Interactive Drafting

Setting the Print Area of a Drawing Sheet

Run CAADriISetPrintArea in CATIA [1].

CAADriISetPrintArea is located in the CAADriUseCases module.  Execute macro (Windows only).

1. Prolog
2. Retrieving the Active Sheet
3. Retrieving the Selection of the Drawing Document
4. Defining the Selection
5. Retrieving the Location of the First Point
6. Defining the Print Area
7. Visualizing the Print Area
8. InShort

Prolog

...
' Retrieve the active document
Dim oDocument As Document
Set oDocument = CATIA.ActiveDocument

' Test the document's type, if it is not a drawing document the macro stops
If TypeName(oDocument) = "DrawingDocument" Then
    Dim oDrawingDocument As DrawingDocument
    Set oDrawingDocument = oDocument
Else
    MsgBox "This macro can be run with a drawing document only."
    Exit Sub
End If
...

The active document type is tested. If it is a DrawingDocument, the oDrawingDocument is retrieved from the oDocument. Otherwise the macro stops and prompts a warning message.

Retrieving the Active Sheet

...
' Retrieve the active sheet of the document
Dim oSheet As DrawingSheet
Set oSheet = oDrawingDocument.Sheets.ActiveSheet  
...

The active sheet object is retrieved from the Sheets collection of the oDrawingDocument object, using the ActiveSheet method.

Retrieving the Selection of the Drawing Document

...
' Retrieve the selection of the document
Dim oSelection 'As Selection
Set oSelection = oDrawingDocument.Selection
' Clear the selection
oSelection.Clear
...

The selection object is retrieved from the oDrawingDocument object using the Selection method.
The selection is cleared.

Defining the Selection

...
' Define the object type allowed to be selected, here a drawing point
Dim InputObjectType(0)
InputObjectType(0) = "Point2D"
...
' Retrieve the first point location to set the print area from the mouse selection
ReturnStatus = oSelection.IndicateOrSelectElement2D("Select the first point", _
InputObjectType, True, True, False, ObjectSelected, oFirstPointAbsolute)
...

The Point2D filtering string is defined in the InputObjectType array.
The first point location is retrieved from  the oSelection object using the IndicateOrSelectElement2D method.
According to the ObjectSelected boolean value retrieved:

• True: the selection contains a drawing point.
• False: any drawing point has been selected, but a virtual point has been indicated. The coordinates of this location are contained in the oFirstPointAbsolute array.

Retrieving the Location of the First Point

...
' Test of the selection content from the ObjectSelected value
If ObjectSelected = True Then
    ...
    Set iFirstPoint = oSelection.Item(1).Value
    ...
    Set oView = oSelection.FindObject("CATIADrawingView")
    ...
    iFirstPoint.GetCoordinates oFirstPointRelative
    ...
    CatAbsoluteCoordinates oView, oFirstPointAbsolute, oFirstPointRelative
End If
...

According to the ObjectSelected boolean value retrieved as True:

• The iFirstPoint object is retrieved from the oSelection object using the value of the first item. There is only one item, because the IndicateOrSelectElement2D method allows you to select only one element.
• The oView object is retrieved from the oSelection object using the Find Object method and specifying the object DrawingView  type to be found: CATIADrawingView. A drawing point is already contained into a drawing view, even for those which are in the drawing sheet and not in any drawing views. In fact, there is a hidden drawing view corresponding to the drawing sheet, because you cannot create 2D geometry directly in the drawing sheet.
• The oFirstPointRelative array is retrieved from the iFirstPoint object using the GetCoordinates method. This array contains the coordinates of the selected point according to the reference axis of its drawing view.
• The oFirstPointAbsolute array is computed from the oFirstPointRelative array using the CatAbsoluteCoordinates procedure. In this procedure the drawing view location, angle and scale factor are retrieved from the oView object.

Otherwise, the oFirstPointAbsolute array already contains the location of the virtual point.

1. Select the first point. This point is located in the hidden view of the sheet and not in the Front view.
   
2. Select the second point. This point is located in the hidden view of the sheet and not in the Isometric view.
   

Defining the Print Area

...
' Define the coordinates of the print area's point
Dim XPrintArea As Double
Dim YPrintArea As Double

If oFirstPointAbsolute(0) > oSecondPointAbsolute(0) Then
    XPrintArea = oSecondPointAbsolute(0)
Else
    XPrintArea = oFirstPointAbsolute(0)
End If

If oFirstPointAbsolute(1) > oSecondPointAbsolute(1) Then
    YPrintArea = oSecondPointAbsolute(1)
Else
    YPrintArea = oFirstPointAbsolute(1)
End If

Dim WidthPrintArea As Double
Dim HeightPrintArea As Double

' Define the width and height of the print area
WidthPrintArea = Abs(oSecondPointAbsolute(0) - oFirstPointAbsolute(0))
HeightPrintArea = Abs(oSecondPointAbsolute(1) - oFirstPointAbsolute(1))

' Define and activate the print area of the drawing document
Dim oPrintArea As PrintArea
Set oPrintArea = oSheet.PrintArea

oPrintArea.SetArea XPrintArea, YPrintArea, WidthPrintArea, HeightPrintArea
oPrintArea.ActivationState = True
...

The print area is defined from a starting point and from its width and height. As this starting point must be in the left-bottom corner of the print area, to ensure this rule, two tests are performed to find the smallest abscissa and ordinate: XPrintArea and YPrintArea.
The width and height are computed form the coordinates of the selected points: WidthPrintArea and HeightPrintArea.
The print area object is retrieved from the oSheet object using the PrintArea method.
The oPrintArea object is defined using the SetArea method.
The oPrintArea object is activated using the ActivationState property set to True.

Visualizing the Print Area

...
oSelection.Add oSheet
CATIA.StartCommand "CATDrwVisualizePrintAreaHdr"
oSelection.Clear
 ...

To visualize the print area we have to run the specific command, but as this command can be run only with a selected sheet, we have to select it before: oSelection.Add oSheet
To run the command you can use its id or its alias. In English context, the alias is the name of the command "Visualize Print Area", but to ensure the macro works in a non-language context, we use its id "CATDrwVisualizePrintAreaHdr".