Basic Microstation

PENNDOT Course Guide

Copyright © 2008 by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. All rights
reserved.
This training is offered exclusively through the Pennsylvania Department of
Transportation, Bureau of Design, Human Resources Development Section
located in Harrisburg, PA. For information about this training, contact Steve
Davis at 717-705-4171 stedaveis@state.pa.us
Development of this training document was a partnership with the
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Bureau of Design, Human
Resources Development Section and Benem Tech Services, LLC.
( www.benemtech.com )
 Table of Contents

Table of Contents
Introduction
About This Course Guide...................................................................... 15
Document Conventions......................................................................... 16
Common Symbols .........................................................................................16
Typographic Conventions............................................................................16
Setting Up The Computer...................................................................... 17
1 Getting Started
Objectives............................................................................................... 18
What is MicroStation? ........................................................................... 18
MicroStation Manager ........................................................................... 19
Show File Icons Option.................................................................................20
Directory Pull down Menu ..........................................................................20
File Pull down Menu.....................................................................................20
Selecting Workspace Components..............................................................21
Opening a Design File...................................................................................21
Overview of the MicroStation Interface................................................ 23
The MicroStation Application Window .....................................................23
Tool Boxes, Tool Frames and Main Menu .................................................25
Design Files (DGN) .......................................................................................34
Models.............................................................................................................34
Tool Settings ...................................................................................................34
Views ...............................................................................................................35
Help .................................................................................................................52
2 Basic Drafting
Objectives............................................................................................... 55
MicroStation Mouse Configuration ...................................................... 55
The Data Button.............................................................................................56
The Reset Button............................................................................................56
The Tentative Button.....................................................................................57
Checking and Changing Button Assignments ..........................................57
MicroStation Design File Concepts...................................................... 58
Scale .................................................................................................................58
Working Units................................................................................................58
Coordinate Readout ......................................................................................59

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Table of Contents

Drawing with AccuSnap ........................................................................59

Creating New Design Files ....................................................................62
Seed Files........................................................................................................ 62
View Attributes .......................................................................................64
Design File Settings ...............................................................................65
Setting Coordinate Readout ........................................................................ 66
Saving Settings .............................................................................................. 68
Using the Coordinate Readout ................................................................... 68
Introducing AccuDraw ...........................................................................69
The AccuDraw Window .............................................................................. 70
AccuDraw Settings ....................................................................................... 70
The AccuDraw Compass ............................................................................. 72
AccuDraw Shortcuts..................................................................................... 77
AccuDraw Angles......................................................................................... 78
AccuDraw Locks ........................................................................................... 84
Undoing and Redoing ............................................................................87
3 The Model
Objectives ...............................................................................................89
Introducing Levels .................................................................................89
Active Level ................................................................................................... 90
Turning Levels On and Off ......................................................................... 91
Sorting Levels ................................................................................................ 94
Managing Levels ........................................................................................... 95
Element Attributes .................................................................................96
Symbology ..................................................................................................... 96
Setting the Active Symbology ..................................................................... 98
Changing Element Symbology ................................................................... 100
Changing Element Fill.................................................................................. 102
Level Symbology....................................................................................104
Symbology ByLevel ...............................................................................105
Creating Models .....................................................................................106
Editing Model Properties............................................................................. 109
Snapping Basics ....................................................................................109
AccuSnap vs. Mouse Button snapping ...................................................... 110
Toggle AccuSnap On/Off............................................................................ 111
Key-point Snap.............................................................................................. 111
Default and Override Snap Modes............................................................. 112

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 Table of Contents

Tool Settings and AccuDraw ................................................................ 112

Element Information .............................................................................. 113
AccuSnap Popup Information .....................................................................113
4 Manipulating Elements
Objectives............................................................................................... 115
Element Manipulations.......................................................................... 115
Copy / Move..................................................................................................116
Move Parallel .................................................................................................122
Scale .................................................................................................................124
Rotate...............................................................................................................132
Mirror ..............................................................................................................135
Align Edges ....................................................................................................137
Construct Array .............................................................................................139
Element Selection .................................................................................. 141
Element Selection Tool.................................................................................. 141
Power Selector................................................................................................144
Fence................................................................................................................148
Manipulate Fence Contents .........................................................................152
5 More Than Straight Lines
Objectives............................................................................................... 157
Smarter Lines ......................................................................................... 157
Circles and Ellipses ............................................................................... 162
Place Circle .....................................................................................................162
Place Ellipse....................................................................................................165
Arcs......................................................................................................... 168
Place Arc Tool ................................................................................................169
Place Half Ellipse Tool ..................................................................................170
Place Quarter Ellipse Tool............................................................................171
Modify Arc Radius Tool ...............................................................................172
Modify Arc Angle Tool.................................................................................173
Modify Arc Axis Tool ...................................................................................174
Curves..................................................................................................... 175
Modifying Elements ............................................................................... 176
Modify Element Tool ....................................................................................177
Partial Delete Tool .........................................................................................185
Extend Line Tool............................................................................................186
Extend Two Elements to Intersection Tool................................................187

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Table of Contents

Extend Element to Intersection Tool .......................................................... 188

Trim Element ................................................................................................. 189
Intelli-Trim Tool ............................................................................................ 190
Insert Vertex Tool.......................................................................................... 192
Delete Vertex Tool ........................................................................................ 193
Construct Circular Fillet............................................................................... 194
Construct Chamfer Tool .............................................................................. 195
Active Points...........................................................................................196
Place Active Point Tool ................................................................................ 197
Place Points Between Data Points Tool ..................................................... 197
Project Active Point Onto Element Tool.................................................... 197
Construct Active Point at Intersection Tool .............................................. 197
Construct Points Along Element Tool ....................................................... 197
Construct Active Point at Distance Along Element Tool........................ 198
Key-Ins ....................................................................................................199
Key-in window.............................................................................................. 200
6 Cells
Objectives ...............................................................................................203
Cell Concepts .........................................................................................203
Group, Orphaned Cells and Named Groups............................................ 204
Named Cells .................................................................................................. 206
Cell Library .................................................................................................... 207
Creating a Cell ........................................................................................208
The Cells Tool Box .................................................................................214
Place Active Cell Tool................................................................................... 215
Place Active Cell Matrix Tool...................................................................... 218
Select and Place Cell Tool ............................................................................ 219
Place Active Line Terminator...................................................................... 220
Replace Cell Tool .......................................................................................... 221
Shared Cells............................................................................................223
Placing and updating Shared Cells ............................................................ 224
Converting Shared Cells .............................................................................. 224
Dropping Cells........................................................................................224
Graphic vs. Point Cells ..........................................................................225
7 Enclosed Areas
Objectives ...............................................................................................227
Closed Elements ....................................................................................227

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 Table of Contents

Groups Tool Box.................................................................................... 228

Create Complex Shape Tool.........................................................................229
Group Holes Tool ..........................................................................................232
Patterns Toolbox.................................................................................... 234
Hatching..........................................................................................................235
Cross Hatching...............................................................................................239
Patterning with Cells.....................................................................................243
Regions................................................................................................... 246
Create Region Tool ........................................................................................247
Linear Patterning ................................................................................... 249
8 References
Objectives............................................................................................... 253
Attaching and Detaching....................................................................... 254
Coincident....................................................................................................... 255
Coincident World ..........................................................................................256
Interactive .......................................................................................................259
Manipulating Reference Attachments.................................................. 270
Reference Tools ..............................................................................................271
Nested References................................................................................. 275
Levels in Reference Files ...................................................................... 284
Clipping and Masking References........................................................ 285
Clip Reference Tool .......................................................................................286
Modify Clip Boundary..................................................................................288
Delete Clip Boundary ...................................................................................290
Using a Fence to Define a Clip Boundary..................................................290
Mask Reference Tool .....................................................................................291
Raster References ................................................................................. 294
Raster Tool Frame..........................................................................................294
Attaching Raster References ........................................................................295
Manipulating Raster References .................................................................297
Clipping Raster References ..........................................................................299
Mirroring an Image .......................................................................................300
Moving Raster References............................................................................301
Masking Raster References ..........................................................................302
More Manipulations......................................................................................303
9 Text
Objectives............................................................................................... 309

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Table of Contents

Text in General .......................................................................................309

Text Tool Box..........................................................................................310
Text Styles ..............................................................................................310
Changing Text Attributes ............................................................................ 312
Creating a Text Style..................................................................................... 313
Using Text Styles........................................................................................... 315
Child Text Styles ........................................................................................... 316
Editing Text Styles ........................................................................................ 320
Importing Text Styles ................................................................................... 321
Text Placement Options ........................................................................323
Fitted Text ...................................................................................................... 323
Text Style and Working Units\ .................................................................. 324
View Independent Text................................................................................ 324
Above or Below Element ............................................................................. 325
On Element .................................................................................................... 326
Along Element............................................................................................... 327
Word Wrapped ............................................................................................. 328
Instance Specific Overrides ......................................................................... 329
Text Nodes ..............................................................................................330
Copying and Pasting Text .....................................................................332
Editing .....................................................................................................334
Edit Text Tool ................................................................................................ 334
Matching Text Attributes .......................................................................335
Enter Data Fields ....................................................................................337
Creating .......................................................................................................... 337
Annotations ............................................................................................339
Place Note Tool ............................................................................................. 339
Associative Notes.......................................................................................... 342
Challenge Exercise – Improving the Borders ......................................343
10 Dimensions
Objectives ...............................................................................................345
Dimension Element ................................................................................345
Dimensioning Tools ...............................................................................347
Quick Dimensioning of Elements............................................................... 347
Dimension Alignments ................................................................................ 349
Associative Dimensions ........................................................................351
Dimension Size Tools ............................................................................352
Dimension Angle Tools .........................................................................353

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 Table of Exercises

Radial Dimensions................................................................................. 354

Dimensioning from an Origin................................................................ 355
Dimension Styles ................................................................................... 356
Using and Updating......................................................................................360
Overriding a Dimension Style .....................................................................362
Settings for Associated Dimensioning .......................................................363
Dimension Line Settings...............................................................................366
Setting Units ...................................................................................................366
Unit Format ....................................................................................................367
Alternate Labels .............................................................................................369
Secondary Units.............................................................................................370
Dimension Text Settings...............................................................................371
Tool Settings ...................................................................................................372
Modifying Dimension Elements............................................................ 374
Moving ............................................................................................................ 375
With Leader....................................................................................................376
Moving and Extension Lines ....................................................................... 377
Changing the Number of Dimensions in a String ....................................378
Editing Dimension Text................................................................................380
Dimension Scale .................................................................................... 382
Design Problem – Dimension the Mounting Plate .............................. 384
11 Printing / Plotting
Objectives............................................................................................... 388
Overview of the process ....................................................................... 388
IPlot..................................................................................................................390
IPlot Organizer (IPO) ....................................................................................399
12 Conclusions

Table of Exercises
Exercise 1 – Starting MicroStation...............................................................19
Exercise 2 - Opening a Design File..............................................................21
Exercise 3 – Manipulating Tool boxes ........................................................32
Exercise 4 – Using View Commands ..........................................................39
Exercise 5 – Working with Views................................................................ 49
Exercise 6 - Using Tracking Help ................................................................52
Exercise 7 - Assigning mouse buttons ........................................................57

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Table of Exercises

Exercise 8 – Draw a closed shape using AccuSnap.................................. 60

Exercise 9 - Create a new Design File......................................................... 62
Exercise 10 – Working with View Attributes............................................ 64
Exercise 11 – Examining Working Units ................................................... 66
Exercise 12 - Setting Coordinate Readout ................................................. 67
Exercise 13 - Saving Settings ....................................................................... 68
Exercise 14 - Reading the Coordinates of the Shape Vertices................. 68
Exercise 15 – Starting With AccuDraw ...................................................... 69
Exercise 16 - AccuDraw Window Forms and Modes .............................. 71
Exercise 17 - Placing a line defined by AccuDraw................................... 73
Exercise 18 - Displaying AccuDraw Shortcuts ......................................... 77
Exercise 19 – Angles in Accudraw ............................................................. 79
Exercise 20 - Drawing using Previous Values .......................................... 84
Exercise 21 - Drawing a Line at a Locked Angle ...................................... 85
Exercise 22 - Set and use the Undo Mark .................................................. 87
Exercise 23 – Setting the Active Level........................................................ 91
Exercise 24 – Turning Levels On and Off .................................................. 93
Exercise 25 – Active Symbology ................................................................. 99
Exercise 26 – Change / Match Symbology................................................ 101
Exercise 27 – Changing an Elements Fill Type ......................................... 103
Exercise 28 – Using Level Symbology........................................................ 104
Exercise 29 – Using By Level ....................................................................... 105
Exercise 30 – Create a Model....................................................................... 106
Exercise 31 – AccuDraw vs. Tool Settings................................................. 112
Exercise 32 - Obtaining Element Information........................................... 113
Challenge Exercise – Lighting Pillars......................................................... 114
Exercise 33 – Move / Copy are they really the same?............................. 116
Exercise 34 – Moving to Relative Coordinates ......................................... 117
Exercise 35 - Moving to Absolute Coordinates ........................................ 119
Exercise 36 – Moving By Keyed-in Coordinates ...................................... 120
Exercise 37 - Copying Elements.................................................................. 121
Exercise 38 – Moving Parallel...................................................................... 122
Exercise 39 – Scale Element ......................................................................... 124
Exercise 40 – Rotating Elements ................................................................. 133
Exercise 41 – Mirroring Elements ............................................................... 135
Exercise 42 – Aligning Shapes..................................................................... 137
Exercise 43 – Construct an Array................................................................ 139

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 Table of Exercises

Exercise 44 – Using the Element Selection Tool........................................142

Exercise 45 – Making Power Selector the Default Selection Tool...........144
Exercise 46 – Using Power Selector.............................................................146
Exercise 47 – Placing Fences ........................................................................150
Exercise 48 – Fence Move .............................................................................152
Exercise 49 – Stretching with a Fence .........................................................154
Challenge Exercise - Box Pattern.................................................................156
Exercise 50 - Placing Circles Tangent to Lines ..........................................162
Exercise 51 - Placing Circles by Diameter ..................................................165
Exercise 52 – Placing an Ellipse ...................................................................166
Exercise 53 – Place Circular Arc ..................................................................169
Exercise 54 - Place a Half Ellipse .................................................................170
Exercise 55 - Place a Quarter Ellipse ...........................................................171
Exercise 56 - Modify the Radius of an Arc.................................................172
Exercise 57 - Modify Arc Angles .................................................................173
Exercise 58 - Modify the Axis of Arcs.........................................................174
Exercise 59 - Place Points on a Curve .........................................................175
Exercise 60 - Element Modification Exercises ...........................................177
Exercise 61 - Copies of elements to New Levels .......................................179
Exercise 62 - Modifying using Extended Tool Settings............................180
Exercise 63 - Modifying Ellipses..................................................................181
Exercise 64 - Basic Modifications to Arcs...................................................181
Exercise 65 - Modifying Using Extended Tool Settings...........................182
Exercise 66 - Modifying Curves and Complex Elements ........................183
Exercise 67 - Deleting Parts of Elements ....................................................185
Exercise 68 - Change the Length of Existing Lines ...................................186
Exercise 69 - Extending 2 Elements to Intersect........................................187
Exercise 70 - Extending 2 Elements to Intersect........................................188
Exercise 71 - Trimming Elements................................................................189
Exercise 72 - Using IntelliTrim in Quick Mode.........................................190
Exercise 73 - Adding Vertices and Control Points....................................192
Exercise 74 - Adding Vertices and Control Points....................................193
Exercise 75 - Filleting Between Elements ...................................................194
Exercise 76 - Chamfering Between Elements ............................................195
Exercise 77 - Placing Active Points .............................................................198
Exercise 78 - Using the Key-in Window.....................................................200
Challenge Exercise - Complete the Mounting Plate.................................201

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Table of Exercises

Exercise 79 - Creating an UnNamed Group.............................................. 205

Exercise 80 – Create a Cell Library ............................................................. 207
Exercise 81 – Create a Cell (First Method)................................................. 209
Exercise 82 – Rename a Cell ........................................................................ 212
Exercise 83 – Creating a Cell Using Cell Library Dialog Box ................. 212
Exercise 84 – General Placement of Cell .................................................... 215
Exercise 85 - Interactive Cell Placement .................................................... 216
Exercise 86 - Place a Cell Matrix ................................................................. 218
Exercise 87 – Copy vs. Select and Place Cell ............................................. 219
Exercise 88 - Placing Line Terminators...................................................... 220
Exercise 89 – Replacing Cells ...................................................................... 222
Exercise 90 - Dropping Ordinary Cells to Geometry............................... 224
Exercise 91 – Convert a Cell to Point Type ............................................... 225
Exercise 92 – Closed Element ...................................................................... 227
Exercise 93 – Creating Complex Shapes .................................................... 229
Exercise 94 - Measure the Area of the Complex Shape ........................... 232
Exercise 95 - Perforating the Solid.............................................................. 233
Exercise 96 – Removing Holes .................................................................... 233
Exercise 97 - Hatching the Complex Shape............................................... 235
Exercise 98 – Hatching with the Flood Method........................................ 236
Exercise 99- Crosshatching with Symbolic Logic..................................... 239
Exercise 100 - Patterning Without Boundary Elements .......................... 241
Exercise 101 - Patterning an Element ......................................................... 243
Exercise 102 - Investigate Cell Patterns ..................................................... 245
Exercise 103 - Creating a Spaced Patterning Cell..................................... 246
Exercise 104 - Creating Regions .................................................................. 247
Exercise 105 - Create a Linear Pattern........................................................ 249
Challenge Exercise – Design a Concrete Wall .......................................... 251
Exercise 106 – Attach a Reference (Coincident)........................................ 260
Exercise 107 – Attach a Reference (Coincident World) ........................... 268
Exercise 108 – Attach a Reference (Interactive) ........................................ 269
Exercise 109 – Rotate and Move Reference File........................................ 271
Exercise 110– Nesting of Reference Files................................................... 278
Exercise 111 - Controlling Level Displays ................................................. 284
Exercise 112 – Clip Mask.............................................................................. 286
Exercise 113 – Modify Clip Boundary........................................................ 288
Exercise 114 – Delete Clip Boundary ......................................................... 290

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 Table of Exercises

Exercise 115 - Clip Using a Fence................................................................290

Exercise 116 - Remove an Internal Wall .....................................................291
Exercise 117 - Unmask the Wall ..................................................................292
Exercise 118 – Attach Raster Reference ......................................................295
Exercise 119 - Warping the Image...............................................................298
Exercise 120 - Hide the Back View ..............................................................300
Exercise 121 - Create the Starboard Side ....................................................300
Exercise 122 - Move the Front View ...........................................................301
Exercise 123 - Masking Raster References .................................................302
Exercise 124 – Fitting Image into Area .......................................................303
Exercise 125 - Changing the Image Display ..............................................305
Exercise 126 – Experiment with Image Display Tools .............................307
Challenge Exercise - Add a Logo to the Drawing ....................................308
Exercise 127 - Place Text ...............................................................................310
Exercise 128 – Changing the Font Attribute ..............................................312
Exercise 129 – Create a Text Style ...............................................................313
Exercise 130 – General Text Placement ......................................................315
Exercise 131 - Create a Child Text Style .....................................................317
Exercise 132 - Changing an Attribute in a Text Style ...............................320
Exercise 133 – Importing Text Styles ..........................................................321
Exercise 134 – Place Fitted Text ...................................................................323
Exercise 135 – Place View Independent Text ............................................324
Exercise 136 – Place Text Above/Below Element.....................................325
Exercise 137 – Place Text On Element ........................................................326
Exercise 138 – Place Text on Element .........................................................327
Exercise 139 – Placing Wrapped Text.........................................................328
Exercise 140 – Apply Overrides as text is placed......................................329
Exercise 141 – Using Empty Text Nodes....................................................331
Exercise 142 – Copy Text to DGN File........................................................332
Exercise 143 – Edit Text Attributes .............................................................335
Exercise 144 – Matching Text Attributes....................................................335
Exercise 145 – Create a Cell with Enter Data Fields .................................337
Exercise 146 – Filling In a Cell with Enter Data Field .............................. 338
Exercise 147 – Placing Notes ........................................................................339
Exercise 148 – Experiment with Association .............................................342
Challenge Exercise – Improving the Borders ............................................343
Exercise 149 – Dimension Elements and Segments .................................. 342

Issued: July 2008 xiii

 Exercise 150 - Place Dimensions with Various Alignments ................... 349
Exercise 151 - Placing Associated Dimensions ......................................... 351
Exercise 152 - Placing a String of Dimensions .......................................... 352
Exercise 153 - Dimensioning Angles .......................................................... 353
Exercise 154 - Placing Radial Dimensions ................................................. 354
Exercise 155 - Dimensioning From an Origin ........................................... 355
Exercise 156 - Create a Dimension Style.................................................... 356
Exercise 157 - Dimension the Model .......................................................... 360
Exercise 158 - Overriding Dimension Settings ......................................... 362
Exercise 159 - Association with Multiple Dimension Elements............. 364
Exercise 160 - Change Dimension Line Settings....................................... 366
Exercise 161 - Experiment with Units Settings ......................................... 367
Exercise 162 - Change Dimension Angle Format..................................... 368
Exercise 163 - Defining and Placing Alternate Labels ............................. 370
Exercise 164 - Defining and Placing Secondary Units ............................. 371
Exercise 165 - Change Dimension Text Settings....................................... 372
Exercise 166 - Change the Dimension Radial Tool Settings ................... 373
Exercise 167 - Prove the New Dimension Settings................................... 373
Exercise 168 - Moving Dimension Text ..................................................... 375
Exercise 169 - Moving Dimension Text Away from the Dimen Line.... 376
Exercise 170 - Moving Dimensioning Linework ...................................... 377
Exercise 171 - Adding and Deleting Extension Lines .............................. 379
Exercise 172 - Editing Dimension Text ...................................................... 380
Exercise 173 – Dimension a Sheet Model .................................................. 383
Design Problem – Dimension the Mounting Plate................................... 384
Exercise 174 – Attaching Network Printers .............................................. 383
Exercise 175 – Modifying OCEP1 Printing Preferences .......................... 383
Exercise 176 – Plotting from MicroStation ................................................ 396
Exercise 177 – Creating PDF from Microstation....................................... 399
Exercise 178 - Create a new Plot Set ......................................................... 399
Exercise 179 – Plot Set Making PDFs from IPOrganizer ......................... 399
Exercise 180 – Plotting and Existing Plot Set ............................................ 404

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 Introduction

Introduction

About This Course Guide

This book is intended to function as a guide rather than a complete explanation of
all possible scenarios. It is not intended to be a self-contained course. It has many
illustrations to help you follow the instructions, but your co-workers will be
playing a critical part as well. Apart from being able to help us with the subject
material, there may be times when procedures need some explanation, as this
guide cannot cover every individual environment
This guide will, however, direct us through a series of exercises which are
designed to introduce us to the fundamentals of using MicroStation to create
designs. One exercise usually leads on to another, so it is vital that they are
completed in order and that the completed work is left intact, unless the
instructions state otherwise. Many exercises are used to create “models” that will
be essential later on in the course, so we must take great care of our original work
and our computer files.
As we complete the exercises, we will notice many tools and functions that are
outside the scope of this course. Give the top priority to the prescribed exercises,
but be curious - do not hesitate to experiment where time and facilities permit.
All the instructions for creating new design files are found early in this guide.
Additionally, we can always save a copy of an existing exercise file for
experimentation, while keeping the original intact.

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 Introduction

Document Conventions
We will find various conventions used in this guide to simplify the instructions.
This section explains what they are.
MicroStation (and this guide) uses the word “Directory” where “Folder” may be
used in some other applications. Where a directory structure is being navigated,
we will use the standard shorthand of the backslash (\) as a separator, for example
“Projects\Student(nn)\dgn”.

Common Symbols

Symbol Remarks

Indicates that this section a “ Note” which provides additional

information but is not required.

Indicates that this section is considered to be critical and should be

reviewed by the user.

Indicates that this section is a “ Tip” or non-essential piece of

information that may be useful or not obvious.

Typographic Conventions

Example Remarks

FileÆSave Indicates that the text represents a command. This

example would be shorthand for Choose the ‘ File’
command from the menu, then choose the ‘ Save’
command from the options displayed.
100.00 Indicates that the user is expected to actually enter this
information in the appropriate location.

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 Introduction

OK Indicates the text on a Button in a dialog box. For

Example Ok would indicate the “ Ok” button in current
dialog box.

This guide contains many images of icons, dialog boxes and screen-shots of
MicroStation. When looking at the screen-shots of MicroStation, understand that
the background is shown as white instead of the more customary black. This was
done for printing purposes only.

Setting Up The Computer

Warning:
You can not start this course until you have a personal account on the CADD
network.
To obtain a personal login, see your District Lead Operator and IT
Coordinator.

This course requires that the student copy several folders and files into his
personal folder. These files will be provided by the Trainer or the CAD Support
Group

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1 Getting Started

Objectives
When you have completed this chapter, you will be able to:
• Start MicroStation
• Identify the components of the MicroStation Application Window
• Recognize and Manipulate Tool Boxes, Tool Frames and Menu bars
• Open and close Tool Boxes and Tool Frames
• Use the windowing controls to view an existing model
• Arrange and control multiple Views.

What is MicroStation?
Before we learn how to actually start MicroStation, it is important to know
what MicroStation is (and is not). Simply stated, MicroStation is a
Microsoft Windows® based application used to create and edit both 2D and
3D CADD Files. MicroStation is not a simple, “push here dummy”
program that can think for the user. It is essential that the user knows what
their goal is and then uses the robust set of tools in MicroStation to
accomplish those goals.
Because MicroStation is a Microsoft Windows® based application, many of
the operating techniques will be similar to other common Windows
applications. The Graphical User Interface (GUI) has a very similar “look
and feel” to the Microsoft Office® applications.
To ensure that Help is always at hand, MicroStation uses Microsoft HTML
Help®, the standard on-line help system for the Windows platform. When
we have a question, we can quickly display the help topics in a standard
window. Details on how to get help will be presented throughout this guide
as necessary
MicroStation uses a two or three-button mouse. Regardless of which is
being used, unless specifically stated otherwise, we will only use the
primary mouse button (for a “right handed” mouse it is usually the Left
button) to work through the exercises in this particular chapter. It will be
referred to in MicroStation parlance as the Data button. The other mouse
button(s) will be introduced in the following chapters as required. Starting
MicroStation

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 1 Getting Started

Exercise 1 – Starting MicroStation

In common with other Windows applications, we can start MicroStation and
open a design file from the Windows Explorer application or its equivalent.
We can double-click on a name in the Explorer, or highlight it and choose
FileÆOpen etc. However, if we want to start a new design, or need to select
some options for our MicroStation working environment (“Workspace”), we
usually start the program without initially opening a file.

1. Start MicroStation by double-clicking the Bentley icon ( ) on the

PaDot Short Cut Menu, or choose
StartÆProgramsÆGraphicsÆMicroStation Ver x
The MicroStation Manager Dialog box opens, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1

MicroStation Manager
The dialog box illustrated in Figure 1 provides us with the facilities to
manage our files and directories, somewhat like those supplied with
Windows Explorer®, but optimized for MicroStation. MicroStation stores a
thumbnail image in each DGN file that can be seen in MicroStation file
open dialogs as well as Windows Explorer (the latter in versions of
Windows that support this functionality). The thumbnail image is saved as a
bitmap in standard clipboard format.

Note:
MicroStation provides the ability to customize what is displayed in the
thumbnail. This is not covered in this guide, but if more information is required,
refer to the documentation provided with MicroStation

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 1 Getting Started

Show File Icons Option

Checking this option will display and icons next to MicroStation filenames
in the Files list box. There are unique icons for the following types of files:

Icon Remarks

This icon indicates that the file is a

MicroStation V8 file.

This icon indicates that the file is a

MicroStation V7 file.

This icon indicates that the file is an

AutoCAD file.

Directory Pull down Menu

When working with directories, we can:
• Select drives and directories
• Create new directories
• Compress all files (remove deleted elements) in a directory.
• Upgrade all previous versions of MicroStation files to V8 within a
folder.

File Pull down Menu

With files, we can:
• Open, copy, rename and delete existing files
• Create new files
• Compress individual files.
• Merge files.
• Upgrade individual MicroStation files to V8.

MicroStation Manager has a “History” menu for both files and directories. It
also has combo boxes for the selection of Workspace components.

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 1 Getting Started

Selecting Workspace Components

When we select a Workspace, we are selecting a configuration for
MicroStation (a MicroStation “environment”) customized for a specific
discipline, project, or task. Workspaces are responsible for personalizing
defaults and pointing to locations for the files we need to use. For this
course will always use the statusbar Workspace.
In the following example, we will select the User Name statusbar. You
should have already copied the Basic MicroStation Course folders and files
to your personal folder. If not, please review the instructions in the first
chapter.

Telling MicroStation who we are

In the Workspace (lower) panel of the MicroStation Manager dialog, open

the User combo box and select statusbar.

Figure 2

The Project workspace component will automatically change to the English

project, the Interface component will be set as statusbar and the directory
and file displays will update to reflect the change.

Opening a Design File

Within the MicroStation Manager Dialog box, navigate to the Directories as
shown below. We have a selection of existing designs available from the
Files panel of MicroStation Manager.

Exercise 2 - Opening a Design File

2. Ensure that the User and Interface Workspace components are set as
follows:
a) User = statusbar
b) Project = English.
c) Interface = statusbar

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3. Navigate to the H:\MicroStation Basic Training FilesÆDgn folder.
4. Select and highlight (click only once) office.dgn. The Preview panel on
the right will display a view of a model, with the information that it is a
two-dimensional design in the V8 file format.
5. Click OK to open the design file.

Figure 3

The MicroStation V8 application window will open, with a view of the

office 2D model displayed in a View window, as shown in Figure 4.

Note:
Alternatively, we could have double-clicked the file name without first selecting
it. This would have opened the file immediately. However, had we done this, we
would have missed out on the preview.

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Overview of the MicroStation Interface

The MicroStation Application Window

The Application window is shown in Figure 4 with a common arrangement

of Tool Boxes and Tool Frames, as defined by the “statusbar” interface
component of our chosen Workspace. Not all elements are labeled because
they will be identified in the order of importance throughout the guide.
We will start by identifying the components of this window and then we
will introduce some of the tools.

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Figure 4
Before we get to the actual commands or tools for drawing, we need to take
a few minutes to review the main elements of the MicroStation Interface.
As we can see, there quite a few that we need to discuss. In general, we can
rearrange the positions of many of these elements, open or close them and in
some cases, “dock” or “undock” them.

Note:
The layout of the user interface is controlled by the workspace that we have
selected. For the purpose of clarity, the layout may have been modified for the
screen images in this manual.

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Tool Boxes, Tool Frames and Main Menu

Tool Boxes

MicroStation has many drawing tools that are organized into Tool Boxes.
Drawing tools (or “tools” for short) are shown as icons in a Tool Box. A
Tool Box that is in its own window is said to be “floating” or “undocked”.
Figure 5 shows a floating tool box on the left and the same tool box when it
is docked on the right. Since we are new to Tool Boxes, Figure 5 also labels
the important parts of both the floating and docked tool box.

