Adding inputs

An input is a value the user fills in before the run. You declare it in the macro; SwMacroFlow builds the control, validates what is typed, and substitutes the value into your code before it runs.

Declare one Const per input, valued with an "@Name" token, and describe it in the comment tail. Declarations work in any standard module.

Const SheetName    As String = "@SheetName"    'Type: String     'Tooltip: "Sheet to activate"   'Value: "Sheet1"
Const Quantity     As String = "@Quantity"     'Type: Integer    'Tooltip: "How many"            'Value: 1
Const DryRun       As String = "@DryRun"       'Type: Bool       'Tooltip: "Report only"         'Value: True
Const TemplatePath As String = "@TemplatePath" 'Type: FilePath   'Value: ""    'Filter: ".drwdot"
Const ExportFolder As String = "@ExportFolder" 'Type: FolderPath 'Value: "C:\Temp"
Const Mode         As String = "@Mode"         'Type: Option     'Value: "PDF" 'Options: PDF, DXF, STEP
Const OutputName   As String = "@OutputName"   'Type: String     'Tooltip: "File name pattern"   'Value: "{PartNumber}_{Revision}.pdf"

Then just use them:

model.Extension.SaveAs ExportFolder & "\" & OutputName, 0, 0, Nothing, 0, 0

No helper code, no reading a settings file. The form labels each field with the name minus its @, so "@SheetName" shows as SheetName. The Const identifier is what your VBA reads; the label comes from the token.

The shape of a declaration

Const <Name> As String = "@<Token>"   '<Key>: <value>   '<Key>: <value>

• Const at the start of the line, optionally indented.
• As String - required, on every input. See Everything arrives as a string below.
• The token is the entire string literal: "@Token", nothing else inside the quotes.
• The metadata is a normal VBA comment tail. Keys are separated by ', and each runs until the next ' that actually introduces a key - so an apostrophe inside a tooltip is data, not a delimiter.

The metadata keys

All optional, all case-insensitive, and unknown keys are ignored.

Quotes around a metadata value are optional: 'Value: 1 and 'Value: "C:\Temp" both work.

The types

An Option whose Value: is not one of its own Options: is reported as a warning, and the first option is selected instead.

Rules worth knowing

• Everything arrives as a string. A token can only live inside a string literal, so Const Q As Integer = "@Quantity" is a VBA type mismatch and fails the load check. Convert where you need to: CInt(Quantity).
• Blank is always allowed and substitutes an empty string. Guard for it: If Len(Quantity) > 0 Then count = CInt(Quantity).
• A Bool is the text "True" or "False". Compare against the text - If DryRun = "True" Then - not with If DryRun Then.
• Only a declaration creates a field. Using "@SheetName" elsewhere still substitutes, but will not add a second control - which is why a misspelled "@SheetNam" is reported as a warning instead of silently becoming its own text box.
• The token must be the whole literal. "bob@example.com" and "C:\out\@name.txt" are left alone. Tokens inside a ' or Rem comment are ignored, so commented-out code raises no phantom fields.
• Declaring the same token twice gives you one field that fills in both. Useful when two modules each need the value.
• Inputs are per macro row. Two macros that both declare @Name each get their own value, and the same macro added twice gets two independent sets.

Validation before Run

SwMacroFlow checks inputs before the batch starts, so a bad value does not fail every file one slow open at a time. Blank is always legal. What blocks Run:

The Run button names the macro at fault, because its inputs may not be the ones on screen:

• Enter a valid whole number for every number input in …
• Fix every property placeholder in …
• Choose a file that exists for every file input in …

Property placeholders

A String, FilePath, or FolderPath value may mix literal text with {PropertyName} tokens - for example {PartNumber}_{Revision}.pdf. Type them in the Inputs panel; they are highlighted magenta as you type. Braces are reserved for this syntax in those three types - there is no way to escape a literal brace.

Integer, Bool, and Option inputs stay literal. They never resolve property tokens.

How they differ from @Name

Resolution order

Against the document that is open when the macro runs:

1. Active configuration's properties first
2. Then file-level custom properties

Lookup is case-insensitive and uses the resolved value, so an expression property such as SW-Mass becomes the evaluated number, not the expression text.

{FileName} is reserved

{FileName} always resolves to the open document's filename with its extension stripped - Part1.SLDPRT becomes Part1. It is checked before the lookup above and never falls through to a custom property, even one literally named FileName. It fails the same way any {Property} does when no document is open, but it can never fail as "missing" - there is nothing to look up.

Like every other token name it is matched case-insensitively, so {FileName}, {filename} and {FILENAME} are the same token.

Renamed - this placeholder used to be {Title}. {Title} is no longer reserved: it now reads an ordinary custom property called Title, like any other name. Update any saved job that still uses it, or that job will pick up the document's Title property instead of its filename - or fail that file as a missing property if the document has none.

What can go wrong

Do not rely on {Property} in a macro that only runs in Run once without opening any files - there is no active document.

Example

Declare a String input with a property-based default:

Const OutputName As String = "@OutputName" 'Type: String 'Value: "{PartNumber}_{Revision}.pdf"

The user can keep that default or edit it. On each drawing or part, SwMacroFlow expands the tokens from that document's properties, then your macro sees a concrete name such as BR-100_A.pdf.

For a full contract in one pasteable document, see Macro authoring spec.