This is a single, long, simple text formatted page containing a collection of tips and general knowledge gained over the eighteen years or so that Anthony has been using MicroStation. The newer tips are at the top of each section with the older tips at the bottom.

Instead of being in separate shorter subject based pages, it is in one long page to make searching easier. Besides, categorising the tips is often hard as they cut across categories.

Please note that these tips date back over many years and individual pieces of information may not apply to later releases of MicroStation.  Please let me know if there are any updates that you think should be made.

General Drawing

Ø The default behaviour out of the box in MicroStation XM for panning on screen is to hit and hold the mouse wheel button while dragging. This operation is not compatible with the middle button of the mouse being assigned to the Tentative Point. Bentley’s thinking is with that AccuSnap working so well the Tentative Button is hardly needed anymore, and with the drag panning being just so easy, that it would be preferable to change the middle button operation.

Ø  Elements that cannot be selected on screen are often referred to as Phantom elements. This happens because of an error where MicroStation thinks that the element is bigger than it actually displays on screen. If you think you have a phantom element, try using Element Selector with Method set to Block Overlap. If this fails, then zoom out a long way and try again.

o   To check out how big MicroStation thinks your element is key-in "set range toggle;update all". This will turn on what is called the Range Block for each element in your file. The Range Block is a rectangle surrounding an element: usually it sits nice and tight around the element, but bad range blocks can display many times larger than the element it bounds. Use the same key-in a second time to display off the range blocks.

o   You can attempt to reset this range block to the proper size with a utility called Fixrange. Enter "mdl l fixrange" at the key-in prompt. If MicroStation/Powerdraft cannot find it, search your network or the internet for fixrange.ma and try again. Fixrange has no other key-ins: it runs its check and fix routine automatically and then unloads itself when complete. This application is pretty successful, but not always. Elements that started their lives as Archicad elements and were then translated to DWG and then to DGN can present range issues that can be quite stubborn.

Ø  A recent problem arose where we had a project begun on Archicad that was converted via DWG to 2d MicroStation. In the sheet files the drawing title labels came through as shared cells that contained tags instead of text elements and the range blocks for all these labels were very large. This made selecting elements very problematic. The Fixrange application did not solve the problem. Dropping the shared cells meant that the tag text was lost. As the cells were shared, we could not practically edit them all.

The solution was to;

o   Use the key-in "set range toggle;update all" to display the range blocks. This allowed us to see where the problems were.

o   Select all instances of the errant shared cell labels.

o   Key-in "change tags droptext" and data to the screen. This changed all the tag elements to text elements.

o   Ensure all the labels are still all selected.

o   Call the Drop Element command and check off all options except Shared Cells. Set its option to Normal Cell. Data to screen. This should then reset all the range blocks to the correct size.

Ø  There is now an almost built-in utility to change text case in MicroStation. Try “vba run [textexamples] changecase” and  dialog box should open. If not, you may have to search for a .mvba file. By default it is located in ...\Workspace\System\Vba\examples\textexamples.mvba. 

Ø  In XM when an element is deleted from the screen, any elements previously obscured by this element are immediately refreshed, unlike in previous versions where you were required to update the view to see the elements underneath. To revert to a behaviour similar to the pre XM versions use the keyin: "set healing on | off | toggle".

Ø  Hold down the Shift and Control keys to temporarily suspend AccuSnap. Or, if AccuSnap is disabled then this option will temporarily enable it.

Ø  If you are sick of inadvertantly deleting raster references because they have been selected, then use the following keyin:

o   raster disabledelselection seton | setoff

o   This will prevent the raster from being selected and therefore prevent deletion. This is not a file based command but would appear to be a user preference setting.

Ø  You cannot use the Change Element Attributes command to change the colour | style | weight of associative pattern elements. Instead, from the Patterns toolbox, select the Change Pattern command and check on Attributes. Now you can identify and change the appearance of the pattern elements.

Ø  To have MicroStation update your current dgn file with multi-line definitions from your defined dgnlib file, use the keyin "mlinestyle dgnlibupdate".

Ø  In 8.5 on a twin screen setup MicroStation will always open cell selector file dialogs on the primary screen.

Ø  In XM the Tab key allows you to cycle through identified elements occupying the same screen space.

Ø  When modifying elements by dragging the edit handles, tap (down and up) the Alt key to enter a different modification mode.

Ø  When selecting objects and having the handles showing, you can make a Secondary Selection by clicking on a handle. Additional Secondary Selections can be made by holding down the Ctrl key.

Ø  Element selection handles only appear on elements in the active file.

Ø  Unlike the DGNLIB UPDATE LEVELS command, there is currently no key-in to update line style definitions from a library file because the definition origin does not exist in the dgnlib file, it exists in the resource file. 

o   In a few cases, it has been necessary to remove all instances of the old definition, whether that be used in an existing element, a level Style attribute, a Dimension Style setting, etc.  Once all instances of the old definition are removed, you will have to run the Compress utility to Delete Unused Line Styles from the file.  After the old definition is removed, you can then go back and set all previous instances of that line style to the new definition.

o   The ability to "read" a line style from the dgnlib was implemented to support AutoCAD line types, more than for MicroStation line styles.  Many users work in both formats and require access to the AutoCAD line types.  Importing the definitions into every dwg or dgn file directly from the .lin file was a step they wanted to avoid. But again, should the definition be altered, the embedded line type definition will still take priority over the new one, and to update the user will have to remove all instances, compress, then reimport.

Ø  If you have the occasion to copy individual or groups of elements from a reference file to the same location in the active file, then your methodology may be: Select Element, hit Copy command, Datapoint in space to define start point, second Datapoint to the same spot to define finish point, clear Selection.

o   An option to consider might be to use the Change Element Attributes command with the Method set to Change and all other options set off except for Class (assuming that you are not changing Class) and Make Copy. A single Datapoint to the referenced element will copy it to your active file in the same position.

o   If you usually operate with all the options in this dialog set On, then setting them all off might be too much trouble. Alternatively then you could set the Method to Match/Change and set Make Copy to On and this time hit two Datapoints to the desired element. The first datapoint matches the element and the second changes it and this time copies it through from the reference to the active.

Ø  The Compress function does not work on dgnlib files.

Ø  If you have no elements in your design file except for Multi-line styles defined (but not placed), then the levels used in the definitions of the components of the multi-lines will show not bold in the Level Manager dialog box. Indeed you can delete these levels with Level Manager. But be aware that when you do those level assignments will be stripped from your Multi-line definitions. You will be left with Multi-line components set to the Default level. To be safe it might be a good idea to keep an instance of each multi-line visible in your file. This way the levels won't be unused - and in addition the multi-lines won't be unused either (remembering that there is also a Delete Unused Multi-line option for the Compress command that may inadvertantly be checked on one day.) No one likes disasters.

Ø  To rotate a text element from an unknown angle to be square to the screen - if you are in a rotated view:

1, Select the element.

2, Hit the Rotate Element tool.

3, Change the Method to 3 Points.

4, Snap to the text justification point as the pivot point for the rotation.

5, AccuDraw will now have the focus: enter R E to call the Rotate to Element shortcut.

6, Move the cursor towards the other end of the text element and see the AccuDraw compass align itself with the element rotation.

7, Datapoint to accept that angle for AccuDraw.

8, Hit a second datapoint at that rotation to accept the angle at the start point for the Rotate command.

9, Hit the AccuDraw shortcut of V for View to rotate the AccuDraw compass back to being square to the screen.

10, Move your cursor back down and allow it to key into the horizontal axis.

11, Datapoint to accept the end of the rotation.

Ø  To rotate a text element from an unknown angle to be square to the screen - if you are in an unrotated view:

1, Select the element.

2, Hit the Element Information tool.

3, Expand the Geometry section.

4, Click in the Angle field

5, Enter 0.

Ø  In crowded situations where AccuSnap is hunting around for something to snap to, remember that it searches according to the update sequence. So if you have a building grid line in line with a brick wall line then AccuSnap may go for the grid line as you probably drew that before you created the wall line. If you are wanting it to snap first to the brick wall lines then consider using Bring to Front on the grid lines. Yes, they will then sit on top of the brick wall, but they appear in the file after the wall lines. Other methods to affect the snapping priority include using element or level priority or even the reference update sequence.

Ø  MicroStation XM introduced new interface options. The old Main Tool Frame can be replaced by any of three options. They are set by each user and controlled in their User Preferences dialog under the Task Navigation category.

o   Set Presentation to Toolbox to have the new smaller Main toolbox on the left and the new Task Navigation toolbox on the right. (Although you can move them to any desired location.)

o   Set Presentation to Dialog to have the Tasks displayed as a large horizontal tabbed dialog docked at the left.

o   Set Presentation to In Views to have the Tasks replace the usual View Ribbon one each displayed view.

Ø  Using the positional keyboard mapping in MicroStation XM is a great way to help speed up command selection. For example: 31 for Copy, 38 for Fence Stretch, 57 for Smart Match, Q1 for Smartline, A3 for Edit Text. Another great tip to keep in mind is that the command currently shown on the Main and Task Navigation tools (which may not be the default tool for that position, but is actually the last used tool) can be selected in one hit instead of two, by hitting <Shift> and the first positional keyboard mapping digit: eg. <Shift>3 will give you Copy (or whatever Manipulation tool is showing at that position.

Ø  In XM if you have "Identify Elements Automatically" checked on in Settings > Snaps > AccuSnap, then you can use <Alt><Data> to an element to match its attributes. This is an alternative to hitting SmartMatch and then identifying an element.

The keyin for this command is MATCH ATTRIBUTES FROMCURSOR. Note that this command does not seem to match the Priority or Transparency of the element. A better option is to use MATCH ELEMENT FROMCURSOR.

Ø  Elements drawn with Transparency set to a value other than 0 will be drawn on top of elements with no transparency.

Ø  If you have a level that you know has elements on it but it will not display, then look in the Level Display dialog. If it lists but is greyed out then Global Freeze has probably been set for the level. To fix this:

o   Make any other level the Active Level (by double clicking on another on in the list)

o   Go to the View Display option button at the top of the dialog and change it to Global Freeze.

o   Display On the affected level.

o   Change Global Freeze back to Level Display.

o   Voila!

Ø  In XM hitting Alt + Data on an element should perform a SmartMatch (match attributes fromcursor). But sometimes it seems not to do it. The documentation indicates you should be in the Home mode, but that does not always do it. What seems to work is to be in a drawing command and not in a view command. In other words, if you have just done a Fit View command then it not work, but if you have just hit Place Smartline then it probably will.

Ø  Using File > Compress with the "Delete Unused Text Styles" option checked may not allow you to select Text Styles sourced from your dgnlib in future. In other words, don't Compress with "Delete Unused Text Styles" as you may not be able to select the text styles not already in your file. This is a known issue with child text styles that will hopefully be addressed soon.

o   An option to try is to set MS_COMPRESS_OPTIONS = -TEXTSTYLES. This however will not prevent the user from turning it back on.

o   This issue has been resolved in V8i by the removal of child text styles.

