Setting the path to idl32.dll in IDLDrawWidget ActiveX Control in Visual Basic 6.0

Setting the path to the idl32.dll in the IDLDrawWidget ActiveX Control in Visual Basic 6.0.

There are two ways to set the path to the DLL idl32.dll when using the IDLDrawWidget ActiveX Control.

In Visual Studio 6.0 display the form that contains the IDLDrawWidget ActiveX Control. Right click on the IDLDrawWidget to bring up the IDLDrawWidget Control Property sheet. Select IDLDrawWidget Control Properties. In this property sheet you can set the path for IdlPath. For IDL 5.6 this path is normally c:\rsi\idl56\bin\bin.x86.

The second way is to set the IdlPath Property in your application at design time or at runtime prior to a call to InitIDL or SetOutputWnd. The Example Code section contains an example of setting the IDLPath Property in the VBHelloWorld example code. Note that setting the path to idll32.dll in the application will always override the path set in the IDLDrawWidget Control property sheet. To set the path in the property sheet instead comment out the line in your application setting the IDLPath.

Private Sub Form_Load()
    
    'To avoid the IDL path dialog box, enter your path to IDL here.
    IDLDrawWidget1.IdlPath = "c:\rsi\idl56\bin\bin.x86"
    
    'Initialize IDL, Returns 1 on Success, 0 on Failure
    If IDLDrawWidget1.InitIDL(Me.hWnd) <> 1 Then
        MsgBox "Error initializing IDL."
        End
    End If
    
    'Create the draw widget
    IDLDrawWidget1.CreateDrawWidget
    IDLDrawWidget1.ExecuteStr "Device, Decomposed=0"
End Sub