Figure 5

Note:
MicroStation, allows us to have as many tool boxes or tool frames open as we
would like. In practice, however, this becomes a choice of how we want to use
the available screen real-estate. If you are blessed with a dual monitor system
then you may find that you have plenty of space to leave many of them open. If
not, you will need to learn to efficiently manipulate them to conserve what
screen real-estate you do have.

Tool Frames – Tool Boxes in disguise

A Tool Frame is really just a Tool Box, with one caveat; it can only contain
other Tool Boxes. Sometimes the Tool Frame is referred to as the “parent”
and the tool boxes it contains as its “children”. Figure 6 shows an example
of a Tool Frame, in this case the “Main” tool frame.

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Figure 6
While it is apparent from Figure 5 and Figure 6 that a simple image on
paper does not make it easy to distinguish between the two. In practice it is
actually very easy to see the difference. First, notice the small black arrow
at the lower right hand corner of the icon. This indicates that this icon has
“children”….or is a tool frame. A less subtle way of noticing the difference
is to actually see how it a tool frame reacts to a mouse click. Because a Tool
Frame contains child tool boxes, when you select (click the data point on)
an icon, instead of invoking a command directly, it pops-up the contents of
the child tool box. Figure 7 shows what happens when we data point on the
icon for Place Line in the Main Tool Frame.

Figure 7

Closing Tool Boxes

Now that we know what a Tool box is and what they looks like, the next
thing is how to open or close them. Since there are already several tool
boxes open, let’s start by learning how to close them. There are several
methods for closing Tool boxes. Each one works, some are faster, while
others are more powerful. With practice you will learn when to use each
method.

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• Clicking the close button ( ) in the title of the tool box is by far the
quickest way to close individual tool boxes.
If a tool box is docked, it has no title bar but that doesn’t really prevent us from
using this method. Just drag the docked tool box off the edge so it floats, then
click the close button.

• We can select ToolsÆClose Tool Boxes command. This command will

open the Close Tool Boxes dialog. You will notice that while it is faster
than the previous method for closing all of the docked and / or floating
(undocked) tool boxes, it has a very broad scope and doesn’t allow us
much control over which specific tool boxes to close.
•

• The most powerful method (also the slowest) is to select ToolsÆTool

Boxes from the menus. This will open the Tool Boxes Dialog.

This command is used to either Open, Close, Create New, or Customize

Existing tool boxes and tool frames.

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Caution:
Customizing and creating new tool boxes and tool frames is beyond the scope of
this course. However, the documentation provided with MicroStation is very
helpful with this.

To close a tool box or tool frame here, simply make sure it does not have a
check mark next to it and click OK

Opening Tool Boxes

Now that we have closed all, or at least some, of our tool boxes we should
also know how to open them. Again, there is more than one way to open
tool boxes.
The most powerful is to again use the ToolsÆTool Boxes command. The
option for “Immediately Open” is important here. If checked, then the tool
box will open as soon as we place a check mark next to it. If this option is
not checked, no tool boxes will open or close until we click the OK button.
The next way is to look more closely at the Tools Menu as shown in the
following illustration.

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We get a hint as to which of these tool boxes are actually tool frames by the
structure of the menu. For example, if we select Main, we get a child menu
that looks as follows. Notice that the first item in the child menu is “Main”.
If we select this, the Main tool frame will open. Can you tell what tool
boxes the Main tool frame contains?

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Note:
Also notice that some of the more common tool boxes are listed right at the top
of the menu (Attributes, Primary, Standard). This is to provide a quick way to
toggle these particular tool boxes on and off.

Floating and Docking Tool boxes

Now that we can Open and close tool boxes, let’s look at how we actually
make a tool box Dock or Float. As stated previously, to dock a Tool box we
simply “drag and drop” it onto the edge of MicroStation. In fact, that’s all
we do to float a tool box as well. The difference is how we make
MicroStation “grab” a hold of a tool box so we can drag it.
When a tool box is floating, it has a title bar. Simply click and hold the data
point button down and drag the tool box around. You will notice a grey
outline of the tool box following the cursor. This is used to indicate where
the tool box will be placed when it is dropped.

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When a tool box is docked, it is a bit trickier because there is no title bar to
grab onto. This is where the “Handle” of the tool box comes in. Did you
notice the double line at the left edge of every docked tool box? The
purpose in this handle is to allow you to grab on to the tool box.

Caution:
You can not grab a tool box (docked or floating) by clicking where there is an
Icon. This will invoke the command represented by the icon. Instead, make sure
you aim for the title bar or handle of the tool box.

You can actually “tear-off” a tool box from a tool frame to make it float as well.
Then, when you’re done with it, just close it.

Resizing Tool Boxes

Just like other windows applications, resizing tool boxes is permitted.

However, MicroStation will always modify the shape of the tool box to
optimize the layout. This means that if you attempt to resize a tool box that
has 3 icons in it to be wide enough for 10 icons and tall enough for 3 rows,
MicroStation will set it back to the minimum required (3 icons wide and 1
row)
When we discussed the anatomy of a toolbar (Figure 5 ) we noted that there
are “Dividers” in tool boxes. The purpose of these dividers becomes evident
when we resize tool boxes. They help MicroStation to “understand” where it
is supposed to break onto a new row (if it can).
To resize the tool box, place your cursor over any edge or corner until it
changes to the resize arrows (see illustration below) then Click and hold the
data point down and drag the border where you want it. When you release,
MicroStation will adjust.

Note:
There is a bit more to resizing of tool boxes, but it is not terribly important. Just
keep in mind that MicroStation will “adjust” the size of the tool box to
accommodate the icons.

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Main Menu

The Main Menu is really just a special case of a tool box. It can be resized,
floated or docked (docked by default). The only thing it can’t do is be
closed.
Since there are a huge number of commands under the main menu, we will
not introduce them all here, but will do so as we need the commands to do
drafting.

Hiding and Showing Icons in a Tool box

We can also manipulate which of the tools in a tool box are actually visible.
To do this, all we need to do is right click on the tool box and a context
menu appears as shown in the following illustration. This context menu
allows us to choose which tools are displayed by setting or clearing the
check mark next to the tool. It also provides a quick way to select all tools.

Exercise 3 – Manipulating Tool boxes

Let’s take a minute to try these three methods out. To illustrate the point of
speed and control, we’ll start by opening a bunch of tool boxes, then closing
them with the various methods.
6. Select ToolsÆTool Boxes from the main menu.
7. Ensure that the Immediately Open option is selected
8. Ensure that the Show Tool Tip option is selected
9. Place a checkmark next to the first 20 tool boxes. Notice how they
appear as soon as you put the check mark next to them? This is because
we turned on the immediately open option.
10. Click the OK button to dismiss the dialog.
Your screen should now have lots of tool boxes open and should look
something like Figure 8.

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Figure 8
11. Click the Close button ( ) on each of the open tool boxes. As you can
see, it works well for 1 or 2, but gets quite tedious for many more than
that.
12. Open 20 tool boxes again.
13. Select ToolsÆClose Tool boxes from the main menu.
14. Select both Floating and Docked and click OK. Your screen should now
look similar to this:

Why didn’t all of the tool boxes close? Actually, they did. Just the tool
frames remained open!

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15. Close the remaining tool frames by clicking on each tool frame’s close
button.
16. Open the same 20 tool boxes.
17. Select ToolsÆTool Boxes from the main menu.
18. Uncheck the first 20 tool boxes.
Did you notice in the dialog that some items were BOLD? This is one
more place we can see which tool boxes are really tool frames.

19. Spend a few minutes experimenting with the methods for docking and
floating the tool boxes as well as resizing. The instructor will be able to
help if needed.

Design Files (DGN)

A MicroStation V8 Design File (usually called a DGN, after its filename
extension) is a “container” that contains one or more Models.

For PennDOT, DGN files should only contain a single model named “Default”.
However, understanding of models is important in case files that have come
from elsewhere can contain multiple models.

Models
A Model is a container for various drawing elements (elements for short)
like lines, curves, text etc. which are used to represent a design. Because
there can be multiple models in a design file, there can also be multiple
drawings in a single design file. However, only one model can be active at
any given time. For PennDOT, this is usually the “Default” model.

Note:
A design file can contain both 2D and 3D models.

Tool Settings
Before we jump into using and manipulating views, we need to discuss the
Tool Settings window. The Tool Settings window is a generic window that
provides a common place for commands in MicroStation to display their
settings. Whenever a new command is selected, it changes its appearance.

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For example, when we select, say the Zoom In command, the Tool Settings
window changes to look like this.

When we select a different command, say the Place Line command, it

changes again to look like this.

We can choose to have the Tool Settings window only display while we
make the necessary settings, or remain open all the time. By default,
MicroStation will have the Tool Settings window remain open all the time.
The ability to have the Tool Settings window open while we make changes
to the settings, and then automatically close is referred to as PopSet.
The PopSet toggle is on the Primary Tool box and uses color to indicate its
status.
• Red means that PopSet is Disabled (the Default in MicroStation)
• Green means that PopSet is Enabled

Views
Views are the windows we use to view models and any attached references.
We may have up to eight views open at once, each displaying separate
views of a model. If you are in a 3D model, each different view can be
rotated to show a different perspective (top, front, side etc). Each view can
be sized, rotated and arranged independently. In practice, it is unlikely that
we will need all eight views at once but they are available if we do.

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View Groups

A View Group is a named set of views which is unique to each model.

MicroStation allows us to assign names to each set of 8 views. So in reality,
it is possible to have as many views as is required. View Groups are not
commonly used within PennDOT.

Note:
Even though we can open multiple views, for simplicity we will work with a
single view at first. Once we are familiar with the basic view commands we will
open multiple views and explore further.

The View Control Bar

View Windows (usually abbreviated to Views), by default, have their own

group of tools incorporated into the Horizontal Scroll Bar. This View
Control bar will be used for all the following exercises. It is possible to
work without scroll bars, but when we remove them, the View Control tool
box goes with them. The alternative is to open a special View Control tool
box, which applies to all views.
With the tools from either source, we can change magnification in various
ways (Zoom), move the View over the model (Pan) and rotate the window
with respect to the model (Rotate). Tools available from the View Control
toolbar are shown here.

Each of these commands affects the view from which it was originated. So,
if we have View1 and View2 open and we click the Fit All command on
View 1 it will affect what View1 shows.

Update View

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The Update View command is used to just what its name implies, update the
screen. The reason it exists, is that in some cases as graphic elements are
deleted they leave imaginary (but very visible) gaps in other elements that
they overlapped. To tell MicroStation to refresh the screen, we need to
simply click the Update View command on the view we want to refresh.
The first image below shows an example of a line that was deleted leaving
its “ghost” behind. The image below that is after the Update View
command was clicked.

Zoom In, Out ,

These tools are opposites.

The Zoom In command reduces the area of the design that fills the view,
making the displayed geometry appear larger. When zooming in, the idea is
to datapoint on the spot that should end up being at the center of our screen.
As we move our cursor around the view, notice the grey rectangle. This
rectangle indicates the area that will be shown after the zoom in command is
complete.
The Zoom Out command decreases the magnification, making elements
appear smaller. It differs from the Zoom In command in one important way.
When we first click the Zoom In command, we are able to change the Zoom
Factor before zooming in. However, when zooming out, the zoom is
immediate. Once started, we can adjust the zoom factor and zoom out again.

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If you want to set the Zoom Factor before you zoom out, pick the Zoom In
Command, set the Zoom Factor and then pick the Zoom Out command.

Both commands have a Zoom Ratio setting that appears in the Tool Settings
window. This setting controls how much the zooming will occur. A ratio of
1 means no zooming while a ratio of 2 means to either double the area or cut
the area in half.

Window Area

This is similar to the Zoom In tool, except much more controllable. With
this command we can select the boundaries of the new view area instead of
specifying a zoom ratio.

Caution:
Pay special attention to the Tool settings on this command. If the Apply to View
option is turned on, it will make the selected view display the area identified, not
necessarily the view that originated the command.

Fit View

When we need to see the entire model at once, this is the tool we use. The
view area immediately expands to take in the entire model. The Tool
Settings window has a Files menu, but we do not need to differentiate
between files so it will remain set to “All” for now.

Rotate View

View rotations can simplify the drafting process when the model needs to be
drawn at an angle to the usual Model Axis, where by default the x axis is
horizontal and the y axis is vertical.
For example, assume we need to draw a floor plan of a house in the correct
orientation with relation to true North. It is very unlikely for the walls to be
exactly North-South and East-West, so by default they will not be parallel
with the sides of the view. The Rotate View tool will allow us to rotate the
view axis to suit the predominant directions of the lines we are working on.
When we rotate a View in MicroStation, we need to keep in mind that we
are rotating the View Window that we are observing the model through,
NOT rotating the model.
The Tool Settings for this command are different if you are in a 2D or 3D
file, but they serve the same purpose. The settings allow you to tell
MicroStation how you want to define the rotation. In a 2D file, you can
choose between 2Point or Un-rotated. As you might expect, Un-rotated
aligns the view’s x axis with East and y axis with North. The 2Point method
allows you to define the rotation using two points.

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Pan View

This tool is used to view a different part of the model without changing the
magnification. It is not the only way to “Pan” around a model, but it is the
most controllable. Using this tool is a two step process that amounts to
picking an origin and destination point with the understanding that the
origin point will me moved to the destination point in the view. Again, we
are speaking of view commands so we are not moving the design elements;
we are just moving the views around.
Another method for making large movements in a view is the scroll bars on
the edges of the view.
The third option is to use the ShiftKey and mouse method. This involves
positioning the pointer in the view, holding down the <SHIFT> key and the
data button, then dragging the view over the model.

Note that the further your mouse drags from the original point, the faster the
scrolling will occur.

Still another method depends on what type of mouse you have.

MicroStation allows customization of the mouse buttons (details in the next
chapter) which would allow the roller button on a mouse to scroll etc.

View Previous

This command will “undo” a view operation. Because MicroStation

actually keeps track of all our view operations we can actually think of the
View Previous tool like we use the “Back” button in a browser.

View Next

This tool will effectively “Redo” a viewing operation. We can best think of
this command like the “Forward” button in a browser.

Exercise 4 – Using View Commands

In this exercise, our goal is to actually use each of the view control
commands discussed so far.
1. If it isn’t already started, start MicroStation and open Office.dgn
2. Select the Zoom In tool
3. Change the Zoom Factor to 2 in the Tool Settings Window
4. Move the pointer over the view until the grey box is visible.
5. Change the Zoom Factor to 4 in the Tool Settings Window
6. Move the pointer over the view until the grey box is visible. Notice the
difference in the size of the grey box. Is it what you expected?

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7. Click the mouse button (datapoint) on a recognizable point somewhere
off to the edge of the view. Notice how the point you clicked on was
moved to the center of the view and the area defined by the grey box
now fills the whole view. Figure 9 shows what this will look like.

Figure 9
Zooming Out
Now that we have zoomed in, let’s zoom out in smaller steps. Recall that to
set the Zoom factor before we zoom out we need to first start the Zoom In
command
1. Click the Zoom In command
2. Change Zoom Factor to 2.0
3. Click the Zoom Out Command. The view immediately decreases in
magnification by the factor set in the Zoom In command’s Zoom Ratio
(2 in this case)
4. Select the Zoom In tool, change the Zoom Ratio by keying in another
number (any number between 1 and 50 is valid, but use a small number,
say 1.5).

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5. Select the Zoom Out tool. The magnification reduces by the ratio as set.
The Prompt at the left of the Status Bar invites us to “Enter zoom center
point”.
6. Move the pointer into the view area and click. After the first Zoom Out,
we are able to select the point to become the new center of the view and
to change the Zoom Ratio.
It’s not always obvious that the Zoom Out or Zoom In tool can be used as a way
to Pan a view as well. If you set the Zoom Ratio to 1.0 and click the Zoom Out
command, it repositions the datapoint to the center of the screen. This is like a
pan command that moves in discreet steps.

Window Area
1. Select the Window Area tool. The prompt reads “Define first corner
point”. When we move the pointer onto the view area you will note it is
“a full screen crosshair” to make defining the corners easier.
2. Click on the screen to define a corner of the new view, say the top-left
of the reception area. The prompt reads “Define opposite corner point”.
3. Move the pointer to the diagonally opposite corner of the area to
window, click again. The magnification increases by the area selected.

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Fitting a View to the model

4. Select the Fit View tool.

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Rotate View
1. If MicroStation is not running, start it and open Floor.dgn
2. Use the Zoom commands to ensure that View 1 shows the entire angled
wall as shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10
3. Select the Rotate View tool from View 1’s Control bar; if necessary
choose 2 Points as the Method from the Tool Settings window.
4. Move the pointer directly over the top corner of the angled wall in
View 1, as indicated in Figure 11, click the data button. The prompt is
now “Define X axis of view”.

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5. Move the pointer down and to the left, until it is over the other end of
the angled wall, click again here. The view window will appear to stay
still and the model rotate, but as we learned above, technically this is
not the case.
6. Pan the view to see the outside wall etc., then click the Rotate View
tool again, choosing Un-rotated from the Tool Settings window, then
identify View 1 by clicking the data button in it. The identified view
will rotate back to its original orientation.
7. The x axis, as in the mathematical convention, runs horizontally from
left to right. When we defined it in steps 5 and 6, we selected the top of
the angled wall, then the bottom. This resulted in the model appearing
in the view with what was formerly its bottom at the right of the screen.
8. The points defining this rotation were placed precisely with the help of
a facility called AccuSnap. This attracted the pointer to the ends of
graphic elements and displayed a special indicator. We will learn more
about this facility a little later in the course.

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Figure 11
9. Click the Rotate View command
10. Set the Method = UnRotated
11. Click in View 1. Now the view has the x axis aligned with East and the
y axis aligned with North.

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Panning View window with the Scroll Bars
1. Open Office.dgn
2. Fit the model into the view
3. Window a small area of the office model.
4. Use the horizontal and vertical scroll bar handles to move the view.
Movement occurs until the mouse button is released.
5. Click in the areas of the scroll bars between the handles and the arrow
buttons. The view “pages” through the model, without any overlaps.
6. Click the arrow buttons, then press and hold them down for short
periods. The view area moves in discrete steps.

Figure 2.23

Panning the view window with the Shift key and mouse
1. Position the pointer in the view, hold down the <Shift> key, press the
data button and drag the view horizontally and vertically. The speed of
the pan will vary with the distance of the pointer away from its position
when we first pressed the mouse button. Using the Pan View tool
2. Select the Pan View command; make sure that the Dynamic Display
check box is off in the Tool Settings window.
3. Click on a recognizable element in the model. The prompt reads
“Define amount of panning”

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4. Move the pointer to a corner of the view (an arrow “rubber bands” with
the pointer),

5. Click again. The element selected in the previous step is now positioned
in the selected view corner.
6. With the tool still selected, check the Dynamic Display check box on in
the Tool Settings window, repeat steps 39 and 40. This time the view
window moves with our mouse pointer.

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View Previous
1. Click View Previous command to go “back” to the previous
magnification.
2. Datapoint several times to continue moving “back” through each of our
previous zooms. Notice how it “backs” up to the previous zoom until
we get to the initial view from when we first opened the drawing.
View Next
1. Click the View Next command to go “forward” to the next view.
2. Datapoint several times to continue moving “forward” in the list of
views we have done so far.

Working with Views

View windows may be opened and closed, resized, moved, reshaped or

hidden. In fact all of the manipulations that can be done with the windows
of any software based on the standard GUI (Graphical User Interface) can
be used.

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As mentioned earlier in this chapter and demonstrated in the previous
exercise, we are not limited to 1 view only per model. A typical example of
an application for multiple views is to simultaneously provide zoomed-in
and overall views of a model.

Exercise 5 – Working with Views

Opening additional views
1. Open Floor.dgn
2. Make sure that the View Groups tool box is available (its default
placement is near the bottom-left corner). If necessary, open the View
Groups tool box from the Main menu bar; choose
WindowÆViewsÆDialog.

3. Choose WindowÆViews from the Main menu. Note that view numbers
1, 2, 3 and 4 all have check marks indicating they are open. We are
able to open and close views from here, just toggle the checkmark on
and off. The Tool Groups tool box is usually more convenient,
however.

4. Open View 5 from the button bar in the View Groups tool box. The
new view will hide an existing one — its size and position will depend
on the arrangements at the time it was last closed.

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Automatic View Arrangements
We may organize our multiple views as we need by resizing and moving
them within the Application window. MicroStation will also arrange them
automatically for us if this suits our requirements.
Standard View Arrangements
1. Open Floor.dgn
2. Open View 1 through 5
3. Choose WindowÆCascade from the Main menu. All 5 windows are
partly visible, with only the front one useful for viewing and drawing.

Figure 2.26

4. Practice bringing other views to the front by clicking on any visible part
of the window’s borders or title bars.
5. Practice bringing other views to the front by choosing them from the
Window menu.
6. Choose WindowÆTile from the Main menu. All 5 windows are fully
visible, but very small.

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There is some wasted space in the Application window which may as well
be filled by enlarging a view.
7. Choose WindowÆArrange to tell MicroStation to fill up the free
space.

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Figure 12

Help
We had a very brief look at the Help menu from the Main menu bar, where
we viewed the Tool Index. We can also access Help Contents, Search etc.
from the Standard tool box (see “The V8 Application Window”).
Using Help frequently does not use time, it saves time. We do not only
obtain answers to the questions that cause us to open Help initially, we often
pick up valuable extra information on the way. Use help frequently during
this course, as there are many more pages of information available from this
facility than could ever practicably be included in a course guide.
The primary level of help for tools is to “hover” the pointer over the tool,
waiting for its Tool Tip to appear. As well as the Tool Tip a brief
description of the tool appears in the Status Bar. However, because we often
need more complex assistance than this, we can use Tracking Help.

Exercise 6 - Using Tracking Help

1. With any DGN open, choose HelpÆTracking. If we reopen the Help
menu, we will find Tracking is checked On.
2. Select a tool from the Main tool frame, say Place Block. The help item
for the Place Block tool will open.
3. Use the Minimize button in the Help Title Bar to return to the DGN
display; click MicroStation Help from the Windows Taskbar to return
to Help.
4. Try selecting other tools and scanning their Help entries.

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 1 Getting Started

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We were introduced to MicroStation’s GUI and gained control over how a
model is viewed in chapter 1. We are now able to open, close and rearrange
both the Tool Boxes and the Views within the Applications Window. In this
chapter we will move on to create our own design files and models.
The general plan for this chapter is to create a new design file (DGN).
Within this file we will use various drawing tools to create a simple model.
In the process, we will be introduced to the “other” mouse buttons and their
functions.

Objectives
When you have completed this chapter, you will be able to:
• Understand and use Data points, Tentative Points and Resets
• Create a new design file based on the appropriate seed file.
• Control the View Attributes to display and hide features
• Look at working units and other design file settings
• Use the Place Smart line tool with its default settings
• Use the Undo and Redo commands

MicroStation Mouse Configuration

The mouse varies greatly between the various manufacturers in the number
and style of buttons, inclusion of scrolling wheels etc., thus we can only
generalize here. For MicroStation, there are three main function names
assigned to the mouse buttons, Data, Reset and Tentative.

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Figure 13

The Data Button

The Data button has multiple purposes. We have already learned that this is
the primary mouse button used for selection. The Data button is in
MicroStation because it is used to place Data Points in a file. Data points
define the location of certain points of a Design Element, such as the ends of
a line or the center of a circle.
Some tools in MicroStation will prompt the user to accept something before
continuing. The data button is used to do this as well.

Note:
Even though the default configuration assumes that the Data button is on the
left, this is not a requirement. In order to accommodate left handed users and
other personal preferences, MicroStation allows the buttons of the mouse to be
customized. This will be discussed later in the guide.

The Reset Button

The Reset button may be used to cancel an operation, reject an offered
choice or signal the end of an operation (such as placing a “string” of lines).

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The Tentative Button

The Tentative button is used to place a Tentative Point, a proposed location
for a Data point. If we place a Tentative point and it falls in the wrong place,
we can “Tentative” again, as often as we like. When we are satisfied with
the position of the point, we Accept it by clicking the Data button. The
position of the mouse pointer is irrelevant when we Accept a Tentative point
placed with this button.

Checking and Changing Button Assignments

In this guide, a three-button mouse configuration is always used as shown
below. If your mouse buttons aren’t assigned as shown, follow the steps
outlined below for proper configuration.

If you only have a two button mouse, you can still configure the mouse to use a
tentative button. Typically this is done by telling MicroStation that the Tentative
button is when both the Left and Right buttons are simultaneously clicked.

Exercise 7 - Assigning mouse buttons

5. Start MicroStation
6. Open H:\MicroStation Basic Training Files\
dgn\JoinTheDots.dgn
7. Choose WorkspaceÆButton Assignments to open the Button
Assignments dialog box.

8. Highlight the particular function you wish to re-assign by clicking on it

with the current Data button.
9. Move the pointer to the Button Definition Area at the bottom of the
dialog box.
10. Click the button you wish to use for the highlighted function.

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11. Repeat as required for any other functions, click OK to change the
configuration, or CANCEL to leave them as they were.

MicroStation Design File Concepts

We were introduced to some basic concepts of design files in Chapter 1.
When we get down to the basics, all information about the design elements
is stored in numeric format in the computer disk files. In two-dimensional
drafting with MicroStation, the x (horizontal) and y (vertical) coordinates of
the design elements are stored in Double Precision Floating Point format.
The x (horizontal) and y (vertical) coordinates of a point define its position
on the Design Plane, which is the area in which elements are created in a 2D
design.

Scale
When we set about making Drawings, we will probably have to consider
Scale - eventually. The word “eventually” is meaningful, as we can forget
about scale completely while we are creating our Design Models. The
Design Model contains all the elements of the design, which are then used
to compose a Sheet Model (discussed later in this guide). We only need to
consider scale when we are composing our Sheet Model ready for printout.
The most important point here is that we always create our design models in
“real world” units, at full size.

Working Units
Working Units are unique to each model in a design file. The purpose of the
working units is to tell MicroStation what units the user will be inputting.
This should not be confused with what units MicroStation may display
(Coordinate Readout) which is covered in the next section.

The usefulness of working units doesn’t really become apparent until you have
to enter a distance. For example, if you want to enter a distance of 8 Ft and 5
3/64” inches, how would you type this distance?
If there were no Sub Units you would have to first convert 3/64ths to a decimal
number of inches, then add 5”. Take the answer (5.046875) and then convert to
feet (0.4205729167) and finally, add to 8 Ft. Obviously this isn’t math that is
done in your head; it would require a calculator. How else would you know to
key-in 8.4205729167 feet?
The answer is Sub Units. Sub Units allow you to keying a distance as Master
Units:Sub Units or in this case, 8:5 3/64 which would literally mean 8 master

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units, 5 and 3/64ths Sub Units.

In PennDOT, the working units that you will actually use will depend on
which unit you are assigned to and whether the project is English or Metric.
Roadway and Traffic folks use Master Units (US Survey Feet) only for
English projects while Bridge drafting requires a combination of Master
Units and Sub Units (Survey Feet and Survey Inches). For Metric projects
everyone uses (Meters and Millimeters), for Master Units and Sub Units.
Working Unit values are always set for you when a new file is created. This
will be covered in greater detail later.

Coordinate Readout
Once we know our working units, we may choose how they are to appear in
any readout within MicroStation.
For instance, a Bridge English project design file uses Survey Feet as the
master unit and Survey Inches as the sub unit. The coordinate readout could
be in feet only, for example the length of a certain line may read out as
1.65’. It could also appear in feet, inches and fractions of an inch, as 1’ 7
51/64”, depending on our choice of Coordinate Readout. The details of
setting up our DGN with coordinate readout will be dealt with in detail a
little later in the course.

Drawing with AccuSnap

AccuSnap is a tool in MicroStation that automatically identifies and snaps to
certain types of elements and points as the mouse approaches them. The
user has the ability to configure a number of options that affect the behavior
of AccuSnap, including turning it off. AccuSnap can be thought of as an
“automatic tentative snap” where MicroStation suggests points to snap to as
you move near them.
There are generally four things that can occur to indicate that MicroStation
has found a point that you may wish to snap to:

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• The element highlights (changes colors)

• The display of a special pointer symbol indicating the position of the
Snap
• The display of a special icon/image near the snap point to indicate the
Snap Mode used to locate the point.
• The Pointer “indexes” or stays at the Snap Point even if the mouse is
moved a small amount.
Another name for a Snap is a Tentative Point, a point that is “offered”, but
must be Accepted before its position is stored in the design file. An offered
Tentative point is Accepted by pressing the mouse Data button.
The behavior of Tentative points will be introduced in much more detail as
we proceed through this course. For the next exercise the Snap Mode we
will be using is known as Keypoint Snap, where the snap points are
typically at the ends of elements. This is the default “snap mode”, so we
should not need to change any settings. The indicator for the active snap
mode is displayed in the Status Bar and the icon for Keypoint mode is
shown below.

Exercise 8 – Draw a closed shape using AccuSnap

In this exercise, we will draw a shape using only the mouse. With the help
of AccuSnap and points already in the design file, we will “join the dots” to
create the shape with full precision without the need to key-in any
dimensions!
The tool we will use to create this shape will be the Place Smart Line tool.
We will find it to be one of the most commonly used tool in MicroStation,
as it is capable of creating a number of different types of elements. We will
use it to place the shape of an airplane.
1. If it is not already running, start MicroStation
2. Open Exercise 8 JoinTheDots.dgn.
3. Select the Place Smart Line tool from the Main tool frame. Notice how
the Tool Settings changes immediately to reflect the settings for the
active command.

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4. Starting at 1, move the pointer over the numbered points for each of the
vertices in order, ensure that the yellow X is centered on each dot
before clicking the Data button to accept a Snap as it is indicated.
Caution:
Do not press and hold the data button. If you do this, you will actually be
placing a second data point wherever the mouse is when you release the button.
Instead, just click and release the data button.

5. If the first vertex we place falls on the wrong point, click the Reset
mouse button (the right button) and start again.
6. If a Data Point (a point defining a vertex in this case) is accidentally
placed at an incorrect location, simply click the Undo tool (from the
Standard tool box) until we return to the last correct data point.
Note:
When you are in the middle of a command that accepts multiple data points (like
Place Smart Line) the Undo button will undo each vertex. However, once you
are finished placing the element, the undo command will undo the entire
placement of the element.

7. When we have closed the shape, click the Reset mouse button to cancel
the tool. With the default settings for the Place Smart Line tool, each
segment is joined to create a single element, in this case a Shape.

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8. Close the “JoinTheDots.dgn” file.

Creating New Design Files

We were introduced to the MicroStation Manager Dialog box in chapter 1.
We used it to find and open an existing DGN, but this time we will use it to
create a design file of our own. MicroStation only allows one DGN file to
be open at a time.

Seed Files
All new DGNs are based on existing ones; these existing DGNs are known
as Seed Files. A seed file always provides a “starting point” for the design.
It will have various default settings already in place, in a comparable way to
the Templates that are used by other applications. MicroStation is installed
with a selection of standard seed files.

