In a hurry? Just watch the video above. It covers the most important points. If your scenario isn’t covered in the video, then I probably cover it in this article. Overview SolidWorks 2013 includes VBA 7—the latest version of Microsoft’s Visual Basic for Applications. This is great news for several reasons, the most significant being:…
Read MoreYou’ve written your first “serious” SolidWorks API macro. You’re ready to share with your co-workers. You fire up your email, attach the macro, and click Send. Expecting an avalanche of compliments, you instead get several responses from your co-workers telling you that the macro doesn’t run. “Doesn’t run?! How can that be? It runs fine…
Read MoreSolidWorks World 2013, hosted at Disney World in Orlando, is right around the corner. This year in particular looks like a great year for SolidWorks API learners and enthusiasts. If you’re attending, below is a list I’ve compiled of all presentations related to the SolidWorks API. If you have the opportunity, definitely join me on…
Read MoreI received a great question from one of my newer customers the other day: “Why can’t I ever seem to get an API Help example to work right after copying and pasting it into the Visual Basic Editor?” The answer, simply, is that the text is rarely transferred over perfectly. As demonstrated in the tutorial…
Read MoreThe time has come for another free video tutorial! In this tutorial, novice SolidWorks API programmers learn just how easy it is to create a powerful macro from scratch in under a half hour. In this particular example, we write a macro that deletes all of the balloons attached to Toolbox parts in a selected…
Read MoreUnless you’re a die-hard SolidWorks enthusiast that gobbles up the first beta release, chances are you haven’t seen SolidWorks 2013 or are just beginning to explore your freshly downloaded pre-release copy. As with any new releases, SolidWorks 2013 contains some great new “Top Enhancements” to increase design productivity. If you haven’t already, I’d encourage you…
Read MoreHow do long-time SolidWorks API experts use their skills within the engineering industry? In an effort to answer that question, I am pleased to introduce Jeff Sweeney of 3DVision Technologies, a Great Lakes region SolidWorks reseller, where he proudly wears the title “Engineering Data Specialist”. Though much of his work involves Enterprise PDM, he has…
Read MoreCADSharp.com’s first-ever SolidWorks API programming contest has come to a close. Some of the finest API programmers out there stepped up to the challenge described in our last post: Write a macro in as few lines as possible that discovers and displays a single message box listing the children of all part components in the…
Read MoreThink you’re a crack API programmer? We’ll find out! CADSharp.com is excited to announce its first SolidWorks API programming contest. Here’s how to enter and win one of three gift cards from Amazon or a 2-month membership to CADSharp.com: Download the example file set here and open “CADSharp_contest.SLDASM”. Write a macro in as few lines…
Read MoreISldWorks::RunCommand is probably the most powerful call in the entire SolidWorks API. Using this single, easy-to-use API call you can execute over 3,000 individual SolidWorks commands. Need to copy and paste an object? ISldWorks::RunCommand. Need to bring up a feature’s PropertyManager page? ISldWorks::RunCommand. Need to hide the FeatureManager tree? ISldWorks::RunCommand. That’s right—many actions that seemingly…
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