The features described in this topic are obsolete
and should not be used in new IDL code.

Copying and Printing IDL Graphics

The VBCopyPrint example demonstrates how to use either the Windows clipboard or object graphics to print the contents of an IDLDrawWidget window.

This example illustrates the following concepts:

Opening the VBCopyPrint project

Select "Existing" from the Visual Basic New Project dialog. In the IDL distribution, change to the examples\docs\ActiveX\VBCopyPrint directory, and open the project VBCopyPrint.vbp, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 7-5: Opening the VBCopyPrint project

vbcopy.gif

Running the VBCopyPrint Example

Select "Start" from the Run menu to run the example. You should see the graphic shown in the following figure.

Figure 7-6: VBCopyPrint example

vbcopy2.gif

Copying IDL Graphic to the Clipboard

To copy the graphic, click on "Copy". The code for "Copy" uses the CopyWindow method to copy the contents of the graphic to the Windows clipboard as shown in line 6 of the following table.

Table 7-4: Copy button Source Code

Visual Basic 
1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
7 
8 
9 
10 

Private Sub cmdCopy_Click() 
  'Copy the direct graphics window to the clipboard 
  Screen.MousePointer = vbHourglass 
  'Erase anything currently on the clipboard 
  Clipboard.Clear 
  'Copy the draw widget to the clipboard 
  IDLDrawWidget1.CopyWindow  
  Screen.MousePointer = vbDefault 
  MsgBox "Window copied to clipboard." 
End Sub

Printing the IDL Graphic Using IDL Object Graphics

To print the graphic using IDL, click on "IDL Print". The "IDL Print" button uses IDL's object graphics to print the contents of the window by creating an image object and sending the image to a printer object through a user routine VBPrintWindow.

Table 7-5: IDL VBPrintWindow Code

IDL 
1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
7 
8 
9 
10 
11 
12 
13 
14 
15 
16 
17 
18 
19 
20 
21 
22 

PRO VBPrintWindow, DrawId 
                  . 
                  . 
                  . 
  ;Get the window index of the drawable to be printed 
  WIDGET_CONTROL, DrawId, Get_Value=Index 
                  . 
                  . 
                  . 
  ;Create a Printer object and draw the graphic to it 
  oPrinter = OBJ_NEW ('IDLgrPrinter') 
  
  ;Display a print dialog box 
  Result = DIALOG_PRINTERSETUP(oPrinter) 
                  . 
                  . 
                  . 
  oPrinter->Draw, oView 
                  . 
                  . 
                  . 
END ;VBPrintWindow

Executing IDL User Routines with Visual Basic

The VBCopyPrint example executes a user routine, written in IDL, to support the printing of the IDLDrawWidget window. This is done with the ExecuteStr method, as shown in line 4 below, by passing a string of the routine name along with the ID of the IDLDrawWidget.

Table 7-6: Print Button Source Code

Visual
 Basic 
1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
7 
8 
9 

Private Sub cmdPrintIDL_Click() 
  'Print the current drawable widget's window contents 
  'using IDL object graphics 
  Screen.MousePointer = vbHourglass 
  IDLDrawWidget1.ExecuteStr "VBPrintWindow," & 
    Str$(IDLDrawWidget1.DrawId) 
  Screen.MousePointer = vbDefault 
  MsgBox "Window sent to printer." 
End Sub

Printing the IDL Graphic Using Visual Basic

The VBPrint command uses the Windows clipboard and Visual Basic printer support to print the IDL Graphic, as shown in the following table.

Table 7-7: VBPrint Command

Visual Basic 
1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
7 
8 
9 
10 
11 
12 
13 
14 
15 
16 
17 

Private Sub cmdPrintVB_Click() 
  CommonDialog1.CancelError = True 
    On Error GoTo ErrHandler 
    CommonDialog1.ShowPrinter 
'-- Copy the window's contents to the clipboard 
    'Erase anything currently on the clipboard 
    Clipboard.Clear 
    IDLDrawWidget1.CopyWindow  
  '-- Send the picture located on the clipboard,  
  'to the printer 
    Printer.PaintPicture Clipboard.GetData, 0, 0 
    Printer.EndDoc  'Send it to the printer 
Exit Sub 
ErrHandler: 
  
    Exit Sub 
End Sub