civil design

[chrisw.94380]

Right now in our office we are using civil design. However we only have a certain number of licenses. The problem that we are running into is that people are leaving civil design open and not using it. Is there a way with VBA to write a macro to prompt the user every hour or so to see if they are still using this license and also have a auto-timeout that closes the license if they do not respond in five minutes. Just checking to see if this is possible with VBA and if not are there any suggestions out there. thank you

[rkmcswain]

Unlike most other network licensed products, CD and ARD run inside of AutoCAD itself so there is no way for the TIMEOUT feature of the NLM to know if these products are inactive or not.

For ARD, the user can manually release the license by running the IUNLOAD command

For CD, the user can manually release the license by running the UNLOADCD command

I don't see why you couldn't write a routine that prompts the user every so often to release the license. If the user is done, or if the routine does not get a response in a certain amount of time - your routine could run the UNLOADCD command.

[chrisw.94380]

This seems like it might be easier to write in lisp though I do not have much knowledge with VBA. Does anyone know if it is easier to write in VBA or lisp and if so then I will move this to the lisp forum.

[rkmcswain]

I would say this would be easier in VBA

Here is a start. Note that the variable sd is hardcoded. You will have to figure out how to store a date/time and keep it updated based on whatever criteria you desire.

This example is tied to the ERASE command. You could change this.

Obviously, there is no error checking included in this either, like I said - just a start.

Private Sub AcadDocument_EndCommand(ByVal CommandName As String)
Dim tmp, ret, ct
ct = Now
sd = CDate("12/28/2005 16:00:00")
If CommandName = "ERASE" Then
    If ct > sd Then
        ret = MsgBox("Can we unload Civil Design now?", vbYesNo, "Title")
        If ret = 6 Then ThisDrawing.SendCommand "UnloadCD" & vbCr
    End If
End If
End Sub

[chrisw.94380]

Thanks I'll have to look through my vba books here to find out how to code but hopefully that is a good start for me.

[chrisw.94380]

If anyone has anymore input on code please feel free to add. Thank you

[ntaylor]

See the section here on using windows timers http://www.cpearson.com/excel/ontime.htm.
I would set a timer in the EndCommand event (kill the prev timer) this way it should fire as soon as no commands have completed in the specified time.

Regards - Nathan

[chrisw.94380]

I have figured out what I want to do. I want a macro that will load civil design when it is ran. Also every hour have a window pop up asking you if you are still using civil design with a yes or no button. There will be a 5 minute timer that starts when this window pops up and if there is no input of yes or no then it will unload civil design. How hard would this be for someone who hasn't really done much in VBA?

[chrisw.94380]

Does anyone have any examples or other input for this. thank you

[rkmcswain]

Does anyone have any examples or other input for this. thank you

What's wrong with the code I posted together with the suggestions from ntaylor ?

Are you wanting someone to put together a complete solution for you?