Getting Started with AutoCAD VBA 3 : Get inputs from user and display output

Overview

• In this tutorial I’ll show you how to use VBA to get input from user
• I am assuming that
  • you’ve already installed AutoCAD VBA Module
  • you have basic knowledge of VBA and how to create new method or functions
  • you already know how to draw basic objects , if not please go through this post first : Getting Started with AutoCAD VBA 1 : Line, Polyline, Circle, Arc, Rectangle, Point

Setup on AutoCAD

• Open blank AutoCAD file with default template, open Visual Basic Editor and Add new module
• Add any sample Code from below and just run it, try to change values like text, text Height, coordinates re-run it.
• Sample codes for each basic objects are given below. You can copy paste this code to VBA editor to directly run it without any inputs
• Current code is very simple, I’ll try to add bit more details into this code in future, like code to modify it’s different properties
• This is very basic code and self-explanatory, if you still need help then use AI tools like ChatGPT to understand this code, only contact me if everything else fail 😅

Display output to user

AutoCAD terminal

Sub SendMessage()
    'Added vbCrLf for new line
    ThisDrawing.Utility.Prompt "Hello World" & vbCrLf
End Sub

Sub SendMessage()
    Dim radius As Double
    radius = 5
    ThisDrawing.Utility.Prompt "Radius=" & radius & vbCrLf
End Sub

Message box

Sub SendMessage()
    MsgBox ("Hello World")
End Sub

Send Command

Sub SendCommand()
    ThisDrawing.SendCommand "_Circle" & vbCr & "0,0,0" & vbCr & "10" & vbCr
End Sub

Get Inputs

Get value from AutoCAD terminal

Sub GetString()
    'Get string input
    Dim title As String
    title = ThisDrawing.Utility.GetString(True, "Enter Drawing Title : ")
    
    'Print title
    ThisDrawing.Utility.Prompt "Your New Drawing title is " & title  & vbCrLf
End Sub

Sub GetDecimalValue()
    Dim radius As Double
    radius = ThisDrawing.Utility.GetReal("Enter Circle Radius : ")
    
    ThisDrawing.Utility.Prompt "Your circle radius is " & radius & vbCrLf
End Sub

Sub GetDecimalValue()
    Dim count As Integer
    count = ThisDrawing.Utility.GetInteger("Enter Circle Count : ")
    
    ThisDrawing.Utility.Prompt "Your circle count is " & count & vbCrLf
End Sub

Get value using input box

Sub GetInputUsingInputBox()
    'Integer
    Dim count As Integer
    count = CDbl(InputBox("Enter the number of the circle:", "Circle Count"))
    
    'Double
    Dim radius As Double
    radius = CDbl(InputBox("Enter the radius of the circle:", "Circle Radius"))
    
    'String
    Dim title As String
    title = CStr(InputBox("Enter the drawing title:", "Drawing Title"))
End Sub

Get Point from user

Sub GetPointFromUser()
 Dim basePoint As Variant
 basePoint = ThisDrawing.Utility.GetPoint(, "Pick Base point : ")
 
 ThisDrawing.Utility.Prompt "Selected base point is: " & basePoint(0) & ", " & basePoint(1) & ", " & basePoint(2) & vbCrLf
End Sub

Get Distance from user

Sub GetDistanceFromUser()
    Dim distance As Double
    distance = ThisDrawing.Utility.GetDistance(, "Specify Distance:")
    
    ThisDrawing.Utility.Prompt distance & vbCrLf
End Sub

Get Angle from user

Sub GetAngleFromUser()
 Dim angle As Double
 angle = ThisDrawing.Utility.GetAngle(, "Specify Angle")
  
 ThisDrawing.Utility.Prompt "Angle in radian is : " & angle & vbCrLf
End Sub

Get Keywords from user to switch between different options

Sub GetAngleFromUser()
 'Set Keyword input
 ThisDrawing.Utility.InitializeUserInput 1, "Height Width Depth"

 Dim result As String
 result = ThisDrawing.Utility.GetKeyword("Enter a keyword [ Height/Width/Depth ]:")
  
 ThisDrawing.Utility.Prompt "You've selected: " & result & vbCrLf
End Sub

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