This tutorial shows how to create a userform with buttons to reorder the specification tree in CATIA using VBA. It explains how to create the userform and write code for each button to sort, move components up and down, and reset the order.
This tutorial shows how to create a userform with buttons to reorder the specification tree in CATIA using VBA. It explains how to create the userform and write code for each button to sort, move components up and down, and reset the order.
This tutorial shows how to create a userform with buttons to reorder the specification tree in CATIA using VBA. It explains how to create the userform and write code for each button to sort, move components up and down, and reset the order.
This tutorial shows how to create a userform with buttons to reorder the specification tree in CATIA using VBA. It explains how to create the userform and write code for each button to sort, move components up and down, and reset the order.
This step-by-step tutorial will show you how to rearrange the order of the components in the specification tree using a VBA macro. This method will use cut and paste but the constraint links will be preserved. In this tutorial, you’ll also learn how to:
create a userform with listboxes, labels, and command buttons
make a listbox not selectable keep constraints when reordering by cutting and pasting automatically sort the tree from A to Z or Z to A
This code reorders components under a CATProduct only, so the first step is you will either need an existing CATProduct to test this on or create a new one from scratch. For example, I made up this dummy assembly to experiment with, complete with assembly constraints:
The general steps this tutorial will follow are:
1. Create a new CATProduct or open an existing assembly file in CATIA V5
2. Setup a new CATVBA program 3. Create a Userform 4. Write the code for each of the command buttons 5. Write the reorder tree code 6. Test!
Let’s get started!
Reorder Specification Tree Tutorial 1. Go to Tools>Macro>Macros 2. Click Macro Libraries 3. Change the Library Type to VBA Projects then click Create New Library 4. Enter a file location and name for your new project, in my case: P:\Temp\MyProject.catvba
5. Click OK then close
6. Make sure your new project is the current macro library then click Create to make a new VBA macro
7. The macro language should be set to MS VBA. Type the macro name: Reorder_Spec_Tree 8. Select the newly created macro and click Edit to launch the VBA editor in CATIA
9. Your screen should now look similar to this:
10. First, we need to create a userform that will allow the user to set the desired order of components. Right click on Module and navigate to Insert>UserForm 11. Click on the Listbox icon within the Toolbox to create a listbox in the form. Make it any size you wish (maybe want to make it a tall box if you’re dealing with a large spec tree). Ensure the name of the listbox is “current_order”. This is important when we write the code for it as this listbox will display the original order of the components to the user.
12. Since this Listbox will show the original order of the components, the user does not need to select any of the values, thus we want to make the listbox non-selectable. According to https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ff869568.aspx we need to set both the Enabled and Locked settings to False: 13. Make a second listbox, this time we will use it to sort the components into the order that we would like, so we will need to make this listbox selectable. Name it “new_order”. 14. Create two labels above each listbox so the user knows which one is which (not necessary for the program to work, just a user-friendly feature). 15. Now we need to add eight (yes, 8!) command boxes to our form. Each command button needs to be labeled as shown below.
1. Reset: this button will reset the order of parts in the New Order listbox to match the Current Order listbox. 2. Up: will move a component up the tree 3. Down: will move a component down the tree 4. Sort A to Z: will automatically sort the tree from A to Z 5. Sort Z to A: will automatically sort the tree from Z to A 6. Apply: will apply the new spec tree order to the tree in CATIA 7. OK: will exit the userform with changes applied 8. Cancel: will exit the userform without making any changes in CATIA 16. The completed UserForm should look like this: 17. Congratulations! You’ve created the userform. Probably a good time to save your project. Now it’s time to write the code that actually makes all the command buttons work. First, let’s check to make sure we are forced to declare variables by going to Tools> Options>Check “Require Variable Declaration.” This will place an Option Explicit at the top of your code, meaning you must explicitly declare all variables by using the Dim or ReDim statements. If you try to use an undeclared variable name, an error occurs at compile time. 18. To write the code for the Cancel button, right click on it and select View Code. The code for all the userform’s buttons will be contained within the same window. 19. When the cancel button is clicked, it should stop the program from running and exit the form without making any changes in CATIA. Use this code:
Public Response As Integer 'will be used for error handling later
Option Explicit Private Sub cancel_button_Click() 'Exit the form when Cancel button is clicked Unload Me End Sub
Check: Double click UserForm1 in the tree then press the play button to run the macro. Try pressing all the command buttons. None of them should do anything until you get to the Cancel button, which should exit the form and take you back to the VBA editor. 20. Go back to the form, right click on the OK button and select View Code.
