Creating a Drawing Table

Interactive Drafting

Creating a Drawing Table

This macro shows you how to create a drawing table in Drawing document.

This macro creates a new drawing document. In the active view of the document we create a drawing table and specify merged cells, row sizes then column size.

CAADriDrawingTable is launched in CATIA [1]. No open document is needed.

CAADriDrawingTable.CATScript is located in the CAADriUseCases module. Execute macro (Windows only).

CAADriDrawingtable includes five steps:

Prolog
Creating and Specifying a New Drawing Document
Retrieving and Defining the Sheet
Retrieving and Defining the View
Creating the Drawing Table
Defining the Drawing Table Update
Modifying the Drawing Table

Prolog

  ...
    ' Set the CATIA popup file alerts to False
    ' It prevents to stop the macro at each alert during its execution
    CATIA.DisplayFileAlerts = False
  ...

The CATIA prompts are disabled thanks to the DisplayFileAlerts property of the Application object set to False.

Creating and Specifying a New Drawing Document

  ...
    ' Create a new drawing document
    Set oDrwDocument = CATIA.Documents.Add("Drawing")

    ' Set the drawing document standard
    oDrwDocument.Standard = catISO
  ...

A new drawing document is created and its standard is set to ISO.

Retrieving and Defining the Sheet

...
    ' Retrieve the drawing document's sheets collection
    Set oDrwSheets = oDrwDocument.Sheets

    ' Retrieve the active sheet
    Set oDrwSheet = oDrwSheets.ActiveSheet

    ' Set the sheet properties
    oDrwSheet.PaperSize = catPaperA4
    oDrwSheet.Orientation = catPaperLandscape
    oDrwSheet.Scale2 = 1
  ...

The sheets collection is retrieved from the oDrwDocument object using the Sheets method.
The sheet object is retrieved from the oDrwSheets collection using the ActiveSheet method.
The oDrwSheet properties set are A4 format, landscape orientation and 1:1 scale.

Retrieving and Defining the View

...
    ' Retrieve the active view of the sheet
    Set oDrwView = oDrwSheet.Views.ActiveView
  ...

The view object is retrieved from the oDrwSheet object using the ActiveView method.

Creating the Drawing Table

  ...
    ' Retrieve the view's tables collection
    Set oDrwTables = oDrwView.Tables
    
    ' Create a new drawing table
    Set oDrwTable = oDrwTables.Add(107, 70, 9, 9, 5, 20)

    ' Set the drawing table's name
    oDrwTable.Name = "Title Block"
  ...

The tables collection is retrieved from the oDrwView object using the Tables method.
The table object is created from the oDrwTables collection using the Add method:

At 107mm from the sheet origin along x.
At 60 mm from the sheet origin along y.
With 9 rows and a row size of 5mm.
With 9 columns and a column size of 20mm.
Named "Title Block"

Defining the Drawing Table Update

  ...
    ' Do not update drawing table modifications
    oDrwTable.ComputeMode = CatTableComputeOFF
  ...

The CatTableComputeOFF enumerate allows you to modify the drawing table without update visualization.

Modifying the Drawing Table

  ...
    ' Merge drawing table's cells
    oDrwTable.MergeCells 1, 1, 2, 2
    oDrwTable.MergeCells 1, 3, 1, 7
    oDrwTable.MergeCells 2, 3, 2, 7
    oDrwTable.MergeCells 4, 3, 1, 7
    oDrwTable.MergeCells 5, 4, 1, 5
    oDrwTable.MergeCells 6, 3, 2, 1
    oDrwTable.MergeCells 6, 4, 2, 5
    oDrwTable.MergeCells 6, 9, 2, 1
    oDrwTable.MergeCells 7, 1, 2, 1
    oDrwTable.MergeCells 7, 2, 2, 1
    oDrwTable.MergeCells 8, 3, 2, 1
    oDrwTable.MergeCells 8, 4, 2, 1
    oDrwTable.MergeCells 8, 5, 2, 1
    oDrwTable.MergeCells 8, 6, 2, 1
    oDrwTable.MergeCells 8, 7, 2, 1
    oDrwTable.MergeCells 8, 8, 2, 1
    oDrwTable.MergeCells 8, 9, 2, 1

    ' Set the drawing table's row sizes
    oDrwTable.SetRowSize 1, 20
    oDrwTable.SetRowSize 2, 4
    oDrwTable.SetRowSize 3, 5
    oDrwTable.SetRowSize 4, 7
    oDrwTable.SetRowSize 5, 5
    oDrwTable.SetRowSize 6, 7
    oDrwTable.SetRowSize 7, 2
    oDrwTable.SetRowSize 8, 3
    oDrwTable.SetRowSize 9, 7

    ' Set the drawing table's column sizes
    oDrwTable.SetColumnSize 1, 45
    oDrwTable.SetColumnSize 2, 20
    oDrwTable.SetColumnSize 3, 15
    oDrwTable.SetColumnSize 4, 15
    oDrwTable.SetColumnSize 5, 27
    oDrwTable.SetColumnSize 6, 18
    oDrwTable.SetColumnSize 7, 20
    oDrwTable.SetColumnSize 8, 15
    oDrwTable.SetColumnSize 9, 15
    
    ' Update drawing table modifications
    oDrwTable.ComputeMode = CatTableComputeON
  ...

The table's cells are merged using the MergeCells method.
Row and column sizes are modified using the SetRowSize and SetColumnSize methods.
The CatTableComputeON enumerate allows you to update drawing table visualization.

oDrwTable.MergeCells 1, 1, 2, 2 instruction is executed, cells (1,1), (1,2), (2,1), (2,2) are merged.

At the end of merging operation.

oDrwTable.SetRowSize 1, 20 instruction is executed, the first row is resized.

End of the macro.

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In Short

This use case has shown how to create a Drawing Table sheets using the Add method of the DrawingTables collection.

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References

[1]	Replaying a Macro
[2]	DrawingDocument, DrawingSheet, DrawingSheets, DrawingView
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