Exercise 9 - Create a new Design File

1. Start MicroStation if necessary; ensure that the Workspace User box is
set to statusbar. Check that your directory is set to its proper location as
shown below.
2. Choose FileÆNew from the menu bar of the MicroStation Manager
Dialog box. The New dialog box opens, as illustrated in Figure 14.

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Figure 14
3. Click the SELECT button from the Seed File panel at the bottom of the
New dialog box to open the Select Seed File Dialog.
4. Select Bridgseed2d.dgn, click the OK button.

Figure 15
5. Key-in AccuWorks to the Files field as the name of our new DGN.
The “.Dgn” extension will be added by default.
6. The directory for the new file will be displayed in the Directories panel.
Click OK to close the dialog box.
7. “AccuWorks.dgn” should already be highlighted; click OK to open it.
The new DGN “AccuWorks.dgn” will appear completely blank, the number
of views open is the result of settings “inherited” from the Seed File that we
selected (Bridgeseed2d.dgn).

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View Attributes
Each view has a number of attributes. The View Attributes Dialog is used to
turn them on or off. Various attributes themselves will be introduced as
needed during this course. The View Attributes Dialog is used to set view
attributes that affect whether and how certain types and classes of elements
display and whether certain drawing aids display. Changes take effect only
if the APPLY or ALL button is clicked.

Exercise 10 – Working with View Attributes

1. If it is not already running, start MicroStation and open
Exercise 10 AccuWorks.dgn
Click the Control menu icon for View 1, select View Attributes, or choose
SettingsÆView Attributes from the Main menu bar. Either way, the View
Attributes Dialog is opened.

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Figure 16

Design File Settings

When we looked at the View Attribute settings, the settings applied to an
individual View. There are various other settings that apply to the entire
DGN and others that apply to an entire model, not just to a view. Two of the
most important of these are Working Units and Coordinate Readout. In most
situations, these settings are standardized for particular projects (English or
Metric) and types of drafting work (Roadway, Traffic or Bridge) and
incorporated into Seed Files. The settings would then automatically be
inherited by any new DGN’s.

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Caution:
Never change the working units because at PennDOT the accuracy of the CADD
is dependant on the standard values.

Exercise 11 – Examining Working Units

We will examine the Working Units for “AccuWorks.dgn” in this exercise.
1. If it is not already started, run MicroStation
2. Open Exercise 11 AccuWorks.dgn
3. Choose SettingsÆDesign File from the Main menu bar.
4. In the DGN File Settings dialog box, choose Working Units. Notice the
Unit Names and Labels settings. These are the settings already
“inherited” from the English Bridge seed file.

5. Click OK to close the dialog box.

Setting Coordinate Readout

These settings define how information about the size of a model or its
elements is presented to the operator. This information may be presented in
such places as the Status Bar or within fields of a Tool Settings window.
The settings we are about to make have to do with the Readout, which does
not necessarily affect how information needs to be Input. For example,
when our readout is set to feet and inches, it is still possible to input a value
in decimal feet. There will be exercises that will demonstrate this as we
progress through the course.

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Master, Sub and Working Units

There are three options for the formatting of our coordinate readout, Master
Units, Sub Units and Working Units. Using English Bridge dimensions as
an example, we have our Working Units set to survey feet and survey
inches, then, by using different Coordinate Readout settings:
• When the readout is in Master Units, we may have a particular distance
measured reading as 5.542’ (decimal feet).
• If it is in Sub Units (with fractions), it would read 5’ 6 1/2” (feet and
inches).
Working Units adds Positional Units after whole sub units, but we are
unlikely to work with these in MicroStation V8. This option will not be used
during our course.

Exercise 12 - Setting Coordinate Readout

1. Choose SettingsÆDesign FileÆCoordinate Readout.
2. In the Coordinates panel, set the Format to Sub Units.
3. Set the Accuracy to 1/8
4. Click OK to apply the changes.

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Saving Settings

The Global Origin

The Global Origin of a DGN is the point in the design where both the x and
the y coordinates equal zero. By default, this is at the center of the Design
Plane, or the area within which we can place design elements. In its default
configuration, MicroStation automatically saves all design changes to disk.
It does not wait for a set time between saves; the disk copy of the DGN is
updated every time we make a change to the design elements. This does not
apply to Settings, such as those just completed. Settings need to be manually
saved in the default installation, or the old ones will return the next time we
open the DGN. This arrangement allows us to temporarily change settings
for a particular purpose, and then abandon the changes once that purpose
has been fulfilled.

Exercise 13 - Saving Settings

1. Choose FileÆSave Settings from the Main menu bar. Note the
“Settings Saved” prompt in the Status Bar.
2. Choose FileÆClose to close the DGN and return to MicroStation
Manager.
This option only saves the Design File Settings (such as coordinate readout
and view configurations).

Using the Coordinate Readout

When we created the shape in “JoinTheDots”, we did not concern ourselves
with its location, or even its size. We will make use of this symbol in the
next exercise, where we will find the coordinates of each of the vertices. To
do this, we will manually place tentative points using the mouse button(s)
on each vertex in turn, reading out the x and y coordinates for each one from
the Status Bar.

We previously used Key-point Snap ( ), where the tentative points were

all placed automatically. This time we will again be using the default Key-
point snap mode, snapping manually to the Key-points situated at the
vertices of the shape. Remember, the indicator for snap mode is displayed in
the Status Bar.

Exercise 14 - Reading the Coordinates of the Shape

Vertices
1. Open “JoinTheDots.dgn”.
2. Move the pointer over a vertex, click the Tentative button.

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3. Read the coordinates in the Status Bar as an ordered pair, x first.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each of the vertices. The coordinates are not
always “rounded off” values.

Introducing AccuDraw
AccuDraw is a drafting aid used in MicroStation to precisely place new
design elements, or to modify and manipulate existing elements or groups of
elements. It helps us by generating coordinates dependent on many inputs.
These inputs include the current pointer location, where the last data point
was placed, keyboard input and the type of tool being used.
AccuDraw is not a tool in itself, it is an aid used in conjunction with
MicroStation tools. We may have done without it when we placed the shape
in “JoinTheDots.dgn”, but we will seldom work without it from now on. We
will be introduced to its features progressively as we work our way through
this course, starting with the fundamentals.

Exercise 15 – Starting With AccuDraw

We will return to “AccuWorks.dgn” to start using AccuDraw. It is important
that we keep “JoinTheDots” intact, as we will be using it from time to time
throughout the course.
1. If it is not already running, start MicroStation
2. Open AccuWorks.dgn
3. Open the View Attributes Dialog; make sure that Grid is toggled Off.
4. If any changes were made, click ALL. Clicking ALL will apply the
changes to any open views, so we do not have to consider the view
numbers.

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5. Close the View Attributes Dialog

6. Ensure that PopSet is On

7. Select FileÆSave Settings to save the changes to the design file.

The AccuDraw Window

AccuDraw is a very flexible tool that assists most drawing or editing
commands by adding the ability to easily specify precise inputs. It also
allows you to use shortcut-keys to activate common commands and settings.
Because it is so flexible, it often negates the need for many of the locks and
grids.
AccuDraw is automatically activated each time you start MicroStation. You
do, however, have the ability to toggle it on or off. Just click the tool icon
( ) which can be found in the Primary Tool bar to toggle AccuDraw on
and off.

AccuDraw Settings
As you might expect, there are many settings that affect AccuDraw. They
can be accessed by selecting SettingsÆAccuDraw from the Main menu bar.

Figure 17
As you can see in Figure 17 the settings are organized into three tabs:
Operation, Display and Coordinates.

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Note:
So as not to overwhelm the beginning user, a detailed description of each
individual setting will be left to the Help file. Only some settings will be
described as we need them.

The Operation tab contains settings related to activating different AccuDraw

features, for example, the context sensitivity or Floating Origin.
The Display Tab contains settings related to how AccuDraw appears,
specifically, the appearance of the AccuDraw compass.

The Coordinates Tab contains settings related to AccuDraw’s coordinate

system, which can be either rectangular or polar, as well as a few other
settings.

When it is on, the AccuDraw Window is open, and has data entry fields for
the input of distances or angles. This window may be floating or docked.
Initially we will be using it in its floating form.

Exercise 16 - AccuDraw Window Forms and Modes

1. Click the Toggle AccuDraw tool once or twice. Pay attention to the
application window. Did you see the Accudraw window open and
close?

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2. Open the AccuDraw Window.
3. Try floating and docking the window, but leave it floating. The window
will be Active by default, as indicated by the background color of its
Title bar.
Note:
The Active Window typically has a different color title bar than the inactive
windows. By default in our illustrations it is blue.

4. Select any tool from the Main tool frame. Leave the pointer on the tool
or its Tool Settings window. While the pointer is still over the tool or its
Tool Settings window, it becomes the Active Window instead of
AccuDraw. The window which is Active at any time has Input Focus.
Input Focus means that any keyboard input will go to this window.
5. Move the pointer away from the Tool Settings window to restore Input
Focus to the AccuDraw window.
6. Restore input focus to AccuDraw and press the <Spacebar> -note the
change in the window. The labels on the data entry fields will change
between x and y (Rectangular coordinates) and Distance and Angle
(Polar coordinates).

The AccuDraw Compass

The AccuDraw Compass is the graphical representation of AccuDraw in
action. When using the Rectangular coordinate system (x and y) the
compass is a square. When using Polar coordinates (angle and distance) it is
round. The components of the compass are detailed in Figure 18.

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Notice the Green and Red Axis indicators. By default the Red axis is the
“positive” X axis and the green is the “positive” Y axis. This will come into play
as we begin to use the compass.

Figure 18

Rectangular Mode Polar Mode

Exercise 17 - Placing a line defined by AccuDraw

1. If it is not already open, open AccuWorks.dgn
2. Ensure that AccuDraw is operational and that the AccuDraw window is
visible.

3. Select the Place Smart Line tool ( ) from the Main tool frame. Use
the default tool settings (Segment Type: Lines, Vertex Type: Sharp,
Join Elements: Checked). The Rounding Radius may be ignored.
4. Place a Data Point (click the Data button) near the center of the view.
5. Move the pointer in a circle around the AccuDraw Compass. Each time
we are nearly aligned with either axis, the line “Indexes”, or locks onto
the axis.
6. Move the pointer to the left of the compass so that the line is indexed to
the -x axis.
7. Key-in the number 40 (Do Not press <Enter>).
8. Make sure the line is still indexed (highlighted), then click the Data
button to accept the line. The line is completed (perhaps off to the left
of the view) and a new line is started from the end point of the first one.

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9. Click the Reset mouse button (The Right button) to end the Place Smart
Line command.

We just placed a line 40 feet long in our new DGN. The y coordinate field
of the AccuDraw window showed zero when the line was placed, so it will
be precisely along the horizontal x axis. It may not all be visible within the
view, as it is not necessary to have both ends of a line visible in order to
place it.
10. Fit the view the line now fills most of the width of the screen.

11. Select the Delete Element tool ( ) from the bottom-right of the Main
tool frame.
12. Move the pointer over the line to highlight it.
13. Click the Data button to accept the deletion of the highlighted element.

Now that the view is prepared, we will create a shape resembling the end of
a gable-roofed building, with AccuDraw helping us to define the vertices.
You will recall that when we created the previous shape, we were
constrained to a set of points that defined the vertices. We will not be
constrained that way this time.

Note:
As we work through the next series of steps, remember that the Undo button will
undo the placement of any of the points if we make a mistake.

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14. Select the Place Smart Line tool from the Main tool frame. Use the
default tool settings.
15. Place a Data Point (click the Data button) at about the center-left of the
view.
16. Move the pointer directly down. When the pointer is near the y axis the
line Indexes to this axis and highlights. Input Focus is in the y field of
the AccuDraw window.
17. Key-in 8, accept the completed line (while it remains indexed to the y
axis) with the Data button. The AccuDraw compass moves to position
its origin at the end of the line, while another line “rubber bands” from
this point.
18. Move the pointer directly to the right, key-in 31, and accept the distance
with the Data button while it is indexed.
19. Note that without any interference from us, the number went into the y
field, yet the line was horizontal. This is due to the compass rotating to
align its + positive, x axis with the first line. This is AccuDraw
behaving with Context Sensitivity.
The next side line will be the same length as the opposite side, so we do not
need to key anything in. All we have to do is “match” its height to the first
side.
20. Move the pointer directly upward, press the <Enter> key to lock the
line to the vertical axis. This function is called Smart Lock.
21. Move the pointer across to the top of the opposite side (our starting
point). The pointer will change shape and Snap to the top of the line,
which will highlight.
22. Accept this line length with the Data button.
23. Move to the left, key-in 15’6 (do not accept yet), move up and key-in 4,
then accept with the data button as usual (the feet and inches are
separated by a colon (“:”) in the AccuDraw window). This time we
have defined a vertex with both x and y displacements from the last
data point.
24. Complete the shape by moving the pointer over the starting point once
more. Accept when the snap indicator appears and the line highlights,
click the Reset button to stop drawing.

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Figure 19

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 AccuDraw Shortcuts
While we can do a large proportion of our drawing by simply moving the
pointer in the direction the line is to be placed, then keying-in the precise
dimension we need. At other times we need to issue additional commands to
AccuDraw, such as to change coordinate systems.
We issue these commands with a selection of Shortcuts, single and two-key
commands from the keyboard. We used one of these in the last exercise
when we pressed <Enter> to lock the right side of the shape to the vertical
axis. This allowed us to move the pointer a long way off axis to match the
height of the opposite side.
There is a large selection of AccuDraw keyboard shortcuts supplied with the
application, with the facilities to define more of our own. There is little
point in attempting to learn them all, as we can easily display the options
available and the commonly used shortcuts will soon be remembered.
Logically chosen abbreviations are used, making the shortcuts easy to recall.

Since there are quite a few shortcuts defined, it would again overwhelm the
beginning user to detail each of them here. Instead, just remember one; the ?
will open a list of all the shortcuts that are currently configured.

Exercise 18 - Displaying AccuDraw Shortcuts

1. With any DGN open, make sure the AccuDraw window is open and is
active. If it is not active.
2. Press the <?> key. The AccuDraw Shortcuts dialog box opens with the
? shortcut highlighted - we have used a shortcut to display the list of
shortcuts.
3. Resize the dialog box to make it longer; scroll through the list.
4. Close the dialog box.

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AccuDraw Angles
While behind the scenes angles are always defined in MicroStation in
degrees, we can choose differing angle modes and angle formats. We need
to make choices of these when setting up the Coordinate Readout for
angular information.

Angle Modes

MicroStation will readout angles in all three commonly used angle Modes
as shown in Figure 20.
• Conventional with 0° to the right (+x orientation)
• Azimuth with 0° upward (North or +y orientation)
• Bearing with the angle specified in relation to compass points (N, S, E,
W).

Figure 20
In Conventional mode, angles increase numerically in a counter-clockwise
direction. In Azimuth mode, they increase in a clockwise direction.

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Entering Angles

It is essential to be able to enter angles when creating a design. It could be

directly into a Tool Settings window or a dialog box, but most frequently it
will be into the AccuDraw Window. Regardless of the window accepting
the input, MicroStation will accept angles keyed in using three angle
Formats:
• Degrees, where the angle is in degrees to a specified number of decimal
places
• Degrees, Minutes and Seconds, with further refinement of the Seconds
to include decimal places
• Bearing, where the number of degrees is always prefixed by N or S, then
suffixed by E or W.
The formats for entering angles are partially dependent on the Readout
settings for angles. For example, we can only enter angles using the Bearing
format when the Mode setting is also Bearing. We will experiment in
“AccuWorks.dgn”, setting the readout format for angles first, then using
AccuDraw to accept angle input.

Exercise 19 – Angles in Accudraw

1. Open Exercise19 AccuWorks.dgn
2. Choose SettingsÆDesign File
3. Choose Coordinate Readout from the DGN File Settings dialog box.
4. Examine the settings in the Angles panel, ensure that the Format is set
to DD.DDDD (decimal degrees), the Mode is Conventional and the
Accuracy is 0.1234 (4 decimal places).
5. Click OK to close the DGN File Settings dialog box.

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AccuDraw is not only a facility to accept data input, it also provides
readout. Regardless of the coordinate mode (rectangular or polar), the fields
in the AccuDraw window provide a continuous readout of the current
position of the pointer. The distances and angles are in respect to the last
data point, and in some cases, the orientation of the last segment placed.
6. Fit the view, then Zoom Out once. This will give some room around the
shape for our experiments.
7. Select the Place Smart Line tool, move the pointer over the upper-left
vertex of the shape, accept with a datapoint when the AccuDraw Origin
snaps to the vertex.
8. Press the <Spacebar> to toggle AccuDraw to the Polar mode (round
compass). The Axis Indicators appear with the x axis horizontal.
9. Slowly rotate the pointer around outside the compass, noting when the
angle readout is zero. Also note the direction of rotation that increments
the reading.
10. Move the pointer over the apex of the shape, noting the angle indicated
when the line snaps to the vertex. The angle (14.4703°) is the angle
between the +x axis and that side of the “roof”, measured in a counter-
clockwise direction.
11. Accept the snap with the Data button, move down to the upper-right
vertex, where the line will snap. This time the AccuDraw compass has
rotated to the direction of the last line segment placed, so the angle (-
28.9406° or 331.0594°) is in respect to the previous line, measured
counter-clockwise.

The main purpose for the readings taken in the last exercise was to
demonstrate how AccuDraw interprets angles in the Conventional mode. In
practice we have a more specialized tool available to measure angles, but
the exercise will have given some insight into how we should input angles
in the future. We will repeat the previous exercises, this time using Azimuth
angle readout.
12. If necessary, Reset (click the Reset mouse button to stop the previous
drawing), select the Undo tool from the Standard tool box and Update
the view to repair the drawing.
13. Choose SettingsÆDesign File
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14. Choose Coordinate Readout from the DGN File Settings dialog box.
15. In the Angles panel, set the Format to DD MM SS (Degrees, Minutes
and Seconds), the Mode to Azimuth and the Accuracy to 0 (no decimal
places after the number of seconds).
16. Click OK to close the DGN File Settings dialog box.
17. With the Place Smart Line tool selected, move the pointer over the
upper-left vertex of the shape, accept with the data button when the
AccuDraw Origin snaps to the vertex.
18. Slowly rotate the pointer around outside the compass (in Polar mode),
noting when the angle readout is zero. Again, note the direction of
rotation that increments the reading.
19. Move the pointer over the apex of the shape, noting the angle indicated
when the line snaps to the vertex. The angle (75° 31’ 47”) is the angle
between the +y axis and that side of the “roof”, measured in a
clockwise direction.
20. Accept the snap with the Data button, move down to the upper-right
vertex, where the line will snap. The reading (118° 56’ 26”) is now
clockwise from the y axis.
21. Reset to end the Smart Line, Undo the lines and Update the view.

Drawing an Octagon
22. Set the Angle readout Format to DD.DDDD, the Mode to Conventional
and the Accuracy to 0.1234.
23. Ensure that the Coordinate Readout is set to Sub Units and the
Accuracy to 1/64 (in the same dialog box as 1).
24. Ensure the Working Units are in Survey Feet and Survey Inches, click
OK; choose File > Save Settings.

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25. Pan the previous shape off to one side.
26. Select the Place Smart Line tool, place the first data point near the
bottom of the view, slightly to the left of center.
27. If necessary, change to Polar coordinates using the <Spacebar>, move
the pointer directly to the right of the start of the line.
We need a little more information before we proceed. When we placed the
shape using Rectangular coordinates, we were able to move Input Focus
between the x and y fields by moving the pointer in one direction or another.
Of course, this cannot be done in Polar mode, so we need to change between
the Distance and Angle fields manually. The easiest way is to use either the
<Tab> key, the <Down Arrow> key, or we can always click in the desired
field with the mouse.
28. If necessary, <Tab> to the Distance field, key-in 10, accept with the
line indexed to the +x axis.
29. Slowly move the pointer up and to the right; as the line extends you will
notice it stops as we pass the Previous Distance (10’).
30. While indexed to the Previous Distance, <Tab> to the Angle field, key-
in 45, accept the position with the Data button.

31. Move the pointer in the approximate direction of the next segment until
it indexes to the Previous Distance.
32. Key-in 45 again to the Angle field, accept the segment with the Data
button. The input focus stayed in the angle field and will continue to do
so until we redirect it.
33. Repeat steps 10 and 11 until the eighth segment, then accept the snap
back to the start point.
34. Reset, the shape is complete.

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This exercise was an example of the use of Context Sensitivity, where the
AccuDraw compass rotated to place its x axis along the segment just placed.
This means that we could simply key in the same angle each time, without
need for calculations. It also demonstrated the Previous Distance indexing
feature, which saved us from repeatedly keying in the same value. We will
now find out how we can use even less keystrokes for the same result.
AccuDraw Previous Value Recall
We have already used the Previous Distance feature, now we will use
Previous Value Recall. We can recall values that have been previously
entered into the x, y, Distance or Angle fields of the AccuDraw window.
The <Page Up> key will restore the previous value to the field with input
focus, with the previous angle to the Angle field, the linear dimension to any
other.
The values are stored in separate buffers for angular and linear dimensions,
but there is only one linear dimension buffer. This allows a previous value
to be recalled into any of the linear fields (x, y or Distance), regardless of
the field it was originally entered into.

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We can speed up repetitive tasks, such as the last exercise, using Previous
Values. We will now draw the octagon again, working even smarter.

Exercise 20 - Drawing using Previous Values

35. Pan the previous octagon off to one side.
36. Select the Place Smart Line tool, place the first data point in the lower
part of the view.
37. Using Polar coordinates with input focus in the Distance field of the
AccuDraw window, move the pointer directly to the right of the start of
the line and key-in 10, accept.
38. Move the pointer in the direction of the next segment, press <Page Up>
to recall the value 10 into the Distance field.
39. Press <Down Arrow>, key-in 45 to the Angle field, and accept. The
<Down Arrow> key is closer to <Page Up> and the number pad than
<Tab>.
40. Move the pointer in the direction of the next segment, press <Page Up>,
<Down Arrow>, <page Up>, then accept.
41. Repeat step 6 until the shape is closed by accepting the snap back to the
start, as in previous examples.

AccuDraw Locks
When we key-in values, or use recalled values to the data entry fields of
AccuDraw, the associated boxes are automatically checked. This indicates
those fields are now Locked. The mouse can now be moved without
affecting the value in the field.
In the last exercise we used recalled Previous Values in both the Distance
and the Angle fields. The fields locked, allowing us to move the mouse,
even before we had accepted the segment placement.

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We can also lock values appearing in the AccuDraw window when we
move the pointer, such as when the direction is indexed to an axis. We can
lock any field, using easily remembered Keyboard Shortcuts. To lock the
value in:
• The x field - press <x>
• The y field -press <y>
• The Distance field - press <d>
• The Angle field - press <a>
Keyboard Shortcuts are not case-sensitive.
We have already used another lock, called Smart Lock, in “Drawing a
Shape” on page 2-18. We were drawing the second “wall” when we locked
the direction of the segment, while we defined its length with a snap to the
opposite wall.
• In Rectangular coordinate mode, Smart Lock locks the X field to 0 if the
pointer is nearer the y axis, or the Y field to 0 if the pointer is nearer the
x axis.
• In Polar coordinate mode, Smart Lock locks the Angle to the nearest
axis, + x or -x , +y or -y.

All of these shortcuts are actually toggles, they are also used to unlock
previously locked fields.

Exercise 21 - Drawing a Line at a Locked Angle

1. Window one of the octagons in Exercise 19 AccuWorks.dgn
2. Select the Place Smart Line tool, move the pointer over the lower-left
vertex, accept the snap.
3. Using Polar coordinates, move the pointer over the diagonally opposite
vertex until the line snaps, but do not accept yet.
4. Press <a> to lock the Angle field.
5. If necessary move the Input Focus to the Distance field, key-in 6,
accept the line, and then Reset the tool.
6. The line will be exactly at the angle of the diagonal, 67.5°
(Conventional).

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AccuDraw Summary
We have learned quite a few techniques that rely on the use of AccuDraw in
this chapter. Following is a brief summary of the most important points:
When active, AccuDraw anticipates what you want based on how you move
your cursor.

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• The X key toggles the X axis lock on/off when in rectangular mode
• The Y key toggles the Y axis lock on/off when in rectangular mode
• The SPACE key toggles between Rectangular and Polar mode
• The D key toggles the Distance lock on/off when in Polar mode
• The A key toggles the Angle lock on/off when in Polar mode
• The V key rotates the AccuDraw compass to orient with the View
• The O key moves the AccuDraw compass’ Origin
• The RQ key-in allows you to rotate the compass to a specific
orientation.
• The ? key opens a dialog showing you all the AccuDraw shortcuts.
• AccuDraw doesn’t use + or – to indicate direction, it uses the position of
your cursor to indicate a direction.

While these were the major points, there is of course much more to
AccuDraw which you can read about in the documentation for
MicroStation.

Undoing and Redoing

There is more than just a couple of tool buttons available to help us Undo
and Redo actions. The number of actions we can undo during a given
session (time with the DGN open) is unlimited. We may even choose to
Undo All, when all of the changes made to the DGN within this particular
session will be undone.
Undo To Mark
One of the most useful options with Undo is to be able to set a Mark. This
effectively places a time mark in the DGN, with an option to undo all
changes back to that mark. This is the undo for experimenters. If we have
reason to be unsure that some changes we make will be acceptable, we set a
mark. If our changes are OK, the mark is ignored. If not, we use the Undo
To Mark facility to restore the Dgn to its previous state. As with other Undo
functions, the mark only remains for the current session; if the file is closed,
the Mark is lost.

Exercise 22 - Set and use the Undo Mark

1. Fit the view in AccuWorks.dgn
2. Choose Edit > Set Mark.
3. The message “Current position Marked” appears in the Status Bar.

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4. Select the Delete Element tool from the bottom-left of the Main tool
frame, delete all of the shapes.
5. Use Place Smart Line to place some “freehand” geometry in the view.
6. Choose EditÆUndo OtherÆTo Mark. Our shapes will return and the
other line work will be removed.

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By working on through the previous chapters, we have learned to:
• Use all the mouse buttons in MicroStation.
• Find the basic tools
• Create new design files
• Specify their readout.

Objectives
When you have completed this chapter, you will be able to:
• Understand and Use Levels
• Set Symbology on Elements
• Use the Key-point, Mid-point and Center snap modes
• Be aware of Measuring commands
• Analyze drawing elements

Introducing Levels
A solid understanding of Levels is absolutely essential to becoming a skilled
user of MicroStation. This point simply can not be overstated.

IMPORTANT:
In an effort to promote a general understanding of how to manipulate levels,
some features will be discussed that are not appropriate within PennDOT. For
Example, because PennDOT maintains a strict level standard, the user will not
typically need to create any new levels.
For the remainder of this manual, non-standard levels will be used to simplify
the learning process. For information about the PennDOT standard levels,
please see the Design Manual 3, Chapter 11.

Before we can learn how to manipulate levels, let’s discuss what a level is
and why they are used in general.
Levels were created to provide a way to “sort” elements into logical groups.
MicroStation has the ability to store many more levels than we will ever
need (somewhere around 4 billion). Each level is assigned a name, a
number, and a set of display properties like Color, Line Weight etc.

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By turning levels on and off, we can control how much information is
displayed in a view at any given time.

Note:
Each View maintains separate status for the display of levels. This means that a
level can be turned on in View1 and turned off in View2 at the same time.

The word Level relates to a manual drawing analogy, where the details of a
design are conceptually created on a number of transparent sheets. If all of
these sheets are stacked in alignment on a desk, we will be able to see all of
the details in their correct relationships with one another.

Active Level
If we were manually drawing on this stack of overlays, only the top sheet
could be drawn on. So if we wanted to draw on a different overlay we
would first have to move it to the top of the stack. MicroStation works
essentially the same way. Instead of physically moving an overlay we make
a level active. There can only be one active level at a time and it must be
displayed, it can not be turned off.
By default MicroStation draws new elements on the Active Level. A
drawing element has many attributes, one of which is called its Level
Attribute. This refers to the level on which the element was placed. We will
discuss Element Attributes in more detail later.

Setting the Active Level

As with most things in MicroStation, there is more than one way to

accomplish the task of making a particular level active. For simplicity we
have illustrated the most common ones:

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• The Attributes tool bar contains a dropdown list of all the levels. By
selecting a level in this list it becomes the active level.
• Double clicking on a level in the Level Display Dialog. Open the dialog
by selecting SettingsÆLevels Display or clicking its icon ( ) in the
Primary Tools toolbar.
• You can also do this using a key-in by entering LV= followed by the
number or name of the level.

Exercise 23 – Setting the Active Level

1. Open Exercise 23 JoinTheDots.dgn
2. Open the Level Display Dialog by clicking on its icon in the Primary
Tools Toolbar ( )
3. Choose a different Level from the Attributes tool box. The highlight
changes to this level in the Level Display Dialog.
4. Double-click a different level in the Level Display Dialog. This has the
same result as choosing a level in the Attributes tool box, it becomes
the Active Level.
That’s it! That’s all there is to making a level active.

Turning Levels On and Off

As discussed earlier, the ability to turn on and off levels is paramount.
Again, there is more than one way to toggle levels on and off. We will focus
on the preferred method – the Level Display dialog.
Notice that in Figure 21 on the context menu there are some interesting
options we can use.

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Command Remarks

All On Turns all levels on

All Off Turns all levels off

Invert Selection Toggles all levels. So that any that were on will
be off and any that were off will be on.

Off By Element Uses the selected element's level attribute to

decide which level to turn off.

All Except Uses the selected element’ s level attribute to

Element turn off all other levels.

Figure 21

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When using the Level Display Dialog there are some color conventions used
to indicate what the state of each level is.
• Teal – The Active Level
• Bold – The Level is Used
• Highlighted Black – Level is On in all selected views
• Highlighted Grey – Level is On in some of the selected views
• Not Highlighted – Level is Off in all selected view.

Exercise 24 – Turning Levels On and Off

1. If not already running, start MicroStation and open Exercise 23
JoinTheDots.dgn.
2. Turn Off all levels except “Numbers”.
3. Select the Place Block tool from the Main tool frame. Use the default
Tool Settings

4. Move the pointer over one of the wing-fuselage vertices (Point 7);
Accept the Keypoint snap with the data button.
5. Define the opposite vertex of the block (Point 18) by accepting a snap
to the diagonally opposite wing-fuselage vertex.
6. Make the level “Numbers” Active
7. Turn Level “Points” Off and On, to hide and display the block just
placed.
8. Turn All Levels On
9. Make Level “Numbers” active.
10. Pretend we don’t realize that the block is on Level “Points”. In the
Level Display Dialog, Right Click on any level.
11. From the Context menu, select Off By Element. The prompt now reads
“Change Level > Identify Element”
12. Data point on the block we placed. Look at the Level Display Dialog to
see which level was turned off.
13. Turn all levels On

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14. Right Click on a level in the Level Display Dialog.

