Solidworks VBA Macro - Get View Outer Boundary

5 minute read

Objective

In this article, we understand “how to” Get View Outer Boundary in Drawing document from VBA macro.

This is most updated method of Get View Outer Boundary in an drawing document.

Results We Can Get

Below image shows the result we get.

We Get View Outer Boundary 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 Get View Outer Boundary 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 Get View Outer Boundary.

                        Option Explicit

' Creating variable for Solidworks application
Dim swApp As SldWorks.SldWorks

' Creating variable for Solidworks document
Dim swDoc As SldWorks.ModelDoc2

' Creating variable for Solidworks Drawing
Dim swDrawing As SldWorks.DrawingDoc

' Creating variable for Solidworks View
Dim swView As SldWorks.View

' Program to Get View Outer Boundary
Sub main()

  ' Setting Solidworks variable to Solidworks 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 Drawing document variable
  Set swDrawing = swDoc
  
  ' Get activate view
  Set swView = swDrawing.ActiveDrawingView
  
  ' Variable for view's outline position
  Dim viewOutlinePosition() As Double

  ' Get view's outline position
  viewOutlinePosition = swView.GetOutline

  ' Print view's outline position co-ordinates
  Debug.Print "View's Left X: " & viewOutlinePosition(0)
  Debug.Print "View's Right X: " & viewOutlinePosition(2)
  
  Debug.Print "View's Bottom Y: " & viewOutlinePosition(1)
  Debug.Print "View's Top Y: " & viewOutlinePosition(3)

End Sub

                      

Prerequisite

There are some prerequisites for this article.

Knowledge of VBA programming language is ❗required.
We get view outer boundary from an existing (Base) view.
We already select an existing (Base) view.

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 Variables
Get View Outer Boundary

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.

                        ' Creating variable for Solidworks Drawing
Dim swDrawing As SldWorks.DrawingDoc

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

                        ' Creating variable for Solidworks View
Dim swView As SldWorks.View

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

These all are our global variables.

They are SOLIDWORKS API Objects.

                        ' Program to Get View Outer Boundary
Sub main()

End Sub

In above line, we create Program to Get View Outer Boundary.
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 Variables

In this section, we initialize 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 Drawing document
Set swDrawing = swDoc

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

Get View Outer Boundary

In this section, we Get View Outer Boundary.

                        ' Get activate view
Set swView = swDrawing.ActiveDrawingView

In above code, we Get activate view from Drawing.
For this, we use ActiveDrawingView property.
This ActiveDrawingView property is part of swDrawing variable.

                        ' Variable for view's outline position
Dim viewOutlinePosition() As Double

In above line, we create an Array variable for view’s outline position.
Variable Name: viewOutlinePosition()
Type: Double

                        ' Get view's outline position
viewOutlinePosition = swView.GetOutline

In above line, we set value of viewOutlinePosition variable.
We set the value by GetOutline() method of swView variable.

                        ' Print view's outline position co-ordinates
Debug.Print "View's Left X: " & viewOutlinePosition(0)
Debug.Print "View's Right X: " & viewOutlinePosition(2)

Debug.Print "View's Bottom Y: " & viewOutlinePosition(1)
Debug.Print "View's Top Y: " & viewOutlinePosition(3)

                      

In above line, we Print selected View’s outline position co-ordinates in Immediate Window.
If Immediate Window is not available then press “Ctrl + G”.
View’s Left X: viewOutlinePosition(0) ⬅ This is 0th index.
View’s Right X: viewOutlinePosition(2) ⬅ This is 2nd index.
View’s Bottom Y: viewOutlinePosition(1) ⬅ This is 1st index.
View’s Top Y: viewOutlinePosition(3) ⬅ This is 3rd index.

Please see below image for more details.

Now we run the macro and after running macro we Get View Outer Boundary 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 Get View Outer Boundary 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!!!