When programming using VBA you manipulate objects that represent different aspects of an application as defined by its object model. Schematic diagrams showing the entire Maxsurf object model are displayed in Figure 1 through to Figure 7 on the following pages. It divides the Maxsurf application and the design model into several distinct objects. These objects may represent a single component of a model such as a marker, surface or grid line. Other objects within the model do not represent a physical part of the model but are used to store settings or data such as the hydrostatic data.

Each Object contains Properties and Methods:

§   Properties are variables that store details of the object such as the name, height or offset. The actual type and name of the properties are specific to each type of object.

§   Methods are functions that you can use to manipulate the object, such as Add, Delete or modify variables or aspects of the object.

A special type of object is a collection, a container storing an ordered set of objects of the same type. For example, the Markers collection in the Design object contains all of the markers in the design. Collections within the Maxsurf object model are named as the plural of the objects they contain. Collections in Maxsurf are initially empty.

Note

All of the collections in Maxsurf are 1-based i.e. the first item in the list has an index of one (1). Some care must be taken when programming in VBA, as it can use zero based collections and arrays in which the first item in the list has an index of zero (0).