Pulling ArcSDE feature classes from current map to fieldmapping as DETable?

Question

I'm working with SDE layers in arcmap. trying to avoid pointing to the sde file itself. I've tried workspace.Pathname, it was empty for sde remote workspace. I've also tried IName from workspace, empty again. Any ideas on what I should be doing differently? BTW, it works just fine for GDBs.

        Dim gputilities As ESRI.ArcGIS.Geoprocessing.IGPUtilities = New ESRI.ArcGIS.Geoprocessing.GPUtilitiesClass()
        'Dim inputTableA As IDETable = CType(gputilities.MakeDataElement(pWorkspace.PathName + "\Weld", Nothing, Nothing), IDETable)
        Dim inputtables As IArray = New ArrayClass()
        Dim gpValueTableObj As ESRI.ArcGIS.Geoprocessing.GpValueTableObject = New ESRI.ArcGIS.Geoprocessing.GpValueTableObject
        gpValueTableObj.SetColumns(1)
        Dim pdet As IDETable = New DETable
        For Each pLayer In checkedLayers
            Try
                gpValueTableObj.AddRow(pLayer)
                Dim workspaceFactory As SdeWorkspaceFactory = New SdeWorkspaceFactoryClass()
                Dim workspaceName As IWorkspaceName = workspaceFactory.Create(Nothing, pLayer, pWorkspace.ConnectionProperties, 0)
                Dim pName As IName = TryCast(workspaceName, IName)
                inputtables.Add(CType(gputilities.MakeDataElementFromNameObject(pName), IDETable))

            Catch ex As Exception
            End Try
            'inputtables.Add(CType(gputilities.MakeDataElement(weldLayer.Name, Nothing, Nothing), IDETable))
        Next
        fieldmapping = New ESRI.ArcGIS.Geoprocessing.GPFieldMappingClass()
        fieldmapping.Initialize(inputtables, Nothing)