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Three week ago I visited the Newton Excel Bach web site where I spotted the Dynamically Defined Dancing Pendulums NewtonExcelBach.
Having noticed that Doug had done a nice animation in Strand7 (a Finite Element Analysis program) Strand7, I thought “I can do that in Excel” and so I did.
This post will not go through the logic of constructing and animating the pendulums in Excel as I have described that over at Excelhero.com and readers who are interested are encouraged to visit there and explore the techniques used.
During the Pendulum project I came across two sub-projects which I felt are worthy of a post here at Chandoo.org as they are a great demonstration of some basic VBA techniques as well as demonstrating the ability of VBA to quickly simplify repetitive tasks.
Sample files are attached for Excel 97-2003 and Excel 2007/10 users to follow through the examples.
PENDULUM SIDE PROJECTS
The Pendulum project consists of 16 Pendulums. Each Pendulum requires 4 Named Formulas, meaning that the projects needs 64 Named Formulas for the 16 Pendulum, as well as adding 16 Series to the chart.
(The above animated GIF is a very poor representation of the smooth scrolling achieved in the Excel animation)
I thought it would be a great idea to see if these jobs could be automated and hopefully save some time during the process.
The result was 2 simple VBA routines which will be described below:
NAMED FORMULAS
Each Pendulum in the project was based around 4 Named Formulas
Named Formula for each Pendulum
p1Len =’1′!$B$9 The Length is stored on the worksheet.
p1o =OMax*SIN(SQRT(g/p1Len)*t) Current angular position of Pendulum 1 at time t
p1x =p1Len*SIN(p1o)*{0;1} Current orthogonal X position of Pendulum 1 at time t
p1y =-p1Len*COS(p1o)*{0;1} Current orthogonal Y position of Pendulum 1 at time t
The only difference between the formulas for Pendulum 1 and Pendulum 2 etc is the replacement of the names of p1 with p2 in the various Named Formulas and of the associated formulas.
On a worksheet Named Formulas a number of formulas were written which display the Named Formulas as required above. Then a small VBA routine was written which loads the Named Formulas.
How
On the Named Formulas worksheet, I have added two columns of formulas for the various Named Formulas required.
For the Pendulum Length Named Formulas
For the Pendulum Angular Position Named Formulas
For the Pendulum X Position Named Formulas
For the Pendulum Y Position Named Formulas
When the formula above are copied down they adjust for the various pendulums numbered 1 to 16 based on the row numbers.
I then setup a VBA routine, Load_Named_Ranges, shown below which loads the Named Formulas.
To Use
Select some or all of the required Named Formulas from the Name Column. That is the code will only load the Selected Named Formulas, allowing the user to load 1 or 2 Named Formulas, for testing purposes, or all the Named Formulas if you choose.
Then Execute the Load_Named_Ranges subroutine either using the Big Red Button or directly within the VBA Editor.
The following will load Named Formulas p3Len to p7Len.
The Load_Named_Ranges subroutine is shown below:
Sub Load_Named_Ranges() Dim c As Range For Each c In Selection ActiveWorkbook.Names.Add Name:=c.Text, RefersTo:=c.Offset(, 1).Text Next End SubWhat does the code do?
The code:
1. Defines the start and name of the subroutine,
Sub Load_Named_Ranges()
2. Defines a variable c as a Range object,
Dim c As Range
3. It then loops through each cell in the selection and assigns it to the variable ‘c’;
For Each c In Selection
4. It then adds a new Named Formula,extracting the Name from the Text Value of ‘c’ and extracts the formula from the cell directly to the right of cell ‘c’;
ActiveWorkbook.Names.Add Name:=c.Text, RefersTo:=c.Offset(, 1).Text
The Name and Formula (RefersTo) both use the Text of the cell, which is what is displayed.
5. It then loops through each cell in the selection until it has done them all;
Next
6. Defines the end of the subroutine;
End Sub
Lets Test It
To test the subroutine we will first delete all the Named Formulas beginning with “p”
Goto the Formula Ribbon Bar and select Name Manager
Select all the Named Formulas that begin with “P” and press the delete button
Accept any warnings
Try and Run the Pendulum’s
Nothing happens as there are no formulas
Ensure the Pendulum are turned off, as the code is still running behind the scenes.