Ø  When using Rotate by 3 Points, AccuSnap will not snap to elements on Locked Levels. You can get around this by issuing a normal Tentative Point which will snap to locked level elements.

Ø  Hatch and Patterning.

o   When you hatch/pattern an area the elements defining the boundary can be in one or more reference files.

o   If the elements are in reference files and you use Associative Patterning, then a new element will be created in your active file to define the boundary of the patterning. This element will not be linked or associated in to the original elements in the reference files.

If the elements in the reference files are modified then the pattern will be out of date in your master file. You will need to hit Change Pattern, method Reflood to update the pattern. Note that if additional elements have been introduced within the bounding area, then the pattern element may get confused and may not update correctly. You may need to delete it and recreate the pattern.

o   If the elements to be patterned are in reference files and you use Associative Region Boundary, then patterning elements will be created in your master file and will be associated to those elements in the reference files. If those elements are modified, then the next time you visit the master file, then the patterning will automatically update.

o   However, if additional elements have been introduced into the patterning definition area, then you will need to use Change Pattern, method Reflood to update the pattern. As this is easy to do, it is not a great disadvantage.

o   If you use Create Region, method Flood, with Keep Original and Associative Region Boundary checked and you create the region based on elements in reference files (or a combination of the master file plus any number of reference files) then the region will automatically update with any changes to the bounding elements.

However, if additional elements have been introduced into the patterning definition area, then you cannot update the region. You will have to delete it and recreate it again. As this is easy to do, it is not a great disadvantage.

Ø  One method to quickly determine which file an element on screen belongs to is to hit the Copy command and then hover your cursor over the elements on screen. If AccuSnap is active this will display a Tool Tip containing information about the element.

Ø  Sometimes you may have the situation where you are trying to edit level names or descriptions in the Level Manager dialog box while in your dgnlib file, but you are getting the "Cannot change description of a library level" message. If this file is in your dgnlib list path, then MS sometimes does not let you edit it. One solution is to export the levels to a .csv file, edit the names there and then reimport them back into the dgnlib file. Alternatively you could exit MicroStation and restart with an Out Of The Box setup or via a dummy user who has MS_DGNLIBLIST defined to be nothing.

Ø  When placing a Shape (or similar closed element) the keyin to ensure it is unfilled is SET FILL OFF.

o   The keyin to set it to Opaque is ACTIVE FILL ON.

o   The keyin to set it to Outlined and to set the fill colour is ACTIVE FILLCOLOR <NUMBER>.

o   To set the fill mode back to Opaque is ACTIVE FILL ON again.

Ø  If element priority seems to be playing up check the following:

o   Reference Priority, Level Priority, Element Priority, Pen Table Priority.

o   The priority for Priority displays is Reference, Level and then Element.

o   If all of your reference files have the same priority, then it will look to Level priority to determine display order. If all Levels are of the same priority, then it will look to individual elements for priority settings. Well it is supposed to, but sometimes does not seem to be doing this.

o   Within references, also check out the slot order of your references and possibly the defined update sequence as these all affect display order. In addition, printing with Rasterised checked on will affect priority. And then of course there is Level Symbology overrides Pen Table priorities that can affect display. I'm not actually sure how this all works yet as I am getting inconsistent results.

o   Remember also that priority only works in 2d.

Ø  Element and Level Priority is affected by the Priority item in pen tables. Pen table priority was used pre XM to order elements at plot time. This can now be done with element and level priority. Just remember to check off the Priority item in the pen table sections.

Ø  Level priority takes precedence over element priority. This means that if you have an element with priority of 20 on a level that has priority of -50, then the element will display with -50 priority.

o   It also means that if you have elements on this level with 400, 300 and 200 priority, and on another level (that has 0 priority) is an element with 100 priority, then the 100 priority element will display on top, and then the other three elements will display underneath - but in the 400/300/200 order.

Ø  To place an arc tangentially from the end of an existing line, choose Method: Start, Mid, End. Set the Snap Lock (temporarily) to Tangent Point and snap to the end of the line. Now pull away. AccuDraw should appear to help you place the arc.

Ø  When using Batch Process to change the attributes of elements in multiple models or multiple dgn files, as well as setting the appropriate commands in the batch process script file you also need to ensure that the Change Element Extended command's Tool Setting dialog box has the desired items checked or unchecked - and that Save Settings has been hit for each file to be processed.

Ø  Use the linestyle editor dialog box to import linestyles to a dgnlib.

o   Use DELETE UNUSED LINESTYLES [name] to remove linestyles from a dgnlib.

Ø  In XM you can Match an element's symbology quickly by hitting Alt and clicking on the element. This can be quicker than using the Match or SmartMatch command. Just be sure that: your focus is on Home and you do not have Selector, a View command or a Fence command active. This leaves you with the probability that you are in an action command (such as Place Line or Delete), but just be sure that the action command is one that is appropriate for the element you are trying to hit on. In other words, don't try to Match a Feature Based Solid with the standard Modify command. So by the time you have sorted all this out, it just might be quicker to hit 57 which is the new shortcut to get to SmartMatch.

Ø  When using the Level Display dialog to turn on and off the level that contains multi-line fill, note that the display of the fill is not immediate. Unlike other elements that will immediately display or disappear as you make selections in the Level Display dialog, the fill of a multi-line will only display correctly after you call the Update View command.

Ø  If a multi-line is filled then the fill goes on the level of the multi-line element. It cannot be assigned a level in the same way that the components of the multi-line are.

o   Therefore if you would like to be able to turn the fill of your multi-line on and off but to leave all the multi-line components on, you should place the multi-line element on a level that is not used by any of the components. In other words for example, if your multi-line components are on levels Brickwork and Cavity, then set your active level to be WallFill before you place the multi-line. This way the multi-line element and the fill is on WallFill but the components are still on Brickwork and Cavity. Now if you set your active level to be anything but WallFill, you will be able to turn the fill on and off but still be able to see the brickwork and the cavity.

Ø  If you have the ability to create levels disabled in your configuration file(s) with

o   _USTN_CAPABILITY > -CAPABILITY_LEVELS_CREATE

o   then you will not be able to create or delete levels.

o   This also means that if you Match on an element that is A) in a reference file and B) is on a level that does not exist in your active file, then your Active Level will be set to Default.

o   In addition, if you copy the elements from the reference file to your active file they will end up on the Default level.

Ø  In 2004 Edition, when saving V8 as V8 (with merge reference files [this fact may be irrelevant]), and from the Models button on the Filter tab if you select a non-default model only (ie not the default model), then the Default model will merge as well - if its name is not Default.

o   This new output file will therefore have two models in it. The source model you selected will now be the default model and the old default model has just come along for the ride and is now a non-default model. So it can be deleted.

o   If the Default model is named Default, then it will not be saved and the resultant new file will have only one model - the one you nominated, but named as it was in the source file.

Ø  To set snappable pattern on and off with a keyin, use the following:

o   mdl load calculat;calculator tcb->ext_locks.snappablePatterns=0  #'0 = off, 1 = on'

o   The Tool Settings dialog will not update immediately, but the value has changed.

Ø  To change the view display of a view via a keyin use:

o   "set view wireframe|hidden|filled|smooth|phong;selview <num>;update <num>"

Ø  When Associative Patterning has been used, the patterning elements are tied to the element being patterned. Changing the symbology of the patterning elements can not be done with the normal Change Element Attributes command. Instead use the Change Pattern command and check on the Attributes option.

Ø  To attach an entire folder of cell libraries to your design file, from the Cell LIbrary dialog, choose File > Attach Folder.

Ø  When using Positional Mapping in XM to drive the tasks and tools it is normally a two key operation: eg. A to select Text toolbar and then 3 to select Edit Text.

o   To select the tool showing in the task or toolbox in one hit, choose <Shift> + the mapping character.

o   In other words, if Edit Text is the tool showing in the Task Navigation toolbox, then to reactivate it instead of hitting A + 3 again, you could simply hit <shift>+A.

Ø  When you start a drawing command such as Place Smartline and you hit your start point and pull away, AccuDraw takes the focus. Positional Keyboard Mapping is also suspended (and the Focus icon changes to AccuDraw). To get Positional Mapping back again, hit Esc (and the Focus icon changes back to Home). Although I don't quite know why you would do this as all the commands under the positional mapping tools would cancel the Place Smartline command and call another command. It may work if you had changed things to have your viewing commands working with positional mapping, because then you can interrupt the drawing command to change something and the Reset back into the command. 

Ø  The V for View shortcut works well to reorientate the AccuDraw compass back to being square to the current view window. Consider using the B for Base rotation shortcut instead as this one allows you to rotate the AccuDraw compass back to the previous angle by hitting B again.

Ø  AccuDraw shortcuts:

o   To toggle AccuSnap hit J.

o   To suspend AccuSnap for one operation (note not one datapoint) hit U.

o   In XM this has now been changed to HS and HU respectively.

o   If you have Popset disabled and Tool Settings is open, then hitting ESC will take the focus from AccuDraw to Tool Settings. Another ESC will take the focus to the keyin dialog.

o   If you have Popset disabled and Tool Settings is closed, then hitting ESC will take the focus from AccuDraw straight to the keyin dialog.

o   If you have Popset enabled then hitting ESC will not move the focus from the AccuDraw dialog.

o   To move the focus from the AccuDraw dialog to the Tool Settings dialog - whether or not it is open, hit GT. If the Tool Settings dialog is not currently open, it will be opened at the position of your mouse cursor.

o   To move the focus from the AccuDraw dialog to the keyin dialog, hit GK.

Ø  When AutoCad sourced survey files are saved to DGN V8 format and measurements are taken, the results are often presented in metres instead of our preferred Millimetres. To change this readout to Millimetres:

o   From the main MicroStation menu, select Settings > Design File. The DGN File Settings dialog box opens.

o   Select the Working Units category from the bottom of the list.

o   Now change the Master Unit and Sub Unit items from Meters and Millimeters to Millimeters and Micrometers.

o   OK and File > Save Settings.

o   You may also wish to adjust the Coordinate Readout category further up the list. Files that had been set to measure in metres will usually have their coordinate readout set to 3 or 4 decimal places, whereas when we read in millimetres we don’t need that degree of accuracy.

o   Remember to Save Settings when done.

Ø  Saved Views can now be used to save the levels turned on/off in reference files as well as the active file. Just check on the Reference Settings checkbox in the Apply Options section of the Saved Views dialog box.

Ø  Attach a color table to your file with the following command:

o   CT=_USTN_SITE:TABLES\COLOR\color.tbl;FILEDESIGN

o   This can be plugged into the batch processor to run the command on an entire project.

Ø  For better transparency of raster references, try a black and white scan instead of a greyscale or colour scan.

Ø  Although Saved Views must be unique across models of a dgn file and ones created in one model will not list in the Saved View dialog box of another model, you can still access the saved view with the key-in VI=<ViewName>. You won't change models and go to the model of the source of the Saved View, but you will be taken to the design place space of the Saved View but in your current model.

Ø  Shift + Tentative brings up the Snaps list. Can call this in the middle of a drawing/manipulation command too.

