Microstation Tips and Tricks (1)

7/21/2019 Microstation Tips and Tricks (1)

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The SELECT STREAM down-

load site is at http://select-

services.bentley.com/dow

nloads/web/index.htm

and will require a

password and id,

available from your MVAR

if you are a Select cus-

tomer. If not, why not call

the number at the end of

this article to find out more

about SELECT or e-mail

[email protected]

Although many of these routines will be built into

later releases of MicroStation they are well worthlooking at now and using since they will speed upthe draughting process and reduce the effort neededto carry out repetitious tasks.

I hope to make this article a regular feature andlook forward to any other "Goodies" that you may

like to make available to other users. Look out for my Version 8 review coming soon.

Loading your "Goodies"As you will find most of these .ma routines can be

down loaded as self extracting ZIP files that will in

fact extract to the correct folder as shown below. Itend to extract them to a utilities folder and place

them where I think they will work the best, that iseasiest to find or in the "Required" folder from whichthey will run automatically.

The Gadgets tool bar calls the routines from theirfull path so they can be placed anywhere convenient.

MicroStation will very conveniently allow the

demand loading or pre-loading of routines dependingwhere you place the .ma file, as shown below the

.ma routine can be placed in the ASNEEDED folderand be run upon request or placed in the REQUIRED folder and run each time MicroStation starts.

Take a trip to the BAR!To make access to these "goodies" even simpler it's agood idea to create a customised toolbar, here'smine.

This is a handy way to use these new tools and aneasy way to "walk" you through each one. Also

included here are two other tools that are very use-ful, the Backup icon and the Bring to Front icon.

So from left to right on the tool bar, here is a brief

look at each of the ‘goodies’ and their benefits;

ViewSetThe first new icon is the viewset tool. Originally

included in the latest version of TriForma, this tool is

designed to enable the user to "filter" out the visibil-ity of objects and elements in a view, the options areto Set, Append, Remove and Clear objects from the

view, objects not included in the filtered set are notacted upon by further commands.

The Select by Attributes tool can also be used tofilter out levels or in fact any attribute that can beidentified. Once filtered out manipulation commands

can be used without fear of editing other elements inthe design. Look at this example:-

Notice in the window title box it states "[filtered]"and we are left with colour 2 level 1 elements. Now Iwill place a fence, set to enclose all possible objects,

and then click delete, the result? Well, see the finalscreenshot, this allows the power of level lock whilstimproving the filtering of elements and the visibility

filter which helps to reduce any confusion whenworking on "busy" drawings.

This tool is used quite effectively in 3D as well,since certain objects can be removed from the viewused in the Navigate Camera view to lighten the load

whilst you glide or move around the design.Although strictly speaking this tool is not a "new

gadget" it should be included in your day-to-day

working especially on complex drawings, once mas-tered it is a productivity tool worth using.

P38, V OL 2, ISSUE 1 EXCITECH COMPUTERS LIMITED | DESIGN PRODUCTIVITY JOURNAL 020 8804 9942

MicroStation Hints & Tips

Hints and Tips : Go for It!

preferred p r tners

As an ongoing feature within the DPJ and in support

of the Excitech Preferred Partners Scheme, we at

CADTech want to introduce MicroStation users to the

benefit of the "goodies" to be found on the SELECT

STREAM web site.Below is a selection of the neat and

small MDL applications that make life easier for

MicroStation users.



ChangeByThis tool is a powerful and enhanced mixture of

Smart Match and Change Element Attributes . It is areplacement for the Change Element Attributes tooland should be used in that way i.e. you should

change the Change Element Attribute tool in theMain tool frame to be "change element extended" in

the key-in field of the modify tool dialogue box fromthe customise command.

Below are the tool settings available.

Tool Settings Effect - Method

Change - Changes selected attributes of an ele-

ment, either with or without affecting the active

attribute settings.

Match / Change - Combines the functionality of

the Match Element Attributes tool and the existing

Change Element Attributes tool, either with or

without affecting the active attribute settings.

Use Active Attributes . If on, the active attributesare affected (either changed or matched, dependingon which Method you choose).

Cell CounterCell counter will count the number of named cells

that are placed within the active design file and also

within any attached reference files. The informationcreated by cell counter can then be sent to a text fileor displayed on the screen.

Cell counter can be used by Selection Set, Design

file or Fence , it is particularly useful when the "for-

mat" option is set to "totals by attributes". The out-put can be seen here and shows instances of a cellcalled C1 and usefully shows the construction attrib-

utes that are the levels, colour, style and weight .I imagine that the ASCII output could be put to

use to generate a schedule of components or simple

bill of quantities. Having said that, there are betterways to achieve scheduling from MicroStation.

SymbylevThis is a great little utility that should ease the

"level symbology" policing problem. In a nutshellSymbylev will, when activated, change the currentelement symbology, as shown in the primary tool bar,

to the symbology of the active level.So when the active level is set the element symbolo-

gy will change to match that determined by the level.This will at least confirm that the level symbology

is correct and the display will be correct also since

often the situation can occur where the level sym-bology is set but the view attributes dialogue boxhas "level symbology" turned off.