Now Goto the Named Formulas Page
Select all the Named Formula Names in Name Column; B3:B66
Click the Load Named Formulas, button
Go back to Page 1 and try and run the Pendulums now.
ADD CHART SERIES
The second sub-project was the addition of 16 Chart series to the Chart, 1 for each Pendulum.
Using the logic of the Named Formulas VBA code above, the 16 Chart Series Names, X Values and Y values were developed using formulas on the Add Cht Series worksheet and then loading into a chart using a simple VBA routine.
The Add_Cht_Series subroutine is in the Add Cht Series sheet object in the VBA editor.
How
On the Add Cht Series worksheet, I have added three columns of formulas for the various Named Formulas required.
For the Pendulum Name, X Range and Y Range.
When these formulas are copied down they adjust for the various pendulums numbered 1 to 16.
I have then setup a VBA routine, Add_Chart_Series, shown below which loads the Named Formulas.
To use Select some or all of the required Chart Series from the Pendulum Name column.
Then Execute the Add_Chart_Series subroutine using the big red button.
The Add_Chart_Series subroutine is shown below:
Sub Add_Cht_Series() Dim sNumb As Integer Dim c As Range Worksheets(“1”).ChartObjects(“Chart 5”).Activate For Each c In Worksheets(“Add Cht Series”).Range(“B19:b20”) sNumb = ActiveChart.SeriesCollection.Count + 1 ActiveChart.SeriesCollection.NewSeries ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(sNumb).Name = c.Text ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(sNumb).XValues = c.Offset(, 1).Text ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(sNumb).Values = c.Offset(, 2).Text Next End Sub
What does the code do?
The code:
1. Defines the start and name of the subroutine,
Sub Add_Cht_Series()
2. Defines a variable sNumb as an integer, and a variable c as a Range object
Dim sNumb As Integer Dim c As Range3. It then activates the Chart containing the pendulum
Worksheets(“1”).ChartObjects(“Chart 5”).Activate
4. It then loops through each cell in the Range defined by the Range, in this case B19:B20 and assigns it to the variable ‘c’; You can adjust the Range to suit.
For Each c In Worksheets(“Add Cht Series”).Range(“B19:B20”)
5. It then counts how many existing series are in the chart and sets the next Series Number sNumb to that value + 1.
sNumb = ActiveChart.SeriesCollection.Count + 1
6. The next 4 lines add a new series to the chart and setup the new series Name, X Value and Y Values. The Name, X Value and Y Values are retrieved from the Text of the cell c and the adjacent two cells using a Range Offset modifier
ActiveChart.SeriesCollection.NewSeries ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(sNumb).Name = c.Text ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(sNumb).XValues = c.Offset(, 1).Text ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(sNumb).Values = c.Offset(, 2).Text7. It then loops through each cell in the selection until it has done them all;
Next
8. Define the end of the subroutine;
End Sub
Lets Test It
To test the subroutine we will first delete a few of the Chart Series
Select the Chart
Select two Pendulums noting the series Number of the Bobs eg: 9 & 10
Goto the Add Chart Series Worksheet
Note the Range Corresponding to the 2 missing Pendulum B11:B12
Goto the VBA Editor
Adjust the Line
For Each c In Worksheets(“Add Cht Series”).Range(“B11:B12”)
With your cursor in the Subroutine press F5 once only
Go back to Page 1 and you should now have 2 New Pendulum
Run the Pendulums now.
You will have to manually set the shape of the Bobs to a Circle and size 15 and re-arrange the order of the series to ensure they are in order, but you can practice that manually.
SUMMARY
The post has shown how using some very simple VBA and a bit of lateral thinking to put together some simple tools to simplify 2 common and repetitive tasks.
In the Named Formulas case, the code took less than 2 minutes for me to write and then another 5 minutes to do the formulas for the Named Formulas. I didn’t try but I am sure it would have taken a good 20+ minutes to enter 64 Named Formulas.
Writing this post took much longer than doing the whole Pendulum Project.
