How to have Excel driven 3D sketch points?

Hi All,

I would like to use SWX to demo the results of an Excel calculation.
How do I tie the cell value of the spreadsheet to the coordinates of
3D sketch points? If it works out, then the points will constrain a
sketched circle through them. I am hoping to see the circle rotate in
3D in SWX.

It is times like this, I realize how limited the help file is.

Thank you all,

Stephen

 

Why don't you use animator or equations to rotate the circle in an assembly.
Sorry I don't know much about tying the cells to SW points thought.

 

Stephen,

Easy enought to do. Start here, should get you rolling.

http://www.nhcad.com/old/html/excel.html

 

Thanks for the pointer. I am glad to know it is possible. I now have
a rough idea of what I need to do, but I am having trouble figuring
out what I should use to represent the X, Y, Z coordinates in the
equation editor. I know the points are refered to as Point1@PtsOnDish
and so on, but what does swx call the coordinates of the points? Are
these info covered somewhere?

Stephen

 

I'm not sure about Excel driven, but I have a copy of a macro that
drives point location froms a text file (that you could create from an
Excel file if you want). Maybe it will help.
Ken

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
These will be your X, Y, and Z points respectively. Save this section
(including the "-END-") as: C:/temp/pointcloud.txt.
1.25
1.125
..6325
0
1
0
2
3
5
8
3
4
7
3
9
4
2
9
-END-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's the macro:

' ***
' by Jim Sculley, edited by Matt Lombard
' requires a text file with xyz data at the hard coded location below
' ***
Dim swApp As Object
Dim currentDoc As Object
Const fileName = "C:/temp/pointcloud.txt"
Const swDocPART = 1
Const swDocASSEMBLY = 2
Dim nextLine As String
Dim xVal, yVal, zVal As Double
Dim point As Object

Sub main()
Const errorString = "You must have a part file open to use this
feature."
Set swApp = CreateObject("SldWorks.Application")
Set currentDoc = swApp.ActiveDoc
If currentDoc Is Nothing Then
swApp.SendMsgToUser (errorString)
End
End If
If (currentDoc.getType = swDocASSEMBLY) Then
swApp.SendMsgToUser (errorString)
End
End If
If (currentDoc.getType = swDocPART) Then
currentDoc.Insert3DSketch


Open fileName For Input As #1 ' Open file.
Line Input #1, nextLine 'Read line into variable.
nextLine = VBA.Trim(nextLine)
Do While Not (nextLine = "-END-") ' Loop until -END- is found.
xVal = Val(nextLine) 'convert string to number
Line Input #1, nextLine
yVal = Val(nextLine) 'convert string to number
Line Input #1, nextLine
zVal = Val(nextLine) 'convert string to number

Set point = currentDoc.CreatePoint2(xVal * 0.0254, yVal *
0.0254, zVal * 0.0254)
Line Input #1, nextLine
Loop
Close #1 ' Close file.

Else 'must be a drawing
swApp.SendMsgToUser (errorString)
End If
End Sub