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3. By Eric Neuville , Techso
USING WINDOWS API
By Eric Neuville , Techso

4. Warnings I do not pretend to be a first class programmer.
Don’t shoot the messenger
Use at your own risk

5. Climbing the Tree This code will let the user go up and down in CATIA
Spec tree using buttons in a form:

6. Climbing the Tree
Create your VBA Module and copy /paste the following text into it
Sub CATMain()
UserForm1.Show
End Sub
Sub BringToFront()
On Error Resume Next
AppActivate CATIA.Caption
On Error GoTo 0

7. Climbing the Tree Create a new Form Add 1 button change its name to
Private Sub CommandButtonUP_Click()
Module1.BringToFront
SendKeys "{UP}", True
End Sub
[…]
Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()
CATIA.ActiveWindow.Layout = catWindowSpecsOnly
Private Sub UserForm_Terminate()
CATIA.ActiveWindow.Layout = catWindowSpecsAndGeom
Create a new Form
Add 1 button
change its name to
CommandButtonUP
Change its caption to UP
Double click the button to define its code…

8. Climbing the Tree Make 4 other buttons: DOWN LEFT RIGHT HOME
And copy paste the code from Private Sub
Private Sub CommandButtonUP_Click()
Module1.BringToFront
SendKeys "{UP}", True
End Sub
and adapt to DOWN / LEFT / RIGH / HOME

9. Climbing the tree Final touch:
Make the Form1 non modal so you can do stuff in CATIA while the form is active
This tree tool can be used to find the parent of a selected object as sometimes we’re dealing with occurrence and going up the tree is not that easy, also in a Part, this can help select the parent of an axis system or open/reduce geometrical set.

10. Disassemble
This code will let the user run the disassemble GSD function using WINAPI as CATIA API is missing.

11. Disassemble This is the logic we want to use Start End No Yes Yes Yes
Start Disassemble
Disassemble
Start
This is the logic we want to use
End
CATPart open? No
Valid selection?
Yes
Yes
Any selection?
Yes No
Close Disassemble No

12. Info comes from MS help WEB, or https://stackoverflow.com
The WIN API
Info comes from MS help WEB, or
OK, create a VBA macro
And paste this code into a new module
Private Declare PtrSafe Function FindWindow Lib "user32.dll" Alias "FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName As String) As Long
Private Declare PtrSafe Function FindWindowEx Lib "user32.dll" Alias "FindWindowExA" (ByVal hwndParent As LongPtr, ByVal hwndChildAfter As Long, ByVal lpszClass As String, ByVal lpszWindow As String) As Long
Private Declare PtrSafe Function SendMessage Lib "user32.dll" Alias "SendMessageA" (ByVal hWnd As LongPtr, ByVal wMsg As LongPtr, ByVal wParam As LongPtr, lParam As LongPtr) As Long
Private Declare PtrSafe Function SetForgroundWindow Lib "user32.dll" Alias "SetForgroundWindowA" (ByVal hWnd As LongPtr) As LongPtr
Private Declare PtrSafe Function GetWindowLong Lib "user32.dll" Alias "GetWindowLongA" (ByVal hWnd As LongPtr, ByVal nIndex As LongPtr) As LongPtr

13. Info comes from MS help WEB, or https://stackoverflow.com
The WIN API
Info comes from MS help WEB, or
Then add also the following lines
Private Const WS_DISABLED = &H
Private Const BM_CLICK = &HF5
Dim hDisassemble As LongPtr
Dim hOKButton As LongPtr

14. I used spyxx from MS VisualStudio to get this info
The main sub
OK so first we check that CATIA is open and the selection is OK and we click OK if the button is not disabled
Sub CATMain()
If IsCATIAPartOpen And Not (IsSelectionEmpty) Then
CATIA.StartCommand "Disassemble"
While hDisassemble = 0
hDisassemble = FindWindow("#32770", "Disassemble")
CATIA.RefreshDisplay = True
Wend
If Not (CheckOKButtonDisable) Then
SendMessage hOKButton, BM_CLICK, 0, 0
End If
End Sub
I used spyxx from MS VisualStudio to get this info

15. The other functions Checking if a CATPart is open
Function IsCATIAPartOpen() As Boolean
Dim myDoc 'As CATIADocument
Set myDoc = CATIA.ActiveDocument
result = False
If TypeName(myDoc) = "PartDocument" Then result = True
IsCATIAOpen = result
End Function

16. The other functions Checking if Selection is done
Function IsSelectionEmpty() As Boolean
result = False
If CATIA.ActiveDocument.Selection.Count = 0 Then result = True
IsSelectionEmpty = result
End Function

17. The other functions Checking if the Disassemble OK button is enable
Function CheckOKButtonDisable() As Boolean
While hOKButton = 0
hOKButton = FindWindowEx(hDisassemble, 0, "Button", "OK")
Wend
Dim myOKStyle As LongPtr
myOKStyle = 0
myOKStyle = GetWindowLong(hOKButton, GWL_STYLE)
result = (myOKStyle And WS_DISABLED) <> 0
CheckOKButtonDisable = result
End Function

18. You’re done
So you can create a sketch in your part with a rectangle in it
Select the sketch once it is done and run the script
See how the script react when you select something that can not be disassembled (a plane)

19. reminder
The purpose of this presentation is to present tools so user who are not familiar with WIN API could start to investigate and have fun.
It is recommended to manage some kind of error handling when using WIN API in order to avoid infinite loop.
Please check the VB code from weagan22 on eng-tips.com for a tree reordering solution.

20. indocti discant et ament meminisse periti
QUESTIONS ?
indocti discant et ament meminisse periti