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Getting started in VB for your PC DMIS

I like many of you have done very little with VB. As for me; I had no idea where or how to start. I could not see how typing those hundreds of lines of script could ever save me any kind of time and as far as finding a way to learn it or someone to get me started that just got to be a joke, unless I went and took a full blown course (that I didn't even know if I'd get anything out of or if I would ever use”. I had given up.

Well the other day I happened across something I think might actually be of help and makes doing something in VB practical. I don’t need to write every one of those hundreds of lines of script, and I can start learning from myself.

What I did was I took a program I already have “A regular PC DMIS Program I built and run often” and did an EXPORT as BASIC. When I opened it up all those hundreds of lines of script were already in there and though in a different “form or language” what ever you want to call it I found that I could walk thru most if not all of it as it was the same program I have in PC DMIS also. Now rather than typing all that out I need only “ADD, SUBTRACT and CHANGE things to make it work for me.

Now I think I have a starting place to try some VB.

I don’t know maybe I’m the only one that did not know this? Maybe I’m not yet on the right track, But I think I have a starting place now and I know before this I was lost.

I hope this is helpful to some of you.

Best of luck,

Tested
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  • A little old, but I had to add to the "why" question in this posting.

    1. To do things that the Wilcox guys haven't thought of yet.
    2. To automate PC-DMIS operation with Robots, Pallet Loading systems, PLC's, Machine Tools, etc etc.
    3. To create macros that can do some pretty cool things like explode any feature into a set of points, and other things. One click to do anything you want.
    4. To do custom things that Wilcox wouldn't want to program for just one or two people (custom template creation via basic script as an example, custom naming scripts as another)
    5. Piecewise analysis of scans and features/programs with lots of data. For instance, you could create a basic script that fills out an excel sheet exactly the way you want it to. I think the Excel part is the hard part in this one, I struggled with it until I found some good examples.
    6. Each of the PC-DMIS wizards included in the installs are examples also. For example Multiexecute is a popular one, instead of putting a loop into your program to run multiple parts, multiexecute is the easier way, no code (since it already exists).
    7. I am sure there are other reasons, those are what I could think of. Scripting essentially makes the software extensible and open, allowing creativity and pushing the boundaries by those who love coding. In fact the real code guru's could use the basic scripting to run PC-DMIS from Visual Basic pretty easily. It would throw away CAD, but those code guys tend to want to do that anyways...

    Those are my thoughts...
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  • A little old, but I had to add to the "why" question in this posting.

    1. To do things that the Wilcox guys haven't thought of yet.
    2. To automate PC-DMIS operation with Robots, Pallet Loading systems, PLC's, Machine Tools, etc etc.
    3. To create macros that can do some pretty cool things like explode any feature into a set of points, and other things. One click to do anything you want.
    4. To do custom things that Wilcox wouldn't want to program for just one or two people (custom template creation via basic script as an example, custom naming scripts as another)
    5. Piecewise analysis of scans and features/programs with lots of data. For instance, you could create a basic script that fills out an excel sheet exactly the way you want it to. I think the Excel part is the hard part in this one, I struggled with it until I found some good examples.
    6. Each of the PC-DMIS wizards included in the installs are examples also. For example Multiexecute is a popular one, instead of putting a loop into your program to run multiple parts, multiexecute is the easier way, no code (since it already exists).
    7. I am sure there are other reasons, those are what I could think of. Scripting essentially makes the software extensible and open, allowing creativity and pushing the boundaries by those who love coding. In fact the real code guru's could use the basic scripting to run PC-DMIS from Visual Basic pretty easily. It would throw away CAD, but those code guys tend to want to do that anyways...

    Those are my thoughts...
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