Within automation, graphic drawing objects are called Shapes. The Shapes collection object contains all of the drawing objects in a document. Methods exist to enumerate all the shapes in the collection, add objects to the Selection collection, and create new shapes.
One of the most common uses of the Shapes collection is to create new shapes. There is a unique method to create each type of shape. For example, to create an ellipse use the AddEllipse method.
Properties
Methods
Item*
*default method
Example
The following script references the Shapes collection for the active layer.
Sub Main
'Declares mvApp as an object
Dim mvApp As Object
'Creates an instance of the MapViewer Application
'object and assigns it to the variable named "mvApp"
Set mvApp = CreateObject("MapViewer.Application")
'Makes MapViewer visible
mvApp.Visible = True
'Declares Plot as an object
Dim Plot As Object
'Creates a map document in MapViewer and assigns
'it to the variable named "Plot"
Set Plot = mvApp.Documents.Add(mvDocPlot)
'Declares PlotLayers as an object
Dim PlotLayers As Object
'Assigns the map document layers to the
'variable named " PlotLayers"
Set PlotLayers = Plot.Layers
'Declares CurrentLayer as an object
Dim CurrentLayer As Object
'Assigns the active plot layer to the
'variable named "CurrentLayer"
Set CurrentLayer = PlotLayers.ActiveLayer
'Assign the Shapes collection to the
'variable named "MapShapes"
Set MapShapes = CurrentLayer.Shapes
End Sub