15. Select All Except Element and data point on the block. Notice which
levels were turned off. Why did level “Numbers” stay on?
16. Select level “Points” by single clicking on it.
17. Right click in Level Display Dialog, select Invert Selection. Did you
see what happened with the levels?
18. Experiment for a bit with these commands.

Sorting Levels
As the number of levels grows, it becomes more difficult to navigate
through a long list of level names to find the one(s) we want to turn on or
off. There are many ways to make this easier, sorting the list of levels is
only one.
The column headings in the Level Display Dialog can be used to sort the
list. Clicking on a column header makes it the column on which sorting is
performed as well as toggles it between Ascending and Descending sort
order.
By Right Clicking on the column header you can choose which columns to
display.
You can also Drag-and-Drop columns to affect the order in which they are
displayed.

Level Filters

Level Filters are a much more flexible and powerful method for sorting the
list of levels. However, they are beyond the scope of this guide.

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Managing Levels
In PennDOT, there is a standard set of levels so there is no real need to do a
lot of management of levels. However, it is still valuable to understand
where and how to manage levels.

Creating, Deleting, Renaming Levels

There are several ways to create Levels in MicroStation (provided that you
have the rights to do so).
• Defining Levels in the File
This is the most basic way to define levels. The Definition is done in
the active design file and has no affect on any other files. This is of
course both good and bad. In general, when more than one or two
drawings are being created this approach is not ideal because of the
amount of work it requires to maintain level definitions in multiple
files.
• Defining Levels in a Seed File
This is better than the previous method because any time a new
drawing is created from the seed file it gets the levels too. However, it
still does not address the work required to update all the existing files
when a change is needed.

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• Importing Levels from another Source

Common sources are comma separated value (CSV) files, another
DGN. Similar to the problems with the seed file approach imported
levels do not maintain a link to their original definition so changing
levels in existing documents is arduous.
• Attaching a Level Library
This is by far the most dynamic (and therefore most powerful) method
of defining levels. If levels are added to or removed from the library
the changes are automatically reflected in the working files that use
the library each time they are opened.
This also means that levels defined in a level library can not be
deleted in a file that uses the library. This combination of features
makes it the most robust and desirable method for propagating level
definitions.
The primary tool for managing levels is the Level Manager Dialog. It is
larger, and more robust than the Level Display Dialog whose primary
purpose is to affect the display of levels.

Further discussion of the managing levels is not included in this guide.

Element Attributes
All elements in MicroStation have Attributes. We already learned that the
Level an element is placed on is referred to as the Level Attribute or Level
for short. There is also a collection of attributes that are commonly referred
to as symbology.

Symbology
Symbology refers to the following attributes.

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Color

Each Element has a color attribute which, you guessed it, defines what color
the element has. There are virtually an unlimited number of colors available
in MicroStation. To simplify the process of selecting a specific and
consistent color, Color Tables are used.
A Color Table provides 255 colors that can be identified by number.
Therefore, when describing the color attribute of an element it is common to
say it has color 15.
But what is color 15? Is it Red, green, yellow? Your guess is as good as
mine. The only way to answer this is to have a standard color table like
PennDOT does and review it to see what color 15 is defined as.
Each and every design file has one and only one color table attached.

Note:
The color table that is attached is also an inherited setting from the seed file we
used to create a design file.

Line Style

The Line Style can be selected from a range of standard styles, such as
ordinary solid lines, plus a range of “broken” lines like Centerlines, long
dashed lines etc. We also have Custom Line Styles but we will use only
standard line styles in this course.

Line Weight

Line Weight refers to an elements apparent thickness on the screen. This is

chosen by number. Generally the higher the number is, the thicker the line
will be.

Caution:
The Line Weight is NOT a direct setting of the line’s width in any unit of
measure. As we change magnification (Zoom in and out) the line work must
remain the same width in “pixels” to maintain legibility. If this were not the
case, zoom in would result in extremely wide lines that do not clearly define
details. On the other hand, zooming out would result in the lines disappearing
as they became too thin for display on a computer screen.
Each line weight is translated into a tangible width when a design file is printed
out. The relationship between each weight and the resultant width is defined in
the configuration of the software that is driving the printer..

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Fill Color

Closed Elements have an additional attributes of Fill Type and Fill Color. If
Fill Type is set to “None”, then Fill Color is not relevant. When Fill Type is
set to “Opaque” the area enclosed by the element will be filled with the
same color as the element’s line work. With Fill Type set to “Outlined”, the
area enclosed will be filled with the chosen Fill Color with the line work
still forming the outline.
Essentially, Fill Color only needs to be set independently of the ordinary
color attribute when we need an outlined fill. This will become quite clear in
the next exercise.
It is most common to leave the display of any fill off until we are preparing
to create a printout. This is because the fill would “hide” details of any
elements “behind” it. Fill is an attribute of a view and can be turned on
using the View Attributes.

Setting the Active Symbology

As with levels, when drawing elements in a design file, they are placed with
the Active Symbology. As a user, before you draw anything, you make sure
your Active Symbology is set as you need it. Of course, if you forget to do
this and you draw elements with the wrong symbology, they can always be
changed after the fact.
As with many things in MicroStation, there are many ways to affect the
Active Symbology. Here we will detail the most common, the Attributes
Toolbox.

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Notice the little black arrows on the right side of each button. If you click on the
black arrow, then the dialog opens as a popup that automatically closes once
your mouse is no longer hovering over it.
If you click on the actual button then a dialog opens and stays open until you
close it.
Which method you choose will be largely determined by your screen’s real
estate.

Exercise 25 – Active Symbology

1. If it is not already open, open Exercise 25 JoinTheDots.dgn and fit it to
view 1
2. Make Level “Numbers” Active
3. Turn off all other levels except “Numbers” and “Symbol”
4. Click on the Active Color tile, drag the cursor over the palette to select
the color Red.
5. Click the Attributes toolbox’s Line Style option and choose 4
6. Click the Attributes toolbox’s Line Weight option and choose 1
7. Ensure that the Keypoint snap is on.

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8. Use the Smart Line tool place a line from the tip of the airplane’s nose
to the center of its tail. Notice how there is a snap point at the center of
the line segment that makes the tip of the nose. This is based on the
settings of the Key snap, which we will discuss later.

Changing Element Symbology

We will frequently need to change the attributes of an element that has
already been placed in a DGN. The tools to do this are found in the Change
Attributes tool box, from the Main tool frame.

The leftmost tool in this box is Change Element Attributes tool, which may
be used for changing any or all of the attributes. We have already used this
tool to change the level attribute, now let’s look at what else it can do.

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• Method - By selecting the appropriate Method, you can use this tool to
either change an element, or match an existing element.
• Use Active Attributes – When checked, the fields for level, color etc are
set to the active attributes.
• Level, Color, Style, Weight, Class – when checked, the element’s
corresponding attribute will be changed to the selected value.
• Use Fence – Only available if a fence is active in the drawing. For now,
let’s ignore it.
Exercise 26 – Change / Match Symbology
Let’s use it to change the existing elements a bit.
1. Open “Exercise 26 JoinTheDots.dgn”
2. Ensure that only the level containing the outline of the airplane is on.
3. Fit the airplane into the view.
4. Select the Change Attributes Tool, and check the Color and Style
options.
5. Select Color 1
6. Select Style 3
7. Set the Method to Change
Before we proceed, think about what you expect to happen when we apply
this tool to an existing element.
8. Notice that the prompt is asking you to identify the element to change.
Datapoint on the shape of the airplane
9. Read the Prompt
10. Reset to abort the change.
11. As with most commands in MicroStation, when the command
completes, it starts over. So it is ready to go again.
12. Datapoint on the shape of the airplane
13. This time we will accept the change by giving a Datapoint.

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14. In the Change Attribute Dialog, check the option for Use Active
Symbology. Notice how the color, weight etc change to be the Active
settings.
15. Uncheck the Line Style option
16. Select and accept the Plane again.
17. Turn on all levels
To change the shape of the airplane to match the rectangle we placed in the
center we need to use a different method for this command.
18. Change the Method to “Match / Change”
19. Check all the options in the dialog
20. We are prompted to identify the element we would like to match so we
datapoint on the rectangle at the center of the plane.
Caution:
Notice what happened to your active symbology when you did this!!!!
By checking the “Use Active Settings” option when performing a match, we
have told MicroStation to change the active settings as well. If you don’t want
this to occur, do not select this option.

21. Now we are prompted to identify the element we would like to change,
datapoint on the airplane.

The previous warning told you that you need to be careful of the “Use Active
Settings” option when matching. However, there are some times you want to
just change the Active Symbology to match an existing element before you draw
any new element.
You can use this behavior to your advantage by remembering that as soon as
we select the element to match the active settings are changed. Despite the name
of the tool, there is no requirement to then also select an element to change. If
we simply end the command by selecting a drawing tool, place Smart Line for
example, we have used it to just set the active symbology quickly.

Changing Element Fill

Recall that a closed shape can be Filled, Outlined or Not Filled. The
following illustration shows each of the three options.

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Here, the same shape was placed with each of the three fill types.
Notice that when a shape is filled with the Opaque option, the fill “covers”
the actual boundary as well. Also, notice that when “Outlined”, the fillColor
is applied only inside the actual boundary as well.
So what do we do with our airplane if we wanted it to be Outlined?
Naturally we could delete the shape and quickly redraw it, but there is a
better way. We want to Change the Fill of the element.
To do this we will make use of the Change Element to Active Fill tool
which is the third tool from the left on the Change Elements Toolbox.

Figure 22
As shown here, if applied to a shape, the shape’s line work will show in its
original color, style, weight etc and the interior of the shape will be filled
with yellow. Let’s give it a try.

Exercise 27 – Changing an Elements Fill Type

1. If it is not already open, open Exercise 27 JoinTheDots.dgn.
2. Turn off the View Attribute for Fill in View 1.
3. Select the Change Element to Active Fill Tool as shown in Figure 22.
4. As prompted, select the shape to fill ( the airplane )
Two “surprises” occurred. First, the shape doesn’t appear to be filled and
second, why didn’t we have to accept the element before the fill was
applied?
5. The first one is not too hard, just turn on the Views Fill Attribute so that
we can see the fill.
Now, about not having to accept our selection. Any ideas? Recall that we
spoke about AccuSnap and some of its settings. Let’s review the one that is
having an effect on us now.

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6. Select SettingssÆSnapsÆAccuSnap from the menu to open the
AccuSnap settings dialog.
7. Select the General Tab
8. Notice that the option for Identify Elements Automatically is checked.
This is the culprit. If we want to have the ability to manually accept the
shape before applying it, just turn this option off and do it again.
9. Experiment a bit with the different fill modes and this setting.

Level Symbology

Caution:
While PennDOT does not typically use Level Symbology or ByLevel Symbology,
it is still important to at least understand what it is and how it works, just in
case a file created by a consultant uses it.

So far we have been introduced to symbology as the Attributes to individual

elements. There are other ways of defining symbology, one of which is
called Level Symbology.
When Level Symbology is used, the attributes of individual elements are
overridden by a symbology defined according to the Level on which the
element resides. Let’s take a look at an example.

Exercise 28 – Using Level Symbology

1. Open Cottage.Dgn
2. Open the level display dialog box and position it so that you can see the
drawing.
3. Turn some levels On and Off until you have a general sense of what
level geometry has been placed on.
4. Open the View Attributes dialog
5. Turn on the Level Symbology option and click Apply. Notice how the
appearance of the design file changed.
6. Open the Level Manager to review what symbology is being used.
7. Ensure that the Symbology option is set to “Overrides”
8. Click on the Color associated with the Windows level and select a
different color.
9. Click Ok and notice the change in the symbology of all the windows.
10. Click on the same Color tile again, but instead of picking a color, click
on the Override Off, and then click OK. This essentially turns off the
overrides for this one level, causing the level manager to no longer
display the color, and the view to show the elements individual
symbology. The same technique can be used with styles, weights etc.

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Symbology ByLevel
Using By Level symbology is an alternative to defining each individual
element’s attributes. Instead, we tell the level what attributes should be
applied to all elements that reside on it. This way, if the level definition is
changed, all of its elements are affected automatically.
Don’t confuse the By Level method with the Level Symbology method. The
Level Symbology is used to override the attributes of an element that is
already placed while By Level is typically used to define the elements
attributes as it is being placed.
Let’s use it a little to see how it really works.

Exercise 29 – Using By Level

11. If it is not open, open Cottage.dgn.
12. Turn off the View Attribute for Level Symbology.
13. Pan the floor plan to one side of the view to allow space for placing a
block on each level.
14. Select “By Level” from the Color, Line Style, and Line Weight drop
down lists in the Attributes Toolbox.
15. Make the “Default” level active.
16. Ensure that all other levels are turned on.
17. Select the Place Block tool
18. Datapoint near the top of the view, move the mouse to the right and
key-in 7 (don’t click on any mouse buttons yet)
19. Move the cursor down, key-in 4 and accept.
20. Change the Active Level to Doors, place another box as in the previous
steps.
21. Continue placing a block on each level in this manner.
22. Notice that the symbology of each block is different and we did not
have to change Color, Style, and Weight each time. All we did was
change the level.
23. Open the Level Manager; choose By Level from the Symbology option.
24. Notice the different symbologies defined here.
25. Change the By Level Color, Style Weight of a few levels and then look
at the drawing.
26. Close Level Manager
27. Turn the View Attribute for Level Symbology On
28. Notice how even the blocks we just placed as “By Level” attributes are
still overridden by level symbology.
29. Delete all the blocks we placed here.

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Creating Models
Models were briefly discussed previously. There, we learned that there can
be more than one model in a design file.

Caution:
We also learned that PennDOT does not use any models other than the Default
Model at this time.

Even though PennDOT does not make use of them, it is again important to
at lease learn what they are and how to navigate them just in case a file
delivered from an outside source does make use of them.
Each Model is independent of all other models in the design file. In fact,
they can even have different working units. For example, we might have a
model that will be used for designing a house which needs working units of
Feet and Inches and another model for designing the site which requires
Feet and Tenths. In PennDOT the solution to this scenario would be to have
two different design files, each with the appropriate working units.
However, models could be used to store both in the same design file.
There are also two types of models; Design models and Sheet models. Often
Design models are combined or referenced to make sheet models. Again, in
PennDOT, this is not how it is done.

Exercise 30 – Create a Model

1. If it is not already open, open Cottage.Dgn
2. Right click on the Primary Tools Toolbox and ensure that the Models
tool is displayed.

3. Click on the Models tool ( ) to open the Models dialog

4. Click on the icon for creating a new model ( )

5. Choose the Type to be Design and 2D
6. Name = Site Plan
7. Description = Boundaries and Services
8. Both check boxes are checked

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9. Click Ok

10. Close the Models Dialog

11. Now we have a new (and empty) model
12. Although it is most common to draw things at their proper map
coordinates, for simplicity we will use assumed coordinates for this
model.
View Area
We now have an empty view and we don’t know its magnification. The
view could be showing us an inch or a mile, we have no direct way of
knowing. Rather than worrying about what the view currently shows, we’ll
just make the view show us the area we want to see.
13. Ensure that AccuDraw is running.
14. Select the Window Area Tool and move the cursor into the view.
15. Press the <P> key (the AccuDraw keyboard shortcut for placing a
Datapoint) to open the Datapoint window.
16. Key-in 180,120 and press <Enter>. Here we entered an X,Y coordinate
pair representing the first corner that the window area command will
use.
17. Press <P> again and enter 0 then press <Enter>
Note:
By entering only the X coordinate as 0, we told MicroStation to assume 0 for all
other directions. In a 2D file this means that the Y coordinate was assumed to be
0

18. Reset to end the zoom command. While the view doesn’t look different,
it was resized and moved.

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Now we’re ready to draw the shape or our boundary. Let’s assume that we
are reading a deed that gives us a point of beginning coordinate and a series
of direction/distance pairs. Use the following data to help draw the
boundary:

Description Comments
Point of Beginning Unknown Coordinates, just place it freehand in the drawing.
Point 2 Direction = 22^25’19”
Distance = 82.1
Point 3 Direction = 83^29’57”
Distance = 106.3
Point 4 Direction = 185^38’34”
Distance = 96.04
Point of Beginning Unknown Direction and Distance.

19. Select the Place Smart Line tool. Ensure that the Segment Type = Line,
Vertex = sharp, and Join Elements is checked.
20. Since the Point of Beginning (POB) is not a known coordinate, just
Datapoint near the bottom left of the view.
21. Toggle AccuDraw to Polar Coordinate mode by pressing the spacebar.
22. Key-in the angle and distance provided. Use the <Tab> key to move to
the distance field as needed.
Caution:
Don’t forget to use the Separators shown for Degrees, Minutes, Seconds (^, ‘. “)

23. Accept the line with a Datapoint. DO NOT RESET

24. Notice that the AccuDraw compass has rotated, aligning its X axis with
the segment we just placed. In this case we don’t want it to do that, so
we tell it to re-orient the X axis with the horizontal axis of the view by
pressing the <V> key.
25. Place the second segment, keying in the angle and direction from the
table above.
26. Accept the point
27. Continue around the shape until you are ready to place the last segment.
Instead of keying-in angle, distance we will snap to the original point.
Re-orient the view after placing each segment.

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28. Switch between the two models in the design file and notice that they
really are independent of one another.

Editing Model Properties

Model properties can be edited by opening the Models Dialog and selecting
the icon for Properties. Details of this are beyond the scope of this course.

Snapping Basics
Hopefully by now, the Keypoint snap is becoming familiar as we have used
it many times so far. Recall that when placing the airplane shape we used
AccuSnap to snap to the points defining the shape.
Snapping is one of the most important aspects of creating proper drawings
in any CAD environment. The ability to snap frees us from knowing
coordinates for every intersection, performing complex math like
calculating tangents between two curves etc.

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AccuSnap vs. Mouse Button snapping

When we first spoke of the mouse earlier in this course we introduced the
tentative button. This button is used to manually place a tentative point.
Clicking the button will place a tentative point at, or near, the pointer
position.
If the button is pressed when the pointer is sufficiently close to a “snap
location” on an element the Tentative Point will “jump” or “Snap” precisely
to that point. If the point snapped to is correct, the point is converted to a
Datapoint by accepting it with the Data Button. It does not matter if the
mouse has moved since the tentative point was placed, the position of the
data point will be precisely that of the original tentative point.
With AccuSnap turned On, we do not need to click the Tentative button to
place a tentative point. Just moving the pointer close to a snap location will
cause a dashed crosshair to appear. If we move this pointer even closer to
the snap location, it becomes a heavy “X”. A tentative point has been
placed, without pressing any buttons so far. A small additional movement of
the pointer will not displace this snap, so all we need to do is accept it by
clicking the Data button while the heavy X appears.
We can control all of the various snap modes from a button bar or a popup
or even from the menus. For illustration the button bar is the simplest. Note
that some snaps are disabled. Snaps are enabled or disabled according to
what the active tool supports.

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Figure 23

Rather than go into overwhelming detail on all the snaps, we will focus on
the most commonly used options for now.

Toggle AccuSnap On/Off

The first button simply toggles AccuSnap On and Off

Key-point Snap
We have used the Key Point snap several times already. Different elements
have different key points. For example, a line will always have its end
points as key points and a circle will typically have its center as a key point.

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Snap Divisor

The Key Point can be affected by a lock called the Snap Lock. The snap
lock divisor allows us to snap to points between key points. For a line, if the
divisor were set to the midpoint of the line as well as the end points. If the
divisor were set to 8 then we could snap to points that are 1/8 of the line
apart as well as the end points.
Most commonly, the Snap lock has a divisor set to 2 which means that any
element should be cut in half and the midpoint should be considered to be a
Key Point.
To access the Snap Lock, select SettingsÆLocksÆFull from the menu

Default and Override Snap Modes

By double clicking on a snap in the button bar it becomes the default snap
mode. This means that unless the user says otherwise, this snap mode
should be used. You can recognize the default snap by the way it both
shaded and pushed. In Figure 23 above, you can see that the Key Point is the
default snap mode.
An override snap is only effective for a single snap and is enabled by
clicking on a snap button a single time.

Tool Settings and AccuDraw

Many tools will allow us to define the size of an element. For example,
when placing a circle, we can specify the Radius in the Tool Settings
Dialog. Alternatively, we can define the dimension using AccuDraw. The
latter method is probably used more frequently than the former, but the
Tools Settings Technique is most useful when placing a number of similarly
sized elements.

Exercise 31 – AccuDraw vs. Tool Settings

1. Open AccuWorks.dgn
2. Make the “17” level active, turn off all other levels
3. Select the Place Circle Tool, then in the Tool Settings window, choose
a Method of Center
4. Leave the Area and Fill Type as they are
5. Check the box on and select Diameter ( if necessary)
6. Key-in 0:6 in the field and press <Tab>
7. Place a circle anywhere in the view, but do not reset yet.

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8. Use the Window Area tool to increase the magnification of the circle to
make it about half of the view’s height.
9. Reset the mouse to end the zoom command(s).
10. Move the cursor around the view, notice that there is another circle (of
the same size) waiting to be placed.
11. Overwrite the Diameter with 0:5
12. Move the cursor back over the view and place the circle. Notice how
the AccuDraw compass remained on the center of the circle (unlike
when we place arcs etc.)

Element Information
You may have noticed that whenever we move our cursor over an element
and hover there a bit, we get a tool tip with some basic information about
the element. Usually this will tell us the type of the element and the Level
that it is placed on. This tool tip is a function of AccuSnap.
Sometimes we will want to have more detail and Analyze the elements.
MicroStation provides the Analyze Element tool for this purpose. It can be
found on the Primary Toolbox ( )

AccuSnap Popup Information

As stated a moment ago, the tool tip with basic information is controlled by
AccuSnap. On the General Tab of the AccuSnap settings, we can choose to
see “Popup Info” or not.
If it is on, then we must choose either Automatic or Tentative mode.
Automatic is the default, and will automatically display the tool tip while
Tentative will only display the Tool tip if we tentative snap to the element.

Exercise 32 - Obtaining Element Information

Analyzing an element provides a huge amount of information, as well as
allowing us to change the element’s Attributes and Properties. We will
understand more of the information as the course progresses.
1. If it is not already open, open Cottage.Dgn
2. Move the cursor over a line element (e.g. the external wall) to be
analyzed.
3. Accept the element once it is highlighted.
4. The Element Information Dialog is opened to the General Tab
5. Experiment a bit with the data displayed on all three tabs

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Challenge Exercise – Lighting Pillars

This is the first “Design Problem” that will appear from time to time in this
course. The objective is for you to complete the exercise with little or no
instruction. All the information required to complete the task is given on this
page and has been covered so far in the course.
The North side boundary line of our building attachment (according to the
site plan created previously) is 106.3 feet long. We want to erect a row of
circular lighting pillars along this line.
We are to draw (in plan view only):
• 2 - 1’ diameter circular pillars centered on the ends of the boundary line.
• 9 circular pillars, also 1’ diameter, exactly equally spaced and centered
on the line between the end pillars.
• The pillars are to be places in Cottage.dgn in the SitePlan model on the
level named “Fences”. The choice of symbology is our own.
When you are done, it should look something like this:

Good Luck.

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4 Manipulating Elements
In the context of this course, Manipulation of elements means moving,
copying, rotating, scaling and some other similar operations. We will find
that manipulations are always a major part of the design process.
We usually create a new element once, and then manipulate it many times to
integrate it into the design. The course so far has been mainly about the user
interface and creating new elements; now we will learn how to make more
efficient use of the elements already created.
We will also be introduced to some methods for manipulating a number of
elements at a time.

Important:
In order to save many repetitive words, from here on in this course, the words
“snap to” will indicate that the snap (AccuSnap or Tentative button) is to be
accepted with the data button, unless otherwise stated.

Objectives
When you have completed this chapter, you will be able to:
• Move and copy design elements within the DGN, including between
levels.
• Rotate existing elements.
• Make Mirror Images of geometry.
• Construct two types of Arrays of elements.
• Pre-select elements individually and in defined groups for manipulation.
• Use the Fence to temporarily group elements for any form of
manipulation.

Element Manipulations
The Main toolbox holds a tool box purely for manipulations. Some of the
Tool Settings windows that are associated with these tools offer a large
range of options. This course will not cover all of the options, so it will be
helpful if you take mental notes on the many possibilities as you see the
commands.

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Figure 24
Since we’ll look at all of these commands, let’s just go from left to right.

Note:
MicroStation has been around for a long time, and because of this, there are
often multiple ways to do the same thing. This duplicity is often the result of
MicroStation not removing “old” methods just because a “new” method was
added. We will notice several instances of “duplicated” functionality in the
manipulation tools.

Copy / Move
The first two tools in the Manipulate Toolbox are Copy and Move. Each of
them does precisely what their name says, either copies elements or moves
elements. What may not be obvious is that they are really the same
command with two different buttons. Why two buttons for a single
command? You guessed it, legacy from the “old” days when they really
were two separate commands.
Let’s take a look at the Tool Settings Dialog(s) and see what it all means.

Exercise 33 – Move / Copy are they really the same?

1. Open Exercise 33 JoinTheDots.Dgn
2. Select the Copy command to display the following Tool Settings
Dialog:

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Figure 25
3. Now uncheck the Copies option. Notice the change in the title of the
Tool Settings Dialog? It should now look as follows:

Figure 26

Now that we have seen how toggling the “Copies” option On / Off amounts
to the same as selecting the Copy or Move command, Let’s discuss how to
use them.

Move

For reasons that will become apparent shortly, we will discuss moving first.
In order to move an element, we need to specify two points. The element
will be moved from the first point to the second point.
There are many ways we can identify both points, for example, we can
key-in an absolute coordinate, or we can use AccuDraw to enter a relative
X,Y or Distance, Angle, or we could graphically identify a point using our
mouse and snaps etc.

In the following exercise we will use several of these methods to move an

element around the design file.

Exercise 34 – Moving to Relative Coordinates

1. If it is not already open, open Exercise 33 JoinTheDots.Dgn
2. Ensure that AccuDraw is On and in Rectangular Coordinate Mode.
3. Use Fit View so the airplane fits in the view, and then Zoom Out.
4. Select the Move Tool from the Element Manipulation Tool (Figure 24)
5. Identify the airplane shape with a Data Point. (For now it does not
matter where since we are going to move it relative to the point you
choose).
6. To move the shape left 1’ and up 0.5’ we will use AccuDraw

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7. Move the pointer to the left and key-in 1.
8. Move the pointer up and then key-in 0.5
9. Data Point to accept the point.
In Step 7, we keyed-in 1. How did AccuDraw know that the 1 meant in the X
direction as opposed to the Y direction? When in Rectangular Mode, AccuDraw
will “guess” at which coordinate you want to fill in based on the movement of
the mouse. When we moved to the left, we were primarily moving along the X
axis of the AccuDraw Compass so it shifted the Input Focus to the X coordinate
field. So, we moved the mouse Left, and Up to provide a hint to AccuDraw as to
what we meant by our key-ins. This behavior is only available when in
rectangular mode.

10. Use the Zoom commands to ensure that both the plane shape and the
points are displayed in the view. Your screen should now look similar
to the following image:

11. Change AccuDraw to Polar Coordinates

12. Move the shape a distance of 0.6’ in a direction of -125 degrees.
13. Perform an undo (F5)
Note:
When we tabbed between the fields, the coordinate readout settings and the
AccuDraw Settings may cause your input to appear in a different format than it
was entered in. This indicates that we can input data in any format we like with
out affecting the precision.
For Example, -125 degrees is the same as +235 degrees. Negative angles will
continue to be displayed only if the AccuDraw Setting for Negative Angles is set.

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Exercise 35 - Moving to Absolute Coordinates

There are many situations where we need some existing geometry to be
moved to a specific location without any reference to its original
coordinates. We can of course do this graphically by identifying the “From
Point” as a particular Snap Point on an element and then snapping to the
new location of the “To Point”.
We can also key-in coordinates instead of locating them graphically. In the
next steps we will move the airplane to a specific location.
1. If it is not already open, open Exercise 33 JoinTheDots.Dgn
2. Select the Move Tool
3. Identify the plane with a key-point snap to the leading edge of the right
wingtip. It is essential that you identify the “From Point” as the point
that will end up being moved to the “To Point”.

4. Key-point Snap to guide point number 1. Should result in your screen

looking as follows:

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Exercise 36 – Moving By Keyed-in Coordinates

1. If it is not already open, open Exercise 33 JoinTheDots.Dgn
2. Select the Move Tool
3. Center Snap on the plane to identify its centroid
4. Press <P> to open the AccuDraw Data Point Key-in Dialog.
5. Key-in 0 and press <Enter> to move the plane back to where it was
originally created.

Copy

Now that we have seen how the Move command works, let’s talk about the
copy command. The copy command really does two things, first it copies
the selected elements and then waits for the user to move the new elements
to the new location.
Like the Move command, if we want to copy elements to a position that is
relative to the original elements, it is not terribly important where we Data
Point to identify the elements. However, if we intend to use absolute
coordinates then the Data Point used to identify the shapes is crucial.
All of the same input methods discussed for the Move command are also
valid for the copy command.
If we specify multiple copies of an element, what we are telling
MicroStation to do is to copy the original element From the Data Point that
identified it to the data point that identified where to place it and then make
the newly copied element the “from element” and repeat the copy with the
same relative distance.

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Exercise 37 - Copying Elements

1. If it is not already open, open Exercise 37 JoinTheDots.Dgn
2. Select the Copy Tool
3. Key-point snap to either point on the right wing

4. Snap to the equivalent point on the left wing. But DO NOT RESET

5. Pan so that you can see the left wing tip of the newly copied shape
6. Snap to the same point on this shape to make a second copy.

What if we had to make 10 copies like this, or worse, 100 copies? How long
would it take? How many mistakes would we make? Chances are it would
be tedious, slow and error prone. While this is a little bit of a silly example,
it does serve to illustrate the purpose of the option to specify a number of
copies when using the copy command.
7. Zoom out such that all three planes are completely visible in the view.
8. Undo the copy commands until only 1 plane exists in the drawing.
9. Select the Copy tool and enter 100 for the number of copies to make

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10. Key-point snap to either point on the right wing

11. Snap to the equivalent point on the left wing. But DO NOT RESET

12. Fit View to see all 101 planes.

13. Undo the copy command to remove the 100 copies.

Move Parallel
This tool is used for both moving and copying elements parallel to the
original.
This tool is usually used on more complex elements than individual lines
which could be copied with the Copy command just as easily. This tool will
copy open elements like line strings, arcs or closed elements such as shapes
and circles. The following exercise will illustrate what affect the various
options have on the command.

Exercise 38 – Moving Parallel

Before we start, we need to setup the active symbology and the geometry to
best illustrate how the command works.
1. If it is not already open, open Exercise 38 JoinTheDots.Dgn
2. Make level 15 active. (If 15 doesn’t exist, go ahead and create it).
3. Copy the Plane 50’ to the left
4. Change the new copy to the active level (15)
5. Turn off all levels except 15

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6. Fit the view
7. Select Move Parallel Tool and ensure the Settings are as shown here

8. Identify the shape with a Data point anywhere on the shape, but not
inside it. The AccuDraw compass rotates to align with the segment that
was identified.
9. Move the cursor slowly outward from the shape, then inward noting the
effect.
Caution:
If you go to far inside or outside a shape, cross-overs might occur giving
unexpected results.