Private Sub ok_button_Click()
'Error handling - if no items in the list then give error message
If new_order.ListCount = 0 Then Response = MsgBox("There are no items in the list to reorder! Please select at least one component.", , UserForm1.Name & "Warning Message") Exit Sub End If
'Reorders the tree and then exits the userform
Reorder_Tree Unload Me
End Sub
The Reorder_Tree is going to reference another part of the code where the magic is going to happen, but does nothing for now. 21. Next, right click on the Apply button and view code. This button will reorder the tree but will NOT exit the form and the program will stay running.
Private Sub apply_button_Click()
'reorders the tree and stays in the userform Reorder_Tree End Sub
At this point, your code should look like this (do you see why we gave each button a unique name!): 22. Moving up the buttons, we go on to the Sort Z to A button. Type this code:
Private Sub ZtoA_button_Click()
Dim i As Long Dim j As Long Dim temp As Variant
'sort the spec tree order from Z to A
For j = 0 To new_order.ListCount - 2 For i = 0 To new_order.ListCount - 2 If new_order.List(i) < new_order.List(i + 1) Then temp = new_order.List(i) new_order.List(i) = new_order.List(i + 1) new_order.List(i + 1) = temp End If Next i Next j End Sub 23. To sort from A to Z (rather than Z to A), copy and paste the code is just wrote but change the direction of “<” to “>”.
Private Sub AtoZ_button_Click()
Dim i As Long Dim j As Long Dim temp As Variant
'sort the spec tree order from A to Z
For j = 0 To new_order.ListCount - 2 For i = 0 To new_order.ListCount - 2 If new_order.List(i) > new_order.List(i + 1) Then temp = new_order.List(i) new_order.List(i) = new_order.List(i + 1) new_order.List(i + 1) = temp End If Next i Next j End Sub 24. Three more buttons to go! Next, we’ll add the code for the Down button. I’ll use comments to explain what is happening.
Private Sub down_button_Click()
Dim selector As String 'The selected item will be saved here Dim selected_position As Integer 'The position of the selected item will be saved here Dim current_occupant As String 'The item one step underneath the selected item will be saved here
'current_occupant is determined '(IF-statement makes sure nothing happens if item in the very bottom is selected) If selected_position < (new_order.ListCount - 1) Then current_occupant = new_order.List(selected_position + 1)
'Keep the selected item selected (otherwise the current_occupant,
'that has switched places with selector, will be selected) new_order.Selected(selected_position + 1) = True End If End Sub 25. The code for the Up button is very similar to the Down button, it just moves the components in the tree the opposite direction.
Private Sub up_button_Click()
Dim selector As String 'The selected item will be saved here Dim selected_position As Integer 'The position of the selected item will be saved here Dim current_occupant As String 'The item one step above the selected item will be saved here
'current_occupant is determined '(IF-statement makes sure nothing happens if top-most item is selected) If selected_position > 0 Then current_occupant = new_order.List(selected_position - 1)
'Keep the selected item selected (otherwise the current_occupant,
'that has switched places with selector, will be selected) new_order.Selected(selected_position - 1) = True End If End Sub 26. Finally! The last button is the Reset button to reset the new order to be the same as the current order.