This application is an ideal way to ensure that all

users, especially those new to MicroStation, use thesame colour, style and weight throughout the project.

Clean upOf course here's a utility that none of us need ……!

A while ago this utility was available as a com-mercial product and a small .ma was available called

"DelDup"....now available from SELECT Stream is thislittle goodie called "Clean Up".

Clean up provides a quick and simple way to tidy

up your design, particularly duplicated elements and"gaps". The dialogue box is fairly self explanatory and

gives the operator the choice of selecting, flagging oractually deleting the offending elements. In practicethis utility works quickly and efficiently, probably to

quickly. In fact since whilst testing the delete mode Ihad to perform several undo's just to check if theduplicated elements had really gone!

The opportunity to "flag" problem elements ratherthan delete them from the outset allows the user to

determine whether the flagged item is wrong or not,particularly when the "gap" option is used. Althoughthere is a tolerance option some "gaps" in a design

020 8804 9942 EXCITECH COMPUTERS LIMITED | DESIGN PRODUCTIVITY JOURNAL V OL 2, ISSUE 1, P39



Hints and Tips : Leave It!



file are by design and not accident, so rather than

use the delete mode choose "flag".Make sure that the options are set in such a way

that you achieve your expected results, you can easi-ly set the gap tolerances to units other than yourworking units. To avoid problems try clicking the

reset to default option and try again.

WinOpenIn a word WinOpen will replace the MicroStation

Manager dialogue box for the tasks of New, Openand Save As , with the standard style of MicrosoftWindows dialogue boxes with the Navigator for fold-ers and files. Close still returns you to good ol’

MicroStation Manager.Whilst on the subject of MicroStation Manager,

there is a utility to display a "thumbnail" of thedesign file that you are opening or looking for but

it's a little bit slow and awkward. Generally I findthat it isn't used very much. It would be nice howev-er to be able to preview your target drawing, or atleast check out which is the right drawing before

going to MicroStation Manager. So why not try this.Create an icon in a tool box that issues the com-

mand "Reference Attach". This throws up the refer-ence file dialogue box and allows you to navigatearound and preview the drawing. Unfortunately

WinOpen disables the classic MicroStation Ref

Attach dialogue box in favour of the Windows OPEN style dialogue, which has no view option!

PopSetAt first this utility looks like it just loads an icon

that resembles a traffic light. In fact this .ma offers asolution to the problem of loosing your draughting

area to toolboxes. Even though the new styled tool-boxes and tool frames are optimised to offer the

most frequently used tools, the settings boxes thataccompany them are often quite large and obtrusive.

Enter PopSet . Load this utility and watch how the

settings box drops out of the way as soon as youmove your mouse back into the design area. From

then on the tool settings dialogue box only reappearswhen you glide your mouse back over the tool icon.The red and green traffic lights are reasonable self

explanatory as can be seen in the image above.Should you need to bring the settings box back

without moving the mouse press CTRL and Spacebar .This is a very useful tool, I suggest that PopSet is

loaded from required and used all of the time.Great news, at the time of writing this article a

new version has become available that has the added

advantage of a reduced tool size, single icon and tim-

ing settings for the amount of seconds that the toolsettings window stays open after selecting the com-mand icon for the required tool. Also the amount of

time in seconds that the pointer can be over a VIEW before the tool settings window closes can be set.

Bring to Front and BackupLastly on our gadgets tool bar are two very simple

routines, the first works like the Bring to Front tool in

a typical desktop publishing programme and is veryuseful. When you need to place areas of colour todefine phases of work you will often find that text

and details disappear behind the coloured shapes.By using a combination of Select by Attributes and

Bring to Front , components can be popped forward toproduce the desired effect. What about send to back?

I hear you say. Well, I think that bringing forward theother objects not in the previous selection set solvesthat problem!

Consider, some text is placed in a design and then

a closed and filled shape is placed over the top. Tobring the text to the top is a simple operation now,

use the element selection tool to select the text andonce selected click the Bring to Front icon.

And finally, a simple icon that activates the

Backup command, the important thing here to makebest use of the backup feature, is to specify thebackup location in Workspace - Configuration as

shown here.

Don't forget to make a backup at significant mile-

stones during the design process and also before youcarry out tasks like plotting or compressing, just incase the worst happens.

Well there are a few gadgets that will make yourlife a little bit easier, try them and if possible let me

know your thoughts and indeed if you have any oth-ers, gadgets that is, why not e-mail them to me.

P40, V OL 2, ISSUE 1 EXCITECH COMPUTERS LIMITED | DESIGN PRODUCTIVITY JOURNAL 020 8804 9942

Hints and Tips : Hhhhmmmm?


Hints and Tips : Go for It!Hints and Tips : Go for It!

For more information or find out more

about SELECT please phone Russ Monrose:

020 8443 6593or e-mail to:

[email protected]

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Microstation Tips and Tricks (1)