Two examples during my working career, where VBA code has been used to save massive amounts of time and money:
In the first case I wrote some code to combine data from several hundred workbooks with varying numbers of sheets up to 30 and differing quantities of data on each sheet, a task that could have taken weeks manually with the included opportunity for errors to be introduced, into a subroutine which took 30 minutes to run and gave a printout of the results including what files, sheets and rows of data were included in the import.
In a second case a Number of Workbooks, a Word template and some VBA code was used to replace a person whose sole job was to manage that data. This job saved the company $50k+ per annum and the task was given to a clerical person who could now do the task in their spare time.
LINKS
Huis Excel Hero Pendulum: http://www.excelhero.com/blog/
Pendulum Physics: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/pend.html
Newton Excel Bach: http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/2011/05/25/dancing-pendulums-2/
What could your simplify by using automation within Excel ?
What could you simplify or speedup using Excel automation?
Let us know in the comments below:
38 Responses to “Time to showoff your VBA skills – Help me fix ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert snafu”
I tried your code with 2003, it works.
But, I know Addpicture does not take URLs anymore with 2007 onwards, perhaps its the same with picture.insert as well.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928983/en-us
The above link gives the solution as "picture fill in a shape such as a rectangle".
Tried to recreate this, but it worked fine for me. I just took the image of the error you showed in the post. Is there more info that can narrow this down a bit?
Don't know if this helps?
http://www.theserverside.com/discussions/thread.tss?thread_id=47101
Hi
Not sure if this is what you're after, but I just tried this
Sub Macro1()
ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert("http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/images/logo.gif").Select
End Sub
Tied a button to it on the sheet and it seems to work; hope this helps a little
Ian
@All.. the issue is in Excel 2007. In 2003 ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert seems to work fine. Unfortunately, I have design this in Excel 2007.. that is why I posted it here..
v2
Sub Macro1()
Set n = ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert("http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/images/logo.gif")
With Range("c12")
t = .Top
l = .Left
End With
With n
.Top = t
.Left = l
End With
End Sub
Ian
That didn't come out very well. This positions at c12, so can change easily:
Sub Macro1()
Set n = ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert("http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/images/logo.gif")
With Range("c12")
t = .Top
l = .Left
End With
With n
.Top = t
.Left = l
End With
End Sub
Works OK in 2007
Ian
The above codes work fines to my EXCEL 2007. Thanks.
Chandoo:
Try 'ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert'
With ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert("C:\Example.png")
.Left = ActiveSheet.Range("A1").Left
.Top = ActiveSheet.Range("A1").Top
End With
activesheet.pictures.insert "C:\Documents and Settings\Jon Peltier\Desktop\2007 stuff\insert_charts_2007.png"
Works for me in 2003 SP3 and in 2007 SP2.
Check the URL, and make sure you have internet connectivity.
What also works, and is newer (pictures.insert was supposedly deprecated in '97):
activesheet.shapes.addpicture "C:\Documents and Settings\Jon Peltier\Desktop\2007 stuff\insert_charts_2007.png", false, true, 200,200,100,100
Unfortunately you must specify dimensions (the last four arguments) and you don't necessarily know them. But the picture size is still related back to the original picture size, so you could use scaleheight and scalewidth to fix this.
Chandoo: I just re-read your post.
The code I posted works for me. However, I'm using a local picture. If you try to add a picture from the web, this won't work.
I remember solving this problem before by adding a rectangle shape first, then using the Shapes.AddPicture method to get a picture from the web.
I'll find that code and post it here.
Some more updates... The code "ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert (path)" works fine in Excel 2007 at home. Strange it failed miserably on my work laptop. Do you think this has got something to do with SP2 of MS Office 2007 or something like that?
@Ian, Jon: Thanks for the code snippets. I guess I will use my home installation of excel to do this.
Chandoo:
Try this on your work laptop:
Sub test()
ActiveSheet.Shapes.AddShape msoShapeRectangle, 50, 50, 100, 200
ActiveSheet.Shapes(1).Fill.UserPicture _
"http://www.datapigtechnologies.com/images/dpwithPig6.png"
End Sub
FYI:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928983/en-us
I didn't mean to post code with a local file, because both approaches worked with an internet image as well. This is in Excel 2007 SP2.
activesheet.pictures.insert "http://peltiertech.com/images/2009-07/col_area_noblanks.png"
Jon: Looks like I have SP1 on my client machine! I wasn't paying attention.
