How to open appication from taskbar with VBA?

Question

0.00/5 (No votes)

See more:

The application (for example: acad.exe [AutoCAD]) is in the taskbar(status is Minimum), I want to restore or maximize it in VBA.

Is that possible?

Any tips on these will be great help.

What I have tried:

With the code below I got the window names of the applications that are available in the Taskbar:

VB

Private Sub AppActivates(WindowName As String)

    Dim WD, task, n As Long
    Set WD = CreateObject("Word.Application")

    For Each task In WD.Tasks
        MsgBox task.Name
    Next

    WD.Quit
    Set WD = Nothing

End Sub

Example:

Basic_vba.pdf - Adobe Acrobat Reader DC
AutoCAD Mechanical 2016 - [sample_model.dwg]
20170424.txt - TeraPad
...

Posted 24-Apr-17 15:15pm

minhhn0205

Updated 25-Apr-17 11:32am

PIEBALDconsult

v4

Add a Solution

Comments

Richard MacCutchan 25-Apr-17 4:41am

You need to send a Windows message to the application that will make it active. But then what?

1 solution

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

Maciej Los · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-25T11:32:00

Take a look here: Using Visual Basic with AutoCAD - Andrew G. Roe - Google Books[^]
or here: AutoCAD 2004 VBA: A Programmer's Reference - Joe Sutphin - Google Books[^]

VB

Private Sub ActivateAutoCad()
 
    Dim ACApp As Object

    On Error Resume Next 
    Set ACApp = GetObject(,"AutoCAD.Application")
    If Err Then
        Err.Clear
        MsgBox("AutoCAD application is not running")
    Else
        ACApp.Activate
        'or
        'ACApp.SetFocus
        'or
        'ACApp.Visible = True
    End If

    Set ACApp = Nothing
 
End Sub

Another option is to use a statement like this:

VB

AppActivate "AutoCAD"

Final note: i'm not an expert of AutoCAD.