10. Set the Mode to Miter

11. Make a copy outside of the shape. Notice how the corners are “sharp”
12. Change the Mode to Round and make another copy outside the shape.
Notice how the corners are rounded.
13. Experiment a bit with how these settings work.

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Scale
Scale refers to the relative size of elements in this context. It does not relate
to the Drawing Scale, which only has relevance when we are printing out a
drawing. We use Scale to increase or decrease the size of existing elements.
As with other manipulation commands we have the option to make a copy at
the same time.
The scale command resizes elements about a point. We may define this
point ourselves, or accept the center of the element as the Point To Scale
About. The scale may be a keyed-in value called the Active Scale or it may
be defined graphically.

Active Scale

The Active Scale is a design file setting that can be changed in the same
area as Coordinate Readouts ( SettingsÆDesign File). It is a setting that
must be saved if we want it to carry over from one session to another.
However, it is not necessary to go to the menu bar to find it, as there are
fields in the Tool Settings dialog to set it.
Notice that the X and Y axis can have separate scales if desired.

3 Points

There are many times when we do not know the scale factor. On these
occasions we may only know that we want to scale an element to fit in a
particular space.
We have a Method option available for this situation called 3Points. With
this option, we are able to place points to define a reference point on the
element at its present size, then another data point to define the finished
size.

Exercise 39 – Scale Element

1. Open Scale Exercise.Dgn
2. Use the Change Element command to change the airplane shape to the
active level.
3. Turn off all other levels.
4. Copy the shape 4 times, 500’ directly to the right each time, creating a
total of 5 shapes as shown in the following image.

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5. Select the Scale command from the Manipulate toolbox

6. Ensure that the Method is set to Active Scale, Make Copy unchecked
and the lock between the scale fields is “closed”.
7. Key-in 2 to the X Scale field and press <TAB>. Notice how the Y field
is updated to be the same. This is because we “locked” the two scales
together.

8. Identify one of the shapes by Data Pointing on any segment, and then
move the pointer around the original to observe the effect. The copy of
the shape moves in the opposite direction to the pointer, which is
defining the Origin or the Point to Scale About.
9. Key-point snap to the left wingtip, accept, then Reset the tool.
10. Use the View Controls change the magnification as needed to see the
planes. The view should look similar to the following image.

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11. Click the lock between the X and Y scale fields to “open” the lock.
12. Change the X Scale to 1. Notice that this time the Y Scale did not
change.

13. Identify another of the copied shapes, and then snap to the center of the
tail, Accept and then Reset the tool.
14. Change the view as needed to see both the original and the scaled copy.
This time the scaled copy is the same width as the original, but twice as
tall.

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15. In the Tool Settings Dialog, click the Extended Information arrow at the
bottom right, and check the About Element Center box.
16. Change the X Scale factor to 2 again.

17. Identify another of the shapes. This shape is scaled by a factor of 2 in

both the X and Y directions, about its own center. This behavior is
especially handy when manipulating text.
18. Accept the operation and Reset the tool.

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So far we have provided a known scale factor to an element. Now let’s look
at scaling a shape to fit inside a space where we don’t know the scale factor.
19. Change the view so that one of the unmodified shapes is visible.
20. Place a block that is larger than the shape around the shape.

21. Select the Move tool and identify the plane by key-point snapping to its
left wingtip.
22. Move the pointer to the left and press <Enter> to lock the Y coordinate
of AccuDraw.
23. Key point snap to the left side of the block, but do not Reset. The shape
is now precisely placed with its wingtip on the left side of the block,
and the Move tool is still selected.

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24. Move the plane again, this time downwards (or up) to place the tail on
the bottom of the block while maintaining horizontal position.

25. Select the Scale command, and choose the 3Point method.
26. Check Proportional and uncheck Make Copy, uncheck About Element
Center

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27. Identify the plane shape on any segment, and then snap to the left wing
tip to define the Origin Point. Pay attention to the prompts.
28. Snap to the right wingtip as the Reference Point
29. Move the mouse further to the right, indexed along the X axis and
invoke the Smart Lock by pressing the <Enter> key and then snap to
the right corner of the block to define the “Point to define amount of
scaling”. Note that the shape was scaled, proportionally so it is now as
wide as the surrounding box, but it is not precisely the same height.

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3 (Reference)

2 (Origin)

30. Undo the last operation so we can try again, this time scaling to fit a
particular space.
31. Select the Scale tool and uncheck Proportional

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32. Identify the plane on any segment, and then snap to the left wingtip to
define the Origin Point.
33. Snap to the right wingtip to identify the Reference Point
34. Move the cursor to the right (indexed on the X axis) and invoke the
smart lock.
35. Snap to the right side of the box to define the Defining Point. So far this
is the same as scaling proportionally.
36. Identify the plane shape again and then snap to the lowest vertex on the
tail as the Origin Point for the Y direction
37. Snap to a point on the nose as the Reference Point in the Y direction
38. Snap to the top of the box for the Defining Point in the Y direction.
Make sure that the Defining point is vertical from the Reference point.

Rotate
We have already learned to rotate a view, now let’s look at how we actually
rotate elements within a view. There are three options for rotating elements:
• By Keyed-in Active Angle
• Graphically by defining 2 points
• Graphically by defining 3 points
The two graphical methods permit the use of AccuDraw, so we also have
the option of keying-in angles and distances with these two methods.

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Active Angle

The Active Angle is a design file setting similar to the Active Scale we have
already discussed. It is also found under SettingsÆDesign File and must be
saved if we want it to carry over from one session to another. Each of the
tools that makes use of the active angle will also present the option of
entering it in the Tool Settings dialog, so usually there is no need to go to
the SettingsÆDesign File Dialog.

By 2 Points

This method is very quick and accurate, in particular when it is used in

conjunction with AccuDraw in the Polar Coordinates mode. The idea is that
you identify elements, and 2 points; the Origin and Destination points. Quite
simply, the selected elements are rotated by the angle defined by the X axis
with its origin at the Origin point and the destination point.

By 3 Points

This method is used when we need to rotate an element into alignment with
another element. Unlike 2 Point rotation where the angle was defined from
the X axis, the 3 Point method allows us to define the orientation of the axis
graphically.

Exercise 40 – Rotating Elements

1. If it is not already open, open RotateExercise.Dgn
2. Copy the shape 500’ directly to the right two times so that there are a
total of three shapes.
By Active Angle
3. Select the Rotate Tool and ensure that the settings are set as follows:

4. If required, key-in 45 into the field for active angle.

5. Identify one of the shapes on any of its segments. Notice that the
prompt calls for a Pivot Point. This is the point that will be rotated
about.

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6. Make Center Snap the default snap mode (double click it in the button
bar)
7. Move the pointer anywhere over the un-rotated shape and accept the
snap. The shape rotates about its center 45degrees.
8. Change the Active Angle to 0 (zero).

Caution:
The Active Angle affects more that just the rotate element tool so it is best to
leave it at its default value when you are done using it. Zero (0) is the “safest”
value because it won’t rotate at all.

2 Points
9. Pan the view so that one of the un-rotated shapes is visible.
10. Select the Rotate tool and select the 2 Point method.
11. Identify the un-rotated shape and make the Pivot Point the Center of the
shape.
12. Move the pointer directly to the right, while AccuDraw is indexed on
the X axis, the shape remains in its original orientation.
13. Change AccuDraw to Polar coordinate mode and <Tab> to the angle
field. Enter an arbitrary angle and accept.
14. The primary difference between this and the Active Angle method is
that we did not change the Active Angle setting.
3 Points
15. Pan the view so that one of the un-rotated shapes is visible.
16. Draw a line from the center of the un-rotated shape to the right, its
length and angle are not critical.
17. Select the Rotate tool and select the 3 Point method.
18. Identify the un-rotated shape and make the Pivot Point the Center of the
shape.
19. Prompt is now asking for us to “Enter point to define amount of
rotation”. Midpoint snap to the center of the nose.
20. Prompt is now asking us to “Enter point to define amount of rotation”.
Keypoint snap to the outer end of the line placed in step 16. We have
now rotated the plane to align itself with the arbitrary line we drew.

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Mirror
This tool simply “flips” geometry about a defined axis. The axis can be any
direction we like, but because horizontal and vertical are so common, they
received a special option which saves us some input.
As with most other commands, AccuDraw can be used to enter precise
directions of the axis.

Exercise 41 – Mirroring Elements

1. Open Mirror Exercise.dgn
2. Copy the airplane 500’ directly to the right two times (total of 3 shapes)
Horizontal
3. Select the Mirror tool, choose the Horizontal method, and check the
Make Copy option.
4. Identify the first un-rotated shape and move the pointer up and down to
see the effect.
5. Move the pointer either up or down until the two shapes do not overlap,
then Accept and Reset. Notice that the separation could be controlled by
snapping to a particular point on the element and then keying-in a
dimension. Usually it is simpler to just define the axis graphically and
then use the Move tool to move it to the desired location.\

Vertical
6. Select the Mirror Tool and change the method to Vertical.
7. Pan the view so that another un-rotated shape is visible.
8. Identify the un-rotated shape and move the pointer left and right to
observe what happens. Again, ensure the two shapes do not overlap and
then Accept and Reset.

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Line
9. Pan the view to another un-rotated shape.
10. Draw a line that begins 10’ above the nose of the airplane and has a
direction of 45 degrees (its length is not relevant)
11. Select Mirror Tool and change the method to Line. Here we will be
defining an arbitrary line which may or may not exist in the drawing to
use as the axis. Since its easier to understand what is happening if we
use a line we can see, we’ll use the line we just drew as the axis to
mirror about.
12. Identify the un-rotated shape.
13. As prompted, define the first point on the Axis by snapping on the end
of the line nearest to the airplane’s nose.
14. Move the pointer around, to observe what happens, and then Snap to
the other end of the line.

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Align Edges
This tool is used to align elements about various key points. This tool is
usually used to align text to make a drawing look cleaner, but it can also
align shapes. This tool is fairly basic, so let’s just jump right in.

Exercise 42 – Aligning Shapes

1. Open Exercise AlignEdges.Dgn
2. Copy the airplane shape 2 times, 500’ apart at an angle of 45 degrees,
making a total of 3 airplane shapes.
3. Scale the center shape by a scale of 1.2 in both the x and y directions.
4. Scale the top shape by a scale of 1.5 in both the x and y directions.
5. Fit the View. Your screen should now look similar to the following
image:

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During this exercise we will be using the Undo command after each method
to restore the drawing to this state.
6. Select the Align Edges Tool, choose Top from the Alignment option
menu
7. Identify the center airplane as the Base Element for alignment.
8. Identify the other two shapes as the Elements to Align
9. Reset after the last one. The three airplanes have their noses aligned as
shown in the following illustration.

10. Undo twice to “un-align” the shapes.

11. Repeat steps 6 - 10, for each of the remaining Alignment options.

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Construct Array
This tool is used to make multiple copies of elements in the form of either a
Rectangular or Polar array.
Rectangular array means rows and columns. The rows are placed along the
specified active angle, while the columns are always perpendicular to the
rows.
Polar array means “in a circle”. The identified elements will be arrayed in a
circular fashion such that the point used to identify them is placed on an
imaginary circle with a specified radius.

Exercise 43 – Construct an Array

12. Open Exercise ConstructArray.Dgn
13. Select the Construct Array Tool and make the Tool Settings look as
follows:

14. Identify the airplane shape and accept it.

15. Fit the View so you can see all four planes as shown in the following
illustration.

16. Undo to revert to the original shape.

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17. Change Active settings as shown in the following illustration and then
Identify and accept the airplane shape. Your screen should now look
similar to the following illustration. Note that the rows are set at the
active angle and the columns are perpendicular to that angle.

18. Undo to revert to the original plane again.

Polar Array
19. Change the Type to Polar, Items = 8 and Delta Angle = 45
20. We want the center of the airplane to be the point placed on the
imaginary circle. We want the center of the imaginary circle to be 500’
above the center of the plane.
Remember that the Datapoint you use to identify the elements to be rotated is the
point that will be placed on the imaginary circle. So in this example, you want
to identify the shape by snapping to its center.

21. Snap to the center of the airplane to identify the shape.

22. Index on (do not data point) the center of the plane and press the <O>
to move the AccuDraw compass to the center of the airplane.
23. Move the pointer up and key-in 500 to define the radius of the
imaginary circle as being a point 500’ above the center of the plane.
24. Fit View and see how the plane was copied.
25. Undo to revert to the original plane.

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Now let’s try making 11 copies evenly spaced around the circle, and
rotating the elements too.
26. Select the Construct Array tool, and ensure that the Rotate Elements is
checked, number of items = 11
27. Key-in 360/11 in the active angle field so that MicroStation can do the
math for us.
28. Snap to the center of the plane
29. Index on the center of the plane, and press <O> to set the AccuDraw
compass origin to the center of the plane.
30. Move the pointer up, key-in 500
31. Fit view to look at the planes. Notice how each element was rotated so
that it kept the same orientation relative to the center of the array, as
well as the fact that there are 11 planes spaced evenly around the
imaginary circle.

Element Selection
When we have been manipulating elements in this chapter, we have been
selecting the Tool first, then the Element we are going to manipulate. In
other words, we define the Action then identify the Object.
It is often efficient to reverse this process, selecting the Element (or
Elements) first, and then selecting the tool. In this section we will learn how
to use various methods to select one or more elements before we perform an
action on them.
Both the Element Selection Tool and the PowerSelector can be found on the
Element Selection Toolbar in the Main Menu.

Element Selection Tool

The Element Selection tool ( ) box is located at the top of the Main tool
frame. We use it to select an element by data-pointing on it. Here are the
main points of this tool.

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• By default, clicking a second element will reset the first selection and
select the new element.
• By holding down the <Ctrl> key while data-pointing on the subsequent
elements, we override the default behavior and toggle the selected state
of the new element.
• A group of elements can be selected by “dragging” a rectangle around
the required elements.
• Selections are cleared by clicking a blank area (deselecting all
selections).
Exercise 44 – Using the Element Selection Tool
1. Open Exercise ElementSelection.Dgn
2. Fit the view.
3. Select the Element Selection Tool. Note that this tool has no Tool
Settings.
4. Datapoint on the top shape. The element will highlight and handles
(large white dots) will be displayed on all of the vertices.
MicroStation uses a user preference to decide whether to display handles or not.
If you don’t see them, look in WorkspaceÆPreferencesÆOperation for the
“Disable Edit Handles” option.
If displayed, the element can actually be modified by dragging the geometry
between the handles, or in some cases, just dragging the handle itself.

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5. Experiment a little with this ability.

6. Undo any changes, moves done so far.
7. Hold down the <Ctrl> key and select the bottom shape. Notice that the
Handles no longer appear but both elements are highlighted.
8. Select the move tool and read the prompt. Since we already have the
elements selected, we are immediately prompted to identify the first
point.

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Caution:
If you are expecting a command to prompt you to identify an element to
manipulate etc and it skips straight to the next prompt (identify first point in this
case), pay attention!
It is possible that you have one or more elements still selected but not displayed
on your screen, or maybe you’ve just forgotten that you have elements selected.
Commands like “Delete Elements” will not prompt you at all; instead it will just
delete the selected elements. (Use undo if you goof on this one).
To avoid this type of problem, get in the habit of unselecting all elements when
you are done manipulating them.

9. Go ahead and identify a “From Point” and a “To Point”. Notice that
both elements have moved by the distance between the two points you
identified.
10. Undo the move command to put the planes back in their beginning
position.
11. Unselect the planes by Data-pointing anywhere in the view where there
is not an element.

Power Selector

The Power Selector ( ) is effectively an enhanced Element selection tool

which offers greater functionality over the traditional selection tool just
described. With this extended flexibility also comes complexity, so
MicroStation allows us to specify which tool we prefer to use by default.
Regardless of which we specify, both will still be available from the Main
Toolbox.

Exercise 45 – Making Power Selector the Default

Selection Tool
1. Open Exercise ElementSelection.Dgn if it is not already open.
2. From the Main menu bar, choose WorkspaceÆPreferences
3. Select Look and Feel from the list panel.
4. Choose PowerSelector from the Default Tool options menu and click
OK.
5. Because the new default tool won’t appear in the Main Tool frame until
we have selected it for the first time, select the PowerSelector tool from
the Main Toolbar.

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Methods and Modes

There are 6 graphical selection Methods available with this tool which can
be used to add or subtract elements from the active Selection Set. A
Selection Set is simply a group of elements that are selected.

Figure 27
There is an arrow at the bottom-right of the Power Selector Tool Settings
window (See Figure 27). As with other dialogs, this expands the dialog to
show a set of Attribute tabs which allow us to include or exclude chosen
Attributes into the selection process. This concept will be introduced later in
the course.

Methods
The method determines how elements will be identified

• Individual – Identifies a single element (similar to element

selection tool)

• Block Inside – Identifies all elements inside a drawn shape

• Block Overlap – Identifies all elements inside or overlapping a

drawn rectangle

• Shape Inside – Identifies all elements inside a drawn shape.

• Shape Overlap – Identifies all elements inside or overlapping a

drawn shape.

• Line – Identifies all elements crossed by a drawn line.

Modes
The Mode is used to determine what to do with the identified elements.
There are 6 Modes:

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• Adds - Adds identified elements to the selection set

• Subtract - Removes identified elements from the selection set

• Invert - Toggles the selected status of the identified elements.

For example, if an element is already part of the selection set and this
mode is used to identify it, it will be removed from the set. If, on the
other hand, an element is not part of the selection set and this mode is
used to identify it, it will be added to the selection set.

• New – Removes all elements that are currently part of the

selection set, and then adds the identified elements to the selection set.

• Clear – Removes all elements from the current selection set. Note
that this mode only appears when the current selection set is not empty.

• Select All – Adds all elements in the current model to the current
selection set. Note that this mode only appears if no elements are
currently selected.
Exercise 46 – Using Power Selector
1. If is not already open, open Exercise ElementSelection.Dgn
2. Select the Power Selector tool, tool settings: Individual, Add.
3. Select some of the airplanes - no need for the Control key to select
multiple items this time.
4. Change the Mode setting to Subtract.
5. Click one of the selected items to remove it from the selection set.
6. Change the Mode setting to Invert
7. Click one of the selected items to remove it from the selection set
8. Click a different unselected item to add it to the selection set.
9. Click Clear.
10. Leave the Method as Individual,
11. Change the Mode setting to Add
12. Draw a block around two or more items. We can use the individual
selection method to draw selection blocks, provided we miss any
elements with the first click. The block may be drawn using Press-
Drag-Release or Click-Move-Click.
13. Clear selections
The Power Selector also supports keyboard shortcuts.
For example, you could type <G> to clear the selection set. See the help file
delivered with MicroStation for more details.

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14. Select the Power Selector tool, tool settings: Block Inside, Add.
15. Draw a block that fully contains about 2 of the shapes and overlaps 2
additional shapes as shown here:

16. Verify that only the items that are completely inside the block are
highlighted.
17. Clear the Selection Set

18. Change to Block Overlap mode ( ) and draw a similar block to the
previous step. The block now appears with dashed line work.
19. Verify that both the items inside the block and those overlapped are
highlighted.
20. Clear the Selection Set
21. Experiment with multi-sided shapes, both Inside and Overlap, Add and
Subtract modes. We can be more selective with a Shape than a Block.
22. Experiment with the Line method, Add and Subtract modes.
23. Use the Invert and New modes. The New mode is good for ensuring
that we only have one element selected, when that is the objective. This
protects against unintended manipulations of elements that are
inadvertently selected.

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Fence
The Fence is a device to temporarily group elements into a selection set. In
this respect, it has a lot in common with the Selection tools. With the
exception of the Copy Parallel command, all of the manipulation tools from
we have examined have a check box to use the fence to define the elements
affected. When we used the commands this option was disabled because
there was no fence placed in the file.
The Fence is able to do much more than selecting multiple elements. It may
be used to:
• Create a part of the design where elements are not manipulated, called a
void, while the rest of the elements are manipulated.
• Cut elements, called Clipping, and manipulate one cut-off section, but
not the other.
• Move chosen vertices of shapes, line strings and other complex elements
to Stretch (or shrink) the element.
The fence tools can be found on the Fence Tool bar on the main menu as
shown here.

Caution:
As with all other selection sets, Fences are both powerful and “dangerous”. To
prevent the accidental manipulation of elements, get in the habit of removing the
fence immediately after using it.
As a secondary note, pay attention to the status bar of MicroStation. If a fence is
defined in the design file, the status bar will show an Icon indicating that the
fence is active and what mode it is in.

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Fence Types

There are several types of fences that can be placed. The purpose of the
Fence Type is only to determine the shape of the fence.
• Block – Fence in the shape of a rectangular block
• Shape – Fence in the shape of a polygon with up to 5000 vertices.
• Circle – Fence in the shape of a circle
• Element – Fence takes on the shape of an element.
• From View – Fence encompasses the boundary of the view
• Design File – Fence encompasses the entire model.
• Flood – Fence is defined by providing a data point and allowing
MicroStation to find the bounding elements.

Fence Modes

The mode is used to determine which elements should be identified by the

fence. There are also several Modes available for fences
• Inside – Elements completely inside the fence are identified.
• Overlap – Elements that are at least partially inside the fence are
identified.
• Clip – Elements completely inside the fence and parts of elements inside
and overlapping the fence are identified.
• Void – Elements that are completely outside the fence are identified.
• Void-Overlap – Elements that are at least partially outside of the fence
are identified.
• Void-Clip – Elements completely outside the fence and parts of
elements outside the fence and overlapping the fence are identified.

Place Fence

The place fence command is simply used to place a fence in the model. Its
Tool Settings Dialog looks as follows:

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To use the tool, simply choose what type of fence and what mode you want
to use and follow the prompt.

Note:
There can only be a single fence in the model at any given time, so starting the
place fence command will first remove any existing fence first.

Modify Fence

The modify Fence tool is used to modify the shape of a fence that has
already been placed or to move it. It provides two modes:
• Vertex - Modify the position of a single vertex of the fence shape.
• Position – Move the entire fence
Note:
As with other commands, AccuDraw can be used to precisely locate the fence if
needed.

Exercise 47 – Placing Fences

1. If it is not already open, open Exercise Fence.Dgn
Block
2. Select the Copy Command. Note that the Use Fence option is disabled.
3. Select the Place Fence command; Tool Settings: Block, Inside
4. Datapoint to identify the upper left corner of the block
5. Datapoint to identify the lower right corner of the block. Look at the
status bar to see the icon indicating that a fence is active.
6. Select the Copy Command. Notice how the Use Fence option is now
enabled and the Fence mode can be set directly here.
Shape
7. Select the Place Fence command. Note how the previous fence
disappears.

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8. Change the Type to Shape
9. Follow the prompts to place an irregularly shaped polygon that includes
some airplanes and excludes others as shown here.

Circle
10. Change Fence Type to Circle. Notice how previous fence disappears.
11. Data point to identify the center of the circle and then again to identify
the radius.
Element
12. Select the Place Regular Polygon tool (from the Polygons tool box, the
tool box that holds Place Block) to place an Inscribed Hexagon about
the 11-item array.
13. Select Place Fence, change the Fence Type to Element
14. identify the shape just placed. The fence may be hidden by the element,
but it is there. We can reassure ourselves in this experiment by deleting
the element hexagon, updating the view, and then the fence will be
visible. An application for this type could be to use a shape representing
a room, to group all the elements in that room.
From View
15. Select Place Fence, change the Fence Type to From View
16. Click in the view to select it. The fence outline can be seen around the
view boundary; Zooming Out will show it clearly. Notice how
elements that were not in the view are not inside the fence.
From Design File
17. Select Place Fence, change the Fence Type to From Design File
18. Click in the view to select it.
19. Fit View to see that fence included elements that were not in the view.

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Flood
20. Fit View
21. Zoom in on the overlapping circle and hexagon.
22. To place a fence that encompasses the shaded region shown here, we
use the flood method.

23. Select Place Fence; Type = Flood

24. Datapoint to identify a point inside the region that you want to flood. In
this example, anywhere inside the shaded region is acceptable.
25. Datapoint to accept the fence.
26. Experiment a bit with the flood method.

Note:
Elements that are turned off are not affected by fences.

Manipulate Fence Contents

There are several operations that can be performed with this command.
Most of them are not used much anymore, but for legacy reasons still exist.
For example, the copy, move, rotate, scale and mirror options all duplicate
functionality we have used with the element manipulation commands. The
preferred way to do these types of operations is to use the Element
Manipulation command with the use Fence option selected. Let’s take a
quick look.

Exercise 48 – Fence Move

1. If it is not already open, open Exercise Fence.Dgn

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2. Zoom on the circular array of planes.
3. Place a Block Fence which contains 2 complete planes and partially
contains 2 planes.
4. Set the Fence Mode to overlap.

5. Select the Copy Command and set the tool settings as follows:

6. Datapoint near the tail of one of the planes inside the fence for the first
point.
7. Datapoint a few hundred feet off to the left to identify the second point.
Notice that only the 2 planes inside the fence were copied.
8. Undo
9. Select Manipulate Fence Contents from the Fence Toolbar
10. Select Operation = Copy
11. Identify the same two points (don’t have to be precise here). Notice that
these two commands are equivalent.
12. Undo
13. Experiment a little with the different fence modes and the copy
command. Don’t forget to Undo after each copy.

Fence Stretch

The only operation that is not duplicated really is the Fence Stretch
operation.

Important:
This operation ignores the fence mode and always uses the Inside mode.

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With this operation, the ends of lines, or vertices of line strings and shapes
that are inside the fence are moved, whereas those outside remain fixed. The
joining line work stretches (or contracts) to maintain the connections. The
result is a change in the proportions of the element.

Exercise 49 – Stretching with a Fence

1. If it is not already open, open Exercise Fence.Dgn
2. Zoom on the circular array of planes.
3. Place a Block Fence around the planes as shown.
4. Select Manipulate Fence Contents tool, and then select the Stretch
operation.

5. Datapoint near the nose of one of the planes inside the fence to identify
the first point of the stretch.
6. Datapoint roughly 100 feet above the first point. The screen should now
look approximately as follows. Note that since all of the vertices on 2 of
the planes were inside the fence, they were not distorted. However, on
the two planes that overlap the fence, only some of the vertices were
stretched.

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7. Undo to restore the planes.

8. Experiment with the stretching a few times. Don’t forget to undo after
each one.

Delete Fence Contents

Delete fence contents does precisely what its name says, it deletes any
elements identified by the fence. Because this could have far reaching
impacts, it prompts you to accept the deletion before continuing.

The Delete Fence Contents differs from the Delete tool (located at the bottom of
the Main Toolbar) only in that it uses the fence to identify the elements to delete.
The Delete tool ignores the fence, allowing us to identify individual element to
delete using any of the methods we’ve learned so far, except the fence.
Why doesn’t the Delete tool also have an option for “Use Fence”? Who knows,
it just doesn’t.

Drop Fence Contents

This tool is used to break up complex elements into their component parts,
so that the parts may be manipulated separately. We have not introduced
complex elements yet but we will be working with them later in the course

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Challenge Exercise - Box Pattern

This is the second Challenge Exercise for this course. As before, you are to
complete the problem without any instructions, except those on this page.
You may need to revisit some points from earlier in this book, or use
MicroStation Help.
Figure 28 shows a version of a very old pattern that we are going to create
for ourselves.
We are to:
• Create a new design file named BoxPattern.Dgn in our own directory.
• The new drawing should use the Bridgeseed2D.Dgn as the seed file.
• The “box top” diamond shapes have equal sides of 1’ and the internal
angles are 60° and 120°. The top is to have a red opaque fill and be on
level 5
• The “box side” parallelograms are to fit precisely to the tops and are 6”
high.
• The left side is to have a yellow opaque fill and be placed on level 6
• The right side is to have a blue opaque fill and be placed on level 7

Good luck.

Figure 28

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We have drawn lines, shapes, even a circle or two, but we need more
element types to create designs efficiently. A 2D design is a “flat”
representation of what are generally 3D objects, represented basically by a
collection of lines. These lines are not always straight, so this chapter will
be introducing more features of the Place Smart Line tool, along with Arcs,
Ellipses and Curves.
In the last chapter we learned how to manipulate elements, both as
individuals and as groups. As well as manipulating existing elements to
collect them into a complete design, we will often need to modify them. We
may need to move a vertex, change the length of a line, extend elements to
meet, trim them - there are many forms of modification that we will be able
to carry out after working through this chapter.

Objectives
When you have completed this chapter, you will be able to:
• Use the Place Smart Line tool to create complex elements
• Place Circles and other Ellipses using various techniques
• Place circular and elliptical Arcs
• Place Curves
• Use Active Points to help construct our designs
• Modify various types of existing elements
• Enter Key-in Commands.

Smarter Lines
The Place Smart Line tool has been used to place lines, or simple shapes
with straight segments so far. It is capable of much more than that, as will
be seen from the following exercises.
We are going to create a wall mounting plate for items such as framed
mirrors. The suspension slot and the attachment screw holes are offset,
allowing it to be mounted high on the frame for stability. It is to be designed
with a “keyhole” suspension slot to allow easy removal of the item from the
wall. It will use recessed screws for attachment to the frame of the item to
be mounted, thus reducing the likelihood of scratching the wall.

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The design will not be completed in the one Exercise, we will start it now
and return to it as more tools are introduced. When it is complete, it will
resemble Figure 29. It will be in its own design file, named “Mounting
Plate.Dgn”.

Figure 29
We will start with a new design file, with feet as master and inches as sub
units. We will be working in decimal inches, so the coordinate readout will
be set accordingly. A new AccuDraw shortcut will be used when preparing
the drawing area, M for Multiple point key-in. This is the same as P except
the window remains open for more inputs after the first.
During this exercise, we will use another new shortcut,
<Ctrl> + <Spacebar>, which makes the Tool Settings window re-appear for
changing settings during the placement process.
All movements will be made indexed to either the x or the y AccuDraw axis
in the following exercise. Unless instructed otherwise, every “snap to” and
keyed-in dimension to the AccuDraw window will be accepted with the data
button.
Prepare the DGN
1. Create a new design file from
M:\Workspace\Projects\English\seed\Bridgeseed2d.dgn named
“Mounting Plate.dgn”
2. Set the Coordinate Readout to be in Sub Units, with an Accuracy of 3
decimal places (0.123).
3. In the Attributes tool box, set the Color to 0, the Line Style to 0, the
Line Weight to 2.

