C# Timeout with Solidworks VBA Macro

Question

I have a few functions in a Solidworks Addin which call on a VBA macro (Via the runMacro2 method) a co-worker has been working on for the last few weeks. In his code he calls a Solidworks function which, under certain, unknown conditions, hangs for a long period of time. How long seems to depend upon the size and quantity of bodies in the part. Considering at least one of the functions we want to run this from i automatic, this just wont do.

I have tried using the Thread.Join(int) method (shown below) but it doesnt work. I also tried modifying the code from this answer Close a MessageBox after several seconds with the same results. Is there anything I can do either in C# or VBA to handle a timeout for this without re-writing his entire macro?

    public void runBB()
    {
        Stopwatch testStop = new Stopwatch();
        Thread workerThread = new Thread(bbRun);
        testStop.Start();
        workerThread.Start();
        if (!workerThread.Join(50))
        {
            workerThread.Abort();
            testStop.Stop();
            MessageBox.Show("Unable to generate Bounding Box after " + testStop.ElapsedMilliseconds/1000 + " seconds. Please enter data manually.", "Solidworks Derped Error.");
        }
        return;

    }//Still uses Macro (2-5-16)
    public static void bbRun()
    {
        iSwApp.RunMacro2(macroPath + "BOUNDING_BOX.swp", "test11", "main", 0, out runMacroError);
        return;
    }

Answer 1

I was getting this same exact issue with SOLIDWORKS hanging on an open of a file. Almost all reference on SO was that you should never do this, but in this scenario, you either have to close it or wait forever. In C# I created a callWithTimeout method:

    private void callWithTimeout(Action action, int timeoutMilliseconds, String errorText) {
        Thread threadToKill = null;
        Action wrappedAction = () =>
        {
            threadToKill = Thread.CurrentThread;
            action();
        };

        IAsyncResult result = wrappedAction.BeginInvoke(null, null);
        if (result.AsyncWaitHandle.WaitOne(timeoutMilliseconds)) {
            wrappedAction.EndInvoke(result);
        } else {
            threadToKill.Abort();
            throw new TimeoutException(errorText);
        }
    }

Then the code that was hanging put in a block as such:

bool timedOut = false;
try {
    callWithTimeout(delegate() {
        // code that hangs here
    }, 60000, "Operation timed out.  SOLIDWORKS could not open the file.  This file will be processed later.");
} catch (TimeoutException){
    timedOut = true;
} finally {
    if(timedOut) {
        Process[] prs = Process.GetProcesses();
        foreach (Process p in prs) {
            if (p?.ProcessName.Equals("SLDWORKS") ?? false)
                p?.Kill();
        }
    }
}