generating visio documents from text files

[Keith]

(Visio 2007)

What I really want to do is a little complicated to explain so let's say I
want to allow text driven creation of visio documents.

I've done this kind of thing before with Word and Excel but it was a few
years ago. Back then I think I used VB 6 stand alone to open the document
templates and do what I needed to do. Worked great. Everyone was happy.

Now I can't even figure out how to download VB 6. The VB Editor invoked by
tools/macro in Visio can't seem to open/compile the Visio SDK sample vbp
file I want to look at.

I've been cruising around the M/S site for a couple of hours but that is
about my limit before I post questions like this.

Why can't I open the Visio SDK sample vbp in the Visio VB Editor? Is it
really that crippled?

If I want to write a stand alone (eliminate the user having to open Vision)
app to generate a visio document from a text file, what do I write it in? Or
more, directly, is there a zero cost language solution or do I have to get
Visual Studio 200X to get VB 6?

 

[Al Edlund]

Well, the last time I looked vb6 was a product you had to purchase and
wasn't downloadable. The vb included with visio is vba, not quite the same
thing. The vb(6) code in the sdk has to be reworked, generally not a lot,
but there are some functions that are not available in vba (vb projects -
vbp are included in the not supported). Unfortunately a zero cost solution
that can call visio with a reasonable chance of working is not a high
probability alternative.

al

 

[Keith]

Well, the last time I looked vb6 was a product you had to purchase and
wasn't downloadable.

OK. No problem. I was able to download VB 2008 express for evaluation. I
thought maybe that was available for VB 6. To tell you the truth I don't
think I even found a link where I could purchase VB 6.

The vb included with visio is vba, not quite the same thing.

right, got that. that's why I'm looking for VB 6. I can do a stand alone
solution with VB 6, correct? More or less run the VB 6 program on text input
and generate a visio document. Right?

The vb(6) code in the sdk has to be reworked, generally not a lot,
but there are some functions that are not available in vba (vb projects -
vbp are included in the not supported). Unfortunately a zero cost solution
that can call visio with a reasonable chance of working is not a high
probability alternative.

Ok, thanks.

If you'll indulge one more question, can I buy VB 6 w/o Visual Studio 200X
or is it inseparable? I don't think the version I was using a few years ago
was integrated into a Visual Studio product.

thanks again

 

[Al Edlund]

I think the vb6 stuff was dropped, it's all .net now. The express products
don't support some of the features of the full blown visual studio (as you
might expect), but should work with the generic stuff in the sdk. Creating
drawings with visio still requires that visio be installed even if it is
wrapped in somebodies code, so if it's cost your worried about you haven't
saved anything by doing the wrapper yourself.
al

 

[Keith]

I think the vb6 stuff was dropped, it's all .net now. The express products
don't support some of the features of the full blown visual studio (as you
might expect), but should work with the generic stuff in the sdk. Creating
drawings with visio still requires that visio be installed even if it is
wrapped in somebodies code, so if it's cost your worried about you haven't
saved anything by doing the wrapper yourself.
al

I, personally, am not worried about the cost. The cost of getting s/w to
automate all this is going to be much less than the engineering time for
engineers to do a thousand diagrams by hand using word or framemaker or any
graphical drawing tool.

$100/hr * 1hr/diagram *1000 = $100,000 of engineering time. Automation
should be able to cut that in half not even taking into account rework. So
logically, I should have thousands to spend...

I just have to convince some manager types of that cost/benefit.

Thanks for your help.