed to get selected part.
- Then we stop our macro here.

                        ' Select the component
swComponent.Select False

In above line, we select the component.
We use Select method of swComponent variable.

                        ' Hide selected component
swDoc.HideComponent2

In above line, we Hide selected component.
We use HideComponent2 method of swDoc variable.
This method return nothing.

Now we run the macro and after running macro we hide selected component as shown in below image.

This is it !!!

I hope my efforts will helpful to someone! 😊

If you found anything to add or update, please let me know on my e-mail 📧.

Hope this post helps you to Hide selected Component with SOLIDWORKS VBA Macros.

For more such tutorials on SOLIDWORKS VBA Macro, do come to this website after sometime.

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Till then, Happy learning!!!