Ø  Custom linestyles are affected by changes to Working Units. If you normally work in Millimetres working units and have your brick hatching custom linestyles etc. set up correctly, but you change your working units to Metres, then you will find that all your custom linestyles will have scaled up 1000 times.

o   This can be solved by keying in "active linestylescale .001".

Ø  From the Level Display dialog, the Change Level button (left side, near the top) opens a dialog that allows you to turn levels off, lock levels and to Set Target.

o   If you hit Set Target and then identify an element, the Taret Tree section of the Level Display dialog moves its focus to the file containing the level the identified element is on. It does not identify the level of the element you have identified, it simply opens the target tree at that reference file - or the active file. This command will show no effect on files with no references attached.

Ø  To place all elements from a Graphic Group into a Selection Set:

o   Set Graphic Group Lock On.

o   Choose PowerSelector, set Method to Individual and Mode to Add.

o   Data to one element of the Graphic Group.

Ø  Measure the area of a number of closed shapes in one hit by selecting them all first and then calling the Measure Area command. Remember that it is going to be in square millimetres format.

Ø  To place a line at a bearing

o   Go to Settings > Design File > Coordinate Readout > Angles > Mode > Bearing. (This is a saveable setting.)

o   When placing a line with AccuDraw, to the Angle field  key in "n45e" or as desired.

Ø  When running SelectBy from key-ins - ie. usually in a batch process text file - check the following rules and syntax:

o   SELECTBY LEVEL XXXX, YYYY, ZZZZ; SELECTBY EXECUTE

o   SELECTBY LEVEL ALL; SELECTBY EXECUTE

o   SELECTBY LEVEL NONE; SELECTBY TYPE NONE; SELECTBY EXECUTE

o   List levels by number -  SELECTBY LEVEL 2,4,7,9

o   Range(s) of levels - SELECTBY LEVEL 2-4

o   SELECTBY LEVEL 2-4,9-15

o   Level and level group names -  SELECTBY LEVEL plumbing

o   The levels section should be cleared before using the key-ins so that no existing selections are included. You can do this with the SELECTBY TYPE NONE key-in.

o   Another option to consider is to manually set up Select By Attributes and execute a selection set once, then run batch process. Note that you must execute a selection - it is not good enough to make the choices in the Select By dialog.

Ø  When placing a line perpendicular from an existing element you can use the Perp or Perp Point snap options. Be aware that these snap points only seem to work with the Place SmartLine command and not with the basic Place Line command.

Ø  When your Graphic Group Lock is On, if you select an element that is part of a Graphic Group with the Element Selection tool, then that element only will be added to the selection set. Whereas if you select an element that is part of a Graphic Group with PowerSelector, then all element in the graphic group will be added to the selection set.

Ø  To get MicroStation to report the total area of a number of shapes in one hit, select them all and call the Measure Area button. But be aware of duplicate elements within your selection as this will lead to incorrect results.

Ø  When using  Batch  Converter, the Save As  V7/V8 Options allows you to specify for references to Copy Levels During Merge:

o   If Not Found - merges all elements onto one set of named levels.

o   If Overrides Exist and Always - means bring the elements from each reference on its own set of newly created levels named for the now-detached reference file.

o   Using the first option, all levels are usually displayed at the end of the process, where as the second two options finish the process with the levels turned on/off according to the source view.

o   If you wanted to delete the elements on the displayed off levels you could:

·         Make an empty level active.

·         Use the Level Display dialog to invert the level display seletction.

·         Select all the visible elements and delete them.

Ø  With the Selection tool you need to click and drag completely around desired elements to select them.  If you use the Shift key while dragging, it will work in overlap mode instead of inside mode.

Ø  To place all elements from a Graphic Group into a Selection Set:

o   Set Graphic Group Lock On.

o   Choose PowerSelector, set Method to Individual and Mode to Add.

o   Data to one element of the Graphic Group.

Ø  Measure the area of a number of closed shapes in one hit by selecting them all first and then calling the Measure Area command. Remember that it is going to be in square millimetres format.

Ø  To reselect your just dropped selection set, key in Choose Previous.

Ø  If you have a Complex Chain or a Complex Shape element that contains only line elements - ie no arcs - then you can convert that complex element to a Line String or to a Shape (as appropriate).

o   Use the Modify Element command and set the "Smartline Modifications" to "Minimize number of linear elements" and then do a quick nothing modification on the element.

Ø  To help repair element range issues, the following may help. From the system prompt:

o   <path>ustation -vrg <filename> to verify and repair a file.

o   <path>ustation -verify <filename> to verify only.

Ø  Right click in the blank space near the top of the Level Display dialog to get access to its Properties.

Ø  Select Workspace > Preference > Input > Allow ESC key to stop current command. In addition to its stated function, this will allow the escape key will traverse tookboxes until the keyin dialog has the focus (AccuDraw > Tool Settings > Keyin). Shift + ESC will reverse this direction.

Ø  Linestyles can be imported to a dgn from a rsc file via the linestyle editor dialog. But it does not appear they can be modified from here. Nor does the act of drawing in a linestyle result in it being copied from the rsc to the dgn (In other words, if you view the file without the symbology var defined, then the line will appear as lc=0). If you've got all your linestyles copied to a dgn and you then draw with a few of them, and then view the dgn without the symbology var set, then you will see the linestyles. But then your consultant could then easily export your linestyles to a rsc file. Setting a dgn file with all your linestyles within cannot be used as a dgnliblist file.

Ø  To drop an ellipse into x number of equal length facets (the straight lengths of the facets to be equal, not the length around the curve), use the Drop B-Spline tool and set it to Lines, Equal Chord Length.

Ø  When working in DWG files, the magic level for the ref boundary shapes so they don't get plotted is "Defpoints".

Ø  If a dialog box has become stuck up under the top of your MicroStation application window and you can't get it back out, an alternative to the Bentley Logo > Cascade All trick is to hit Shift + Data on anywhere on the dialog border to drag it back down. Data straight on the border of a dialog will normally resize it, but the Shift key turns it into a move command.

Ø  The easiest way to temporarily suspend AccuSnap is to hit and hold <Ctrl>+<shift>. This works in reverse on Place Fence for which AccuSnap is by default suspended.

Ø  Settings > Design File > Coordinate Readout > Azimuth

Ø  The ACTIVE LINESTYLESCALE key-in is used to set the global scale factor for custom line styles. The specified scale factor has the same effect as the Scale Factor setting in the Line Styles dialog box.

Ø  The CHANGE LINESTYLE SCALE key-in is used to scale an element's (custom) line style by a specific factor — for example, CHANGE LINESTYLE SCALE 2.0. The specified scale factor has the same effect as the Scale Factor setting in the Line Styles dialog box. If you do not specify a factor, a factor of 1.0 is assumed. Key in CHANGE LINESTYLE SCALE [scale_factor].

Ø  Global Freeze in a nutshell: If Global Freeze is on, it freezes the selected level(s). When a level is frozen, elements on the level are not displayed. And, typically if the levels are not displayed they are not plotted. Also, if a cell placed on the level has elements on other levels, none of the elements are displayed.

Ø  Highlight info in ref dialog - or models dialog - and Right-click+Copy. Open Excel and paste. Cool.

Ø  To get AccuSnap to work on fences: try shift & control keys during the fence snap

Ø  Hatching, Flood Method supports Selection Sets: put all the elements you want considered in the Flood Method in a Selection Set, and any element not in the Selection Set will seem invisible.

Ø  To allow MicroStation files with extensions other than .dgn appear as thumbnails in the MM dialog:

Ø  To save a backup to the directory you are in, key-in BACKUP. The file will be saved with .bak.

o   To save a backup to the directory you are in with a different extension, key-in BACKUP .ABC (for example) and the file will be saved with a .abc.

o   To save to a specific name and directory, key-in BACKUP C:\MYDIRECTORY\THISNAME.XXX

o   To save backups to a specific directory, set the variable MS_BACKUP = C:\TEMP etc.

o   To save backups with a non-default extension by settng the varable MS_BACKUP = .ABC and then BACKUP will save files to your current directory with the .abc extension.

o   You don't appear to be able to define a new directory and a new extension together. It looks like you can do one or the other.

Ø  match level fromcursor: Use with Accusnap on, with an element highlighted under the cursor, call from function key and it sets the level to that of the highlighted element.

Ø  When placing multi-lines with association lock on, in order to ensure there is an association between two kissing multi-lines, be sure to snap to the centre line of the existing multi-line and not to its end cap.

Ø  We now don't have to do wset add; wset drop to bring elements to the front. Simply select them and hit Edit > Bring to Front.

Ø  When entering feet an inches distances into MicroStation, you now dont have to enter 1:2 for 1 foot 2 inches, you can simply enter 1;2 which saves using the Shift key. Also try 1'2.

Ø  When a command prompts to select a view, you can use the keyin, xy=,,,3, the fourth coordinate being the view number.

Ø  When you use Associative Patterning an instance of the pattern cell is stored in your dgn file as a shared cell - whether or not you have Use Shared Cells checked in your Cell Library dialog box. If you edit the design of the pattern cell in the cell library you will not be able to update pattern elements of that cell in dgn files to reflect the new design until you:

o   Attach the library containing the pattern cell.

o   Check on the Use Shared Cells box.

o   Place an instance of the cell in the dgn file. (The old design will be placed.)

o   Uncheck Use Shared Cells.

o   Use Replace Cell to update the cell to the new design.

o   Now delete this cell.

o   Update the screen and existing pattern elements should update to the new design.

Ø  Good idea for function key:

o   "active angle pt2;%d;%d;rotate original"

o   Sets active angle pt2 and then calls rotate command.

Ø  Good idea for function key:

o   "copy element;xy=0;xy=0;change element extended;xy=0;choose none;xy=0"

o   This will copy selected elements, change them to actve symbology, then drop the selection set. Good for getting elements from reference file to active file and changing appearance.

Ø  Good idea for function key:

o   "copy element;xy=0;xy=0;choose none;xy=0"

o   This will copy selected elements then drop the selection set. Good for getting elements from reference file to active file.

Ø  When editing AutoCad files in DWG workmode, many MicroStaton settings are not saved. However, some can be saved by checking on Preserve MicroStaton Settings in the DWG Optons dialog accessed from MicroStation Manager.

Ø  TO GET AN arc tangent out of the end of a line,

o   Select Place Arc, Method = Edge, all other options Off.

o   Select Tangent Point lock and tentative + data to end of line and pull away.

Ø  To rotate your view to the current ACS, keyin the following (or add it to a function key):

o   rotate view points;ax=0,0,0;ax=10,0,0;ax=0,10,0;ad=0,0,0

o   TriForma has this on a button - but it would be good to extend it to rotating to the front/back/left/right views too.

Ø  Use AccuDraw to help with ACS work:

o   R+A and hit 3 points to define a drawing plane.

o   W+A to save this plane as an ACS - give a name.

o   G+A to recall this (or other) ACSs.

o   Rem to use R+, R+Y, R+Z when rotating the AccuDraw compass with an ACS.

