That refdes is a new object with VX. I'm not sure exactly what it is. My guess is either FabricationLayerText or ConductorLayerText.
In the first case, here's an example of some of the things you might do to interact with it:
comps = doc.Components(0)
ForEach comp In comps
'Loop through all the Fab text on the component
fabtxt_objs = comp.FabricationLayerTexts
fabtxt_obj = Nothing
ForEach fabtxt_obj In fabtxt_objs
If fabtxt_obj.Type = 1 Then'Select out Assy Text
Ifnot fabtxt_obj.TextString = comp.RefDes Then'stuff other than refdes
fabtxt_obj.Format.Font = assyfont
goto next_fabtxt_obj
Else 'refdes
fabtxt_obj.Format.Orientation = 0
fabtxt_obj.Format.HorizontalJust = 0
fabtxt_obj.Format.VerticalJust = 0
if comp.Side = 1 then
fabtxt_obj.Format.Mirrored = false
Else
fabtxt_obj.Format.Mirrored = True
EndIf
fabtxt_obj.Format.Font = assyfont
fabtxt_obj.Format.Bold = False
EndIf
ENdIf
next_fabtxt_obj:
Next
Next
In the case of ConductorLayerText, you would probably treat it similarly, as in
clayertxts = comp.ConductorLayerTexts
ForEach clayertxt In clayertxts
If clayertxt.TextType = 1 Then 'Type 1 is epcbTextRefDes
clayertxt.Format.Height = 50
'etc, same as above
EndIf
Next
Information about the fabrication and conductor layer text objects is in the help. The .Type and .TextType properties are listed there, with information on what kind of object each type is.