PRB: 'Invalid Picture' Error When Setting Metafile (WMF) (147667)
The information in this article applies to:
- Microsoft Visual Basic Standard Edition, 32-bit, for Windows 4.0
- Microsoft Visual Basic Professional Edition, 16-bit, for Windows 4.0
- Microsoft Visual Basic Professional Edition, 32-bit, for Windows 4.0
- Microsoft Visual Basic Enterprise Edition, 16-bit, for Windows 4.0
- Microsoft Visual Basic Enterprise Edition, 32-bit, for Windows 4.0
This article was previously published under Q147667 SYMPTOMS
Setting the Picture property of picture box control to a metafile (.wmf)
format file can cause Visual Basic to raise the following error:
Invalid Picture.
Sample code as well as compiled executables for utilities to convert
between these metafile formats exist in the articles listed in the REFERENCES section.
CAUSE
This error may occur if you attempt to set the picture property to an
image type that the control does not understand. If the file or other
source of the image is corrupt then the control may not be able to
interpret the image well enough to determine what kind of image it is, let
alone display and manipulate it.
With .wmf (metafile) image formats, an additional wrinkle is relevant.
Visual Basic 4.0, and other Microsoft products such as Microsoft Word and
Microsoft Excel, do not use the 'standard' metafile format. Instead, these
applications use an 'Aldus Placeable Format' metafile. The formats differ
in that placeable metafiles include a 22-byte 'metafileheader' data
structure at the beginning of the file. The placeable metafile format is
incompatible with such Windows API functions as CreateMetaFile,
GetMetaFile, CopyMetaFile, and PlayMetaFile.
STATUS
This behavior is by design.
REFERENCES
The following article provides a 16-bit utility that can convert between normal Windows metafiles and the corresponding Aldus Placeable Format metafiles: 129658 SAMPLE: Reading and Writing Aldus Placeable Metafiles
The following article contains a sample that provides a 32-bit utility to work with the 32-bit enhanced metafile format. The utility can also convert between normal (16-bit) metafiles and Aldus Placeable Format metafiles:
145999 SAMPLE: How to Create & Play Enhanced Metafiles in Win32
| Modification Type: | Minor | Last Reviewed: | 3/14/2005 |
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| Keywords: | kbprb KB147667 |
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