Ø  If Windows Task Manager reports that the CPU is sitting at only 50% during a heavy process, such as rendering or hidden line removal: highlight ustation.exe in the Processes tab and right-click, Set Priority > High. This setting last for this MicroStation session only.

Ø  Save a click when using Extend Elements to Intersection: Instead of click on element to extend and then click on element to extend to, just click and hold on element to extend, then drag over to element to extend to then release. Presto.

Ø  If you would like a toolbox to be near the side of your screen but not to be docked, hold down the CTRL key as you move it around. This will prevent docking of the toolbox.

Ø  A good Dimension Driven Design (DDD) tutorial is located at http://selectservices.bentley.com/technotes/miscdocs/tut1.htm

Ø  Good Dimension Driven Design (DDD) examples can be seen at ...\Bentley\Workspace\projects\examples\generic\dgn\.

Ø  A quick way to add multiline text to a function key is to use the ascii newline character \10 in your text string. For example: "This is a two line\10text node element."

Ø  To change the direction of a custom linestyle, keyin: "change direction", data to the line and then confirmation datapoint near one end of the line.

Ø  If you have a levels file (*.lvl) for use on your project, remember that this information is stored within each and every design file and is not automatically loaded when you start MicroStation. Therefore, if a change is made to the levels file, you will have to manually load this into each and every one of your design files AND THEN HIT "SAVE SETTINGS"!!

Ø  Use the keyin dx=0|80 to speed up creating complex shapes when you have collections of adjascent but individual elements. Select Create Complex Shape and hit and accept the first element, then key in dx=0|80 or some other appropriate number.

Ø  Delete unwanted duplicate elements in your Microstation files with MDL L DELDUP.

Ø  The "Construct Points Along Element" command allows you to place a specific number of points (or characters or cells) along the length of an element. This command does not allow you to define the distance between each point, but rather it asks you for a start and an end point. Microstation then equally spaces your required number of points along the element.

o   If you wish to define the distance between points, for example to place a series of trees 10m apart along a path:

o   Firstly, measure the length of the element and do the math to determine the number of points (trees) you will get.

o   (eg. if the road is 85m long then you will get 9 trees along the element: one at the start and then one at each of the 10m intervals to 80m.)

o   Then set your lineweight to be really fat and use the "Construct Point @ Distance Along Element" command to place a single point at the finish position of the run.

o   (eg. set the "Distance" to be 80m and identify the start point of the element.)

o   Now select the "Construct Points Along Element" command, set the "Point Type", "Character" or "Cell" values as desired.

o   (eg. set the "Cell" to be your tree cell and set "Point Type" to be "Cell".)

o   Set the "Points" value to be the required number.

o   (eg. 9 trees: one at the start and then one at each of the 10m intervals to 80m.)

o   Identify the start of the element, then select your fat point as the end point. (Remember to delete the fat point when complete.)

Ø  To copy an element (or group of elements) a specific distance a certain number of times, use the AccuDraw shortcut "P" to open the "Data Point Keyin" dialog box. Select the "View Delta (dx=)" option, and keyin a|b, where "a" is the distance you wish to copy and "b" is the number of times you wish to copy. For example 100|5 will give five copies each set 100mm to the right.

Ø  Drag a .dgn file from Explorer and drop it into an open Microstation window to open that design file.
Drag one or more .dgn files from Explorer and drop it/them into the Reference Files dialog box to attach those files.

Ø  When copying elements in a Graphic Group from a reference file to your active file, you will need your Graphic Group lock switched ON to maintain the Graphic Group.

Ø  You can Lock and Unlock a group of elements in one hit by selecting them and choosing Edit->Lock or Edit->Unlock.

Ø  The Level Names from a design file can be saved to a .lvl text file. From the Level Names dialog box (Settings->Level->Names), choose File->Save. This text file can then be attached to other design files with File->Open from the Level Names dialog box.

Ø  Selections from the Settings Manager dialog box can be keyed in, therefore allowing them to be placed in pulldown menus. The syntax is ACTIVE SETTINS <COMPONENT_TYPE> <GROUP_NAME>:<COMPONENT_NAME>. For example to place a dimension called MYDIM from the group named MYGROUP, the keyin would be ACTIVE SETTINGS DIMENSION MYGROUP:MYDIM.

Ø  You cannot have the fill of an element on a different level to the element because the fill is an attribute of the shape and not an element of its own.

Modelling

Ø  Near the right hand end of the View Ribbon is the Clip Volume command. Like clipping a reference file, this command now allows you to clip the active file.

Ø  When moving objects around 3d space it is not always convenient to use AccuDraw (although it usually is!). When you do have to resort to the old key-in of Xy=x,y,z note that you can substitute # for a number in any of the three fields. This will preserve the current value of that field for the object being moved. For example, keying in xy=0,#,# will move the element to the 0 point on the X axis while preserving the current Y and Z values.

Ø  Be aware with extruding shapes to be Feature Solids that if you select a bunch of shapes and extrude in one hit, that the result will be one single feature solid that is made up of many separate 3d objects that may or may not touch each other. They cannot be disassociated, are not in a graphic group or a cell.

Ø  To convert Feature Solids to SmartSolids, select the elements and enter CONVERT PREP. (There is no way to change them back again, of course.)

Ø  When exporting a 3d file to hidden edges, and the output turns out to be b-splines instead of arc elements, try the Export Visible Edges dialog, General tab, Method change from MicroStation to Parasolids.

Ø  Try Place Free Form Surface to make a surface going through a number of defined points.

o   Try Catmull-Rom, Define Poles and Through Points methods.

o   You can use the standard Modify Element tool to modify the shape of these surfaces.

o   Try Modify Surfaces > Project Trim to cut a hole through a surface.

o   You now can't modify the element with Modify Element.

o   Try 3D Construct > Thicken To Solid to take this surface to a solid with a defined thickness.

o   You now can't modify the element with Modify Element.

o   You can use Cut Solid to remove portions of the solid.

o   Check out if there is a way to copy the surface 500mm down to simulate a thickness for now, but with the advantage that you can modify the element with Modify.

Ø  If when starting TriForma the following messages appear: 'Unable to create resource file for storage of dynamic menus', then TF is not able to write out the $(MS_TMP)tftmp[n].rsc file.

o   Check for writable priviledges on the $(MS_TMP) directory, and check that this directory exists.

Ø  In TriForma there is a tool in the "Display Drawing" toolbox called "Fit Element". If the "Exchange Design File" option is checked on this tool allows you to select an element and change to whatever reference file the element is in.

Ø  To get a Surface from Contours: Preselect your contours, then key-in "facet triangulate contours" to generate a Mesh Element.  Then, if you want the Mesh Element to render smoothly, hit it with the Facet Smoothing tool (key-in "render shape icon"). from NG

Ø  If you are using Construct Difference (Tools > 3D Main > 3D Modify) to remove the area above a Surface but instead the area below is being removed, try using Change Normal Direction (Tools > Surface Modeling > Modify Surfaces).

Ø  To extrude from one shape to another try Construct Skin Solid/Surface tool, in the Create Surfaces tool box, or the Skin Solid Feature tool in the Profile Feature Solids tool boxes.

Ø  To make a solid earth object - i.e. the block of land you are building the house on:

1. Use Place Slab (Tools > 3D Main > 3D Primitives) to make the base rectangular block - higher than the gound level.

2. Ensure contours are linestrings or construct your own site height linestrings. The extent of these need to be larger than the slab created above.

3. Use Construct Surface by Section or Network (Tools > Surface Modeling > Create Surfaces) to create the ground surface.

4. Use Construct Difference (Tools > 3D Main > 3D Modify) to remove the portion above the surface cut plane.

Ø  To display ACS coordinates in accudraw, Go to settings>Accudraw>coordinates Set Rotation:Auxiliary

Ø  When in TriForma and you have used the DEM to visit the extracted file, return to the model with the Navigation tool: TriForma > Tools > Display Control - Drawings > Navigation toolbox.

Ø  From View Control toolbox in a 3d file, use the Apply Clip Volume tool to identify a shape or solid that will define the area of a file to be displayed. This is good, but also check out display sets.

Ø  According to Bentley Select Support, there is no way to extend a line to where it kisses a Surface. You can only use the nearest b-spline points to get a close approximation.

Ø  For the TriForma extrusion of an extended parabolic curve problem: try changing some of the settings in the Preferences tab in the drawing extraction definition. Increase accuracy, turn off curve hiding etc.

Ø  When you dynamically rotate you views in 3D, do your objects quickly spin off the screen, instead of allowing you to spin around them? To solve this, hit a tentative+data point to a vertex of your object and you will spin around that point.

Ø  To perform a 3D datapoint:

o   Set your self up with two perpendicular views, usually a Top and a Front view.

o   Hold down the Alt key, data point at the desired location in the Top view.

o   With the Alt key still down, hit another data point in the Front view.

Ø  When using the 3D Modify SmartSolids tools, you may find that the rendered view does not modify. Microstation may have successfully made the modification but not updated the rendered view. Confirm this by checking a wireframe view. If the wireframe view looks like it should, try closing and reopening the rendered view. If that does not work, close and reopen the file.

Cells

Ø  When placing cells do you sometimes find that they do not display in dynamics but immediately appear when you hit the data point? If so, you may be placing cells with the Relative option checked on. The level(s) of a relative cell is taken from the current active level, however they do not display on this new level(s) until the data point is hit. When in dynamics they display in their true level(s) (the level(s) in which they were created). This means that if your cell was created on the Default level, then you should ensure that the Default level is displayed On when placing this cell with the Relative option checked on.

Ø  In the Cell Library dialog box you can get quick access to cell definitions. Highlight the target cell in the list, then right click and select "Open for Editing".

Ø  Shared cells in a dgn file can be captured and placed in a cell library. Use the keyin "export cells shared <new file name>"

Ø  Note when placing cells with Relative off: If an element in the cell is on a level that does not exist in the destination file, the level is copied through. However, any elements on the level Default will end up on the current Active Level.

o   Also, when placing cells with Relative on: cells with all elements on one level are placed on the current active level. But, cells with elements on multiple levels are placed on the active level and subsequent levels according to the level NUMBER (not Name!) of the other elements. This placement will not work at all if the level number is not an attribute of a level in the destination file.

o   There is no keyin to toggle on and off the Relative check box in the Place Cells dialog box. Neither is there any value in the tcb to change. Placing cells relative is an old concept and does not appear to be in widespread use today.

Ø  You may have some cells that are mostly placed on the one level, such as trees, but on occasions these cells may need to be placed on another level, such as existing trees or trees to be demolished. One solution is to duplicate the cell library and change all the cells to the new level (and colour/style/weight perhaps).

o   Another solution may be to have all the appropriate cells created with their colour (and possibly style and weight too) set to ByLevel. This way when placing the cells in the normal fashion they will be placed on their desired level. However, to have them placed with an alternate level and symbology, place the cells with the Relative option from the Place Cell Tool Settings dialog box checked on. This will place the cell on the currently active level and the symbology will adopt the ByLevel settings for that level, thereby changing the appearance of the cell. For example existing trees might be a different colour and demolished trees might be dotted too.

