Creating Link Templates using ActiveX API in VBA and Lisp

By Gopinath Taget

Here is the sample VBA and VLisp code that shows how to create and delete link templates in AutoCAD. Do not forget to set references to CAO type library before running this code in AutoCAD's VBA IDE.

Sub fCreateLinkTemplate()

 

  Dim pDB As CAO.DbConnect

  Dim pLTs As CAO.LinkTemplates

  Dim pLT As CAO.LabelTemplate

  Dim pKeyDescs As CAO.KeyDescriptions

  Dim psDataSrc As String

  Dim psLinkTempName1 As String

  Dim psLinkTempName2 As String

  psDataSrc = "jet_dbsamples"

  psLinkTempName1 = "LTCreatedByVBCAO"

  psLinkTempName2 = "LTtobeDeleted"

 

  'get the DBCONNECT object

  Set pDB = ThisDrawing.Application.

    GetInterfaceObject("CAO.DBConnect.16")

  Set pLTs = pDB.GetLinkTemplates(ThisDrawing)

 

  'prepare the keydescriptions

  Set pKeyDescs = ThisDrawing.Application.

    GetInterfaceObject("CAO.KeyDescriptions.16")

  pKeyDescs.Add "TAG_NUMBER", kCaoTypeInteger

  pKeyDescs.Add "Manufacturer", kCaoTypeText

 

  'create two Link Templates

  pLTs.Add psDataSrc, "Catalog1",

    "Schema1", "Computer", psLinkTempName1, pKeyDescs

  pLTs.Add psDataSrc, "Catalog2",

    "Schema2", "Computer", psLinkTempName2, pKeyDescs

  'created Link Templates

  MsgBox "Created Link Templates : " & Chr(13) & "1) " &

    pLTs.Item(psLinkTempName1).Name _

  & Chr(13) & "2) " & pLTs.Item(psLinkTempName2).Name _

 

  'connect to the datasource

  pDB.Connect psDataSrc

  'delete the second linktemplate.

  'Comment the following statement if

  'you want to see both the link templates

  pLTs.Delete psLinkTempName2

End Sub

And here’s the Visual Lisp code using the ActiveX API:

(defun c:CreateLT()
  (vl-load-com)
  (setq pDoc (vla-get-ActiveDocument (vlax-get-acad-object)))

  ;get the DBConnect
  (setq pDBObj (vla-GetInterfaceObject
           (vlax-get-acad-object) "CAO.dbConnect"))
  (if (null pDBObj)
    (progn
      (alert "Cannot create CAO Automation server.")
      (exit)))

  ;get the linktemplates
  (setq pLTs(
       vlax-invoke-method pDBObj "GetLinkTemplates" pDoc))

  ;prepare the keydescriptions
  (setq pKeyDescs (
         vla-GetInterfaceObject (vlax-get-acad-object)
          "CAO.KeyDescriptions"))
  (vlax-invoke-method pKeyDescs
  "ADD" "TAG_NUMBER" 3 nil nil)
  (vlax-invoke-method pKeyDescs
  "ADD" "Manufacturer" 1 nil nil)

  ;create two link templates
  (vlax-invoke-method pLTs "ADD" "jet_dbsamples"
  nil nil "COMPUTER" "LTCreatedByVLispCAO" pKeyDescs)
  (vlax-invoke-method pLTs "ADD" "jet_dbsamples"
  nil nil "COMPUTER" "LTtobeDeleted" pKeyDescs)

  ;sample code to show how to delete the link template
  (vlax-invoke-method pLTs "delete" "LTtobeDeleted")
)