Samuel,
I'm posting an example here. I created a simple ATL COM class called SimpleAdder with one method: Add(), that just adds two numbers. I then implemented a model that calls the COM object's method as part of a user command named COMAdd.
To get this working on your computer, run a command line console as administrator, then cd to the FlexsimModel directory, and call regsvr32 TestATLCOMObject.dll. If this works (you don't get any errors), then you should be able to open the model in Flexsim, compile, and execute the script in the script console: COMAdd(5, 8), etc. and it should return back a valid sum of the two numbers.
What I did in Visual Studio to Create the COM Object
I think you can only use ATL if you have a standard version of Visual Studio (not Express). I think you can still create COM objects using VC++ Express, but you have to do it manually. I'm not a COM guru, so I'd have to spend hours figuring out all the files to edit to get it all right. Luckily for VS standard users, VS gives you easy wizards that streamline the process. So here's what I did in my VS 2008 Standard.
- Go to New > Project
- Choose ATL Project, enter the name TestATLCOMObject, and press OK
- Hit Finish in the ATL Project Wizard, using all the default settings.
- In the Solution Explorer pane, right-click on the TestATLCOMObject project, and choose Add > Class...
- Choose ATL Simple Object, and hit Add
- Type "SimpleAdder" as the Short Name, and that should fill in all the rest of the fields automatically. Hit Finish, leaving all the other settings as default.
- Now go to the Class View pane, right-click on the ISimpleAdder interface, and choose Add > Add Method...
- Enter "Add" as the name for the method.
- In this Add Method wizard, you're going to specify 3 parameters. For the first and second parameters, check the "in" box, choose DOUBLE as the type, and name them p1 and p2 respectively, then hit Add. For the third parameter, choose DOUBLE* as the type, check the "retval" box, then give it the name returnval, and hit Add.
- Finally, go back to the Solution Explorer pane, find SimpleAdder.cpp, and open it. You should see that a stub for the Add method should have been added for you. Now just enter the code: *returnval = p1 + p2; just before the return statement.
What I did to Create the Flexsim Model- Add a node into the Tools folder, give it text data, and toggle it as Global C++ (not C++, but Global C++). Then give it the text: #import "TestATLCOMObject.tlb". I can do this because I've put the tlb file in the same directory as the model. In version 5, the model directory is included as one of the include directories when compiling.
- Add a user command, give it the name COMAdd, specify the parameters as taking two number parameters, and in the code editor toggle it as C++, and give it the following code:
Code:
/**Call a COM object method*/
// This is a static int, so its value is preserved across multiple calls
// to this function.
static int initializedCOM = 0;
if(!initializedCOM)
{
CoInitialize(NULL);
initializedCOM = 1;
}
// declare a COM smart pointer to the simple adder interface
TestATLCOMObjectLib::ISimpleAdderPtr myAdder;
// create an instance of the simple adder class
myAdder.CreateInstance(__uuidof(TestATLCOMObjectLib::SimpleAdder));
// get accessor values
double p1 = parval(1);
double p2 = parval(2);
double returnval;
// call the add method on the interface
myAdder->Add(p1, p2, &returnval);
// return the value
return returnval;
- Apply, and compile the model, then test it by calling COMAdd() in the script console.
You can also implement this through a DLL if you like. Just move the user command's code into a DLL according to the instructions in the
DLL wiki. In this case you will no longer need to use the Global C++ toggled node in the model, since you can just call the #import command directly in your DLL's c++ file at the global scope.
Calling COM Components from within Flexsim
