Officers:
Wayne Tiffany, President
Carl Gauger, Vice President
Jasen
Sappenfield, Secretary
Rod
Wickwar, Secretary
Charles Durio, Food
Chairman
Feb 2010
Date: Tuesday, 2/23/10
Time: 6:30 - 9:30pm
Place: Automatic Systems, Inc.
816-356-0660
Main
Topic: “API for VB.NET”
Guest Speaker: Richard Pitts, Engineering Manager, Great Western
Manufacturing Company Inc.
Here
is what Richard has to say:
Microsoft has announced VBA will eventually cease functioning,
and VB.NET is its replacement. This changes how API macros are handled.
This session discusses how these changes affect your API macros.
If you have never written an API macro, then this session will
help you get started. You will learn how to connect VB.NET to SolidWorks,
and begin making macros.
If you have written API macros in VBA, this session will help
show you how to convert your macros from VBA to VB.NET, and some of the issues
which must be dealt with manually from the conversion.
If you attended our last session on API, this session will
utilize traversing, SolidWorks Style, a different SolidWorks technique than was
used last session.
If you already write SolidWorks macros in VB.NET, this session
will cover some of the unique error handling techniques (time permitting.)
Session topics:
* Connecting
VB.NET and SolidWorks
*
Converting existing VBA files to VB.NET
*
Traversing faces (in our example we will highlight the main face of a flattened
sheet metal part)
* Error
Checking (We will go over a VB.NET error handling technique, Try -> Catch)
API macros are an extremely powerful tool to improve your
performance, while working with repetitive tasks. Come and learn how API
can improve your SolidWorks experience.
I
don’t know what else to add – come prepared with examples and questions.
Vendor:
Take
a look at the jpg that I attached. It’s from a sheet metal vendor that
has developed some weld-in corners. They will send me samples and
paperwork if we wish. Does anyone want to see that stuff? Let me
know.
Website:
As most of you know, we have a website that has a front page, and that’s about it from the front. But there is a lot of content there behind that front page that actually sees a fair bit of traffic. You know that I hope to have someone step up to make it more presentable, but that hasn’t happened yet.
We now have another resource provided by SolidWorks. Go to the SW forums (https://forum.solidworks.com/index.jspa) and then click on the Groups heading. Look at the Southern Minnesota group page to see what they have done. The purpose of these pages on the SW site is to provide a consistent location for people to find out about user groups. It doesn’t mean we have to choose one over the other, it just means that we have an opportunity. I think our group site is a good place to store documents, etc, but I also think the SW site page should be developed. Is there one of you out there that would like to take a look at what that would entail?
Other groups:
For those of you on the southern end of the KC region, keep in mind that there are now a couple groups south of us. One is in Joplin and they have had a few meetings – the most recent one Richard Pitts and I went to on the nice day we had in the midst of the last storm rounds. The other group is in Wichita which I went to IN the storm that we had at the beginning of Dec. Hmm, maybe it’s me??
For those of you to the north, keep the Lincoln, NE group in mind.
For those of you to the east, keep the St. Louis group in mind - their next meeting is 1/20/10.
Employment:
As many of you know, we sometimes have some group members that are looking for work, whether part time or full time. If you happen to be one that has work to offer, please keep this group in mind. Just let me know and I will pass the word.
Food: (Always good)
The menu has not been set yet, so if you have a
hankering for something, let me know. Suggestions?
Location:
If you go to www.mapquest.com and put in the address, it has a good map
for you. In general, ASI is down the hill from the stadiums at
Mark your calendars and plan on attending. Remember, the meetings are always good information, good company, and good food. Talk to your co-workers and suggest they also attend. As usual, please reply to this email with your confirmation of attendance so we know how much food to have on hand.
If you know of people that are not receiving these emails and should/want to, let me know. And if you know of people that have moved, make sure they keep me updated.
Wayne Tiffany
President
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