Just checked my home computer where I have SP2, and you're right...looks like they fixed it.
I didn't even bother testing in SP1, though I could if anyone cares enough.
I'm afraid I don't have a solution, but I find it remarkable that after attaining a certain status in the Excel world, Chandoo does not need to post on an Excel discussion forum to get help for an Excel problem. Instead, he posts on his blog and all the gurus come rushing to his help.
Isn't Web 2.0 great?
Teylyn - I saw Chandoo's tweet first, and followed the link back to his blog.
@Mike.. thank you. I have seen the fill rectangle solution before posting the query here. For that matter, I have also tried the solution of embedding a browser control on a spreadsheet. both of these seemed a bit extreme. That is why I have asked it here.
But I guess I will end up using it if I had to build this in work laptop.
@Teylyn: I have thought of posting this in a forum. (Unfortunately I have not been to any excel group in the last 5 years. Last time I was active was when I built a jave based excel sheet construction solution using POI.HSSF classes of Apache... ) After searching for a few hours, I found several forum posts where others had same problem and the solution recommended (using .left and .top parameters) is not working for me. Incidentally most of these solutions are from a certain Jon Peltier 😛
I thought may be the problem is interesting for fellow blog readers. So I posted it here.
Hi,
Adapting the code in the question,
[code]
Sub InsPicture()
pPath = "http://chandoo.org/images/pointy-haired-dilbert-excel-charts-tips.png"
With ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert(pPath)
.Left = Range("a1").Left
.Top = Range("a1").Top
End With
End Sub
[/code]
Seems to work fine
Looks like it was a problem in 2007 up to SP1, which was corrected in SP2.
@Jon.. seems like the case. I just checked the version at work laptop. it is 12.0.6331.5000 (SP1).
Thank you so much every one. I really appreciate your time and suggestions in solving this.
Glad to help. I couldn't understand why something so straightforward wasn't working.
Hi All
Is there a way of inserting a motion clip eg animated gif or swf or flv?
Thks
You can insert animated GIFs by inserting them in a browser control through VBA. For other types of movies, I can guess you can insert them as clip art.
I WANT THE INSERT PICTURE BY USING COADING
so currently i was struggling same as you, chandoo, with the insert picture method in excel 2007/10 from an url and came along your thread here.
so i re-designed the code on the addshape method as mike was suggesting it and all of the sudden it works just fine.
thanks alot to you guys, you were a great help
a big salut from switzerland
Hi guys,
I need help copying and pasting an image with the path in a cell.
I leave the code.
And thank you very much!
Sub Copiarimg()
Dim pic As Picture
With ActiveSheet
Set pic = .Pictures.Insert(Range("f2").Value)
With .Range("e9:g22")
pic.Top = .Top
pic.Left = .Left
pic.Width = .Width
pic.Height = .Height
End With
End Sub
I've played around with the approaches in these comments, and the code below is what I've come up with. The ImagePath can be a local file or a URL. As Jon mentioned above, the trick is to set an arbitrary value for the width and height, then call the ScaleWidth and ScaleHeight methods afterward to reset the picture to its original size. Once the LockAspectRatio property is set, you can change the picture width and the height will automatically scale (or vice-versa).
Sub AddPictureToRange(TopLeftCellAddress As String, ImagePath As String)
Dim pic As Shape
Dim l As Single, t As Single
Dim temp As Single
l = Me.Range(TopLeftCellAddress).Left
t = Me.Range(TopLeftCellAddress).Top
temp = 10# ' arbitrary value
Set pic = Me.Shapes.AddPicture(ImagePath, msoFalse, msoTrue, l, t, temp, temp)
pic.ScaleHeight 1#, msoTrue
pic.ScaleWidth 1#, msoTrue
pic.LockAspectRatio = msoTrue
End Sub
I need some help with inserting pictures. I have an excel file with a column of item numbers next to this row I want to insert a picture of this item. The pictures are coded with the item number so I tried to insert it with one of the codes above:
Sub InsPicture()
pPath = "http://img.bricklink.com/P/80/55236.gif"
With ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert(pPath)
End With
End Sub
That worked but I need to do that for every row separtly.
