The Microsoft Small Basic Shapes object allows you to do the following with shapes in the graphics window, as demonstrated in the following code:

  • Add shapes such as ellipses, images, lines, rectangles, and trianges. These shapes can be animated, moved, rotated, and zoomed.
  • Get the screen coordinates of existing shapes.
  • Hide and redisplay existing shapes.
  • Get and change the opacity ("see-throughness") of an existing shape.
ellipse = Shapes.AddEllipse(50, 30)
image = Shapes.AddImage(Flickr.GetRandomPicture("cat"))
' Pause the program after each action so that you can see what's happening.
PauseProgram()
Shapes.Move(image, 200, 300)
PauseProgram()
line = Shapes.AddLine(0, 100, 20, 120)
PauseProgram()
rectangle = Shapes.AddRectangle(50, 30)
PauseProgram()
triangle = Shapes.AddTriangle(0, 0, 0, 30, 30, 0)
PauseProgram()
Shapes.Animate(ellipse, 100, 100, 2000)
PauseProgram()
GraphicsWindow.Title = "line's left is: " + Shapes.GetLeft(line)
PauseProgram()
GraphicsWindow.Title = "ellipse's top is: " + Shapes.GetTop(ellipse)
PauseProgram()
Shapes.HideShape(triangle)
PauseProgram()
Shapes.Move(rectangle, 100, 10)
PauseProgram()
Shapes.Remove(line)
PauseProgram()
Shapes.Rotate(rectangle, 45)
PauseProgram()
Shapes.SetOpacity(rectangle, 50)
PauseProgram()
Shapes.ShowShape(triangle)
PauseProgram()
Shapes.Zoom(ellipse, 3, 5)
GraphicsWindow.ShowMessage("Done!", "Done")

Sub PauseProgram
  ' Pause the program for 2 seconds (2000 milleseconds).  
  Program.Delay(2000)
EndSub