So I found 1 great article that looked promising but it didn’t pan out because it was written before a change by Excel. Basically the problem is that GetObject (or c# GetActiveObject) only gets a RANDOM copy of a running instance. If there is more than one instance of Excel, for instance, and you are searching for a workbook (in my case one with a specific named range) you will not find the workbook unless you iterate through all the Application instances of Excel. If you look in Task Manager … why are there two? Simple. If you are in explorer and you click on a .xls* file and the preview pane is on – it starts an instance of Excel (one example).

Here is the article that did not work and here is a complicated one that is just as good as the GetObject (it gets only once instance) … HOWEVER … combining the two … now that is magic. I got it working. This article is a sub-article of the last post in which I iterated over all apps searching for a .visible instance in which to piggy back and run VBA the code in Excel. Why? Because I had LOTS of previous code already written in Excel – I just needed it to run. It starts and drives AutoCAD. Continue reading →

So, for now this article is a list of links that I used to pull this off. It is VERY rough  but, I have LOTS of VBA code in Excel that I want to reuse but have Excel VBA triggered FROM THE WEB when a piping designer clicks on it. [Update: it fully works and is in use!] The link drives the existing VBA in excel which in turn, drives the running instance of Autocad and does lots of things – in this case I want to reuse my code that opens an autocad drawing, iterates through all the components until the one you want is found, then it zooms into an AutoCad component of the currently selected cell.

This link is in a SSRS (Report Services) page that we already have to find components based on the long and short description from AutoPLANT. Here is the round trip discussion and the links I used are at the bottom. I can’t believe I did this. Super cool. Continue reading →

In order of usefulness here are a set of links for myself to fully investigate. I did this before but if you use the wrong key words in Google – you pull up pupkis – now I used a different set of keywords and I pulled up a goldmine.  Here they are in order of usefulness or in order of what I will try first. I want a solution with the least hassle for my customers to install on their own computers.

• Power Query – a Business Intelligence (BI) MS Excel plug in from Microsoft
• Power Query from someone else’s experience 
• A plug in made by someone else that exposes .net functions to be used right in the queries
  • it is called http://thingiequery.com/
•  Using MSQuery – but it requires setup outside Excel
• SQL Queries tool

I am trying to automate Navisworks for the first time and my first use is to use a tabular Excel sheet to locate and step through items for Quality Control purposes. There are many other uses I have in my head, but this is the start.

• In .net – getting started I am hoping to do it from Excel (goto xyz coordinate) via VBA – but lets see how far we get
• Ooohh – here is a nice “Getting started” pdf on learning about Navisworks and automation
• Quick Keys
• Ahhh poppycock this is not straightforward – just use AutoIT or AutoHotKey key stroking tool … but wait … OK!!!!! I figured it out … read here (this link added once i got time and a significant amount of research later! – told you it was not straightforward.).
  • The other issue with the AutoIT hotkey is there is a certain sequence of filling in the boxes and auto-triggers the tool to do what we do. The school of hard knocks. Using .net or VBA COM makes Navisworks behave like we expect it to.
• More links found a month later that explain an awful lot I wish I had when I started… Continue reading →

So, all other tools failed (paid or not). This one was free – I totally forgot to donate to this guy – but I just did it . What reminded me was that I have a friend who’s drive just failed and he MIGHT have it all backed up – so rather than fight – where will I start? With TestDisk from CgSecurity.org . THANKS CHRISTOPHE GRENIER – YOU ARE ONE OF MY HEROS!!!  So many tools didn’t work – Christophe’s TestDisk did. Continue reading →

It is a huge pain in the neck. At least you can see your effects in the preview window. You had better get used to it all because as one author said – who knows what other screen sizes Apple will throw our way. Now everything is relative to everything else, but getting this and that all set … whoa. Primer is here.

Many frustrations. This adds even more insight of those odd little “installed” items at bottom of the Attribute Inspector. Continue reading →

Well, this is exciting because I have for years always wanted to use Visual Studio to build my apps in Excel. I am using Office 2010 (my client uses 2010) I am beyond a VBA junkie and there is little or nothing I can’t do. However being able to add to a .net class etc. has always been missing. Also I wanted to see how hard it is or not to develop in VS. Using the VBA editor and being able to debug on the fly saves SOOOO much time. But long macros TAKE SOOOOO much time to. Can things be sped up? Is it that hard to edit/debug? I never knew – now I will. The template for VS 2015 Office apps is meant for Office 2013+ but I got it to work for 2010 – see the humorous adventure below.

Here are some tips along the way ( I have had some snags already – hence this post)… Continue reading →

OK – so the solution is to “start the stopped service”. Well – I know that – but why is it stopped and better yet – after a re-boot – when it is marked as “Startup:Automatic” why does it not start? Simple – when all other services work properly – it is a Quickbooks or Intuit bug. Simple.

But – the answer everywhere on the net is “just start it”. There is a good write up if you are using single mode vs. a copy on the server running it too – but nothing helpful as to “why doesn’t it just work”. I will add a part later on that has a remotely start-able shortcut for my customers. More to come after I develop it. For now, your customers will have to call you and ask “why can’t I open it in multi-user mode”.

This helped get things to install. Now the Admin console won’t go past “Type”. It jumps back to the beginning step of the admin console.

Links so far..(with no success)

• getting started from Filemaker (usual text like the past 5 versions)

Oh for pete’s sake. Don’t use Microsoft Edge (the default web browser) for the console. It doesn’t install or if it does, it does not proceed past Type to Summary. There is a shortcut  that uses the OLD I.E. browser created by the install under “Start->All Apps->Filemakaer Server..”. Use it or go directly to https://localhost:160001 (or whatever server your installation is on). I did NOT use the default IIS ports.