Error setting PlotArea.Width in Excel, VBA (Excel 2010) - vba

Question

I am experiencing an error in a subroutine attempting to set the plotarea.width property of a chart.
The other dimensions also cause this error if I comment out the preceding line(s).
There is no ActiveChart, no selection, etc. The specific error message is this: "-2147467259 (80004005) Method 'Width' of object 'PlotArea' failed"
This is stumping me for several reasons:
In debug mode, F8 to step through the code the error does NOT occur.
AFAIK "width" is not a "method" but a "property" of the chart's plotarea, so even the error message is rather ambiguous.
Any thoughts? Here's as much code as I can share, the ChartSizeMedium subroutine in its entirety, and a dummy snippet to show you how I am establishing the chart and passing it to that sub which sets the size & some other properties prior to passing to another function which adds the series data to the chart.
Option Explicit
Private Sub EstablishChartObject()
Dim cObj as ChartObject
Set cObj = ActiveSheet.ChartObjects.Add(Left:=30, Top:30, Width:=740, Height:=300)
ChartSizeMedium cObj.Chart, "Integer", "Example Chart Title"
End Sub
Private Sub ChartSizeMedium(cht As Chart, NumType As String, Optional chtTitle As String)
'Subroutine to make a consistent size chart
Dim s As Long
With cht
'Add a chart title if one exists.
If Len(chtTitle) > 0 Then
.HasTitle = True
.chartTitle.Characters.Text = chtTitle
End If
'Create the default chart Legend
.HasLegend = True
With .Legend
.Position = xlTop
.Font.Size = 11
.Font.Bold = True
End With
'Format the axes
.Axes(xlValue).MajorGridlines.Format.Line.Visible = msoFalse
.Axes(xlValue).MinorGridlines.Format.Line.Visible = msoFalse
'Format the size of the chart
With .Parent
.Width = 740
.Height = 396
End With
With .PlotArea
.Width = 640 '<---- THIS LINE TRIGGERS THE ERROR
.Height = 280
.Left = 30
.Top = 30
End With
End With
'Some charts start with more than one series container, so make sure they're gone:
With cht
Do Until .SeriesCollection.Count = 0
s = .SeriesCollection.Count
.SeriesCollection(s).Delete
Loop
End With
End Sub
UPDATE Dec 12, 2012
I remove all non-problematic code and use only the PlotArea with block, in the same routine, I have also tried setting the chart type (several values) and as shown in this example, manually adding one series of data prior to attempting to set the PlotArea dimensions, but the error persists:
Option Explicit
Private Sub EstablishChartObject2()
Dim cObj As ChartObject
Dim sh As Worksheet
Set sh = ActiveSheet
Dim srs As Series
Set cObj = sh.ChartObjects.Add(Left:=30, Top:=30, Width:=740, Height:=300)
Set srs = cObj.Chart.SeriesCollection.NewSeries
srs.Values = "={1,3,5,7,4}"
cObj.Chart.ChartType = 57
With cObj.Chart.PlotArea
.Width = 100 '<---- THIS LINE TRIGGERS THE ERROR
.Height = 280
.Left = 30
.Top = 30
End With
End Sub

Answer 1

i had a similar problem . And its definitely an excel issue (having 2013).
With .PlotArea
.Select 'err if delete this line of code
.Top = 0
.Left = 0
.width = 40
.Height = 40
End With
if you remove the .selectline, it will result in error on the next line.
note that i am not working with a <with selectiondo stuff>.
the .selectmakes it work, without using the selection, wich is obviously an excel bug (from previous versions?)

Answer 2

Two solutions that seem to be working, neither is really as "elegant" as I'd prefer (I was hoping there would be a way to do this with selecting the chart or any part of it).
Option 1 - Select the plot area and then deselect it. This seems to be the most reliable/efficient solution.
With .PlotArea
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
.Select
With Selection
.Width = paWidth
.Height = paHeight
.Left = paLeft
.Top = paTop
ActiveSheet.Range("A1").Activate
End With
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End With
Option 2 - disable error-handling in loop (this followed from Doug's link). This doesn't seem to be a very reliable or efficient method, and although it seems to work, I know that within that loop it is failing once on each of the properties before it successfully sets them on a subsequent pass.
With .PlotArea
For pLoop = 1 To 5
On Error Resume Next
.Width = paWidth
.Height = paHeight
.Left = paLeft
.Top = paTop
On Error GoTo 0
Next
End With

