What possible explanation does anyone have for the error message 'Invalid
picture' when I attempt to load a WMF file into a VB6 Picture box??

The file does not appear to be corrupted because I can load it into Paint
Shop Pro and import it into PowerPoint.

I would appreciate any help in this matter.

Thanks,

Chris Morris
TrustNet Limited

wmf files come in several flavors.  Let's assume it's _not_ an enhanced
metafile (though they are seen with the .wmf extension): that reduces
it to two flavors.

APM (Aldus Placeable) metafiles have an extra 22-byte header compared
to non-APM metafiles.  VB requires that header for the LoadPicture()
function to work (same at design time).  Other programs may not.

You can tell if a wmf has an APM header: if it does, the first four
bytes are
Chr(215) + Chr(205) + Chr(198) + Chr(154)

You can add an APM header if you need one.  This is old 16-bit code I
picked up somewhere, but it illustrates what's needed:

    ' The first three variables may NOT be changed
    APMKey = Chr(215) + Chr(205) + Chr(198) + Chr(154)
    APMHandle = Chr(0) + Chr(0)
    APMReserved = Chr(0) + Chr(0) + Chr(0) + Chr(0)
    ' The following may be changed
    APMX1 = 0
    APMY1 = 0
    APMX2 = 2000
    APMY2 = 2000
    APMInch = 900

    APMCheckSum = -12841 Xor -25914 Xor 0 Xor APMX1 Xor APMY1 Xor APMX2
Xor APMY2 Xor APMInch Xor 0 Xor 0

    outfile = FreeFile

    Open File_Out For Binary Access Write As #outfile

    ' Save 22-byte APM header variables to new file
    Put #outfile, , APMKey
    Put #outfile, , APMHandle
    Put #outfile, , APMX1
    Put #outfile, , APMY1
    Put #outfile, , APMX2
    Put #outfile, , APMY2
    Put #outfile, , APMInch
    Put #outfile, , APMReserved
    Put #outfile, , APMCheckSum

Follow this with the rest of the metafile, and you've got an APM
metafile that VB is happy with.

Jim Deutch
MS Dev MVP