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4. Select the Window Area tool, with the AccuDraw window Active, press
<M> (for Multiple Data Point key-in). The Data Point Key-in window
opens.
5. Enter 0 (press the <Enter> key after keying it in) into the Data Point
Key-in window to define the bottom-left of the view.
6. Enter :5,:4 in the key-in window to define the top-right of the view
area. Close the Data Point Key-in window. The M shortcut is useful
when we have 2 or more absolute coordinates to key in, as with P the
window closes after each set of coordinates are entered.
7. Ensure that PopSet is On.
8. Save the settings we have made so far.
Placing the Mounting Plate Outline
9. Select the Place Smart Line tool, make the tool settings appear as
follows:

10. Data point to start the first segment in the lower part of the view,
towards the left side.
11. Move the pointer to the right, key-in :2.5.
12. Move the pointer upward, key in :1.7
13. Move left, key in :.7
14. Move upward, key in :.5.
15. Now we need to change from Line Segment Type to Arcs. The Tool
Settings window is needed for this, but Pop Set is enabled. Instead of
moving the pointer all the way back over the tool (as we did in earlier
exercises), we will use the new keyboard shortcut.
16. Press <Ctrl>+<Spacebar>, making sure that <Ctrl> is pressed before
<Spacebar> (otherwise AccuDraw will change coordinate systems).
The Tool Settings window will appear in the pointer position.
17. Change the Segment Type to Arcs, move the pointer off the window,
directly to the left of the last point placed.
18. Change the coordinates to Polar mode then Key in :.55 to (prompt)
“Enter arc center”
19. Move further to the left and accept the 180° arc when prompted to
“Define sweep angle”.

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20. Press <Ctrl>+<Spacebar>, to display the Tool Settings window at the

pointer position.
21. Change the Segment Type back to Lines, the Coordinates to
Rectangular mode.
22. Move the pointer directly downwards, press <Enter> (to invoke Smart
Lock), snap to the right shoulder segment.
23. Move directly to the left, invoke Smart Lock, snap to the starting point
of the plate. This will make the line segment end directly above the
origin of the element.
24. With the pointer still over the starting point, do not accept the snap this
time, but press <Ctrl>+<Spacebar> again. The tool settings window
will re-appear, with the additional settings for the attributes of the
closed shape we are about to complete.
25. Ensure that Closed Element is checked, choose Solid from the Area
options, and None from Fill Type.
26. Press <Ctrl>+<Spacebar> to toggle the Tool Settings window display
back Off and then snap to the starting point to complete the complex
shape.

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You might have noticed that it was a bit awkward to key-in dimensions like ½
inch as 0:.5 which means 0 Master Units and .5 subunits. In this particular
model, the working units are Feet and Inches so we have to key-in 0:.5
What if we temporarily change the Master Unit to be inches as well, then what
would we need to key-in? If you guessed .5 , then you would be correct. In
situations where you know you will be keying-in many dimensions that are
provided in subunits, change the working units while you do it.
Just don’t forget that you want to change them back before you save settings or
you may cause problems for other users.

Place the Fixing Screw Holes

27. Change the Master Units to Inches and Sub Units to Inches.

28. Select the Place Circle tool ( )

29. Set the Method to Center, the Area to Hole, and the Fill Type to None.
30. Check the box at the bottom of the window, choose Diameter and enter
.15 to the field, press <Tab> to set the diameter. The Area attribute
relates to the areas that may be patterned, and those that may not.
Patterning is to be introduced later.
31. Make Center the Default snap mode.
32. Snap to each of the 4 corner radii to place the actual fixing holes.

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33. Press <Ctrl>+<Spacebar>, to display the Tool Settings window, change
the Area to Solid and the Diameter to .3, press <Tab> to enter the
setting.
34. Snap the countersink outlines to be concentric with the fixing holes,
Reset when all 4 are in place. It does not matter if we snap to the corner
radii or the existing holes since they have the same center.

Before we finish the mounting bracket, we need to learn about a few more
commands.

Circles and Ellipses

The Ellipses tool box only has two tools, as shown below. Of these, the
Circle is already familiar, but now we will experiment with some different
methods of placing it, including using another Snap Mode.

Place Circle
We have already placed circles using the Edge method, when we placed the
circle between the wings of the aircraft shape. We will experiment with this
method again, this time using Tangent snaps to place it, with existing lines
becoming tangents to the new circle.

Exercise 50 - Placing Circles Tangent to Lines

1. Open “AccuWorks.dgn”
2. Make the Active Level 21

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3. Turn Off all other levels.
4. Select the Window Area tool, with the AccuDraw window Active, press
<M> (for Multiple Data Point key-in). The Data Point Key-in window
opens.
5. Enter 0 (press the <Enter> key after keying it in) into the Data Point
Key-in window to define the bottom-left of the view.
6. Enter 5,4 in the key-in window to define the top-right of the view area.
Close the Data Point Key-in window.
7. Using Place Smart Line tool with Join Elements checked, draw a “J”
shaped line string with segments of 6”, 2’ and 3’ respectively, as shown
in here.

8. Change the Default snap mode to Tangent Snap ( )

9. Select the Place Circle tool, Method: Edge, uncheck the Diameter check
box
10. Manually snap and accept to each of the three segments of the “J” in
any order, Reset. The circle has been placed with the three line
segments forming tangents to the circle. As can be seen from the 6”
line, these tangent lines do not have to overlap the circle.

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11. Select the Place Circle tool, Method and set as follows:

12. Manually snap to the original circle, then to the upper part of the 3’
segment of the “J”, Reset. The small circle will be positioned tangent to
both the large circle and the line segment.

Another method of placing circles is by Diameter, where two data points

define a diameter and location for the circle.
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Exercise 51 - Placing Circles by Diameter

13. If it is not already open, open “AccuWorks.dgn”
14. Make 25 the Active Level
15. Select the Place Circle tool and setup as follows:

16. Make Keypoint the Default snap mode

17. Snap to both ends of the 6” segment of the “J”

Note:
As is customary, you could also use AccuDraw to define the diameter of the
circle.

Place Ellipse
An Ellipse is a shape frequently used in everything from landscape
architecture to machinery design. It was also commonly used to draw
circular objects when viewed from an angle, but 3D techniques (not
introduced in this course) are taking over this form of drawing production.

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It is defined by a primary radius, a secondary radius and its orientation
(rotation). Any or all of these may be constrained in the tool settings
window, but it is more common to define them using AccuDraw. Generally,
it is most efficient to define individual circles and ellipses with AccuDraw,
but use the tool settings if we are placing two or more of the same
dimensions.
An ellipse may also be placed with 3 data points defining the Edge. The
points need to be placed or selected in order around the perimeter of the
element for the result to be predictable.

Exercise 52 – Placing an Ellipse

1. If it is not already open, open “AccuWorks.dgn”

Select the Place Ellipse tool ( ) and setup as follows:

2. Place a data point in a clear area to locate the center of the ellipse; if
necessary change to Polar AccuDraw coordinates. The prompt reads
“Identify Ellipse Primary Radius”.

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3. Use AccuDraw to place a point at a distance of 2’ and an angle of 30°.
Now the prompt reads “Identify Ellipse Secondary Radius”, which is
constrained to fall on the AccuDraw y axis.

4. Place the Secondary Radius point at a distance of 1’ in either direction.

We have defined both radii and the rotation with AccuDraw. We will
place another ellipse by Edge this time, using key-point snaps.

5. Copy the “J” line string created for the Circles exercise to a clear area
in the view.
6. Change the tool settings Method to Edge, key-point snap to the 3 points
on the “J” as shown in Figure 30; then try placing the points in a
different order, as illustrated.

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Figure 30

Arcs
The Place Smart Line tool may be used to place arcs, as we have found
when creating the “Mounting Plate”. However, there are specialized tools
for this task that may be used when we require the arcs to be defined
differently to Smart Line, where we need Elliptical arcs or where an existing
arc needs to be modified.

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Place Arc Tool

With its Method set to Center, this tool will place circular arcs in a similar
way to Place Smart Line. However, it offers many other options as well as
the fully graphical method used with Smart Line and AccuDraw, including
the Edge method. The biggest difference is that this tool has settings to
constrain any or all of its parameters.

Exercise 53 – Place Circular Arc

1. With “AccuWorks.dgn” open, make 30 the Active Level, turn Off all
other levels.
2. Use the Window Area tool to set a view area of approximately 5’ by 4’

3. Select the Place Arc tool( ), Method: Center, all the boxes
unchecked.
4. Place a data point to identify the first arc endpoint.
5. With Polar coordinates, use AccuDraw to place the arc center at a
distance of 1’ 6” and an angle of -135°. The AccuDraw compass
positions itself with its origin at the arc center, rotated to align its +x
axis to the first arc endpoint.
6. Rotate the pointer around the AccuDraw compass in an anticlockwise
direction until it indexes to the +y axis, do not accept yet. The tool
settings window will read out the parameters of the arc we are placing,
with checkmarks in the boxes where we have already constrained the
arc. Press <Ctrl>+<Spacebar> to verify this.
7. Rotate the pointer around the compass in a clockwise direction, back to
the +y axis, accept the 270° arc.
8. Use <Ctrl>+<Spacebar> to return to the Tool Settings window, change
the Method to Edge, enter a Radius of 1’, leave the other boxes
unchecked.
9. Place a data point to identify the first arc endpoint, rotate the pointer
through the AccuDraw origin to “lead” the arc clockwise, then rotate
anticlockwise around the notional arc center to reduce the sweep angle.
An “invalid data point” alert appears when we are pointing to the start
point, indicating that we can’t end the arc right there.
10. Use AccuDraw to place a data point 1’ 6” to the right of the start.

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Place Half Ellipse Tool

This tool has no tool settings to make; the half ellipse is placed with three
points, the two ends and a point anywhere on the ellipse.

Exercise 54 - Place a Half Ellipse

1. With “AccuWorks.dgn” open, use the Pan tool to move the view over a
clear area if necessary.

2. Select the Place Half Ellipse tool ( )

3. Place a data point to define one end of the axis of the element.
4. Using rectangular coordinates, define a point on the ellipse downward
by 1’ and to the right by .5’.
5. Place the other end of the axis .5’ further to the right and 1’ upward.
The half ellipse is placed with the “point on the ellipse” half way
between the ends in this example, thus it defines its maximum height.
This point could have been placed at a different location, giving less
predictable results.

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Place Quarter Ellipse Tool

Like Place Half Ellipse, there are no settings for this tool. The placement
principles are similar, in that one end and an axis are defined, and then the
other end.

Exercise 55 - Place a Quarter Ellipse

1. With “AccuWorks.dgn” open, Pan the view over a clear area.

2. Select the Place Quarter Ellipse tool ( ), place a data point to define
one end of the element.
3. Define a point indexed to the y axis using AccuDraw, and then define
the endpoint at a right angle to the point on the axis. The second point
could have been placed anywhere on the axis, but it is easier to define
the endpoint when we have the point on the axis at a known position.

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Modify Arc Radius Tool

In common with “part ellipse” tools, there are no settings for this tool,
which operates on circular arcs only. The modifications will usually be
made visually with this tool, the ends of the arc remaining fixed. While it
modifies the Arc Radius as the name suggests, it does not allow for the
keyboard entry of a new radius, a facility available with the general purpose
Modify tool (to be introduced later in this chapter).

Exercise 56 - Modify the Radius of an Arc

1. With “AccuWorks.dgn” open, use the Pan tool to move the view over
the circular arcs placed earlier.

2. Select the Modify Arc Radius tool ( )

3. Identify one of the arcs with a data point. When we identify the
element, the AccuDraw compass appears with its origin at the current
center of the arc.
4. Move the pointer, freehand or using AccuDraw, accept when the arc
appears to have the desired radius.

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Modify Arc Angle Tool

This tool will operate on both circular arcs and partial ellipses. It may be
controlled by AccuDraw to change the sweep angle of an arc.

Exercise 57 - Modify Arc Angles

1. With the view remaining over the circular arcs placed earlier, select the
Modify Arc Angle tool ( )
2. Identify one of the arcs with a data point near one end. The AccuDraw
compass appears with its origin at the center of the arc with polar
coordinates, regardless of its previous setting. Its +x axis will align with
the Origin (first end placed) of the arc.
3. Move the pointer, freehand or using an angle keyed in to AccuDraw,
accept when the arc reaches the required sweep.

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Modify Arc Axis Tool

This tool will operate on both circular arcs and partial ellipses. It effectively
changes the x dimension of the arc. Therefore Circular arcs may become
Elliptical and vice-versa. When the arc is identified, the AccuDraw compass
is oriented with the +x axis aligned with the Origin (the first point that was
placed when it was created). This is the axis along which the dimension of
the arc will be modified.

Exercise 58 - Modify the Axis of Arcs

4. Pan the view as necessary over a clear area, place “freehand” arcs with
sweep angles of >180° and of <90° (see “The Place Arc Tool”). The
existing arcs may have been modified already with the other tools and
their origins may be hidden, so we have produced new ones to ensure
predictable results.

5. Select the Modify Arc Axis tool ( )

6. Identify an arc of more than 180° with a data point (it does not matter
where it is identified). When we identify the element, the AccuDraw
compass appears with its origin at the center of the arc. It will appear
with polar coordinates, regardless of its previous setting. Its +x axis will
align with the Origin of the arc.
7. Move the pointer, freehand or using an angle keyed in to AccuDraw,
accept when the arc reaches the required shape.
8. Identify a shorter arc. Observe the effect of the modification on this.

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Curves
There is only one Curve tool available from the Main tool frame with the
default MicroStation interface. It will create either Point or Stream curves.
This is the only tool we will introduce during this course, but there is a
B-Splines tool frame available from the Tools menu that provides tool boxes
for creating and modifying curves for specialized applications.
Point curves pass through selected points, whereas Stream curves leave a
“trail” behind the pointer. Stream curves are mainly used for tracing
drawings with a Digitizing tablet or images displayed on the screen.

Exercise 59 - Place Points on a Curve

1. Still using “AccuWorks.dgn”
2. Make 35 the active level
3. Turn On level 30, all other levels Off.
4. Make another copy of the “J” line string to one side of the original.
5. Use Change Element Attributes to change the copy to the level 35, turn
off level 30.
6. Select the Place Point or Stream Curve tool from the Linear Elements
tool box

7. Select Method: Points in the Tool Settings Dialog

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8. Keypoint snap to each of the ends and vertices of the line string,
finishing back at the start, Reset.
9. Change the Method to Stream, place a freehand stream curve (no need
to hold the data button down), Reset.

Modifying Elements
Being able to modify elements after they have been placed is an essential
feature of any Computer Aided Design application. In MicroStation, we
have an extensive range of tools in the Modify tool box to change the shape
of elements, trim them, and join them.

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Modify Element Tool

This one tool can perform many different types of modifications to many
different types of elements. It may be used to:
• Move a vertex of a line, line string or curve.
• Move segments and vertices of shapes, including complex shapes.
• Modify elements created with the Place Smart Line tool, including
converting rounded segments to vertices and vice-versa.
• Change the radius of a circular arc without affecting its sweep angle.
• Change the radii of circles and ellipses.
• Modify dimension elements, including text placement, extension line and
dimension line position (exercises on this later).

We will make up a composite DGN for our modification exercises, starting

with a new design file, and then copying some examples of our previous
work into it.
Copying between DGNs
There are a number of methods for copying elements from one design file to
another. The method we will use in the next exercise will be the one used by
all Windows® applications, Cutting and Pasting.

Exercise 60 - Element Modification Exercises

1. Create a new design file in your H:\MicroStation Basic Training
Files\dgn\ folder , named “Modifications.dgn”.

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2. Use M:\Workspace\Projects\English\seed\Bridgeseed2d.dgn as the seed
file, Set Coordinate Readout to Sub Units with an Accuracy of 1/16”.
Save the settings (File > Save Settings).
3. Open “AccuWorks.dgn” (our own version), turn On all levels.
4. Use the PowerSelector tool to select the elements illustrated (except for
the Mounting Plate outline) The relative sizes of these elements will not
be the same as in the illustration as yet.
5. Copy the selection set to the clipboard (Edit > Copy or Ctrl + C).
6. Reopen “Modifications.dgn”, Paste (Edit > Paste or Ctrl + V) to copy
elements to this DGN. We are prompted to select a location for the
pasted elements. A data point to the center of the view is OK, or we
may use the Data
7. Point Keyin dialog box (<P>) to define precise coordinates, e.g .0,0.
8. Open “Mounting Plate.dgn” and copy the Mounting Plate to the
clipboard, reopen “Modifications.dgn”, Paste the complex shape.
9. Scale the octagon and building-end shapes by .2
10. Scale the mounting plate by 10.
11. Move the elements to arrange as shown in here:

Copying between Levels

Now we have a collection of elements, we need multiple copies of these, as
we will be using at least some of them each time we experiment with a tool
from the Modify tool box. To achieve this, we need to temporarily group
elements for copying. Our collection will be grouped with a Fence. Only
elements that are on levels that are turned On are included in the grouping.
If we use the Copy tool in conjunction with the Fence, we have the option of
copying the fence contents to another Level instead of to other X-Y
coordinates.

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We are going to make the copy several times, so we need to take care that
levels are not left turned On when they should be Off. The fence will make
a copy of the intended original plus any earlier copies that are still
displayed. Instead of single copies on each level, we may finish up with 2,
4, 8, 16 and so on copies, one on top of the other. Since they overlay
precisely, it will be impossible to tell if this has happened until we start
making changes to one of the copies.

Exercise 61 - Copies of elements to New Levels

1. With the Default level Active, place a Fence to include all of the
elements, Fence Type: From Design File, Fence Mode: Inside, Design:
Active. Data point the view, as prompted. You will be using levels 40,
41, 42, 43 and 44.
2. Select the Copy tool, Use Fence: Checked, data point the view as the
“First point”.
3. Make level 40 Active using the Active Level combo box from the
Attributes tool box, data point the view for the “Point to define distance
and direction”, Reset. When copying from level to level, the elements
do not move.
4. The “...distance and direction” prompt wording does not apply here, we
are simply accepting the Copy with the second data point.
5. Turn Off the Default level, Update the view.
6. Repeat steps 3, 4 and 5, except make level 41 Active in step 4 and turn
Off level 40 in step 5. Continue repeating steps 3, 4 and 5, moving
down the order of levels as they are displayed, e.g. the next level to be
made Active in step 4 is 42, with 41 turned Off in step 5.
7. On completion, ensure that copies exist on each level by making it
Active and turning Off the rest, Update the view each time.

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Exercise 62 - Modifying using Extended Tool

Settings
1. With “Modifications.dgn” open, make level 40 Active, all others Off. If
necessary, clear the Fence (select the Place Fence tool).
2. Select the Modify Element tool, (no tool settings at this stage), identify
one segment of the “J” line string near its midpoint. The AccuDraw
compass will locate its origin on the segment where it was identified.
3. Move the pointer along a perpendicular to the segment, key-in :6 (6”),
accept. The line string is modified by changing the position of the
identified segment and changing the length of adjoining segments.

4. Identify one segment of the octagon shape near its midpoint, move the
pointer along the segment, return the 6” input with the <Page Up> key,
accept. The segment moves along its length by 6”, with the adjoining
segments changing their length and angle to remain attached.
5. Identify a vertex of the octagon, move this 6” in each direction. The
two adjoining segments change their length and angle, the element
remains intact, as before.

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Exercise 63 - Modifying Ellipses

1. With “Modifications.dgn” open, with level 40 Active, all others Off,
select the Modify Element tool.
2. Identify the circle, anywhere on its circumference. The AccuDraw
compass will locate its origin at the center and will have polar
coordinates.
3. Move the pointer in relation to the AccuDraw origin, noting the
changes in radius, including the readout in the AccuDraw window’s
Distance field. Key in a new radius to the Distance field, accept.
Since AccuDraw has its origin at the center of the circle, the distance we
key in is the new radius, not a change in radius.
4. With the Modify Element tool still active, identify the ellipse at a point
near the smaller axis. Change this radius visually, accept; data point
near the other axis, change this, accept. Either radius may be modified
under the control of AccuDraw, which will have changed to rectangular
coordinates, aligned with the two axes of the ellipse
Exercise 64 - Basic Modifications to Arcs
1. With the Modify tool active, identify a circular arc near its midpoint.
The AccuDraw compass will locate its origin at the arc’s center, with
polar coordinates.
2. Change the radius of the arc, accept. With the default tool settings,
Modify changes the radius of the arc, but not the Sweep Angle.
Identifying the arc away from the ends leaves the center fixed during
modification.
3. Identify an arc at one end. The AccuDraw compass will locate its origin
at the identified end of the arc, with rectangular coordinates.

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4. Change the radius of the arc, accept. With the default tool settings,
identifying the arc at an end leaves the opposite end fixed during
modification, with the center moving to accommodate the change in
radius.

Exercise 65 - Modifying Using Extended Tool

Settings
The options available from the Tool Settings window for the Modify
Element tool vary with the identified element, and with the part of its line
work it is identified on. For example, if we identify an arc at one of its ends,
there are no tool settings to be made. However, if we identify it near its
midpoint, we are given the options of changing not only its Radius about its
Center (the default, as used previously), but its Radius preserving its Ends
and its sweep Angle.
1. As Pop Set is assumed to be on, we will be using Ctrl + Spacebar to
display the tool settings window when we need to change settings
during a Modify operation. It will be necessary to complete any
previous Modify operation before we identify an element to experiment
with another. The following exercises have been simplified by
assuming this.

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2. With the Modify Element tool active, identify an arc near its midpoint,
change the tool setting Method option to Radius preserve Ends, move
the pointer away from the Tool Settings window. The radius changes,
but the ends of the arc do not move.
3. With the modification still taking place, change the Method to Angle.
The angle of the arc will be changing as we move the pointer, as it did
with the Modify Arc Angle tool.
4. Identify the arc at a point slightly closer to one end than the other (still
near the midpoint). Note that the end we were nearest to when we
identified the arc is the one changing, the other end is fixed.
5. Identify the arc slightly nearer the opposite end. The fixed and changing
ends have swapped.

Exercise 66 - Modifying Curves and Complex

Elements

1. With the Modify Element tool ( ) active, identify the curve element
somewhere on its right side. Move the pointer and modify the curve.
When we first identify it, the curve will change to locate one of its
Control Points on the pointer.
2. These control points are those defined when the curve was first placed,
4 of them in this case. We can see where the control points are in the
following figure, which shows the original “J” line string (as dashed
lines). The key points of this were snapped to when we created the
curve.
3. Select the curve again and move the pointer to modify the curve. There
are no tool settings to make with this modification. There is an arrow on
the bottom right of the Tool Settings dialog however, indicating more
information is available.

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4. Click the down arrow in the Tool Settings window; ensure that only the
top 2 check boxes are checked and the Vertex Settings option is From
Element (Figure 6.24).
5. Click OK to close the extra panel.
6. Still using the Modify Element tool, identify the mounting plate shape
near the midpoint of a straight segment of a side.
7. Move the side, note that the corner roundings remain attached and
unchanged, only the adjoining segments change.

8. Identify the arc at the top of the mounting plate shape, display the Tool
Settings. We have 4 Method options available, the 3 we had for arcs in
the earlier exercise, plus Move Entire Arc.
9. Choose the Move Entire Arc option, move the arc along all axes, noting
the effect on adjoining segments.
10. Identify a corner rounding, display the Tool Settings. We now have the
Vertex Type options available to us that we first had from the Place
Smart Line Tool Settings.
11. Leave the Vertex Type set to Rounded, try moving the vertex with the
orthogonal box checked, then unchecked.
12. Change the Rounding Radius to 1’, with the orthogonal box checked,
note the effect on the vertex.
13. Change the Vertex Type to Chamfered, note the effect on the vertex

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Partial Delete Tool

The title of this tool is self-explanatory. It is sometimes necessary to remove
part of an element, typically to make one element apparently pass behind
another, or to break a closed element open, thus allowing further
modifications to take place. The tool operates on all types of line work.
There are 2 data points required to define a partial delete of an open element
(such as a Line String). The first data point defines the start of the section
being deleted; the second data point defines the finish. Closed elements
need 3 data points; as well as the two for open elements; we need to indicate
the Direction (clockwise or anti-clockwise) we want the delete to go.

Exercise 67 - Deleting Parts of Elements

1. With “Modifications.dgn” open, make level 42 Active, the remainder
Off.

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2. Select the Partial Delete tool ( ) no settings required, Midpoint snap

to the bottom segment of the “J” line string. The initial prompt was
“Select start point for partial delete”, now it is “Select end point of
partial delete”.
3. Midpoint snap to the right side segment. We have deleted half of two
segments of the “J” line string, leaving 2 line strings (although one has
one segment only).
4. With the Partial Delete tool still active, data point the circle at about the
8 o’clock point. The prompt is “Select direction of partial delete”.
5. Data point the circle at the 6 o’clock point to establish that we are
deleting in an anti-clockwise direction.
6. Data point the circle at the 4 o’clock point to complete the partial
deletion.

Extend Line Tool

This will not only extend lines, it will shorten them. Its function is to change
the length of a line from one end, without changing its angle. It will accept a
Distance keyed into the Tool Settings to extend (or shorten, if a negative
distance is entered) the line by. AccuDraw can be used to define either a
new total length, or an extension amount. The AccuDraw method is mainly
used when single operations are required.

Exercise 68 - Change the Length of Existing Lines

7. With “Modifications.dgn” open and level 42 Active (all others Off),
window the area about the partially-deleted “J” line string.

8. Select the Extend Line tool ( ), leaving the Distance box unchecked,
identify the left side vertical line near the top. The AccuDraw compass
locates at the opposite end of the line, with polar coordinates and input
focus in the Distance field.

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9. Key in 1 (the original length was 6”), accept. The line is now 1’ long.
We will now reduce the length of the right side vertical line by 6”,
again using AccuDraw.
10. Identify the right side vertical line near the top, using Keypoint snap
mode, index (AccuSnap, do not accept) the pointer to the top of the
line. The current length of the line is displayed in the AccuDraw
window, but we do not need to know this for the current operation.
11. Press <O> to move the AccuDraw Origin to the AccuSnap point. We
now have a reference point to work from in changing the line length by
a fixed amount.
12. Move the pointer back down (to shorten the line), key in :6, accept. The
line is reduced in length by 6”.

Extend Two Elements to Intersection Tool

This tool is used to extend (or shorten) two elements until they intersect.
The elements could be lines, line strings or arcs.

Exercise 69 - Extending 2 Elements to Intersect

13. Have “Modifications.dgn” open and level 42Active (all others Off); the
remaining part of the “J” line string in the view.

14. Select the Extend Elements to Intersection tool ( ), no tool settings.

15. Identify the two remaining sections of the “J” line string, placing data
points near the ends that we wish to extend. The two lines extend to
precisely intersect. Check that this is so by using the Window Area tool
to greatly magnify the intersection area, then use View Previous to
restore the original viewing area.
16. Place a line (use the Place Smartline tool) that crosses the “J” line
string, as in the following figure.

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17. Select the Extend Elements to Intersection tool again, data point the two
lines on the sections we want to keep.
18. Window area about the short arc; place a line crossing under it, as
shown at the bottom the following figure.
19. Extend the arc & line as before, repeat the action for the other ends

Extend Element to Intersection Tool ( )

This tool is similar to the previously introduced one, except it only modifies
one element.

Exercise 70 - Extending 2 Elements to Intersect

1. Have “Modifications.dgn” open and level 42 Active (all others Off),
with the longer circular arc in the view.
2. Place a line, starting from a Center snap to the arc and extending
upwards, as shown on the left in the following figure.
3. Select the Extend Element to Intersection tool, no tool settings.
4. Select the line as the “First element for extension”, then the arc as the
“Element for intersection”. The line extends to intersect with the arc,
which remains unmodified.
Extend one end of the arc to the line, remembering to select the element
for extension first, at the end to be extended.

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Trim Element
Trimming is one of the most common modifications needed to elements.
This tool removes line work that intersects with a Cutting Element or
Elements. It is usual to pre-select the cutting element(s) with the Power
Selector before selecting the tool so we can make multiple trims. While we
have the option of selecting a single cutting element after selecting the tool,
we can only use it for the one Trim operation.

Exercise 71 - Trimming Elements

5. Have “Modifications.dgn” open and level 42 Active (all others Off),
with the ellipse in the view.
6. Place a 5’ by 1’ block across the ellipse, as shown in the following
figure. The block may be placed anywhere, then Moved precisely into
position using Center snaps to align its centroid with that of the ellipse.
7. Select the block just placed with the Power Selector.

8. Select the Trim Elements tool ( ) no tool settings, identify one side
of the ellipse inside the block, accept the trim.
9. Repeat this operation to trim the other side of the ellipse.
10. With the Trim Elements tool still active, identify one side of the block
inside a part ellipse, accept the trim.
11. Repeat this operation to trim the other side of the block.

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Intelli-Trim Tool
This is a more advanced form of trim tool, which is not only able to Trim, it
can Extend and Cut elements. It has two Modes, Quick and Advanced. The
Power Selector is not needed to pre-select elements; this is all carried out
within the same tool. In Quick mode, one element may be selected for
trimming or extending to, in advanced mode multiple elements may be
selected. We will only work with the Quick mode for these exercises.

Exercise 72 - Using IntelliTrim in Quick Mode

1. Have “Modifications.dgn” open and level 42 Active (all others Off),
with the octagon and the “building end” shape in the view.
2. Move the building end shape to place its centroid at the same point as
the centroid of the octagon, as shown in the following figure. Use the
same technique as was used to position the block in the previous
exercise.
3. Place a short line outside the octagon, at about the “11 o’clock”
position, as shown in the following figure.
4. Mirror a Copy of this line about a Vertical axis defined by a Center
snap to either shape.
5. Select the Intelli-trim tool, Mode: Quick, Operation: Extend.
6. Identify the Building End shape as the “Element to extend to”.
7. Without changing tools, draw a selection line across the two lines above
the octagon, Reset as we have no other lines to extend. The two lines
extend to the “roof line” of the selected shape.

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8. Change the Operation to Trim, identify the octagon as “Element to trim

to”.
9. Draw a selection line through the extended lines outside the octagon,
then through the building shape inside the octagon. The elements will
be trimmed as shown in the following figure.
10. Change the Operation to Cut,
11. Draw a horizontal cut line across the middle of the geometry. The
geometry does not look different, until we select the top sections of the
remains of the shapes (now line strings). When we do this we find that
the elements above the cut line select separately from those below. We
can move the cut off sections apart, they are new elements.

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Insert Vertex Tool

Apart from inserting extra vertices in line segments of line strings and
shapes, this tool can also be used to add control points to existing point
curves.

Exercise 73 - Adding Vertices and Control Points

12. Have “Modifications.dgn” open and level 43 Active (all others Off),
with the “building end” shape in the view.
13. Select the Insert Vertex tool, identify the bottom line on the shape.
Moving the pointer will show that the new vertex is inserted and can be
positioned wherever we need it. We will position it in respect to the top
vertex of the shape.
14. Move the pointer over the top vertex, invoke the Set Origin AccuDraw
shortcut (<O>), move the pointer down (indexed to the -y axis), key in
4, accept. We now have an irregular hexagon.

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15. Pan the view to display the point curve; select the Insert Vertex tool,
identify the curve between the existing control points (see Figure 31 ).
16. Use AccuDraw to position the new control point, thus re-shaping the
curve.

Figure 31

Delete Vertex Tool

This tool, as the name implies, removes vertices from shapes and line
strings and control points from curves. It (along with Insert Vertex) is also
used when modifying dimensioning.