Ø  If you are defining cell selector files and you have elected to see the cell name on screen, then you may see the situation where the cell name is visible but not legible for numerous reasons.

o   Cell names in lowercase are hard to read as the portion below the line is not displayed. Fancy fonts can be hard to read too. Avoid this situation by setting the font to 127 in the Define Defaults dialog (From the Cell Selector dialog, choose Edit > Defaults) and then reload the cell library into the selector file. Font 127 is a single linework font in uppercase only.

o   While the current text size does not affect the size of the cell names displayed in the selector file, the text height and text width proportion does affect how the text is displayed. If you see tall and thin text or short and fat text in the cell selector file, then call the Place Text command, check out the Height and Width values and then set them to be equal.

Ø  When setting defaults to use when creating Cell Selector files (from the Cell Selector dialog hit Edit > Defaults), setting "Show" to "Cell Name" or to "Cell and Name" will produce selector files with the name of the cell displayed in the dialog. In that same dialog, specifying a "Font" that has upper and lower case will mean that cell name will display in the case as stored. Be aware that lower case cell names can be very hard to read in selector files. It can be better to use a font that has only uppercase, such as font 102.

Ø  If some squares in your Cell Selector file appear blank then it may be that the cell library needs to be compressed. We know that elements deleted from design files are not actually removed from the file until Compress is run; if a cell is removed from a cell library and a new one is created with the same name, then there are actually two cells in the library with the same name - albeit in different models. This appears to confuse the Cell Selector routines. Issuing the Compress command will remove the deleted cell from the file. If you then reload the cells into the Selector file, all should be well.

Ø  The Cell Library dialog box displays a list of cells in the currently attached cell library. An extended list of cells can be displayed in one of two ways: Firstly check on the Display All Cells in Path checkbox on the dialog. This will show the cells in all libraries in the your currently defined MS_CELL configuration variable. Secondly, from the menu on the Cell Library dialog box, select File > Attach Folder. This will display cells from all libraries in the nominated foleder - but not subfolders.

Ø  If you reload a cell library to re-populate the image squares of a cell selector file and all the images go blank, then the cell library is not being read correctly. Go to the cell library and compress the file. Be sure to check on all the appropriate compress options.

Ø  Even though you can place cells from anywhere in your Cell Library List, the Replace Cell commands only works on cell libraries in your cell path.

Ø  Graphic cells are placed in the symbology of the cell when it was created. Point cells are placed in the active level and symbology. When associative patterning is used, patterning goes on the level of the element being patterned.

Ø  The situation can develop in MicroStation where you have a normal cell X and a shared cell X in the same dgn file with different elements in them. Normal Cell X may be a door and Shared Cell X may be a north point. This is probably undesirable practice, but not an issue with MicroStation. However, AutoCad will not understand this at all. So use caution when you  save a file lilke this to DWG.

Ø  Remember that you cannot fill the enter data fields of Shared Cells. They need to be normal cells. If you have got a bunch of shared cells, then  highlight them and hit the Drop command and choose the settings Shared Cells > To Normal Cells.

Ø  AutoDesk has developed i-drop technology whereby you can drag stuff (cells/blocks, dwg/dgn) from the net to an i-drop aware application. A Select  Enhancement from Bentley now makes MS i-drop aware if you need it.

Ø  When cells are copied from a cell library, they use the closest RGB colour match.  You can force it to keep the same colour number by toggling off Workspace > Preferences > Reference > Remap Colors on Copy. It's under references because it applies to copying elements from a reference as well. (NG)

Ø  In a cell selector file, graphic cells are displayed as created, but point cells are displayed with the active linestyle. Therefore if you active linestyle happens to be a very complex style and you open a csf file with many complex cells, then your update time for that display may take many minutes.

References

Ø  The keyin to turn specific levels on or off in the active file is: OF|ON=TEXT <level name>;POINT ABS.

Ø  The keyin to turn levels on and off in a reference file is: REFERENCE LEVELS OF|ON <levelName> <ref logical name>;POINT ABS;CHOOSE NONE

Ø  If you open your Models and References dialog boxes at the same time, you can drag models from the Models dialog to the References list to create attachments in the current file.

Ø  If reference elements appear in incorrect symbology and/or report that the level of the element is level 0 or perhaps even blank, then you may have stumbled across an issue with 08.05.02.35 and level tables. It is difficult, but it can be fixed. To do so see the Bentley tech report locate at: http://selectservices.bentley.com/en-US/Support/Support+Tools/TechNotes+and+FAQs/MicroStation+V8/08.05.02.xx+-+Technical+Bulletin.htm

Ø  When displaying raster references in 2d design files in XM we have the ability to set the raster in one of three planes: Foreground, Design and Background planes. As raster refs are now placed on levels, Level Priorities will come into play with rasters that are placed in the Design plane, however they are ignored for the Foreground and Background planes.

Ø  The Raster Manager dialog box does not permit manipulation on multiple rasters in one go - like you can do with the normal References dialog. There is a workaround where by if you use PowerSelector to select he desired rasters, then comeback and click and hold on the boundary of one of the rasters then drag to a new location you can get multiple rasters to move in one hit. Also, if you hold down <Ctrl> while doing this you can get copies of the rasters. There is still no way to scale/rotate/clip multiple rasters.

Ø  If using Reference Presentation "True Hidden Line" and the symbology of the presented Solid elements appears to be different to what you were expecting, then there may be a problem with the Solid element. There is a known issue where if you extrude a profile to create a Solid element and then subsequently change the level/symbology of the element to another setting. On these occasions, the Solid element may get confused about how it should display itself. Try recreating the Solid from the profile again, but this time set the profile to the correct level before performing the extrusion.

Ø  Keep the References dialog box tidy and easy to understand by deleting unnecessary References. If you have many references, then consider using sensible coded Logical Names and/or Descriptions and sort the list of References by the Logical Names column.

o   Remember that you can also now edit the reference slot number. This will affect how the references appear in the dialog box allowing you to group them. In addition, it will affect the display order on screen and when plotting.

o   Consider using Settings > Adjust Colours to help distinguish between active and Reference elements on screen. Try using the Hue Fixed For All Colors option.

o   Check out the different Settings > Highlight modes to see which one is preferable to you.

Ø  If you wish to change the file that is referenced for another one, (eg. SectionB.dgn > SectionC.dgn), then double-click on the attachment in the References dialog to open the Attachment Settings dialog box. In the File Name section, key-in the name of the different file, or hit Browse to go search for it.

o   Consider combining this procedure with Copy Reference in order to create an additional reference in your file. Eg. add a second floor plan to your sheet file by copying the ground floor plan reference attachment and then changing the attachment settings to look for the first floor instead. This is especially useful if you have spent time selecting which levels to display on/off in the first reference.

Ø  When you attach a reference and nothing appears on screen, remember to hit the Fit View button to see all elements displayed.

o   If this does not solve the problem, remember that design files can have multiple Models within the dgn. Double-click on the attachment in the References dialog to open the Attachment Settings dialog box and look for the Model option button and check to see if there is another model that you can choose.

o   If this does not solve the problem, remember that references will be initially attached with levels on/off as they are in that file. This means that if the last time you (or another team-member) were in that file and you hit Save Settings with all levels displayed off, then they will be displayed off here too. Use the Level Display dialog to check the display of levels and turn them on if necessary. (Remember that if you leave this file without hitting Save Settings yourself, then these levels will return to the previous setting.)

Ø  When you attach a reference file, use the Directory history menu on the Attach References dialog box. The top directory listed will always be your current directory. This can save time hunting down the desired folder.

Ø  When attaching a reference file, if once you have selected the file MicroStation immediately places the file without first showing you the Reference Attachment Settings dialog (to allow you to choose scale or Saved View etc.), then you will need to ensure on the Attach Reference dialog that the Attachment Method is set to Interactive. If set to the other methods, such as Coincident, then the file to attach will be immediately placed and displayed.

Ø  To modify reference clipping boundaries: set your Hilite mode on the References dialog box toolbar to Boundaries.

o   Select the desired reference in the list. It should then appear with the dotted boundary.

o   Select the dotted boundary and the four handles should appear.

o   Click and drag a handle to modify the clipping boundary.

o   Shift + click multiple handles then click + drage to modify the clipping boundary again.

Ø  The key-in RF=<filename> opens the Reference Attach dialog. However if your filename has spaces in it, you will need to enclose the name in "". eg. RF="FILENAME WITH SPACES.DGN"

Ø  You cannot edit the Reference Attachment of a reference displayed with True Hidden Line Presentation in order to change to another file. You will first need to change the Presentation back to Wireframe, then swap out to a different file, and then change the Presentation back to True Hidden Line.

Ø  In XM when using two references of the same element in order to show an outline with one ref (by using Hidden Line Presentation) and then the internals of the element with the other reference (by using Level Symbology to set the internal linework to thin and dotted), be sure that the reference slot number of the outline reference is lower than the number of the internals reference. If not the internals will not display.

Ø  In XM when using Reference Presentation of True Hidden Line, ensure that the Level Display and Level Symbology of that reference is set on/off as desired before you select the Presentation. Otherwise you may get undesirable levels and symbology displayed.

Ø  In XM, both raster references and dgn/dwg references can be selected like normal MicroStation elements. Whilst you may be able to move them around with the normal element manipulation commands, be aware that they do also respond silently to the Delete command!

Ø  Reference Presentation Hidden Line: In a sheet model, the Presentation menu has one additional option: True Hidden Line. Unlike the other reference presentation options, True Hidden Line generates a new vector model of the reference, with hidden lines removed. In the sheet model, a reference set to True Hidden Line looks similar to a reference set to Hidden Line. However, when you print the sheet model, a reference set to True Hidden Line will print as a true vector image. A reference set to any other presentation option (such as Hidden Line) will print as a raster image. But notice that when this happens, the visible elements seem to be now shown as being on the Default level and not their actual/original level(s).

Ø  Sometimes MicroStation will not reload a reference file because it thinks it does not need to. Get tough with the keyin REFERENCE RELOAD FORCE.

Ø  reference levels off all all ; selview all ; reference levels on spider all ; selview all

o   Will turn off all levels in all reference files on all views and then turn on the level name "spider" in all reference files in all views. The thing to watch out for, though, is that you don't name a level or reference "all". To overcome this you can use the wildcard "*". Your command could be re-written as: reference levels off * * ; selview all ; reference levels on spider * ; selview all

o   Wildcards can also be used for dgn names or logical names: reference levels on spider dog*.dgn ; selview all

o   Will turn on the level "spider" in all reference files starting with "dog" in all views.

o   reference levels on spider dog* ; selview all. This will turn on level "spider" for logical names starting with "dog" in all views. This can also be used in the same way for model names.

Ø  If you are using nesting of references it can be confusing to know which reference is important as it is being used in a sheet file and which reference is just a working file for your information. Consider devising a code for yourself to use as either the  attachment Logical Name or Description so you know that this particular reference is needed by a sheet file up the line. Descriptions my be prepended by SHT or A04 or MUST BE ON or DON'T CHANGE LEVELS DISPLAY.

