Integrations (PTC products, 3rd party products and code) > Code integration (Ada, ARINC 653, C, C#, C++, IDL, Java, SQL and VB) > Visual Basic code > What's new in Visual Basic code generation (Visual Basic code) > Overview of generating Visual Basic code (Visual Basic code)
  
Overview of generating Visual Basic code (Visual Basic code)
Automatic Code Synchronizer (ACS) helps you develop your application by generating the Visual Basic code files required to implement a class model defined in Modeler.
Using Modeler you can quickly define your system in an environment that allows you to view the class structure as a whole. You can use ACS to generate the Visual Basic code files that implement that class structure. Thereafter, you can use ACS to update the Visual Basic code with any changes made to the class model in Modeler.
You can model Visual Basic specific information in a model through the VB Profile package:
• For information about modeling different code elements of Visual Basic, see the topics in the Modeling Visual Basic Code in Modeler section of this Help.
• For information about how Modeler items map to code elements in Visual Basic, see the topics in the Mapping Information section.
If you are modeling Visual Basic in a model for the first time, you may find it useful to look at the 'VB Another Block (Tetris) Example' model in the Examples database, which demonstrates how a Visual Basic application is modeled in a model.
After you have set up ACS, it works in the background and you do not have to interact with it. ACS monitors a model and its generated code for changes:
• If ACS detects a change made by you in the model that affects the code, ACS can automatically generate the relevant code files.
• If ACS detects a change to code associated with any of the following properties, ACS can automatically reverse engineer the changed text to the model:
◦ For an Attribute: VB GetAccessorBody and VB SetAccessorBody properties.
◦ For a Class, Data Type or Interface: VB Declare and VB Imports properties.
◦ For an Operation: Body property.
◦ For a Package: VB Imports property.
◦ For a Role: VB GetAccessorBody and VB SetAccessorBody properties.
When ACS generates reversible properties, the text in the model is generated between two markers in the code file. For example:
//## Operation [babfba4b-6c05-466b-be77-034d99bbd453]
//## Operation End
ACS uses an ACS Code Generator DLL to generate the code. ImportantYou can customize the supplied ACS Code Generator DLL through its associated TDK Code Generation Transformation Patterns model.
If you are learning to use Modeler and ACS, you may find the Modeler tutorials useful. For information about downloading and opening the Integrity Modeler tutorials, click here .
To use ACS with Visual Basic code, you require an ACS license, a Modeler license and an ACS Language Pack for Visual Basic license. If you want to customize the generation of Visual Basic code, you additionally require an ACS Transformation Development Kit license.
For generic information about using ACS, including deciding on a strategy for reverse engineering reversible properties, see Overview of ACS (ACS).
For information about customizing ACS Code Generator DLLs through TDK, see Overview of TDK (TDK) (link works only if TDK is installed).