Exercise 74 - Adding Vertices and Control Points

1. Have “Modifications.dgn” open and level 43 Active (all others Off),
with the point curve remaining in the view from the last exercise.
2. Select the Delete Vertex tool, identify the curve near the assumed
position of a control point, accept. The curve will be re-shaped with one
less control point.
3. Pan the view to display the octagon; select the Delete Vertex tool,
identify the octagon at one of its vertices, accept.
4. The shape is no longer an octagon.

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Construct Circular Fillet

This tool blends individual lines, circles, circular arcs and segments of line
strings and shapes with a circular arc or “fillet” of a defined radius. Except
where closed elements are involved, the elements being blended may
optionally be truncated at the fillet.

Exercise 75 - Filleting Between Elements

5. Have “Modifications.dgn” open and level 44 Active (all others Off),
with the octagon in the view.
6. Select the Construct Circular Fillet tool, Radius: 1.5, Truncate: Both.
7. Identify two segments on the octagon, at points near to the chosen
vertex. The former octagon is no longer a Shape type element; it is a
Line String with a vertex replaced by an arc blending the segments. The
arc was placed with the currently active Element Attributes. Unless
these attributes are matched, it may not match the geometry it is
blending.
8. Pan the view to a clear area; place an arc, Method: Center, Radius: 1,
Start Angle: 0°, Sweep angle: 180°
9. Place a vertical line starting from a key-point snap to one end of the arc,
similar to the illustration in Figure 32.
10. Select the Construct Circular Fillet tool, Radius: :6, Truncate: Both,
identify the two elements in turn

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Figure 32

Construct Chamfer Tool

This tool blends individual lines and segments of line strings and shapes, but
with an angled line instead of an arc. The angle of this line is defined by two
offset distances, which are the distances from the intersection of the
segments for the first and second segment identified. The elements being
chamfered are always truncated and circles, complex shapes and arcs cannot
be chamfered.

Exercise 76 - Chamfering Between Elements

1. Have “Modifications.dgn” open and level 44 Active (all others Off),
with the “Building End” shape in the view.
2. Select the Construct Chamfer tool, Distance 1: :5, Distance 2: :10.
3. Identify two segments on the “roof”, at points near to the ridge, accept
the chamfer.
4. Identify a “wall” and a “floor” segment, accept the chamfer. The new
shape is still a closed element and the attributes of the chamfer
segments will match the existing segments. However, if the 2 elements
being chamfered have differing attributes, the currently active element
attributes will be used.

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Active Points
Active Points are points in the true mathematical sense of the word - they
have Position without Size. In MicroStation, an Active Point is usually a
line with zero length. To make this visible, it is displayed with a length
equaling its weight or on-screen width.
The position of an Active Point may also be indicated with a text character,
or a Cell, which is a grouping of elements to be introduced later in the
course. Regardless of how it is indicated, it will only have one set of
coordinates. In other words, a snap with the pointer on one side or the other
of an active point indicator will always fall on the same spot.
Active points are mainly used “on screen” rather than “on paper”. They are
generally used for reference points during the construction of a design and
are seldom printed out on drawings.

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Place Active Point Tool

This tool is used to place individual points, their location defined by keying
in coordinates, or by offsetting from existing elements.

Place Points Between Data Points Tool

This tool is used to place a defined number of Active Points on a line
between two data points.

Project Active Point Onto Element Tool

This tool is used to place an Active Point on an element at the point closest
to the position a data point is placed.

Construct Active Point at Intersection Tool

This tool is used to place an Active Point at the intersection of two elements,
or at the intersection of the projections of two elements.

Construct Points Along Element Tool

This tool is used to place a specified number of Active Points along an open
element.

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Construct Active Point at Distance Along Element Tool

This tool is used to to place an Active Point at a specific distance along an
element.

Exercise 77 - Placing Active Points

1. If it is not already open, open Modifications.dgn
2. Make the “Default” level Active, and turn all other levels off.
3. Zoom the “J” line string and the octagon into the view.
4. Select the Place Active Point tool, Point Type: Element, all fields
empty. We will be placing Zero Length Line elements as Active Points
with these settings, which will remain the same for the remainder of the
steps in this exercise.
5. Set the Line Weight attribute to 10. This is to make the point more
visible on the screen; if we use a small line weight, e.g. 0, the point will
be so small that it will make it difficult to see if it regardless of whether
there is line work on top of it or not. This setting will also remain for
the rest of the steps

6. With input focus in the AccuDraw window, press the Data Point Keyin
shortcut, key-in 0 into the field and press <Enter>. We have just placed
an Active Point at a known pair of coordinates, the Global Origin.
7. The point we placed is probably outside the view area, so use Fit view
to display all the geometry and it will appear.
8. View Previous to return to the “J”
9. Select the Place Points Between Data Points tool, Points: 7. Snap to
the ends of the “J” line string. There will be one Active Point at each
end of the “J”, 5 in between.
10. Select the Project Active Point Onto Element tool, identify the octagon
to receive the Active Point, snap to the bottom-right vertex of the “J”,
Reset. The single Active Point will fall on the octagon, at the point
closest to the vertex snapped to on the “J”.

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11. Select the Construct Active Point at Intersection tool
12. Identify the upper-left segment on the octagon, then the bottom
segment of the “J”, Accept. The single Active Point will fall at the point
where the projections of the identified line segments intersect.
13. Select the Construct Points Along Element tool, Points: 7. Snap to the
ends of the “J” line string. There will be one Active Point at each end of
the “J”, 5 in between, all falling on the line string.
14. Change the Color attribute
15. Select the Construct Active Point at Distance Along Element tool,
Distance: 3:3.
16. Snap to the left end of the “J” line string, move the pointer away from
the element and accept. There will be one Active Point 3’ 3” from the
end of the “J”.

Key-Ins
Key-ins were the main method of entering instructions to a Computer Aided
Design application in earlier times. These days our graphical user interface
(GUI) has icon tools, dialog boxes and special windows (e.g. the AccuDraw
window) to enter these instructions as well. While in general both methods
of entering commands, there are still some uses for key-ins. Not all
instructions have GUI items available to issue them, so there will be times
when we need to use this utility.

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Key-in window
This window is able to be re-sized. As well as the key-in field, it can display
a set of list boxes which allow the selection of instructions to add to the
key-in field. When at full size, the window also displays a History panel, so
we can choose from previously issued commands. When it is reduced to its
minimum size, it may be docked at the top or the bottom of the screen.

Exercise 78 - Using the Key-in Window

1. If it is not already open, open Modifications.Dgn

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2. Choose UtilitiesÆKey-in from the Main menu bar. The format that this
window opens in will depend on what it looked like when it was last
closed.
3. If necessary, re-size the window to its maximum size.
4. Click in the leftmost list box, key in <pl> (the first 2 characters of the
word “place”, which is part of a MicroStation command. The list box
will highlight the first occurrence of a command starting with pl.
5. In column 2, select Line.
6. In column 3, select constrained.
7. Click the Keyin button. We are now able to place a line. Note the
prompt in the Status Bar.
8. Try some other commands, for example, click in the leftmost list box,
press <p> a number of times until place appears, then click arc, then
edge, click Key in.
9. Moving the pointer on the screen, we find that we are able to place an
arc. It would be easier just to select the tool in this case, but there are
times when we need this utility, including during this course.
10. Close the key-in window for now, we will open it again when it is
needed.
Challenge Exercise - Complete the Mounting Plate
We started the Mounting Plate project at the start of this chapter. As usual,
you are to complete the problem without any instructions, except those on
this page. You may need to revise some points from earlier in this book, or
use MicroStation Help.
Figure 33 is the same drawing that we used to place the outline and fixing
holes for the piece of hardware. Our task is to add the keyhole shaped
cutout, which will involve the use of the trimming tool introduced in this
chapter, along with a few techniques introduced earlier. Of course, the
cutout must be in the correct position with respect to the existing geometry.
The design file is Mounting Plate.Dgn. We can choose our own Symbology
attributes of Color and Line Weight.

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Figure 33

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6 Cells
Designs are often repetitive. We may use the same group of elements many
times over. For example, we may need to place a thousand identical seats in
a theatre, each seat comprised of a number of elements. There are plenty of
other examples, from bolts holding a machine together, to a pattern of
elements signifying a rock face on a map. Needless to say, we would be
wasting time to create each one separately.
We already know how to use the selection tools and the Fence to make a
temporary group of elements, then copy it any number of times. In its
simplest form, a Cell is like one of these groupings, except that it has been
made permanent.
Returning to the seats in a theatre example, each seat may consist of a group
of complex shapes representing each part of the seat, such as the back, the
bottom and the arms. We would expect to create one only of these mini-
designs, and then copy it all over the theatre design. The purpose of
MicroStation Cells is to make this process simpler, more efficient and
universal.

Objectives
When you have completed this chapter, you will be able to:
• Attach and Browse an existing Cell Library
• Create a new Cell Library
• Create Cells and store them in our own Cell Library
• Place individual cells
• Drop a cell to ordinary geometry

Cell Concepts
A Cell is a permanent group of elements making up a small drawing, which
is intended for repeated use. To be most useful, a cell needs to be readily
available for use in more than one design file or model.
In the previous chapter, we needed some sets of elements to practice our
modifications on. To create these, we copied them from their original
designs and “pasted” them into a new design, then copied them several
times again. It would have been easier if we could have gone to a “Library”
of these drawings and picked out the ones we needed, then have placed as
many of them as we needed.

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This is where Cells come in. Cells are normally stored in a Cell Library,
which is a design file that may be made accessible any time its contents are
needed. Access to cell libraries can be as restricted or as open as we wish,
from our own private collection, to cell libraries accessible world wide via
the Internet.
The collection in any one Cell Library can be quite large, with each Cell in a
library identifiable by a name. For easy accessibility, separate libraries will
usually be created to hold logical groupings of cells. For example,
architectural furniture may be held in one library, mapping symbols in
another, drawings of bolts and nuts in yet another.
MicroStation is already supplied with collections of cells for various
disciplines, and more are becoming available on the Internet. These will not
fully supply our needs, however, so we will also create our own Cells stored
in our own Cell Libraries. We will discuss Cell Libraries in more detail in
the future.

Note:
PennDOT has many “standard” cells which are available automatically.

Group, Orphaned Cells and Named Groups

So far we have only created temporary groups in this course. These
temporary groups only existed until we cleared the selection set, removed
the fence or closed the DGN. If we want the group to persist between
sessions, or when no fence is active etc, we can have two choices: Unnamed
Group (Group for short) or a Named Group.
In MicroStation, a Group is sometimes referred to as an unnamed cell or an
Orphan Cell. Groups are stored in the DGN, not in a Cell Library.

Creating a Group is a very simple process and is really only two steps.
1. Create a selection set of the elements using one of the methods learned
so far ( Power Selector, Element Selection, Fence )
2. Create the group by choosing EditÆGroup from the Main Menu.

Dropping a group is equally simple:

1. Select any of the elements in the group
2. Select EditÆUnGroup from the Main Menu.

MicroStation also provides for something called Named Groups which is

very similar to Unnamed Groups, but provide a great deal more flexibility.
The use of Named Groups is beyond the scope of this course.

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Exercise 79 - Creating an UnNamed Group

1. If it is not already open, open Mounting Plate.Dgn
2. Ensure that the entire mounting plate visible.
3. Make a Selection Set from all of the geometry.
4. Choose EditÆGroup from the Main menu.
5. Selection handles will appear. We did not see them earlier when we
selected multiple elements. In this instance, MicroStation considers the
Group to be a single orphan cell. Cells can therefore be selected and
manipulated as a single element.
6. Make a Copy of the cell, placed slightly away from the original. Note
the pop-up info for the group when we move the pointer over it. Apart
from the type of element we are pointing to, it will inform us that it is a
Cell, without a name within the angle brackets.
7. Select the Element Information tool
8. Identify one of the orphan cells. All of the elements will be listed in a
hierarchy, with the top element type being a Cell Header (2); the (2) is
the element type number.
9. Select the original group, choose EditÆUngroup
10. Clear all selections.
11. The original elements will now be individual elements once more, but
the copy will still be a Cell.
12. Delete the copy, leaving only the original ungrouped geometry

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Now that we have grouped

the elements into a cell, we
can manipulate it as a single
entity.

First we select all of the

“component” elements and
then grouping them together
into a Cell.
When a cell is analyzed, the
highest component in the
hierarchy of component elements
is called the Cell Header

...but we can still obtain full details

of each of the elements that make
up the cell

Named Cells
Named Cells are stored in Cell Libraries. Within the cell library they must
have a unique name.
As stated previously, an orphan cell, such as the one created in the last
exercise, can conveniently be copied and re-used within the DGN where it
was created. We can also copy it to the clipboard and paste it into other
designs, as we did when we populated Modifications.Dgn with elements
copied from earlier DGNs.
This may be quite convenient for one or two cells, but totally impractical for
a large number of cells. We need to be more organized once we start making
a collection of useful cells, with an efficient system for storage and
recovery. This is where Cell Libraries come in.

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Cell Library
A Cell Library is a design file intended for the storage of Cells. It may have
a different filename extension, but its structure is the same, in fact it may be
opened from MicroStation just like any other DGN. Any number of cells
may be stored in the one library, but it is usual to have a number of libraries,
in order to keep related collections of cells together in easily manageable
numbers. Of course it is necessary to uniquely name the cells so that they
may be identified when we need to copy them from the library. This name
must be applied before we can create a Cell in a Library.
We will start by creating a Cell Library of our own, in our directory
allocated for this purpose. While this is basically a DGN, its filename
extension will be “.cel”.
When a Cell Library is Attached to a particular DGN, it means that this file
is available to receive any new Cells that we create in the DGN.

Exercise 80 – Create a Cell Library

1. With Mounting Plate.Dgn open and the plate displayed, choose
FileÆCell LibraryÆNew from the Main menu bar.
2. The Create Cell Library dialog box opens, ensure that the directory
panel indicates the Cell directory of your allocated student directory
structure.
3. Name the new cell library using your CADD login (the extension “.cel”
is attached by default).
4. Click OK, the Create Cell Library dialog box will close automatically.
The new cell library is now attached to the design file “Mounting
Plate.dgn”.

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Creating a Cell
Now that we have a Cell Library to store cells in, we can learn about
making cells. There are essentially two ways to make a cell. The first uses
the power of models. The second amounts to selection some elements in a
DGN, identifying an origin and then adding to the cell library.
Of these two methods, you might think that the second is the simpler
method. However, in reality, in practice it becomes quite a bit more
involved. Therefore, we will focus on the first way. Not only is this a more
modern way, it is also quite a bit more flexible.
Recall when we discussed models that there was a property on each model
named “Can Be Placed As Cell”. When this property is set, it means that the
model is in fact a Cell.

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Before we actually create a new cell, we need to think about how someone
will use it. The pointer in MicroStation can only represent a single point at a
time, so when we ask MicroStation to place the cell, it needs to know which
point in the cell’s geometry to attach to the pointer. This point is called the
Origin of the cell. The origin does not have to be on any actual line work, it
just needs to be the point by which you will place the cell.
Once you have decided on where the origin of the cell will be, and you have
a cell library, you are ready to create the cell. When creating cells what we
really are doing is creating geometry in a model within the cell library. The
name of the model will be the name of the cell, and the origin of the cell
will always be xy = 0,0 in the model. Let’s take the mounting bracket we’ve
created and make a cell out of it.

Exercise 81 – Create a Cell (First Method)

Using Models
1. If it is not already open, Open MountingPlate.Dgn
2. Select all the elements in the file by selecting EditÆSelect All
3. Copy the elements to the clipboard by selecting EditÆCopy.
4. Select FileÆOpen from the Main menu
5. Change the file type to Cell Library (.cel)
6. Select your cell library and click OK
7. Close all views except the top view
8. Maximize the view window.
9. Create a new 2D, Design Model named “BRKT”

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 6 Cells

10. Paste the elements into the model. If the geometry appears to be rotated,
it means there is an active angle defined.
11. If required, key-in aa=0 to set the Active Angle = 0
12. Datapoint anywhere in the view.
13. Select all the geometry
14. Move the center top of the screw hole to the coordinate 0,0 as shown in
the following illustration.

That’s it. You have created your first official named cell.

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15. Open JointTheDots.Dgn
16. Turn on all the levels
17. Zoom so that a single plane fills the view as shown in the following
illustration.

18. Use the same process to make the airplane a cell named “Aircraft
Symbol”.
19. Ensure that the center of the nose is the cell’s origin.
20. Delete all the Point numbers and symbols for points.
The third cell we will create is to be the Aircraft Symbol again, but this time
it will be simplified to create an outline only, and it will be rotated to face to
the right. We will be using this cell later on with some specialized
placement options.
21. While still in the .CEL file, copy the Aircraft Symbol model, naming
the new model “AircrT”

22. Delete all elements other than the plane’s outline.

23. Rotate the plane to the right 90 deg., about its center.
24. Make the center point of the tail the origin of the cell.

We have now created three cells in all.

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Exercise 82 – Rename a Cell

So now we realize that the name we chose for the cell is not ideal, how do
we change it? Simple enough; just open the cell library and just rename the
model that contains the geometry and viola, you’ve renamed a cell.
25. Select FileÆModels from the Main menu bar

26. Select “BRKT” model and click the Properties button ( )

27. Change the Name to “Key Mount” and click OK.

Exercise 83 – Creating a Cell (Second Method)

Using the Cell Library Dialog Box
The design file (Cell Creation) that is used in this exercise, contains all the
cells currently contained in the InRoads cell library. All cells have been
dropped to individual components. Now lets review the procedure for
creating a cell using individual elements, a fence, the define cell origin
command, and the create button on the cell library dialog box. We will start
this exercise by creating a new cell library.
1. Open Cell Creation.Dgn and select FileÆCell LibraryÆNew from the
Main menu bar.
2. The Create Cell Library dialog box opens, ensure that the directory
panel indicates the Cell directory of your allocated student directory
structure.
3. Name the new cell library MyInRoads (the extension “.cel” is attached
by default) and Select OK. The new cell library is automatically
attached to the current design file.
4. Select Element ÆCellsÆSettings from the Main menu or key in show
library in the key in field. Either method will display the Cell Library.
5. Zoom in and place a fence around a group of elements that you wish to
include in the new cell.

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6. Select the define cell origin tool.

7. Define the cell origin by placing a data point at any location within the
view.

8. Select the Create button in the Cell Library dialog box.

9. Enter the Name and Description of the new cell and Select Create.

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 6 Cells

The newly created cell is then entered in the cell library.

The Cells Tool Box

All but one of the tools in this tool box are used for placing cells, the other
is used to define the Origin of a cell when it is being created. This is the
only tool we will not introduce for now since we already know how to
define a cell.

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Place Active Cell Tool

We now have a small collection of cells, so we will experiment with some
cell placements. There are many ways of placing a Cell, as we can see from
the number of tools shown in “The Cells Tool Box”.
Placing a cell using this tool provides many more options than were
available when we “pasted” selections copied from other DGNs. With it we
may choose to place the cell with a different Scale, with a different Rotation
or on different Levels.

General

For most purposes, we are able to use the default tool settings with the Place
Active Cell tool. This means that the Rotation, Scale etc will be controlled
by the fields in the Tool Settings Dialog. We will start with these settings,
and then introduce some options for cell placement.

Exercise 84 – General Placement of Cell

1. If it is not already open, open Exercise PlaceCell.Dgn.
2. Before we can place a cell, we have to attach the cell library. So select
FileÆCell LibraryÆAttach
3. Browse to and select the cell library you just created and click Ok.
4. Select FileÆSave Settings to ensure that the attached cell library will
still be attached the next time we open MicroStation.
5. Select the Place Active Cell tool
6. Click the magnifying glass icon and select the Key Mount cell, either
by double-clicking it, or highlight it and click the Placement button.
7. Re-display the Tool Settings window and set the Active Angle to 180°

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 6 Cells
8. Close the Cell Library dialog box, place the cell with a data point to a
vacant area on the screen, Reset. The cell geometry will be inverted, or
rotated by 180°

Interactive

We also have the option of defining the Scale, Rotation etc interactively
instead of relying on the fields in the Tool Settings.

Exercise 85 - Interactive Cell Placement

1. If it is not already open, open Exercise PlaceCell.Dgn.

2. With all levels On, select the Place Active Cell tool
3. Click the magnifying glass icon and select the AircrT cell for
placement, close the Cell Library dialog box.
4. Click the down arrow at the bottom-right of the tool settings window to
display the cell placement options
5. Check Interactive. True Scale will normally be checked as well, but this
has no effect with this placement option. The cell will not appear
attached to the pointer this time.
6. Data point where the cell is to be placed
7. Move the pointer and observe the Scale effects, data point again when
the symbol has the desired proportions and size.
8. Move the pointer around the AccuDraw origin to the desired angle,
accept the placement.

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Using Interactive cell placement this way has some limitations, especially
when defining the x and y scales visually. When we combine the visual with
a key-in option, these limitations are overcome. Now let’s see how to use
the Key-in utility to avoid this.
9. Open the Key-in window and re-size if necessary to display the key-in
field only.
10. Data point a clear area in the view to place the cell origin as before
11. Click the Key-in Window field to direct input focus to it. The window
reads “XSCALE (1.0):” This means we can either accept the value of
1.0 by pressing <Enter>, or key in another scale.
12. Key in .5 as the x scale, <Enter>.
13. The Key-in window now reads “YSCALE (1.0):”
Press <Enter> to accept a y scale factor of 1.
14. The Key-in window now reads “ROTATION (0):”. We will now
change over to AccuDraw to set the angle, but we could have just keyed
in the angle to the Key-in window.
15. Click the AccuDraw Angle field, key in 45, move the pointer either side
of the AccuDraw origin, accept one side or the other. AccuDraw
provides a more flexible way of defining the rotation angle, we could
alternatively have used a snap to “point” the cell towards a chosen
location. Close the Key-in window.

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 6 Cells

Place Active Cell Matrix Tool

This tool is similar to the Construct Array tool in that it will create a
rectangular array or Matrix of cells. However, it has fewer options than the
Array tool. It does not allow for polar arrays or for rotation of the entire
matrix. The individual cells may be rotated by setting an Active Angle
before using the tool.

Exercise 86 - Place a Cell Matrix

1. If it is not already open, open Exercise PlaceCell.Dgn.
2. With all levels On, select the Place Active Cell Matrix tool
3. Click the magnifying glass icon and select the Key Mount cell, close
the Cell Library dialog box.
4. Set the Rows: 2 Columns: 4, Row Spacing: 80, Column Spacing: 80.
5. Place a data point to define the origin position for the bottom-left
instance of the cell matrix.
6. Keyin aa=30 to set the active angle to 30.
7. Place another matrix using the same settings as before. The rows and
columns are still horizontal and vertical, with each cell instance rotated
about its origin.
8. Restore the Active Angle to 0°. A quick way of doing this is to keyin
aa=0 into the keyin field.
This is a good example of where the Keyin window can really speed the process.
We have just keyed in aa=30 and then aa=0.
For argument sake, suppose that the next command you need to perform
requires the active angle to be 30. All you have to do is click in the Keyin
window, press the Up arrow twice to recall the previous Keyin and hit <Enter>
Perhaps a more useful example is if you need to move several shapes from their
current location to the coordinate 1235.53,12360.56. If you use the Keyin
XY=1235.53,12360.56 to enter the coordinate on the first shape, then all you
have to do to repeat the Keyin is click in the Keyin window, press the up arrow a

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 6 Cells

and press the enter key.

Select and Place Cell Tool

Once we have an “instance” of a particular cell in a design, we can place
additional instances without visiting the cell library, or even having it
attached. In most respects, this tool is comparable with the Copy tool, but
optimized to work with Cells.
We are able to use the ordinary Copy tool to copy cell instances, but it
copies the cell exactly as it was originally placed, with the same scale and
rotation. The Select and Place Cell tool places the new cell instance with the
scale and rotation settings definable as we place it, in the same way as the
Place Active Cell tool.

Exercise 87 – Copy vs. Select and Place Cell

1. If it is not already open, open Exercise PlaceCell.Dgn.
2. With all levels On, select the Copy tool, identify the scaled and rotated
cell placed in the previous exercise.
3. Place the copy of the cell into a blank space clear of the original.
Remember, we can use as many of the view control tools as we need
when we are part way through a manipulation such as this, Reset will
return to the manipulation tool.

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 6 Cells
4. Select the Select And Place Cell tool
5. Select the copied cell. The pop-up info proves that we still have a Cell,
not just copied geometry. The cell attaches to the pointer by its origin as
before, ignoring the placement settings of the cell it was copied from.
6. Place the cell, Reset.

Place Active Line Terminator

This tool is used to place cells on the ends of lines, for example a special
arrowhead. It differs from the ordinary Place Active Cell tool in that the
rotation of the cell is controlled by the direction of the end of the line that it
is being placed on. Line Terminator cells can be placed on the ends of arcs
and curves, as well as straight lines and line strings.

Exercise 88 - Placing Line Terminators

1. If it is not already open, open Exercise PlaceCell.Dgn.
2. Make Default the Active Level, all other levels On.
3. Place a line 3’ long, at 30° in a clear area of the view, window the area
about it leaving some space for terminator cells.
4. Place an arc Method: Edge, placing the 3 points visually to make the
arc approximately the same length as the line, as shown in Figure 34.
5. Select the Place Active Line Terminator tool, leave the Scale at 1.0.

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 6 Cells

Within PennDOT, it is recommended that you use the Place Terminator

command from the PennCAD pulldown menu as it automatically sets the scale
factor to match the active text size.

6. Click the magnifying glass icon, select the AircrT cell from the Cell
Library dialog box and click the TERMINATOR button, close the dialog
box.
7. Identify the line near one end and then accept away from the geometry.
No need to snap, as long as we identify it close to the required end.
8. Identify the arc, accept a terminator placement.
The cell was created facing the right, which defines the way it attaches to
the line. The +x axis of the cell places as an extension to the line. If we
attempt to use the cell “Aircraft Symbol” as a terminator, it will attach at
90° to the line, as its centerline axis is +y.

Figure 34

Replace Cell Tool

Using this tool, we can update an existing cell instance to a later version, or
Replace an existing cell instance with a cell with a different name.
Regardless of whether you are updating or replacing, Cells may be replaced
individually, or all cells of a particular name may be replaced at once. The
replacement cell may be selected from those already in the DGN, or the
Active placement cell may be used.

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 6 Cells

Caution:
Consider the example of placing a thousand auditorium chairs. As soon as you
have finished, the need arises to change to a different type of seat. Assuming for
a moment that the chairs have the same overall footprint, what is the quickest
way to change them all?
In this example, the Replace Cell would be great, but you should generally be
very careful whenever performing an action that has such broad consequences.
Have you actually examined the entire model, yes, even the parts that are not
currently in the view? If not you might end up replacing chairs you didn’t
consider.
So to reiterate, whenever performing an action that has such broad scope, BE
CAREFUL!

Updating

When we update a cell, we update the definition of the cell in the DGN with
a new one but the Name of the cell remains the same.

Replacing

When we use the Replace option with the same tool, we replace the
definition in the DGN with a cell of a different name.

Exercise 89 – Replacing Cells

1. If it is not already open, open Exercise PlaceCell.Dgn..
2. Window the area to display both another of the scaled and rotated
instances of the AircrT cell, plus an instance of the Aircraft Symbol.
3. Select the Replace Cells tool, Method: Replace, Mode: Single, both
boxes unchecked.
The prompt reads “Identify Cell”, which means the cell to be replaced.
4. Identify the scaled and rotated AircrT instance, then the Aircraft
Symbol as “Replacement Cell”, accept the replacement.
The new cell will be Scaled and Rotated by the same settings as the cell it
replaced
5. Change the settings of the Replace Cells tool by checking the Use
Active Cell box and making Keyhole Mount the placement cell.
6. Identify one of the instances of the AircrT or Aircraft Symbol cells,
accept the replacement. As before, the scale and rotation settings will
be the same as the replaced cell instance.

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 6 Cells

Shared Cells
Our exercises with cell placement so far have added complete new cell
definitions to the design file for each cell instance, even when the same cell
is placed many times. This may not be the most efficient use of file space in
many cases, so there is an option to place cells with a single Shared cell
definition.

Caution:
Before we proceed with the explanation of what shared cells are and how they
work, we need to be clear that within PennDOT they are not acceptable.
The primary reason for this information is to provide a basic understanding of
shared cells just in case a drawing that was not created by PennDOT happens to
use them.

When we opt to Use Shared Cells (in the Cell Library dialog box) when
placing a cell, we place a full set of data defining the cell in the design file,
in the usual way. Subsequent placements only add data about the
coordinates, scale and rotation of the cell, with the rest of the definition
provided by the first placement. Once this first placement is made, the cell
library is not used for any subsequent Shared placement of this particular
cell. We can make shared attachments at any time in the future without any
cell libraries being available. Since only one full definition is placed in the
DGN for a Shared cell, we save on file size.

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 6 Cells

Placing and updating Shared Cells

Another advantage (or disadvantage) of Shared cells becomes apparent
when we need to update a cell to the current definition. All we have to do is
update one of the Shared cells, then all of the cells sharing that definition
will be updated at once.

Caution:
Because it is not always apparent that a cell is shared, it is easy to accidentally
mess up a drawing. In general PennDOT does not condone the use of shared
cells.

Converting Shared Cells

Shared cells can be converted to “ordinary” cells. There are occasions where
this may be necessary, usually to prevent them from updating with other
cells sharing the same definition. If we need to retain one cell as it was
before the definition in the cell library was updated, but update the
remainder, this is an option. The other option is to convert the cell to
ordinary geometry. Both of these options are provided by the Drop Element
tool, from the Groups tool box. The main function of this tool is to “drop”
the level of complexity of elements, reducing them from a group to simpler
elements.
When dropping shared cells, we can choose to ungroup the elements,
changing them from being grouped as a cell to individual elements.
However, the grouping is retained when we choose to convert the shared
cell to ordinary. In that case the cell definition is copied within the design
file to be the same as a cell placed with “use shared cells” turned off.

Dropping Cells
Ordinary cells can be converted back to their underlying geometry, using

the Drop Element tool ( ). When an ordinary cell’s Complex status is

dropped, it is reduced to its separate component elements. As with dropping
the shared cell To Geometry, its data is stored in the design file with the cell
specifications removed.

Exercise 90 - Dropping Ordinary Cells to Geometry

1. If it is not already open, open Exercise PlaceCell.Dgn.
2. Window the area about the 4 by 2 matrix of cells placed earlier.
3. Select the Drop Element tool from the Groups tool box (in the Main
tool frame),
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 6 Cells
4. Check Complex (all other boxes unchecked).
5. Identify one of the cells in the matrix. Comparing the dropped cell’s
pop-up info with one of the other cells in the matrix will show it to be
dropped into Complex Shapes and Ellipses (Circles).
6. With the Drop Element tool still active, identify the outline (a Complex
Shape). This will now be reduced to its individual Lines and Arcs

Graphic vs. Point Cells

There are two types of Named Cells, Graphic and Point. So far we have
created and placed only Graphic cells.
We determine the level and symbology attributes (color, line style, and line
weight) of a Graphic cell when we create it. A Graphic cell also rotates with
a view when it is rotated.
A Point cell assumes the active level and symbology when we place it. A
Point cell does not rotate, regardless of the view rotation.

