Thank you to Rick, Luke, and Pieter for solving this problem. I couldn't
find any documentation on 'current working directory' so it's nice to know
that there are more experienced users out there that novices such as myself
have access to.
============================================================

Original Question:
Hello List,

I was wondering if anyone knows how I can position a FileDialog.Show to jump
to a directory rather than requiring the user to navigate through the
directory structure to find a particular file. This will become the default
directory every time the script is executed. Right now, ArcView recalls the
last directory accessed. Hope I haven't confused anyone...

Thanks,

Answer:

The following script will open the FileDialog in a particular directory
every time .It will also reset the Current Working Directory to what it was
before being run so that a different script will open in the original
directory.

' Script to open a particular directory
' Save the current working directory
fnCurrentDir=FileName.GetCWD

' change to the directory of your choice
fnNewDir="e:\shapes\county".AsFileName
fnNewDir.SetCWD

' Open the FileDialog
fnNewFile=FileDialog.Show("*.shp","Shape files | (*.shp)","Open...")

' Reset to the original directory
fnCurrentDir.SetCWD

Good luck,

Rick Petrecca


===============================
The fileDialog.Show actually accesses the Current Working Directory
(CWD), this is usually the last directory used. It can however be set
in Avenue using the aFileName.SetCWD request as in
"C:\mydata\anywhere_U_like".asFileName.SetCWD

Luke

================================
add one line before the FileDialog.Show request:
("c:\data\mydefaultdirectory").AsFileName.SetCWD

The last directory accessed is replaced by this 'current directory'.

regards,

Pieter Geert van den Beukel


Thanks again


Peter Collins
Terra Nova Alliance
235 Water Street
7th Floor, Scotia Center
St. John's, NF   A1C 1B6