Add frames to a layout with Avenue

Procedure

Code:
'-- When adding graphics on a layout the coordinates specified must
'-- be in inches, relative to the drawing space.
'-- The extent of the Layout (Drawing Space) is fixed at 1500 x 1500 inches.
'-- The page (whatever size selected) is centered on the layout.
'-- Adding a graphic to the page (text,etc) is done using drawing
'-- space coordinates.  This poses a problem when we want a title 
'-- say, at the top inch of a 8.5 x 11 page. Generally we will be working
'-- with page units, yet adding elements requires drawing space units. 
'-- What can be done is to capture the lower left point of the page space
'-- in drawing space coordinates and add that x,y offset to each element
'-- added to the layout
'
'-- The way to do this:
'--   1. Get the coordinates for the lower left corner of the
'--      page (0,0) in - drawing space - coordinates. 
'
'-- 2. There are two ways to do this.
'
'-- 2a. Use the 2.1 requests that return information relative to 
'--     the drawing space, page space, and their overlay coordinates
'
'-- 2b. Using 2.0, with a couple lines of creative code, it is possible to 
'--     retrieve the needed coordinates.
'
'-- 3. Add the drawing space coordinates to your page coordinates
'--    when adding an element. 
'
'-- For example: 
'--   Given our drawing space below of size 1500 x 1500 inches, 
'--   Given a page of 8.5 x 11 inches, automatically centered on the
'--   drawing space. 
'
'--   We want add a label at a point 3 inches up and 3 inches over on our
'--   8.5 x 11 inch paper. - Don't ask why, we just do.
'             
'--   The code down below provides two methods of returning the lower left 
'--   corner of our page space, in drawing space coordinates.
'               
'--   I get X and Y coordinates of (745.75,744.5) for the lower left corner
'--   of the page space in drawing space units returned from the msgbox.
'
'--   To add an element at 3 inches up and 3 inches over on our
'-- 8.5 x 11 inch page, add (745.75,744.5) to (3,3) and place the element
'-- at (748.75,747.75).
 
'
'--   See the code below for examples.      
'
'    ------------------------ (1500,1500)
'    |                       |
'    |                       |
'    |                       | <--- drawing space (1500,1500)
'    |        ----- (8.5,11) |
'    |        |   |          |
'    |        |   | <--------|------ page space (8.5 x 11) [or whatever]
'    |        -----          |
'    |      (0,0)< ----------|------ Lower left of pagespace
'    |      (745.75,74.5) <--|------ Lower left in drawing space units
'    |                       |
'    ------------------------
'   (0,0)
'
'-- the layout graphic list = all graphic contained on the layout, 
'-- using coordinates in inches, relative to 
'-- the drawing space (0,0,1500,1500)
'
'-- the layout display = the display of the layout
' 
'-----------------------------------------
'-- Now that the process is outlined, there are two different ways to do this, 
'--   Pre 2.1 code and 2.1/3.x code.  (Some additional requests have been 
'--   added to 2.1/3.x code to extract the drawing space coordinates of the 
'--   page space instead of the slight of hand used in 2.0) 
' 
' ----------------------
' Pre 2.1/3.x code Notes
' ----------------------
'--  By adding a rectangle of size zero, setting the margin of our page to 
'--   the zero size rectangle, it is possible to extract the origin of the 
'--   page, by a query that returns the origin of the rectangle.
'    
' ------------------
' 2.1/3.x Code Notes
' ------------------
'-- New requests used to gather some info about the Drawing space and the 
'-- page space coordinates
'
'-- the following requests are new to 2.1/3.x and display information
'-- ReturnExtent - 
'--    returns the layout page units (0,0,1500,1500)
'-- ReturnVisExtent - 
'--   returns the visible extent of the display (the what?? window in inches)
'-- ReturnMarginExtent - 
'--   returns the margin extend of the display (margin rectangle in inches)
'-- ReturnPageExtent - 
'--   returns the page extent of a display (size of page surface in inches)
' 
'd = thelayoutDisplay
' msgbox.report( d.ReturnExtent.AsString+nl+nl+
'                d.ReturnVisExtent.AsString+nl+nl+
'                d.ReturnMarginExtent.AsString+nl+nl+
'                d.ReturnPageExtent.AsString
'                 ,"SEE EXTENTS" )
'
'=========================================
' BEGIN SCRIPT HERE, UNCOMMENT THE DIFFERENT SECTIONS OF 
' CODE DEPENDING ON WHAT PLATFORM USED 
'=========================================
'-- Double comments are used to designate what lines are 
'--   to be uncommented
'-----------------------------------------
'-- get the project
 theProject = av.GetProject

'-- get the layout
'-- theLayout = av.GetActiveDoc

'-- create a layout, add it to the project
theLayout = layout.Make
theLayoutWin = theLayout.GetWin
theLayoutWin.Open

'-- get the display of the layout
theLayoutDisplay = theLayout.GetDisplay
theLayoutDisplay.Flush

'-- get the graphics list to add elements to
theLayoutGraphicList = theLayout.GetGraphics

'-- set the layout page properties
'-- 11 x 8.5 
'-- 0 inch margin

'-- set the layout units
theLayoutDisplay.SetUnits(#UNITS_LINEAR_INCHES)

'----------------
' 2.0 CODE BELOW
'----------------
'--  make a margin rectangle of 0 size for use later 
'-- marginRect = Rect.MakeXY( 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0 )

'-- use the rectangle of no size created earlier to set
'--  the margin of the layout to basically nothing. 
'--  used for extracting the lower left corner of the 
'--  page in display units
  
'--theLayoutDisplay.SetMargin(marginRect)
'--theLayoutDisplay.SetMarginVisible(True)

'--get the origin of the lower left corner of page space in 
'--   display space coordinates 
  
'--thePageDisplayOrigin = theLayoutDisplay.ReturnMarginRect.ReturnOrigin
'--msgbox.info(thePageDisplayOrigin.AsString,"LL Drawing Page coordinates of Page
space")

'-------------
' END 2.0 CODE
'-------------
'
'-------------------
' 2.1/3.x CODE BELOW
'-------------------
'--get the origin of the lower left corner of page space in 
'--   display space coordinates 
  
thePageDisplayOrigin = theLayoutDisplay.ReturnPageExtent.ReturnOrigin
msgbox.info(thePageDisplayOrigin.AsString,"LL Drawing Page coordinates of Page
space")

'-----------------
' END 2.1/3.x CODE
'-----------------

'-- Add the text now
'-- Here is the trick, add thePageDisplayOrigin to the starting point 
'-- to get the graphic to be placed properly relative to the drawing space, 
'-- while still working in convenient page coordinates
theText = GraphicText.Make("The Text", thePageDisplayOrigin+Point.Make(3,3))

'-- add the element to the graphic list 
theLayoutGraphicList.add(theText) 
 
'--- End of Script