NET language (C# or VB.NET) which provides more flexibility and leverages the power of. Visual STudio for Application (VSTA) macros based on. Those macros will only have one module and cannot use classes or user forms. If it is required to use any 3rd party type library it is possible to do so via Late binding. These macros cannot reference any 3rd party type libraries (such as Excel, File System Object, etc.) and will only include references to SOLIDWORKS type libraries. This is in particular useful when macro code is maintained within the control version services such as SVN or GIT. Which makes it readable and editable outside of SOLIDWORKS environment with any text editors (such as Notepad).
The only difference that these macros are saved in plain text format with *.swp extensions. Similar to *.swp macros these types of macros are based on VBA6 and VBA7 languages. Macros are saved in the binary format with *.swb extension and can be viewed and edited by SOLIDWORKS VBA Editor only. Refer Visual Basic Tutorials for more documentation about this language. VBA6 and VBA7 are derived languages from Visual Basic 6. The macros are based on VBA7 (for SOLIDWORKS 2015 and newer) and VBA6 for older versions.
#SOLIDWORKS VISUAL BASIC FOR APPLICATIONS INSTALL#
It is not required to install any additional software to run macros (the only exception are VSTA 3.0 macros which require the stand-alone installation of Visual Studio) VBA Macros (*.swp) Macros can be edited directly in the built-in VBA Editor and can be executed in SOLIDWORKS using out-of-the-box engine.