Ø  To set the transparency for a raster reference, open the Attachment Settings for that reference, under the Color tab set the transparency to a value up to about 51%. Anything over that value and the image may disappear. I understand this is a "feature" in development.

Ø  Using Adjust Colours for references is great to use to differentiate references on screen. However, the Print Adjust Colours button is not compatable with our standard pen table that turns all elements black. It won't even work to define a section in your pen table to pick up this reference file and get it to print with no adjustments hoping that it will then print as it displays on screen; it will print at it is stored. The solution here is to have it display with whatever colour you wish on screen, but then to define a section in the pen table that picks up this reference and prints it all at a defined colour.

Ø  When MicroStation opens a file, it searches for references files in the following places, in order:

o   If the file specification contains a configuration variable, look in that directory first, using the relative path, if any.

o   Search a list of directories which consists of all of the directories for the parent file(s) of the reference. If a reference is attached directly to the master file, the search path consists only of the directory of the master file. If it is a nested reference, the path consists of the directories of each parent file, starting with the most deeply nested. Starting with Version 08.00.01.xx, the directories searched include the relative path, if any, in the file specification.

o   Search all the directories in MS_RFDIR, again retaining the relative path, if any, in the file specification.

o   Search the "current" directory. This is the MicroStation directory if MicroStation is started from the MicroStation program group, or the directory of the DGN file that is double clicked on from Windows explorer. This is rarely useful.

o   Use the full file specification in the reference attachment, if there is one.

o   This search algorithm is designed to maximize the chances that each project participant will find the correct reference file. There is no way to go up the tree when searching. You can only go down so the simplest solution it seems would be to set the directory further up the chain.

Ø  Regarding linestyle scales in reference files:

o   You cannot change the scale "within the element" for elements in a reference.

o   However you can do a few other things....

o   You can adjust the active linestyle scale (key-in: ACTIVE LINESTYLESCALE <value here>)

o   This will, however, effect the active file and the reference file in the same manner.

o   OR

o   You can set a linestyle scale at the "level".

o   Open level manager

o   Select the reference in the target tree

o   Right click on the level that the elements to change are on, select properties.

o   Go to the "Styles" tab.

o   Enable "Scale Factor" either under "Bylevel" or "overrides" and set a desired scale value.

o   Note: to see the scale in overrides, you will have to have Level Symbology enabled in the view.

Ø  Reference dialog Tools > Merge Into Master command will only  bring through elements visible in the attached reference files. IOW, any reference file elements on levels displayed Off will be left behind by the merge command. The data point to the screen to kick off the command defines which set of levels On/Off to use.

Ø  "By default, MicroStation checks "cycles" and discards [duplicate reference attachments]. In other words if File A attaches File B which attaches File A, and we didn't check the cycles, the only think that would limit the number of times that File A and File B appear is the nest depth. By default, MicroStation is cautious and doesn't live nest the File A attachment. We treat self references as a special case, allowing the cycle when the file references itself directly, but we cut off the cycle at the next level. Some users have good reasons why they want such cycles, so in 08.05.00.64 we added a "hidden" configuration variable that allows you to turn off that check - MS_REF_CYCLECHECK. Set that to 0 and I thnk you will get something closer to what you want, although I think you will probably want to cut down your nest depth as you will see when you try it." Barry Bentley.

Ø  When editing the name of a reference to change to a different file, you may find that the levels are not as they were in the previous attachment. Without Save Settings, re-enter the file and possibly the levels are restored.

Ø  This is culled from TechNote 8350....

o   "There exists the potential of a dynamic relationship for view display changes. In fact, the relationship is dynamic from the outset and is not broken until changes to the nested attachments view display are made while working in the active file. This should come as no surprise given that it is also the default relationship for nested level attributes. Returning to our example, when parent.dgn is attached to master.dgn with a live nesting value of 1, the view display for nested.dgn will appear in master.dgn just as it does in parent.dgn. This is because the view mask (the element that controls view display) for nested.dgn is not in parent.dgn, so USTN must continue down the reference hierarchy until the view mask is found. This relationship is broken when nested.dgn's view mask is changed while working in master.dgn and the settings are saved. Once broken, changes to nested.dgn's view display through parent.dgn will no longer appear in master.dgn.

o   To understand this fully, it must be mentioned that the nested attachment's view mask will only remain in the active file if the mask is different between the active file and the parent attachment. Conversely, if the view mask for the nested attachment is the same in parent attachment as it is in active file, savings settings while in the active file will remove the nested attachment's view mask.

o   For instance, if level ONE in nested.dgn is turned off while working in parent.dgn (let's assume a save settings unless noted otherwise), level ONE in nested.dgn will be off in master.dgn. Now, if level ONE in nested.dgn is turned on while working in master.dgn, nested.dgn's view mask is written to master.dgn. This means that changes to nested.dgn's view display as made while working in parent.dgn will not display in master.dgn. However, if level ONE in nested.dgn is turned on while working in parent.dgn and master.dgn is opened and settings are saved, nested.dgn's view mask will be removed from master.dgn. This occurs because the view display for nested.dgn as viewed through both parent.dgn and master.dgn is the same. What this means is that the dynamic relationship is once again in effect."

Ø  To attach the same ref file to a number of other files - say a legend to a sheet file, key in:

o   rf=<filename>,<logicalname>,<description or blank>,<saved view>,<scale>

o   eg. rf=01-641-legend,legend,,1,20:1

o   This brings in the ref file and waits for your data point to place it.

o   Then you just move to the next file, hit Up-arrow to get the keyin again, and hit Enter.

o   The key in to attach a filename coincidentally is rf=<filename>,,,,,

Ø  An alternate to refalign.ma, mentioned in the previous tip, is to use the Copy Attachment feature now standard with Microstation. From your Reference File dialog box, choose Tools->Copy Attachment. Then edit the name of the new ref file. You now have a new reference file attached with the same position, rotation, levels etc. as the original ref file.

Ø  Refalign.ma is a third party mdl application that rotates, scales and clips multiple reference files to an existing reference file. Get Refalign.ma from http://www.brmw.com/~brmw/

Ø  If you have a design file called MYFILE.DGN with several self-reference files attached and you need to change the file name to MYNEWFILE.DGN, you will find that the reference files in your new file will not be self-reference files but will be pointing to the original file MYFILE.DGN.

o   To fix this you will have to double-click on each entry in the Reference File dialog box and edit the file name to be MYNEWFILE.DGN.

o   Avoid this problem by creating your self-reference files by issuing the keyin command "RF=." The filename is stored as "." in the Reference File dialog box and Microstation will attach the active file. If at a later stage you need to rename the file, the reference files are still listed as "." and Microstation will be looking at the active file.

o   Note that you must use the keyin as this cannot be executed from the Attach Reference File dialog box.

o   Note also that you can specify a different extension for your reference file by keying in "RF=.SA3". This will attach a file of the same name but with extension .SA3.

Imaging

Ø  Remember that there is an alternative to raster referencing of images. You could use from the main MicroStation menu File > Import > Image. This will embed the image into your dgn file. You can scale, rotate and move the image here.

Ø  In MicroStation XM the Material table is internal and no MAT table is needed. This is why palettes will list in the Materials Editor dialog box even though no .mat file is present. Having said this, XM does sometimes create .mat files: go figure.

Ø  Performing a Ray Trace rendering of Feature Solids elements can produce results where the elements move themselves to other locations in the file! In Wireframe or Filled Hidden Line they behave correctly, but when rendered, some may move to a new location. This can also be apparent when printing to 3d pdf. To be able to obtain good images:

o   Select affected elements,

o   Task List > Feature Based Solids Modeling > Modify Feature > Re-Evaluate Tree,

o   Data to screen.

o   If this does not work then copy the file (or model) to protect your original; then select the affected elements and key-in CONVERT BREP. This will convert them from Feature Based Solids to normal Solids. Therefore your feature tools will not work on these elements any more - hence the backup copy.

Ø  If having trouble getting enough light to shine from an area light: Try turning off all the lights (including the global lights), except the area light in question.  Then render to see if that light is producing (enough) light to be seen.  If it is shining as desired when all other lights are off, it could be that the solar light is drowning out the area light (this is a common issue users run into).  In this case, increasing the Area light intensity and/or lowing the solar intensity will help.  Also when using "Real World Lighting", it auto-attenuates all lights.  This can cause a light to not shine enough distance to have much of an impact on the surfaces that are further away, which is again compounded by brighter (solar) light sources near by.

Ø  Ray Trace rendering of a scene made up of numerous referenced models. Materials are assigned by level in each model. No Level Symbology overrides are used. when the image is rendered on screen it appears OK. When the image is rendered with the Image > Save Multiple dialog and a script populated, sometimes elements on one level of one referenced model do not render in their assigned material, but rather in the colour of the element.

o   Drilling down to the reference levels in Level Manager showed that the level of that element in that reference file has the Modified triangle checked and indeed the material for that level was set to None. However there was no way to change it. I could not modify the material.

o   I then visited the file of the reference to check on the material assignment there and saw that it was OK. Returning to the destination file, the level's material now displays correctly. Strange. I'll update when I find a solution.

o   I thought it was fixed, but just ran Save Multiple images routine and the offending coloured panel has returned.

Ø  The Assign by Level and Color icon: To assign a material by level and colour. Choose Table, Palette and Material. Hit on an element and then all elements that have the same level and colour combination that this element has will be affected. Or use the little icon at the bottom right of the dialog to open the Material Assignments dialog. In this dialog you can make level and colour assignments. Can also select multiple levels.

Ø  The Attach Material icon: use it to apply a material to a particular element. This will override any level + colour assignments set. If the element you identify is a SmartSolid, then you can elect to attach the material to certain faces of the element.

Ø  Issues affecting the processing time with rendering images:

o   DETAIL OF DESIGN; HOW MUCH IS BEING RENDERED.

o   RENDERING MODE BEING USED

o   ROUNDED OR CURVED SOLIDS, B-SPLINE CURVES OR SURFACES, ELEMENTS CONSTRUCTED OF CLOSED SHAPES (TRIANGULATED MESH).

o   ANTIALIAS.

o   LIGHTS. - Each light requires time to process.  Area lights typically take longer than others.  The sample value in the light will exponentially increase the processing time.

o   VIEW WINDOW/OUTPUT SIZE.

o   MATERIALS. -             High detail or large patterns bump maps, transparency and/or reflectivity.

o   STROKE TOLERANCE. - Default is 0.500, smaller value = more time.

o   RPC DATA.

o   Toggle off "Render all objects".  This will only render the objects that are currently in the view.

o   Save the RayTrace solution and then reload it at a later time as long as the geometry has not changed and this should significantly reduce the re-render time as it is the same lighting solution.

