Hi folks,
Here is my situation in short:
I am not an application engineer by trade (or any stretch of the imagination!) I work as a cad designer for the auto industry. I began VB6 programming 2 years ago for Catia (cad design system) which supports the VB6 language for automation. Recently I decided to switch my programming focus to a more affordable cad package (Rhino 3d V4) which supports VB2005. Learning both a new cad system and a (somewhat) new language has me scared to be blunt, but I see a much better future down this path. I thought I would throw this out there in the hopes that some of the more experienced people here might care to share some thoughts/opinions/advice on this.

My skills in VB6:
  • I've gotten through most of the general language chapters of "Programming Visual Basic 6.0" by Francesco Balena (great book!!!)
  • I've written a small (unfinished) app for Catia that utilizes custom object classes, a collection class with (pseudo) constructor methods, and an interface class.
  • I've fiddled around enough with forms and controls to feel fairly comfortable
  • I've used a few simple API calls here and there also.


My hope is that my lack of expertise in VB6 will make for an easier transition to 2005 while still affording some advantage through familiarity of the concepts at hand. I ordered three books from Amazon this morning:

- Visual Basic 2005 Programmer's Reference (Programmer to Programmer) [Paperback] By: Rod Stephens

- Programming Microsoft Visual Basic 2005: The Language (Pro Developer) [Paperback] By: Francesco Balena

- Visual Basic 2005 Cookbook: Solutions for VB 2005 Programmers (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)) [Illustrated] [Paperback] By: Tim Patrick (Author), John Craig (Author)

Sorry for the long vague post, but this forum is where I've always found the best advice from knowledgable people, and I feel compelled to check my logic before going too far down any path. Any comments greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,
Danny