Solidworks VBA Macro - Traverse Components Sequentially

6 minute read

Objective

In this article, we understand “how to” Traverse Components Sequentially in Assembly document from VBA macro.

There are no direct method to Traverse Components in Sequentially manner.

There are 2 methods available from which we get Components in an Assembly document.

GetComponents() method from AssemblyDoc object.
GetChildren() method from Component2 object.

Both methods, return collection of Component2 object but not in the same order as they are in Feature tree.

To address this issue, we have this macro.

Results We Can Get

Below image shows the result we get.

We Traverse Components Sequentially 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 Traverse Components Sequentially 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 Traverse Components Sequentially.

                        Option Explicit

' Variable for Solidworks Application
Dim swApp As SldWorks.SldWorks

' Variable for Solidworks document
Dim swDoc As SldWorks.ModelDoc2

' Variable for Solidworks Assembly
Dim swAssembly As SldWorks.AssemblyDoc

' Variable for Solidworks Component
Dim swComponent As SldWorks.Component2

' Variable for Solidworks Feature
Dim swFeature As SldWorks.Feature

'  Program to sequentially Traversing Assembly document
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
  
  ' Set Solidworks Assembly document
  Set swAssembly = swDoc
  
  ' Variable for List of elements
  Dim vArray As Variant
  
  ' Get Components list in opened assembly
  vArray = swAssembly.GetComponents(True)
  
  ' Variable for component
  Dim component As Variant
  
  ' Get first feature in Feature Tree
  Set swFeature = swDoc.FirstFeature
  
  ' Loop until Solidworks Feature is nothing
  Do While Not swFeature Is Nothing
    
    ' Loop Components List
    For Each component In vArray
    
      ' Set Solidworks Component variable
      Set swComponent = component
      
      ' Check if current feature name is same as current component
      If swFeature.Name = swComponent.Name Then
    
        ' Print Feature name
        Debug.Print swFeature.Name
    
      End If
    
    ' Move to next component
    Next component
    
    ' Get next Feature in Feature tree
    Set swFeature = swFeature.GetNextFeature
    
  Loop
  
End Sub

                      

Prerequisite

There are some prerequisites for this article.

Knowledge of VBA programming language is ❗required.
We use existing parts in Assembly document.
All components are fully constraint as shown in below image.
Immediate Window needs to open to see result.

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
Traverse Components

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 Assembly
Dim swAssembly As SldWorks.AssemblyDoc

Purpose: In above line, we create a variable for Solidworks Assembly.
Variable Name: swAssembly
Type: SldWorks.AssemblyDoc
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.

                        ' Variable for Solidworks Feature
Dim swFeature As SldWorks.Feature

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

These all are our global variables.

They are SOLIDWORKS API Objects.

                        '  Program to sequentially Traversing Assembly document
Sub main()

End Sub

In above line, we create Program to sequentially Traversing Assembly document.
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.

                        ' Set Solidworks Assembly document
Set swAssembly = swDoc

In above line, we set value of swAssembly variable.
This value is swDoc variable.

Traverse Components

In this section, we perform Traverse Components action.

                        ' Variable for List of elements
Dim vArray As Variant

Purpose: In above line, we create a variable for List of elements.
Variable Name: vArray
Type: Variant

                        ' Get Components list in opened assembly
vArray = swAssembly.GetComponents(False)

In above line, we set the value of vArray variable.
We set value by GetComponents method of swAssembly variable.
By passing False to GetComponents method, we get all components from Feature Tree.

                        ' Variable for component
Dim component As Variant

In above line, we create component variable for looping.
Variable Name: component
Type: Variant

                        ' Get first feature in Feature Tree
Set swFeature = swDoc.FirstFeature

In above line, we get the first feature in Feature Tree.
We set the value of swFeature variable to FirstFeature property of swDoc variable.

                        ' Loop until Solidworks Feature is nothing
Do While Not swFeature Is Nothing
  
Loop

In above line, we create a Do While loop.
We loop Feature tree manager.
We loop until Solidworks Feature is nothing.

                        ' Loop Components List
For Each component In vArray
  
' Move to next component
Next component

In above line, we create a For Each loop.
In this loop, component variable loops every item in vArray.

                        ' Set Solidworks Component variable
Set swComponent = component

In above line, we set value of swComponent variable.
This value is current value of array vArray.
Current value is represented by component variable.

                        ' Check if current feature name is same as current component
If swFeature.Name = swComponent.Name Then
  
End If

In above code block, we check if current feature name is same as current component.
We use 🚀 IF statement for checking.
Condition: swFeature.Name = swComponent.Name

                        ' Print Feature name
Debug.Print swFeature.Name

In above code, we print the Feature name in Immediate window.

                        ' Get next Feature in Feature tree
Set swFeature = swFeature.GetNextFeature

In above line of code, we get next Feature in Feature tree.
We set the value of swFeature variable.
We set the value to GetNextFeature property of swFeature variable.

Now we run the macro and after running macro we show 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 Traverse Components 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!!!