Ø  When Ray Tracing consder Real World Lighting. Display Contrast values can be between 1 (for hard contrast) to 5 (for soft contrast), default value is 2.6.

o   When Phong rendering, Phong Shadow Tolerance values range between 0 and 0.1 (default 0.02) and Phong Shadow Size values range from 0 - 15 (default 2)

Ø  If rendered images of white objects appear grey,

o   Check Settings > Rendering > View Attributes and make sure you are not using any

o   Distance Cueing such as Fog or Depth Cueing in the view where you are creating the ray traced solution.

o   If the Distance Cueing is set to None then it is off for the view and no distance cueing will be used regardless of the sliders. [Jerry Flynn on NG]

Ø  For Environment Mapping in Rendering, from the newsgroup:

o   Don't use a cylinder. Use a sphere! And get a panorama sky image, like the ones @ www.1000skies.com .

o   First mirror the image horizontally (increase height 100%) (1000skies has some dome images). Then place the sphere around the model (placing it from the bottom to top, not from left to right, and keep the center a little below the model), and attach the sky material, which is set to cast no shadows. And there you have a perfect sky.

Ø  To fix camera roll on a fly through: Home resets roll, second hit resets Tilt, third hit set to North.

Ø  When running a Solar Study (Utilities > Render > Solar Study) the light in the scene mimics the light in the real world meaning that the light on a winter afternoon is much less than the amount of light, and therefore the brightness, of a midday mid summer. To help the amount of light in the scene constant, try setting the Ambient light high and the Solar light low. Might also like to try Add Sky Light to all Slar and Distant Lights from the Global Lighting tab. Or even wind up the Cloudiness setting (same place) - but this may darken the image and slow down the rendering process.

Ø  When running MicroStation Solar Studies (Utilities > Rendering > Solar Study), be sure to save your rendering setup (Settings > Rendering > Setup) before performing the Solar Study. That is, don't just adjust the onscreen settings and run the Solar Study, adjust the settings and save them first.

Ø  Use a light with a short attenuation on the time stamp when doing shadowing.

Ø  For microstation shadows to work, the objects casting the shadows need to be visible in the view. Its not good enough to have them turned on but just off screen: they need to be visible in the view for their shadows to be cast.

Ø  For Solar Study.

o   Ensure a rendering setup has been established including north set.

o   Use Utilities > Rendering > Solar Study.

o   To set up an animation with a frame for every 15 minutes from 9.00am to 3.00pm, set 25 frames, 9am start and a 6hr duration. Also set AntiAlias, Solar Shadows, Ray Trace and save to AVI(Windows standard) instead of FLI (MicroStation required.)

o   The Speed setting works in reverse: low numbers and the animation plays back fast, higher numbers play back slow. (Perhaps the number is the pause between frames.)

Ø  Sprint Digital's large format HPGL printer will not print TIFF unless it is in "B+W with CCITT Group 4 Compression"

Ø  TIFF images will not print via HPGL2. Need to use other Windows based drivers.

Ø  Rendering TriForma models uses the TriForma part information for each element to get the rendering attriutes. To override this an force renderings to behave in the normal MicroStation level and colour mode, set the config variable TFPART_RENDER=0.

Ø  For transparencies to work there are 3 places the set the parameter:

o   The element's material has to be set to a transparent material.

o   Settings > Rendering > View Attributes. Check on Transparency option.

o   If you are Ray Tracing. Settings > Rendering > Ray Tracing. Check on Transparency option.

Ø  When experimenting with different rendering methods, be aware that applied materials will appear differently for Phong shading, RayTracing and Particle Tracing.

Ø  If you are preparing Phong images with shadows to save, but the shadows are jagged, fuzzy and appear to float above the ground, then save them as RayTracings. Phong's process means that shadows get less accurate the more of them that needs to be rendered. RayTracing produces wonderfully sharp images with small JPEG files.

Ø  When trying to create images for shadow diagrams, using Phong will probably produce shadows that are fuzzy, jagged and floating. However, sharp shadows can be achieved if in the Save Image dialog box, you set the "Format" to "JPEG" and the "Shading" to "RayTrace". Each saved image can take a while to process so do a couple of tests and adjust the "Resolution" for your needs.

Ø  For materials to be transparent in MicroStation, check out:

o   Set transparency in Define Materials db. see Settings>Rendering>View Attributes.

o   Set view attributes to transparent. see Settings>Rendering>View Attributes.

o   If raytracing, set transparency on in settings box, see Settings>Rendering>Raytracing.

Ø  You can adjust the darkness of raster images in Microstation by selecting the image with Utilities->Image->Display. Then choose Image->Gamma Correction and adjust the slide control.

Ø  Create .emf images from your Microstation files by plotting with the emf.plt driver file selected. The resolution of the image can also be improved by adjusting the Resolution line in the plot driver file. Use your Preferences to change the Background from Black to White. EMF images can be a good format to use to paste into a PowerPoint presentation.

Ø  Create .tif images from your Microstation files by plotting with the tiff.plt driver file selected. The resolution of the image can also be improved by adjusting the Resolution line in the plot driver file. Use your Preferences to change the Background from Black to White.

Ø  Create .jpg images from your Microstation files by plotting with the jpeg.plt driver file selected. The resolution of the image can also be improved by adjusting the Resolution line in the plot driver file. Use your Preferences to change the Background from Black to White.

Printing

Ø  The Rasterized checkbox on the Print dialog remembers its status from the last time you checked it on/off. A line can be added to your plot configuration files to automatically check or uncheck  this box.

o   To check the option but allow the user to override the setting:
output_mode=prefer_rasterized

o   To uncheck the option but allow the user to override the setting:
output_mode=prefer_nonrasterized

o   To check and disable the option:
output_mode=force_rasterized

o   To uncheck and disable the option:
output_mode=force_nonrasterized

Ø  Print output colours and weights can be defined in pen tables as well as in print driver files. Assignments made in pen tables will override those made in driver files. See the Global Actions section of the Modify Pen Table dialog box.

Ø  To have your pen table respect Level Symbology Overrides, from the Modify Pen Table dialog hit on the Pen Table Options button. From the dialog that opens change "Element Symbology Comparison Mode" to "As Displayed In View". (Remember to File > Save)

o   As an alternataive to using a pen table to change your elements black at print time, try using the following in your print driver files:  PEN(1)=(1-127)/RGB=(0,0,0)

o   In versions prior to XM, you may also have used your pen table to send any filled colour shapes behind black elements on your prints. These sections will still be needed even if using the above PEN(1)... line. Remember too, that your last catch-all section in the pen table that sent all remaining elements black, will still be needed but only for the priority setting.

o   Pen table prioritizing may be more complex but can give better results than simple Reference Update Sequencing. And this is all redundant now with the introduction of element Priority in XM.

Ø  One of the differences between the 2004 and XM print drivers is that MicroStation and PowerDraft XM do not accept the /units or the /offset records in .plt files.

Ø  If you are creating a 3D pdf file with MicroStation's print to 3d option in XM, you may experience a situation where the objects in your output image appears to have see-through sides - as if they were filled hidden line, but that you could see through to the other side as well. When this happens then in Acrobat go to Edit > Preferences > Category > 3D > Render Options and check on Enable Double Sided Rendering.

Ø  If you have a situation where Printing does not seem to be correctly recognising reference clip boundaries set for a reference file, then the issue may be the dimension of the reference file. A 3d reference file displayed in a 2d file with a shape of more than 4 vertices defining the clipping boundaries, will display correctly in normal viewing, but under Print Preview will give erratic clipping results. An example was an Autocad survey file saved to MiroStation and then referenced into a site plan plot file. A shape with many vertices was used to clip the boundaries of the reference. It displayed correctly normally, but when the Print dialog was called, the Print Preview displayed this reference only with 4 clipping points forming a standard rectangle. The additional points were ignored. The problem turned out to be that the survey file saved from AutoCad to MicroSation was still in 3d. The solution was to open the AutoCad file again but this time with the DWG Open Option of "Create 2D Models for Model Space" checked on. Then save to DGN and you have a 2d file.

Ø  An error has been known to be generated when printing to PDF with XM. A dialog box opens with "Unhandled exception has occurred..." The pdf file is produced which appears OK, but we can't be sure. Bentley have seen the problem but as yet cannot solve it. To help ignore the problem for now, on the Print dialog select Settings > Preferences, and check off Show Print Status Dialog.

Ø  When editing print driver files, ensure that the line to call the paper size appears after the line to designate the printer name.

o   sysprinter /fullsheet /orientation=landscape /form=oce A1 /name=\\myPrinter size=(594,841) /units=mm /penScale=1.0 /name="A1" /default

Ø  To have a pen table process all elements in certain reference files, you can set regular expressions for the reference logical names. To do this, in the Modify Pen Table dialog, Element Selection Criteria tab, hit the Files button and the Identify Files dialog opens. In the lower keyin field enter <criteria>.* (eg. grey.*) and hit Add to add this entry to the Reference Logical Names section.

o   For example, this will match references with logical names of grey, grey-2, greydog, greyABC.

o   Note that these expressions can be added manually to the pen table in Notepad with the line: LOGNAME = grey.* etc.

Ø  When editing pen tables, to have MicroStation look for elements on specific groups of levels, use the "Level Regular Expression" section of the Modify Pen Table dialog box. To look for all levels beginning with L use the expression L.*  (note, not L*, but L.*).

o   You may at sime time in the future find that this pen table will have all the levels that matched your regular expression now populating the "Level" item in the Modify Pen Table dialog box. This may be OK, but it may produce unwanted results as the levels in your current file may now be different. To avoid this, consider making the pen table file readonly when you have finished editing it.

o   Note that level regular expressions can be added manually to the pen table in Notepad with the line: IN_LEVEL_EXPR = L-.* or as appropriate.

Ø  Printing elements with transparency can be done with normal printing. Printing elements with gradient fill can also be done with normal printing. However, printing elements with transparency and gradient fill will require Rasterisation at plot time; see the check box on the Print dialog. Be aware that rasterised plotting is slower and if printing to PDF will produce larger files than normal.

Ø  When starting printing via a menu button or item, sometimes the "Select Pen Table File" dialog box opens. This is despite the fact that the pen table has been defined in the plot driver file. This error usually happens after a system change has been made or after you changed workspaces. When this happens just hit Cancel on that box. When the "Print" dialog opens, select File > Reload Printer Driver Configuration and the correct pen table should now be found.

Ø  If you are going to use a pen table to order your elements (for example to have filled shaped print first) AND if you also have Text elements with a clear background, then you will have to set a separate section in the pen table for the text. Your priority should be Filled Shapes, then Other Linework, and lastly Text.

Ø  If you have some mystery elements that refuse to plot and you have checked out the tips above, then:

o   Select the plot area differently.

o   Try placing your fence by points instead of to the border element.

o   Try placing the fence by eye without snapping.

o   Try placing the fence on another diagonal (eg, place it from top left to bottom right instead of bottom left to top right etc.)

o   These things should not make a difference, but sometimes they do.

Ø  If you have some mystery elements that refuse to plot, check that:

o   Levels are displayed On or Off correctly.

o   Elements are not placed in a non-plotting level.

o   Level symbology set or not set as desired.

o   Pen table interfering with elements - such as making them print white.

Ø  Most colour printers must perform dithering to generate all the required colors when there are only 3 or 4 inks available. So setting raster resolution to a value greater than 1/2 (or even 1/4) of the plotter's resolution, may not improve image quality but may increase the time required for plotting.