So I tried in the code
pPath = "http://img.bricklink.com/P/80/"&Text(a1;"#")&".gif"
But that gives errors.
Anybody ideas?
Hi Nicholas, I used your solution in a related problem in Excel 2003 and it worked flawlessly..thank you!
Hi Mike Alexander,
Your solution with some changes was helpful in my problem in XL 2007, thanks.
Hi,
thanks all. In addition, I had a problem with multiple pictures inserting (every new picture replaced the prior one). I've changed it a bit, may be helpful..
Sub test()
ActiveSheet.Shapes.AddShape msoShapeRectangle, 50 , 50, 100, 200
ActiveSheet.Shapes(1).Fill.UserPicture _
"http://www.datapigtechnologies.com/images/dpwithPig6.png"
ActiveSheet.Shapes(1).Copy
ActiveSheet.Paste
End Sub
Try this instead:
Sub test()
ActiveSheet.Shapes.AddShape msoShapeRectangle, 50 , 50, 100, 200
ActiveSheet.Shapes(ActiveSheet.Shapes.Count).Fill.UserPicture _
"http://www.datapigtechnologies.com/images/dpwithPig6.png"
End Sub
Thanks to everyone, this thread has been very helpful. However, image inserting still doesn't work quite as expect for me.
While I can get a picture inserted into an Excel 2010 worksheet using either:
1) ActiveSheet.Shapes(ActiveSheet.Shapes.Count).Fill.UserPicture...
2) ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert(pPath), and
3) Shapes.AddPicture...
unfortunately the images all insert with a display size determined not by the actual pixel dimensions of the image but by the dpi resolution.
So for example, if I insert two copies of the exact same 600x600 pixel image, one with a 300dpi resolution and the other with 72dpi, they display at vastly different sizes on screen.
While this might be intended behaviour for Excel in order to maintain a WSYWIG printing layout, I actually need a way to insert the image based on the the actual pixel dimesnsions and ignoring the dpi resolution.
Any help appreciated.
Thanks
Kez
Not doing an intentional bump, but realised I posted in rely to one of the repsonses here instead of to the main thread, so reposting.
=====
Thanks to everyone, this thread has been very helpful. However, image inserting still doesn’t work quite as expected for me.
While I can get a picture inserted into an Excel 2010 worksheet using any of the below methods:
1) ActiveSheet.Shapes(ActiveSheet.Shapes.Count).Fill.UserPicture....
2) ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert(pPath), and
3) Shapes.AddPicture....
unfortunately the images all insert with a display size determined not by the actual pixel dimensions of the image but by the dpi resolution.
So for example, if I insert two copies of the exact same 600×600 pixel image, one with a 300dpi resolution and the other with 72dpi, they display at vastly different sizes in Excel on screen.
While this might be intended behaviour for Excel in order to maintain a WYSIWYG printing layout, I actually need a way to insert the images based on the the actual pixel dimesnsions and ignoring the dpi resolution.
Any help appreciated.
Thanks
Kez
Well, answered my own question 🙂
For those who might be interested, you can use this function:
Public Function GetPicDims(strFilePath As String, strFileName As String) As String
GetPicDims = CreateObject("Shell.Application").Namespace((strFilePath)). _
ParseName(strFileName).ExtendedProperty("Dimensions")
End Function
to get the dimensions of the image you want to insert. Then you can parse the return string and use the width and height values to add a rectangle shape of the appropraite size, like:
ActiveSheet.Shapes.AddShape msoShapeRectangle 50, 50, iWidth, iHeight
which you then fill with the picture:
ActiveSheet.Shapes(ActiveSheet.Shapes.Count).Fill.UserPicture "c:\temp\test.jpg"
This way the picture gets inserted using the pixel dimensions and the (print) resolution gets ignored.
If desired, the GetPicDims function can be made more generic to get other ExtendedProperties.
Regards
Kez