Active X Inspector Functions

ActiveX Controls have been deprecated by Microsoft in the latest versions of the Windows operating system in favor of the DotNet framework and its controls.

While MAXScript still supports ActiveX controls, these have to be installed and registered on the system to be accessible to MAXScript.

As a replacement of ActiveX controls, MAXScript supports DotNet controls in 3ds Max 9 and higher.

The following Inspector Functions can be used to acquire lists of available ActiveX Controls and their methods, events, and properties:

showAllActiveXControls [ to:<stream> ]      

Prints a list of ActiveX controls with their progID and classID, registered on your system.

showMethods<axControl> [ to:<stream> ] [ showHidden:<false>]   

Prints a list of methods and their arguments that can be invoked on the control

showEvents <axControl> [ to:<stream> ] 

Prints a list of events and their arguments that are sent by the control

showProperties <axControl> [ to:<stream> ] [showHidden:<false>] 

Prints a list of the properties and their types, supported by the control. Some properties are marked read-only

getPropNames <axControl> [showHidden:<false>] 

Returns an array of the properties supported by the control

where

to:<stream> 

is the output stringstream.

showHidden:<boolean> 

controls whether hidden properties/methods should be included in the enumeration. The default value is false.

EXAMPLE

   rollout test "Test"
   (
     activeXControl lv "MSComctlLib.ListViewCtrl"
     on test open do
     (
       format "PROPERTIES:\n"
       showProperties lv
       format "METHODS:\n"
       showMethods lv
       format "EVENTS:\n"
       showEvents lv
     )
   )
   createDialog test

OUTPUT

   Rollout:test
   PROPERTIES:
   .Arrange : ListArrangeConstants( #lvwNone | #lvwAutoLeft | #lvwAutoTop )
   .ColumnHeaders : IColumnHeaders
   .DropHighlight : IListItem
   .DropHighlight : undefined, read-only
   .HideColumnHeaders : boolean
   .HideSelection : boolean
   .Icons : IVBDataObject
   .Icons : undefined, read-only
   .ListItems : IListItems
   .LabelEdit : ListLabelEditConstants( #lvwAutomatic | #lvwManual )
   .LabelWrap : boolean
   .MouseIcon : IPictureDisp
   .MousePointer : MousePointerConstants( #ccDefault | #ccArrow | #ccCross | #ccIBeam | #ccIcon | #ccSize | #ccSizeNESW | #ccSizeNS | #ccSizeNWSE | #ccSizeEW | #ccUpArrow | #ccHourglass | #ccNoDrop | #ccArrowHourglass | #ccArrowQuestion | #ccSizeAll | #ccCustom )
   .MultiSelect : boolean
   .SelectedItem : IListItem
   .SelectedItem : undefined, read-only
   .SmallIcons : IVBDataObject
   .SmallIcons : undefined, read-only
   .Sorted : boolean
   .SortKey : integer
   .SortOrder : ListSortOrderConstants( #lvwAscending | #lvwDescending )
   .View : ListViewConstants( #lvwIcon | #lvwSmallIcon | #lvwList | #lvwReport )
   .OLEDragMode : OLEDragConstants( #ccOLEDragManual | #ccOLEDragAutomatic )
   .OLEDropMode : OLEDropConstants( #ccOLEDropNone | #ccOLEDropManual )
   .Appearance : AppearanceConstants( #ccFlat | #cc3D )
   .BackColor : OLE_COLOR
   .BorderStyle : BorderStyleConstants( #ccNone | #ccFixedSingle )
   .Enabled : boolean
   .Font : IFontDisp
   .ForeColor : OLE_COLOR
   .hWnd : OLE_HANDLE
   .AllowColumnReorder : boolean
   .Checkboxes : boolean
   .FlatScrollBar : boolean
   .FullRowSelect : boolean
   .GridLines : boolean
   .HotTracking : boolean
   .HoverSelection : boolean
   .Picture : IPictureDisp
   .PictureAlignment : ListPictureAlignmentConstants( #lvwTopLeft | #lvwTopRight | #lvwBottomLeft | #lvwBottomRight | #lvwCenter | #lvwTile )
   .ColumnHeaderIcons : IVBDataObject
   .ColumnHeaderIcons : undefined, read-only
   .TextBackground : ListTextBackgroundConstants( #lvwTransparent | #lvwOpaque )
   METHODS:
   .FindItem sz:string Where:undefined Index:undefined fPartial:undefined
   .GetFirstVisible()
   .HitTest x:float y:float
   .StartLabelEdit()
   .OLEDrag()
   .Refresh()
   EVENTS:
   on <control_name> BeforeLabelEdit Cancel:integer do ( ... )
   on <control_name> AfterLabelEdit Cancel:integer NewString:string do ( ... )
   on <control_name> ColumnClick ColumnHeader:ColumnHeader do ( ... )
   on <control_name> ItemClick Item:ListItem do ( ... )
   on <control_name> KeyDown KeyCode:integer Shift:integer do ( ... )
   on <control_name> KeyUp KeyCode:integer Shift:integer do ( ... )
   on <control_name> KeyPress KeyAscii:integer do ( ... )
   on <control_name> MouseDown Button:integer Shift:integer x:OLE_XPOS_PIXELS y:OLE_YPOS_PIXELS do ( ... )
   on <control_name> MouseMove Button:integer Shift:integer x:OLE_XPOS_PIXELS y:OLE_YPOS_PIXELS do ( ... )
   on <control_name> MouseUp Button:integer Shift:integer x:OLE_XPOS_PIXELS y:OLE_YPOS_PIXELS do ( ... )
   on <control_name> Click do ( ... )
   on <control_name> DblClick do ( ... )
   on <control_name> OLEStartDrag &Data:DataObject &AllowedEffects:integer do ( ... )
   on <control_name> OLEGiveFeedback &Effect:integer &DefaultCursors:boolean do ( ... )
   on <control_name> OLESetData &Data:DataObject &DataFormat:integer do ( ... )
   on <control_name> OLECompleteDrag &Effect:integer do ( ... )
   on <control_name> OLEDragOver &Data:DataObject &Effect:integer &Button:integer &Shift:integer &x:float &y:float &State:integer do ( ... )
   on <control_name> OLEDragDrop &Data:DataObject &Effect:integer &Button:integer &Shift:integer &x:float &y:float do ( ... )
   on <control_name> ItemCheck Item:ListItem do ( ... )
   true
   OK

Type Conversion

All supported COM datatypes are converted to an appropriate MAXScript wrapper when passed to and from a COM object. Here are the supported types and their mapping:

undefined - VT_EMPTY
boolean - VT_BOOL
integer - VT_UI1
integer - VT_UI2
integer - VT_UI4
integer - VT_UI8
integer - VT_I1
integer - VT_I2
integer - VT_I4
integer - VT_I8
float - VT_R4
float - VT_R8
string - VT_BSTR
float - VT_CY
date - VT_DATE
error - VT_ERROR
color - VT_COLOR
MSDispatch - VT_DISPATCH
font - VT_FONT
undefined - VT_UNKNOWN
ComArray - VT_SAFEARRAY
ComArray - VT_CARRAY
ComArray - VT_ARRAY

Valid string handling for property sets and method call arguments, you can safely do

EXAMPLE

   ax.Navigate"http://www.autodesk.com"

where: ax is the Microsoft Web Browser Control