Private Sub reset_button_Click()
'this button resets the new_order to the current_order
Dim i As Integer
new_order.Clear
i=0
For i = 0 To current_order.ListCount - 1 new_order.AddItem current_order.List(i) Next i End Sub 27. That covers all eight of our command buttons. Whew! If you remember, we had a line of code in some of the commands, Reorder_Tree. It’s time to add the code for which this is referring. This is where the reordering magic happens. Add this code below all the command button code:
Sub Reorder_Tree()
Dim selection1 As Selection
Dim selection2 As Selection Dim ProdName As String Dim j As Integer Dim i As Integer
'---keep assembly constraints when cutting and pasting----------------------
Dim settingControllers1 As SettingControllers Set settingControllers1 = CATIA.SettingControllers Dim asmConstraintSettingAtt1 As AsmConstraintSettingAtt Set asmConstraintSettingAtt1 = settingControllers1.Item("CATAsmConstraintSettingCtrl") asmConstraintSettingAtt1.PasteComponentMode = catPasteWithCstOnCopyAndCut
'------------------------------------ Set selection1 = productDocument1.Selection
'This loop goes through the items in new_order
'and compares them to the components of the selected product. For j = 0 To UserForm1.new_order.ListCount - 1
'Getting selection1 ready for the operation by clearing whatever might be in it
selection1.Clear
'This for loop goes through the items of the selected product For i = 1 To product1.Products.Count
ProdName = product1.Products.Item(i).Name
If Left(ProdName, Len(new_order.List(j))) = new_order.List(j) Then
selection1.Add product1.Products.Item(i) End If
Next i 'cut and paste the components from the original order to the new order selection1.Cut Set selection2 = CATIA.ActiveDocument.Selection selection2.Add product1 selection2.Paste selection1.Clear selection2.Clear
Next j
End Sub
You may have noticed the section on keeping the constraints when cutting and pasting. This is an option in CATIA V5 under Options>Mechanical Design>Assembly Design> tab: Constraints>Paste components>Always with the assembly constraints. We added code to programmatically select this option every time so the assembly constraints will not get broken. 28. So now all the buttons should be functioning properly, the problem is we need to populate the first list box with the names of all the components. To do this, we’re going to go back to our original and still blank module Reorder_Spec_Tree (again, you can right click and select View Code).
Add the code shown below to the CATMain then save it. This is where the macro will be run from.
Option Explicit
Public productDocument1 As Document 'Holds the active document
Public product1 As Product 'Holds the main product Public products1 As Products 'Holds the list of component parts of product1 Public selection1 As Selection 'For looping operations Public check As Boolean 'For looping operations Public ip, jp, lp, Response1 As Integer 'for looping operations
Sub CATMain() Dim str As String 'Used to save name of element for listing in the ListBox
Set productDocument1 = CATIA.ActiveDocument 'productDocument1 set to hold current document
'products1 set to hold the main product of the active document Set product1 = productDocument1.Product Set products1 = product1.Products 'products1 set to hold the list of components of product1
'loop through all components to add them to the listbox
For ip = 1 To products1.Count check = False lp = InStr(products1.Item(ip).Name, ".") str = Left(products1.Item(ip).Name, lp - 1)
'add all component names to first listbox
For jp = 0 To UserForm1.current_order.ListCount - 1 If str = UserForm1.current_order.List(jp) Then check = True End If Next jp
If check = False Then
UserForm1.current_order.AddItem str End If
Next ip
'Finally new_order is also populated
UserForm1.new_order.Clear
ip = 0
For ip = 0 To UserForm1.current_order.ListCount - 1 UserForm1.new_order.AddItem UserForm1.current_order.List(ip) Next ip
UserForm1.Show
End Sub 29. That’s it! Time to run the Reorder Spec Tree macro on your CATProduct file. You should see the list of parts appear in the first Listbox.
Screenshot is just after launching the program:
Screenshot after manually click the up and down buttons followed by Apply: Screenshot after sorting Z to A then clicking apply: Video Demonstration
To see a video of this program in action, check this out:
https://youtu.be/1ayn0DmlNR0
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I hope you enjoyed this tutorial as much as I enjoyed making it for you!
Questions or comments? Email me: Emmett@scripting4v5.com
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