What's out there.....

[Coolmo]

Out of curiosity, and in no way do I want to obtain these programs, but what kind of stuff do people write VBA programs for? Are they simple tasks that are just better automated or are they very graphical and involved with multiple databases and such. just wanted to compare what I do with the rest of the world.

Thanks

[Ed Jobe]

Almost everything I do is some kind of automation. Either the task would be next to impossible without programming, or just to save a few click/keystrokes. For a full-blown application, vb is an option.

[Coolmo]

What kind of full blown applications?

I mostly work with LDD and I find that a lot of its "stuff" is either incorrect or isn't geared towards our standards so I start from scratch and write my own programs to mimic LDD the way I want it to work. Of course a lot of the stuff I do is just a starting point that I'll later enter into LDD databases. For instance, I have a lisp routine that helps greatly in the design and redesign of vertical curves and once the vertical curve has been nailed down in my program you can just select the tangents to import into Softdesk. I also HATE the way pipeworks does things visually so I completely wrote my own "pipeworks" in VBA that lets you import info from StormCAD and work with it to draw and edit storm boxes in profile. It completely gears the way things are drawn to our standards. I also have a program that helps design superelevated roads and enters info into the profile and draws correct cross sections for ya.

The other stuff I do is simple stuff like parking lot routines and text manipulation.

[degrawmd]

I write full blown custom applications in VBA that are specific to the trade show industry. Both 2D trade show floorplan layout to 3D custom exhibit design. All of which is tied to a database for either extracting exhibitor info or sending info for inventory control etc. Most of the software utilizes a "virtual" object approach to avoid using block libraries. All part geometries are stored in code with part number and other specific info being attached from a database parts master. I use custom tool palette for those items that are way to complex to store in the form of geometry.