Answer 3

Hope your sheet and chart has the ability to get a width up to 640. If so try the explicit reference. Also suggest you to change width, height values to lower values and see how programme responds. Since you said, when you select it works,
that also means, your cht is wrapping the correct chart object - unless otherwise you selected the chart using ActiveChart.PlotArea.Width . Hence I guess explicit reference could do be a potential try out.
,
cht.PlotArea.Width = 640
cht.PlotArea.Height = 280
cht.PlotArea.Left = 30
cht.PlotArea.Top = 30
Further, check on Aspect Ratio lock or unlock. If none of these works, then add a chart into your sheet and use most simple chart formatting code to check on widht, height, left, top changes.
Update two
Let's try specifing chart type and setting up chart object in the second sub as well. I tried out in my end and it's working. Try the code with following changes.
Code:
Calling this sub from the button showed in the sheet.
Option Explicit
Public Sub EstablishChartObject()
Dim mySheet As Worksheet
Dim cObj As ChartObject
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Application.StatusBar = "Chart is coming soon..."
Set mySheet = Sheets(2) '-- set according to yours
'-- create chart with some source data first, which you can change later
Set cObj = mySheet.ChartObjects.Add(Left:=30, Top:=30, Width:=400, Height:=200)
ChartSizeMedium cObj, "Integer", "Example Chart Title"
End Sub
'Subroutine to make a consistent size chart
Private Sub ChartSizeMedium(chtObj As ChartObject, NumType As String, _
Optional chtTitle As String)
Dim myChart As Chart
Dim s As Long
Set myChart = chtObj.Chart '-- specify chart type
myChart.SetSourceData Source:=Sheets(2).Range("B3:C12") '-- set to what you have
myChart.ChartType = xlXYScatterLines '-- set to the type you want
'and make sure to **use correct properties**
With myChart
If .HasTitle Then
.ChartTitle.Characters.Text = chtTitle
End If
'Create the default chart Legend
If .HasLegend Then
With .Legend
.Position = xlTop
.Font.Size = 11
.Font.Bold = True
End With
End If
'Format the axes
With .Axes(xlValue)
.HasMajorGridlines = False
End With
'Format the size of the chart
With .Parent
.Width = 400 '-- change to yours
.Height = 250 '-- change to yours
End With
With .PlotArea
.Width = 300 '-- change to yours
.Height = 180 '-- change to yours
.Left = 30
.Top = 30
End With
End With
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
Application.StatusBar = "Chart is Here!"
End Sub
Otput:
Make sure to use correct properties for each chart type. Note that above code doesn't delete any left over, old charts from your sheet.
.MajoreGridlines.Format.Lines.Visible fails. So set the .MajorGridlines = False to make sure you do not want to show the gridlines.
Anything else you want to do can be done later. Just try with the changes to dimension initially.
Reference from : MSDN Gridlines property

Answer 4

I know this is old, and this solution seems bad, but it works. I only thought to do it as you mention that stepping through works.
Option Explicit
Sub chart()
Dim cObj As ChartObject
Dim sh As Worksheet
Set sh = ActiveSheet
Dim srs As Series
Set cObj = sh.ChartObjects.Add(Left:=30, Top:=30, Width:=740, Height:=300)
cObj.chart.ChartType = 57
Set srs = cObj.chart.SeriesCollection.NewSeries
srs.Values = "={1,3,5,7,4}"
Application.Wait Now + TimeValue("00:00:01") '<~~ Added This line
With cObj.chart.PlotArea
.Width = 100
.Height = 280
.Left = 30
.Top = 30
End With
End Sub

Answer 5

EDIT: This seems to work for some chart types, but it was still failing for other chart types. I have continued to use the 5x loop with On Error Resume Next and that seems to be -- unfortunately -- the most "reliable" solution to-date.
Original: This is based on User2140261's suggested answer, above:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/16041640/1467082
Since the question was initially posted, the application now resides in PowerPoint, so I cannot use the Applicaiton.Wait. I had some intermittent errors with a 1-second pause, and 3-seconds was too much of a pause, so I built the following error trap. The same idea could be used in Excel in conjunction with Application.Wait.
It was this block of code that was giving me fits, so I added this error handling in Powerpoint to mimic the Application.Wait.
RetryChartDimensions:
On Error GoTo ErrChartDimensions
With .PlotArea
.Width = paWidth
.Height = paHeight
.Left = paLeft
.Top = paTop
End With
On Error GoTo 0
' More code
' more code
Exit Sub 'gracefully exit this subroutine before the error-handling.'
ErrChartDimensions:
Err.Clear
'Pause before setting the PlotArea dimensions:'
Dim wtTime As Double
Dim startTime As Long
'A maximum 3 second delay should be more than enough time.
If wtTime < 3 Then
wtTime = wtTime + 0.5
startTime = Timer
While Timer < startTime + wtTime
DoEvents
Wend
End If
Resume RetryChartDimensions
End Sub

Answer 6

I don't have enough reputation to add a comment, so using the above solutions I have fixed my problem with Pie Charts in VB.Net 2010 and Excel 2013. xlLine charts never caused a problem, but my code would crash when the same code was ran against an xlPie chart on Excel 2013 (All was fine on Excel 2007).
My now working code:
appExcel.Visible = False
xlchart_for_96_Well_Plate_Source = appExcel.Charts.Add(After:=wkbExperiment_Details.Sheets(wkbExperiment_Details.Sheets.Count))
appExcel.ScreenUpdating = False
With xlchart_for_96_Well_Plate_Source
.SetSourceData(Source:=wksData.Range(wksData.Cells(2, byteCharts_added), wksData.Cells(intUsed_Rows, byteCharts_added)), PlotBy:=Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.XlRowCol.xlColumns)
.ChartType = objChart_Type
.PlotArea.Select()
.PlotArea.Top = 2
.PlotArea.Select()
.PlotArea.Left = 2
.SeriesCollection(.SeriesCollection.count).xvalues = wksData.Range(wksData.Cells(2, 1), wksData.Cells(intUsed_Rows, 1)).Value ' Scale - wavelength for line chart
.SeriesCollection(.SeriesCollection.count).Values = wksData.Range(wksData.Cells(2, byteCharts_added + 1), wksData.Cells(intUsed_Rows, byteCharts_added + 1)).Value
.SeriesCollection(.SeriesCollection.count).Name = wksData.Cells(1, .SeriesCollection.count + 1).value
End With
appExcel.ScreenUpdating = True