Ø  The XM version of printer.plt has some changes administrators should be aware of.

Ø  You specify printer and paper sizes in plt files with the line:

o   sysprinter /fullsheet /orientation=landscape /form=A3 /name="my-printer-address"

o   Note that the form name has to match the name of the form in the printer's Paper list, eg it might be "ISO A1", or "841x594".

o   Sometimes, some office network systems seem to have trouble selecting the paper size. The xm version of printer.plt has some new lines that might help in this situation, eg. see the following:

o   size=(594,  841) /units=mm /penScale=1.0 /name="ISO A1" /default

Ø  If your Pen Table Text Substitution format for dates switches to American format of month/day/year, then define an environment variable to set it back to day.month.year.

o   MS_PENTABLE_DATE_FORMAT=%d.%m.%Y

o   (Note: case sensitive!)

o   (Had to use . as / always came out \)

Ø  When using pen tables to send all elements black, text elements are sometimes treated differently because of colour issues (such as allowing white on black background text to print correctly). If these textstyles are placed with the Place Note command then they may not be picked up with the pen table and therefore will plot as black blobs. In order to have these elements treated correctly, go to the Pen Table Options button on the lower left of the Modify Pen Table dialog box, hit it and select Explode cells and Explode Shared Cells.

Ø  When plotting using the Area item set to Sheet in the General Settings section of the Print dialog, note that the View item is still active. Therefore you must still select the correct view from which to plot, being careful to ensure that the correct levels are displayed and level symbology is correctly set.

Ø  When printing from XM, be sure you have the View Attribute of Transparency OFF, otherwise some(?) elements may appear in greyscale.

Ø  MicroStation XM can now print to PDF in 3D format allowing you to view models in 3d: Great for sending images to clients remotely. All lines in the models appear to be straight vectors - no curves. Curves are approximated with facets - and sometimes not very nicely. There are two methods to decrease the facet length, both from the Print dialog Settings > 3d Plotting Options dialog box.

o   The Mesh Resolution is a sliding value of 0 to 4000 with a default value of 1000. Try increasing this value.

o   The Mesh Tolerance default value is 0. If the value is non-zero, it overrides the Mesh Resolution. Mesh Tolerance directly controls the maximum distance from the mesh to the surface it approximates. A small value will produces a more precise mesh, with a subsequently larger file. Try 0.1.

Ø  In the Modify Pen Table dialog box, is a tab entitled Element Output Actions. To the right of the Style Scale item is a checkbox labelled Adaptive. Turning on Adaptive ensures that dashed lines in the printed output do not display with gaps at vertices.

Ø  When defining text substitutions in plotting pen tables, be aware that:

o   You can define "$USER$" = "$(_USTN_USERNAME)" to catch the microstation user name instead of using the system variable to catch the system user.

o   You can define "$FILEABBREV$" = "_FILEA_" to use the abbreviated filename of up to 30 chars.

o   Remembering of course that $FILES$ does the filename + extension only, and $FILEL$ puts out the entire path and filename + extension.

Ø  In PDF.plt driver file: The following entry controls the DPI resolution of the plot.

o   Resolution(MM)=(0.04233333333333333333333,0.04233333333333333333333); 600DPI

o   The maths for the figure here is = (1/600)*25.4

o   Changing this figure to 300 for a small drawing has little effect on the output PDF file size. It will have a greater effect on a larger drawing.

o   Note that changing this figure will have an immediate mathematical effect on the length of your dotted lines as these are defined in DPI units with the following entry:

o   style(1)=(18, 18)                  ;/nohardware     ;style = dot

o   etc. Remember this figure is DPI as in Inch irrespective of whether you used resolution(MM)=....  or  resolution(IN)=...

o   Also:

o   ;=================================================================

o   ;RGB Raster compression

o   CmdName /appname="pdf" /command="RGBRasterCompression" /qualifier="jpeg"

o   ;CmdName /appname="pdf" /command="RGBRasterCompression" /qualifier="zipped"

o   ;zipped by default

o   ;=================================================================

o   Swapping these entries (ie making the value "jpeg") will dramatically reduce file size with only a small trade off for lost resolution.

o   In the last group of entries:

o   pixel_resolution=300    ; Resolution of pixels on output (dpi)  Default=300

o   Changing this value changes the resolution of any raster images in your file. This will change the output file size. This value has no effect on the resolution of the MicroStation linework.150 DPI gives a reasonable onscreen resolution.

Ø  There is a known issue When printing raster references overlaid with filled colour shapes to PDF. The result is that the raster is on top, obscuring all elements underneath. Specifics of when and why it happens have not been clarified, so it happens some times but not all times. I will be solved in XM.

Ø  When printing with raster references, in the Print dialog select Settings > Raster Options and Set Monochrome Background to No Invert. You may also need to adjust the Update Sequence in the References dialog by setting the rasters to update last. And note that this is a global setting applying to all rasters: you can't manipulate them individually.

Ø  When plotting with raster reference files, try using the RIP drivers for better results.

Ø  When designing a pen table to change the output colour of elements (usually to black) it may be a good idea to set the output colour by RGB instead of by Index. If you choose RGB then you define the output colour and that's it. However, if you choose the Index and assign it to your black colour it will work fine but if another colour table happens to be attached, then you cannot be assured of the output colour.

Ø  Is it the case when defining pen tables that Element Selection Criteria > Fill Colour does not refer to background text colour, but Element Output Actions > Fill Colour does?

Ø  When designing a pen table to change the output colour of elements (usually to black) it may be a good idea to set the output colour by RGB instead of by Index. If you choose RGB then you define the output colour and that's it. However, if you choose the Index and assign it to your black colour it will work fine but if another colour  table happens to be attached, then you cannot be assured of the output colour.

Ø  The magic code, usually for plot driver files, to define a filename to be the same as the current file but with a different extension is: $(_DGNDIR)$(basename(_DGNFILE)).XXX

Ø  If you are trying to print and AutoCad file (or a MicroStation file saved from an Autocad file) but you are getting no image in your print preview, then:

o   Check that the portion of your pen table that turns all elements black is preventing the elements from displaying. Pen tables can turn elements black by sending all colours to color 0. However, if your file has an autocad colour table, then the colour 0 may be printing white. To fix this change the colour mix of colour 0 to be black. Alternatively, you could make a new pen table that sent the colours to another colour in the colour table instead of colour 0 - pick one that is as black as possible.

Ø  Another suggestion for calling print dialog from menu system:

o   MDL LOAD PLOTCFG;DIALOG PLOT;SET PLOTTER Q:\CADD\DRIVER\123.plt;PLOT ENTITY FENCE

Ø  Suggestion for calling print dialog from menu system:

o   place fence;%d;%d;print driver konica_03.plt;print pentable attach sc_pentable.tbl;print

Ø  Some plotters produces grey scaling with big dots rather than the beautiful greyscaling produced by newer inkjet printers. Bentley suggested to change the “largest polygon” line to 20000. This produced a marginal improvement in greyscaling dot size. Their other suggestion, using -1, resulted in all greyscaling and all TTF text being suppressed. Not a good result.

Ø  Here is a way to get your associative pattern to display without displaying the element that bounds it. It involves a pen table and your colour table.

o   In your standard colour table, designate a colour that is rarely used (probably a high number) and set it to be very faint grey. (You may already have greyscaling options set up with your colour table whereby you have already defined several colours for greyscaling. Using the lightest one of these will probably do.) Now in your Pen Table, create a new section like:

§  BEGIN <name>

§  IN_DISABLESECTION = 0

§  IN_USESECTIONNAME = 0

§  IN_COLOR      = <colourNumber>

§  PRIORITY      = 0

§  RETURN        = 3

§  END

o   Where <name> might be NOT_PATTERN_BOUNDARY and your <colourNumber> may be 240.

o   Having done this create your shape in your designated colour. Then change the Active Colour to 0 and then pattern the shape.

o   Any of course this will only work if people use the section

§  BEGIN All_Black

§  IN_DISABLESECTION = 0

§  IN_USESECTIONNAME = 0

§  OUT_COLOR     = 0x0

§  OUT_FILLCOLOR = 0x0

§  PRIORITY      = 10

§  END

o   to turn all their other elements black.

Ø  Had a situation where some text in a sheet file was not plotting. Not whole text or text node elements but assorted characters within the elements would not plot. After much investigation it turned out to be that the ref attachment of the sheet file was corrupted. So detach it and reattach and it all worked fine.

Ø  If printing to file (000) when using Batch Plotting and it does not seem to be working for one project but does for another, then it may be a config variable problem. In the Printer Specification of Batch Plotting, if you do not specify an Output Directory, then MS_PLTFILES will be used regardless of the default_outFile/auto_overwrite specified in your plot driver file. If MS_PLTFILES is not defined, or points to a non-existant directory, then the plotting will fail - and you will be given no reason. Check out your project config file for a correctly specified MS_PLTFILES variable.

Ø  When printing MicroStation files for use in Windows applications, try using the following drivers: cgm.plt, pscript.plt, wmf.plt, emf.plt.

Ø  Pen Tables can be used to change the appearance of linestyles at plot time. For example, lets assume you have a custom linestyle with text in it and you have scaled the linestyle to plot correctly at 1:100. If you now wish to plot that line again on a 1:20 detail plot the text will now be 5 times too large.

o   One way to work around this problem is to have a copy of the line on another level with a different linestyle scale set for the copy. Then in the plot file simply turn off the level not required for each plot scale.

o   A pen table entry can be set to find a specific linestyle type and rescale it accordingly. The downside of this method is that you will need a pen table entry for each linestyle scale in your resource file you may wish to resymbolise, plus a different pen table file for each plot scale you will need.

Ø  If wishing to modify your plot driver file to save postscript output to a file to print later, use the line: default_outFile = "$(MS_PLTFILES)$(basename(_DGNFILE)).ps"

Ø  Does your pen table sometimes suddenly play up by not changing the colour of elements as it usually does? For example your pen table has a global command to send all linework black, but it is now coming out blue! Or you have a series of tonal grey shapes that are now coming out red or yellow!! And it it only happening to one file in your project and not affecting any others! The problem may not be with the pen table or with the design file....

o   The solution may be with colour tables: Be aware that the output colour of your plotfiles is taken from the last displayed reference file you have attached. Therefore if you have just received a file from an external consultant and attached it to your plot file, then check its pen table. If it is different to yours, then you may have to attach your pen table to that file. Or you could swap the order of your reference files in the list in the Ref File dialog box so that this new file is not listed last.

o   Another solution is to:

§  Select Workspace > Preferences from the main menu. The "Preferences" dialog opens.

§  From the list on the left select "Reference File".

§  From the list that now appears on the right check OFF "Use Color Table".

§  Hit "OK".

Batch Print

Ø  Batchplot has been replaced in V8i by Print Organizer. Even though it has been removed from the File menu, Batchprint will still fire up with the keyin "mdl keyin batchplt".

Ø  Batch plot definitely will not work where a model has the + character in its name. eg. MyB+WModel. Best to stick to alphanumeric model names and avoid using \ / : * ? " < > or |.