Exercise 90 – Convert a Cell to Point Type

We will now replace a Graphic type cell in our cell library with a Point type
cell of the same name. When we created a cell named AircrT , it was
intended mainly as a Line Terminator, so having it take on the active
symbology as we place it would be an advantage. To convert the cell to a
Point cell, we will; Open the Cell Library and then modify the properties of
the appropriate Model to be a Point Cell.
1. If it is not already open, open the sample cell library.

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 6 Cells
2. Open the Models dialog
3. Select the AircrT model and click the Properties button
4. Change the Cell Type to Point, click Ok to accept and close the dialog.
5. Open Exercise PlaceCell.Dgn.
6. Place the AircrT cell.
7. Change the active color
8. Place the AircrT cell again. Notice how it takes on the active
symbology.
9. Rotate the view. Notice how the cell does not rotate with the view.

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7 Enclosed Areas
Our designs so far have consisted entirely of “open” line work, except for a
brief introduction to Fill Attributes. Closed line work may delineate an
Area, such as a section of floor or a sail of a yacht. These Areas may be
Filled, Hatched, Crosshatched, or Patterned using special Cells. Their area
may be measured and mass (for a given mass per unit of area), perimeter
length and centroid position calculated.
We will find a lot in common between the various tools used to work with
enclosed areas. For example, the tool settings for Measuring and Patterning
are very similar.

Objectives
When you have completed this chapter, you will be able to:
• Recognize Closed and Open elements
• Drop a closed element to its component open elements
• Create a closed element from individual segments
• Measure areas and derive design information from them
• Temporarily define areas for patterning
• Hatch, Crosshatch and Pattern areas
• Create Associative and Non-Associative patterns
• Create new closed elements using mathematical combinations of
existing closed elements.

Closed Elements
We have been making closed elements right from the start, as with its
default settings the Place Smart Line tool closes elements when the first and
last data points coincide. However, there will often be situations when
elements that were placed separately need to be “chained” together to form
a closed shape or Complex Shape. We will create a new DGN for our
exercises on Areas, placing various elements as we need them and
performing area-related operations such as patterning

Exercise 91 – Closed Element

1. Create and open a new DGN in our allocated directory named
“Exercise AreaWorks.Dgn”. Use “RDWYseed3d.dgn” as the seed file.

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 7 Enclosed Areas
2. Set the Line Weight to 2, use solid lines of any color to place a 6’
radius circle on level 1, Copy it 36’ to the right.
3. Draw the two external tangent lines as shown in the following
illustration.

4. Use the Power Selector to select both lines, then the Trim tool ( ) to
trim the inside parts of the circles as shown in the following illustration.

Now we have 2 arcs and 2 lines that perfectly abut each other, but they are
not a closed element. The next job will be to join them together into a closed
shape.

Groups Tool Box

All of these tools may be used when we are working with Areas, so this is a
good time to introduce them.

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 7 Enclosed Areas

Create Complex Shape Tool

This tool “chains” individual elements enclosing an area. Their ends must
either meet, or be within a defined tolerance of meeting. The Create
Complex Chain tool only differs in that it creates an open Complex Chain
element instead of a closed Complex Shape. We will now use this tool to
create a Complex Shape from the lines and arcs placed earlier.
The tool has a choice of two Methods of creating the shape, Manual and
Automatic.

Manual Method

The Manual method requires each of the elements to be identified in turn to

create the shape. While useful in some circumstances, this method is used
less frequently than the Automatic method.

Automatic Method

The Automatic only requires one element to be identified, then (generally)

only one more data point to accept the shape. However, when there are
“forks in the road” of the Automatic chaining process, we are offered one
“route”, which we may accept (with a data point) or reject (with Reset).

Exercise 92 – Creating Complex Shapes

1. If it is not already open, open “Exercise AreaWorks.Dgn”

2. Select the Create Complex Shape tool ( ), Method: Manual, Area:

Solid, Fill Type: None.
3. Identify each of the four elements in order, and then accept the shape
when all the segments are highlighted.

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 7 Enclosed Areas

4. The prompt will read “Shape Closed”. The Complex Shape just created
is a new element and will be created with the currently active element
attributes. The attributes of the individual elements are not taken into
account.
5. Select another tool and point to the element to display the pop-up info.
The Pop-up confirms that the separate elements now form segments of
a single Complex Shape.
6. Select the Copy tool
7. Copy the complex shape we just made to Level 2
8. Turn Off the level 1 and update the view.
9. Make another Copy of the complex shape on the same level, this time
using snaps to position the bottom segment of the copy exactly over the
top segment of the original as shown in the following illustration.

10. Select the Drop Element tool, Complex checked, other boxes
unchecked. Identify both copies of the complex shape.

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 7 Enclosed Areas
We now have 4 arcs and 4 lines (2 of them coincident) to use for
experiments with the automatic placement method.
11. Select the Create Complex Shape tool, Method: Automatic, Area: Solid,
Fill Type: None.
A closed element could represent a Solid area, such as a concrete floor. It
could also represent a Hole in the floor. While the two elements may look
the same, the differences become apparent when we start Measuring Areas
and Patterning.
12. Identify the bottom segment of the bottom complex shape.
13. Move the pointer away from any geometry and accept. We will make a
complex shape incorporating all 4 arcs and the top and bottom line
segments. The prompt informs us there is a Fork and to either accept or
reject the direction that the highlight indicates, so Reset if one of the
middle line segments have highlighted, otherwise Accept.
14. Continue clicking the Data and Reset buttons as prompted to close the
shape as shown in Figure 35 finally accepting when the entire complex
shape highlights.

Figure 35
15. Delete the 2 middle lines
Now we have an area defined by an element, we will start our experiments
by measuring it. This will introduce the Measure Area tool, which not only
measures area, it displays the perimeter length and will calculate the mass if
given a mass per unit area

Measuring Area

The Measure Area tool not only measures, it performs calculations on the
data gathered. It will calculate the mass of an object of constant thickness
and its centroid (the center of mass, assuming a constant mass per unit area).

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Exercise 93 - Measure the Area of the Complex

Shape

1. Select the Measure Area tool ( ) from the Measure tool box,
Method: Element, Tolerance: 1%, Mass Properties and Display
Centroid both Unchecked.
2. Identify the complex shape, display the tool settings window (press
<Ctrl>+<Spacebar>). The area and perimeter measurements are
displayed in the bottom panel of the window and in the message area of
the Status Bar.
3. Check the Mass Properties box. No need to identify the element again;
the Mass Properties window opens and displays the information for the
last measurement made.
4. Enter 0.022 into the Mass per Area field. This is the approximate mass
in tons of 1 square foot (the foot is the master unit in this DGN) of
hardened concrete 4” thick. MicroStation has calculated that this area of
concrete would weigh about 24 tons. The approximate nature of this
figure is due mainly to the accuracy of the Mass per Area figure input.
The tolerance can be reduced in the tool settings window, but there
would be little point when measuring an area of a material as variable
as concrete.
5. Check the Display Centroid box, identify the element again. The
centroid mark will remain until the box is unchecked in the Tool
Settings window.

Group Holes Tool

We were introduced to the concepts of Solids and Holes during the exercise
on creating a complex shape. We created the complex shape as a Solid,
representing solid material, as opposed to a Hole, which represents a void in
that material.

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If we need to create a solid with holes, it is necessary to link the hole
elements to the Solid element that they are perforating. Just having the holes
inside another closed element is not enough; in a complex design the hole
elements could fall inside many closed elements. This is where the Group
Holes tool comes in, it Groups the Holes with the appropriate Solid element.
In fact it does more than this; where necessary it will convert hole elements
into solids and vice versa. This does not mean we can always ignore the
Area option when creating closed elements, as they will not always be
operated on with the Group Holes tool.

Exercise 94 - Perforating the Solid

6. Place circles at the center of each arc segment using center snaps, with
the Diameter box checked and the diameter constrained to 8’.

7. Select the Group Holes tool ( ), identify the complex shape as the
Solid, then each of the circles as Holes, and accept away from geometry
and Reset as prompted after the last hole has been identified.
8. Measure the area of the complex shape as we did previously. The area
and mass will be reduced by the amount removed by the holes.

Manipulating Grouped Holes

Once a solid and its holes have been grouped, the grouping is “permanent”,
in that the perforated solid is a form of cell. Any attempt to delete a hole
from this grouping will result in the entire cell being deleted. To remove a
hole, it is first necessary to Drop the Complex status of the cell. The holes
then become individual elements again and may be manipulated as such.
Once the manipulations (which includes deletions) and any additions are
completed, the solid and holes must be Grouped again.

Exercise 95 – Removing Holes

1. Select the Drop Element tool, Complex checked, all other boxes
unchecked. Identify the complex shape. Be careful to click only once,
or the Complex Shape will be reduced to its individual components.

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2. Delete the two lower circles, then Group Holes again as in the last
exercise.
3. Measure the area again. The area and mass will be in between the last
two previous measurements. The Centroid has moved down the solid,
as there are now holes in the upper section, but not in the lower part

Patterns Toolbox
Patterning is the regular placement of lines or cells within a specified area,
with the spacing, angle and scale of the patterning elements specified.
Patterns are only displayed if they are checked (On by default) in the View
Attributes dialog box. There are three separate tools to place a pattern of
elements within an area, Hatch Area, Crosshatch Area and Pattern Area. All
three create types of patterns, the first with straight lines, the second with
two sets of straight lines at different angles, the third creates patterns of
cells.
The Linear Pattern tool creates patterns along lines, so it is not a tool for
working with areas, but we will introduce it later on in this chapter just the
same.

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Hatching
This is the tool that places equally-spaced parallel lines to pattern an area.
We will start by using it to pattern the area of the “perforated” complex
shape we have been working on in the last exercises, and then we will use it
to create other areas of pattern.

Element Method

We will be patterning the same elements many times over in the following
exercises, so we will also need the Delete Pattern tool from this tool box.
Delete Pattern differs from the ordinary delete tool in that it will always
remove only the entire pattern, whereas the ordinary delete tool may remove
patterning and the patterned element altogether.

Exercise 96 - Hatching the Complex Shape

1. If it is not already open, Open “Exercise AreaWorks.Dgn”
2. Make level 1 active
3. Turn off all other levels
4. Select the Hatch Area tool, Method: Element, Spacing: 1’, Angle: 45°,
Associative Pattern: Checked, Snappable Pattern: Unchecked.
5. It is usual to make patterns non-snappable, otherwise there are so many
snap points that it becomes a problem to find the right one.
6. Identify the complex shape, and then snap to the connection between
the left-side arc segments to “Accept @ pattern intersection point”. The
element is hatched; now we can readily see what is a solid and what is a
hole. Note that a pattern line passes through the point we snapped to.

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7. Move the element a short distance - note that the pattern moves with it,
then Undo the move. This is an effect of Associative Patterning;
whenever the element is manipulated or modified, the pattern
automatically updates.
8. Select the Delete Pattern tool, data point anywhere on the pattern (or on
the Associated patterned element) to delete the hatching.
9. Repeat the hatching as before, but this time Uncheck Associative
Pattern before doing so.
10. Move the element again (this time the pattern is left behind), Undo the
move and delete the pattern prior to the next exercise

Flood Method

This method patterns an area enclosed by a set of elements. These may be

any type of element that will define an area in combination with other
elements; they may be lines, curves, simple or complex shapes. In fact any
form of line work.

Exercise 97 – Hatching with the Flood Method

1. If it is not already open, Open “Exercise AreaWorks.Dgn”.
2. Turn on Level 1

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3. Copy the complex shape from level 1 to level 2. It does not matter if
level 2 is already active; clicking it in the Attributes tool box will still
direct the copy to it.
4. Turn level 1 off; Rotate the copied element about its center (center snap
for the pivot point) by 90°
5. Move the element vertically to align its center with the connection of
the arc segments as shown in Figure 36. We can use Center snap on the
element we are moving, but not on the other group, as the center snap
location is affected by the grouping of the holes. We use Smart Lock
and a Keypoint snap to find the position to move to.

Figure 36
6. Select the Hatch Area tool, Method: Flood, Spacing: 1’, Angle: 45°,
Associative Pattern: Checked, Snappable Pattern:Unchecked.
7. Data point in the area to the left of the vertical complex shape, and then
manually snap to the connection between the left-side arc segments.
When using this method, we need to use the Tentative button to snap. The
element is hatched as soon as we accept the snap. With these settings, the
“holes” are ignored, as the flood only “sees” elements that “block off the
flow”.
8. Move the vertical complex shape a short distance within the width of
the other element, note the effect. Associative Patterning still works
with Flood, the pattern updates to follow the change in the boundaries.
This method is very useful to pattern areas between a set of elements,
none of which need to be closed.
9. Undo the move, then undo the pattern

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10. Select the tool again, same settings as above, but this time click the
down arrow to open the additional panel of the Tool Settings window
and check the Locate Interior Shapes box.
11. Hatch the area again, placing the data point to start the flood outside the
hole but inside the complex shape as before. The hole is kept clear this
time.
12. Delete the pattern.
13. Place a 2’ radius circle concentrically within the hole.
14. Select the Hatch Area tool, leave the settings as before except this time
check the Alternating Area box in the additional panel
15. Hatch the same area as before. With this setting, the hatching alternates
On and Off with alternate “areas within areas”.
16. Undo the pattern, then Undo the inner circle placement

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Cross Hatching
This tool only differs from Hatch Area in that it places a second set of
hatching lines, which have separate spacing and angle settings. Apart from
this, all the tool settings are the, so we will not repeat the methods used in
the earlier exercises. Additionally, all of the methods used in the following
exercises with the Crosshatch tool will work in a similar way if we used the
Hatch tool.

Intersection, Union and Difference

These classic Boolean symbolic logic operators are Methods available with
the Area related operations such as patterning. We will experiment with
them using Crosshatching

Exercise 98 - Crosshatching with Symbolic Logic

1. If it is not already open, Open “Exercise AreaWorks.dgn”
2. Make level 2 active and turn all other levels off.

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3. Select the Crosshatch Area tool, Method: Union, Spacing: 1’ and 2’,
Angle: 45° and -45°, Associative Pattern: Checked, Snappable Pattern:
Unchecked.
4. Identify and accept the 2 complex shapes in turn, then Reset to place
the crosshatching. The region proposed for patterning is updated with
each closed element that we identify. We have only identified 2, but
there is virtually no limit to the number of closed elements included.
5. Undo the hatching
6. Select the Crosshatch Area tool again, changing the Method to
Intersection.
7. Identify the 2 complex shapes, note how the region updates, Reset to
place the crosshatching. The only area patterned is where the shapes
intersect.
8. Undo the hatching
9. Move the vertical shape to overlap one hole.
10. Select the Crosshatch Area once more, Method: Difference.
11. Identify the larger shape (which is to be the base), then the vertical
shape to subtract from this, accept the combination and Reset to place
the crosshatching. Take care to identify the element we need as the
primary area and then the elements to subtract from this.
12. Undo the pattern (or Delete Pattern) and the last Move operation.

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Standalone Patterns

We may need to create a pattern without any elements, for example to show
a pattern on a large object without it covering the whole lot and possibly
hiding other geometry. We have two methods for this operation, Fence and
Points.

Exercise 100 - Patterning Without Boundary

Elements
1. If it is not already open, open “Exercise AreaWorks.dgn”
2. Make level 2 active
3. Turn all other levels off
4. Place a Fence, Fence Type: Circle (Fence Mode has no effect with this
tool) in a clear area, make the fence circle smaller than either shape.
5. Select the Crosshatch Area tool, Method: Fence, Spacing: 1’ and 1’,
Angle: 30° and -30°, Associative Pattern: Unchecked, Snappable
Pattern: Unchecked.
6. Accept the pattern with a data point, click Place Fence to remove the
fence, Update the view. The pattern has no boundary; any attempt to
manipulate it will show it is composed of many individual lines.
7. Undo the hatching, replace the fence, select the Crosshatch Area tool
again, this time checking the Associative Pattern box.

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8. Accept the pattern with a data point; remove the fence, Update the
view. The pattern is bounded by a multi-sided shape, with a color, line
style and line weight all of 0. The pattern and its boundary may now be
manipulated as one, including being deleted with the ordinary Delete
tool.
9. Delete the hatching. While we used a Circle fence type, we could use a
shape, block or any other type of fence.

10. Select the Crosshatch Area tool, Method: Points, Associative Pattern:
Off.
11. Place an imaginary shape with data points, Reset when the last vertex is
placed. If we chose to place this as an Associated Pattern, an associated
shape would have been generated, as it was with the Fence method.

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Patterning with Cells

This is where the patterns become more lifelike. There are hundreds of
pattern cells supplied with MicroStation and there is no limit to the number
of pattern cells we can create for ourselves. A pattern cell is really no
different in the way it is created or stored than any other cell. While we can
make a pattern out of any cell, specialized cells will normally be designed
for this function.
Point type cells (see “Graphic vs. Point Type Cells” in the previous chapter)
are most commonly used for patterning, as they take on the level and
symbology active when the pattern is being created. This gives us full
control of the attributes of the pattern, instead of the creator of the pattern
cell.

Exercise 101 - Patterning an Element

1. If it is not already open, open “Exercise AreaWorks.Dgn”
2. Make level 2 active
3. Turn off all other levels
4. Set all of the symbology attributes to 0.
5. Select the Pattern Area tool, click the magnifying glass icon beside the
Pattern Cell field to open the Cell Library dialog box. Attach
“BENMD.cel” from our allocated cell directory
6. Highlight RANRBL (a rubble wall patterning cell), click the Pattern
button to make it the active patterning cell, close the dialog box.

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7. Return to the Pattern Area tool, Method: Element, Scale: .025, Row &
Column Spacing: both 0, Angle: 0°, Tolerance: 1’, Associative Pattern:
Checked, Snappable Pattern: Unchecked.
8. Identify the perforated complex shape, then data point anywhere to
define the pattern intersection point. The “rubble” pattern is placed, but
the Tolerance setting of 1’ is too great. Note that the pattern does not
follow around the arcs and circles very closely, in fact it may be as
much as 1’ away in places.
9. Change the Tolerance setting to 0.1’ (1.2”).
10. Undo the previous pattern
11. Repeat the Pattern Area operation. The closer tolerance improves the
result. Technically, the pattern actually follows an invisible shape with
a series of straight segments, approximating the curves. The Tolerance
setting defines how far the segments are permitted to depart from the
curves.

How Pattern Cells Fit Together

We used a Row Spacing and Column Spacing of 0 when we patterned the

complex shape in the last exercise. This setting differs from the Spacing
settings with the hatching and crosshatching tools, where it relates to the
distance between each repeat of the (line) pattern. With cells, the row and
column spacings are usually left at zero, as the distance between the repeats
of the cell is set by the maximum x and y dimensions of the cell. Any
spacings appear as gaps between the cell repeats. We will experiment with
more patterning, using our familiar “AircrT” cell.

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Exercise 99 - Investigate Cell Patterns

1. If it is not already open, Open “Exercise AreaWorks.Dgn”
2. Make level 2 active
3. Turn all other levels off
4. Make all of the symbology attributes set to 0.
5. Turn Fill Off in the View Attributes dialog box.
6. Use the Place Block tool to place a 4’ wide by 3’ high rectangle in a
clear area of the view. Use Window Area to enlarge the display.
7. Select the Pattern Area tool, click the magnifying glass icon beside the
Pattern Cell field to open the Cell Library dialog box. Attach the cell
library that we created earlier from our cell directory.
8. Highlight AircrT, click the Pattern button to make it the active
patterning cell, close the dialog box.
9. Return to the Pattern Area tool, Method: Element, Scale: 1, Row &
Column Spacing: both 0, Angle: 0°, Tolerance: 1’, Associative Pattern:
Checked, Snappable Pattern: Unchecked.
10. Identify the block just placed, and then snap to the lower-left corner to
define the pattern intersection point. The cells are placed wingtip-to-
wingtip, with the nose of one aligned with the rear of the tail of the
next.

11. Change both the Spacing settings to 0.1’ (1.2”).

12. Undo the previous pattern, repeat the Pattern Area operation. There is
no need to delete the existing pattern because the new one will
overwrite the old.
Let us assume that this spacing is just right and we want to modify the cell
so that it always patterns with this “spaced out” effect, but without the need
to remember the spacing each time. To arrange this, we would need to
increase the space occupied by each cell, but without adding any visible
geometry. We can do just this - Active Points are invisible when they are in
Cells used in Patterns.

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 7 Enclosed Areas
We will make a version of this cell to use for patterning, with an Active
Point placed at the top-left, .1’ above and behind the existing cell. We could
edit the cell in its library, but then it would not be usable as a terminator any
more. Whilst active points are invisible in patterns, they are not in any other
type of cell placement.

Exercise 103 - Creating a Spaced Patterning Cell

1. If it is not already open, Open “Sample Library.Cel”
2. Copy the AircrT model to AircrP model
3. Activate the AircrP model
4. Move all the elements so that the left tail wing is at a coordinate of .1,
.1
5. Change the active weight to 10
6. Place a Point at coordinate 0,0
7. Highlight the new cell and make it the Pattern cell; select the Pattern
Area tool, Row and Column Spacing: both 0, the rest of the settings as
used in the preceding exercise, pattern the rectangle. The pattern will be
spaced in the same way as when we included Row and Column
Spacings, but now it may be placed consistently with the default
settings.

Regions
The Create Region tool is in the Groups tool box, along with Create
Complex Shape. Like Create Complex Shape, Create Region creates
complex shapes from other elements, but using different techniques. This
tool creates a complex shape from a defined Area, the methods to define
which are already becoming familiar.
We will find a common set of Methods if we examine the Tool Settings
windows of Create Region, Measure Area, Hatch Area, Crosshatch Area
and Pattern Area. We have been introduced to all of these methods, but not
in conjunction with all of the tools. They operate with total consistency
between the tools, so if we can use them with one, we can use them with all.
Figure 8.20 shows just how similar the choices of Method are when dealing
with Areas, even when the tools are taken from three different tool boxes.

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Create Region Tool

Complex shapes are created by this tool from an existing Area. The
particular area may either be defined by the symbolic logic operators or by
“flooding” the region. The new element’s symbology will be that which is
active at the time the tool is used, unaffected by the original elements. The
original elements may either be kept, or replaced by the new Region
element.
We will also be introduced to the Smart Match tool, which is used to set the
active attributes to match those of an identified element. We will Match the
attributes to one of the complex shapes, and then place a line across one of
the shapes with these attributes.

Exercise 100 - Creating Regions

1. If it is not already open, Open “Exercise AreaWorks.Dgn”
2. Window about the “crossed” complex shapes
3. Delete any residual patterns as necessary.
4. Select the Smart Match tool from the Change Attributes tool box
5. Identify one of the complex shapes.
6. Place a line diagonally across the larger complex shape, as shown in
Figure 37.
7. Choose different symbology for the Region elements, selecting a
heavier line weight and a contrasting color to the original elements

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Figure 37
8. Select the Create Region tool from the Groups tool box, Method:
Intersection, Fill Type: None, Keep Original: Checked.
9. Identify the 2 complex shapes in turn, then Reset to create the complex
shape.
10. Move the new shape to the side of the originals (if the wrong element
starts to move, Reset to select another).
11. Repeat with the other 2 logical methods.
12. Choose the Flood method, Locate interior shapes: Unchecked,
Maximum gap: 0, data point in the left section of the larger complex
shape beneath the diagonal line.
13. Accept the flood generated shape, move this shape away from the
originals. Note that the exposed part of the “perforation” circle is still
used to shape the region, even though Locate Interior Shapes is
unchecked. The “Flood” cannot flow all around it as it could when we
used this method for hatching earlier.

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Linear Patterning
Cells can be placed along a line, replacing the original line. This is an
alternative to Custom Line Styles, where special line styles are created (not
included in this course). The guide lines can be any linear element,
including curves. The length of pattern elements may not divide equally into
the length of the line, so there are Cycle options in the tool settings to cope
with this situation. The options are:
Truncated - The end pattern element is truncated to the end of the line work
being patterned
Complete - The scale of the pattern cell is adjusted as necessary so that only
complete instances are placed
Single - Placed with one cell instance on each segment
Multiple - Similar to Complete, except that the scale of the pattern cell is
adjusted to only place complete instances on each Segment of the linear
element being patterned.

Exercise 101 - Create a Linear Pattern

1. If it is not already open, Open “Exercise AccuWorks.Dgn”
2. Set level 40 active
3. Turn Off all others

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4. Use the Place Smart Line tool to place a complex chain as shown in
Figure 38.
5. Make 2 copies of the complex chain to one side, 4’ apart (making 3
elements in total)

Figure 38
6. Select the Linear Pattern tool, Cycle: Single, select AircrT as the
Pattern cell (attach our Student cell library if necessary), leave the Scale
and Tolerance at the default values.
7. Identify one of the complex chains near one end, then again near the
opposite end to “Define direction” and complete the pattern. A single
cell replaces each segment of the complex chain, taking on the
attributes of the chain. The cells are placed at the midpoint of each
segment, as shown in Figure 39. A “dashed” version of the original line
has been shown in the illustration to show the relative positions of the
cells.
8. Change the Cycle setting to Multiple, identify both ends of another
copy of the chain. Multiple places a complete number of complete cells
in place of each segment, spacing them out to fill the segments.
9. Change the Cycle setting to Complete, identify both ends of the third
copy of the chain. Complete places a complete number of cells in place
of the whole element, changing the scale as necessary to exactly match
the length of the element. Zoom in to note the differences.

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Figure 39

Challenge Exercise – Design a Concrete Wall

Create a new DGN in our allocated directory named “Tilt Up Wall”, using
the seed file Bridgeseed2d.dgn. Design a wall component intended for pre-
cast concrete construction as specified in Figure 8.25, on level 43. After
completing the design to the stage shown (excluding the patterning) in
Figure 40:

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• Measure and record the area and the mass of the wall component
• Place a 3” diameter hole in the wall 1’ from the top, to be used as a
lifting point. This is to be positioned laterally to ensure that the base of
the wall shall be horizontal when lifted by a crane from this lifting point.
• Recalculate the area and mass and record, then pattern the wall using a
scale of .025.

Figure 40

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8 References
A Reference Attachment, or Reference for short, is a method of attaching
other drawing models or images to the active model. In general, any
drawing model and an image file or raster file can be attached.
Before we get to the rules about how reference files work let’s think about
why reference files are used in the first place. Probably the most important
reason is that on most projects more than one person needs to be working on
the drawings at any given time. Since MicroStation only allows a single user
to edit any given DGN at any one time, we often segregate “chunks” of data
into separate DGN files. For example, on a typical highway project, two
major chunks of data that might be separated are the proposed Edge of
Pavements and the Storm Drainage. By separating these into different DGN
files, one user can work on the Edge of Pavements DGN while the other
works on the Storm Drainage DGN.
Once we realize that it is helpful to separate chunks of data like this, we
should also realize that we need a mechanism to put them back together to
make plan sheets etc. Reference files also serve this purpose. However, as
you might expect, there are rules that come along with using references.
• DGN Elements can only be added to the active model in the active
DGN, not to referenced models.
• DGN Elements in a reference can be snapped to, displayed, or even
copied into the active model.
• Raster image files such as “TIFF” and “JPEG” files may also be
attached as references. These attachments differ from DGNs in that it is
possible to modify these while they are attached. Accordingly, we will
usually make a copy of these files before any modifications take place.
• Reference Attachments are not a “snapshot” of the referenced file at a
certain time, they are a “live” connection to the Reference file that will
be updated each time we open the Active file. We may also choose to
“reload” the attachment to see the latest version while the active model
remains open.
• We can have as many reference files attached as we need, either from
the same DGN, or from any other DGN. We can combine large numbers
of individual files and raster images to produce a single drawing, using
the Referencing technique.

Objectives
When you have completed this chapter, you will be able to:

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• Attach Reference DGNs and Raster References, using Coincident and

Saved View modes.
• Manipulate both Design and Raster format reference attachments.
• Control the display of references with the individual Level and Level
Symbology settings.
• Integrate DGN and Raster reference geometry with the active design for
document production.

Attaching and Detaching

When attaching reference files, we need to pay careful attention to the
options we choose because they can affect the results dramatically. Because
PennDOT uses MicroStation, we will ignore any options related to
AutoCAD.
In general, the process is to pick a file to attach, define the attachment
method, and if applicable, define which model within the DGN to attach and
then place the reference. We will focus only on the most common ways to
attach reference files here. The help provided with MicroStation can be used
to understand the other attachment modes. The methods we will be most
concerned with are:
• Coincident
• Coincident World
• Interactive
Before we discuss what each of these methods mean we need to take a
second and discuss a little about how MicroStation works. For simplicity we
will only discuss 2D files here, but the same principle applies to 3D files as
well.
For this discussion, think of a 2D model in MicroStation as a very large
piece of paper, called the Design Plane. By default MicroStation puts the
coordinate 0,0 precisely in the middle of the design plane. If we wanted to
draw something that was larger than ¼ of the paper, and we only wanted to
use positive coordinates, we would have to adjust the location of the
coordinate 0,0 to a different part of the paper, say the lower left corner.
MicroStation allows us to do this by setting what is called a “Global
Origin”.

Note:
In practice, the design plane is enormous, so large in fact that it is very rare to
really need to move the global origin. This is in contrast to older versions of
MicroStation where the need was more pronounced.

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Global Origins are a complex and somewhat confusing topic. Rather than
have an exhaustive discussion here, we will simplify the concept enough to
illustrate only how the Global Origin can affect references and why we
should care.

Coincident
When reference files are attached coincidentally, it means that the design
plane (or cube in 3D) is aligned, regardless of coordinates. Consider the
following examples:
Assuming that the global origin was the default location (in the middle of
the page) in both pieces of paper. When attached coincidentally it would
look like this.

Now, if we take two files that have different global origins defined but use
the same coordinates as the previous example, this is what would happen.

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Most of the time this is not what we want, so what do we do if we have

different global origins and still want the coordinate 0,0 in model A to align
with 0,0 in Model B? We use a different attachment mode.

Coincident World
The coincident world attachment mode lines up the global origins. For
example:

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This is not to say that the Coincident World option always is correct, the
following example shows how you might get unexpected results.

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Caution:
This is not to say that the Coincident World is always correct.
If you get unexpected results from attaching reference files and can not
understand the issue based on what is presented in this chapter, then you should
contact the Cad Support unit for assistance.

Note:
If the Global Origins in the master and reference files are the same, then the
Coincident and Coincident World method have identical results.

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Interactive
The interactive method will open the Attachment Settings Dialog so that the
user can interactively determine how to attach the reference. Note that the
user could choose to orient that reference using the Coincident or
Coincident World options in this dialog as well.

Let’s review the dialog so we understand what all the fields are for.
At the top of the dialog we see the File Name and Full Path to the file.
These serve only to inform the user of which drawing they are attaching.

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• Model – This is the model in the DGN to attach. This is usually the
Default model but could be a different model in the drawing.
• Logical Name – Recall that a model may be attached to the active file
more than once. In order to distinguish between them, MicroStation
allows us to enter a Logical Name for each attachment. So, while the file
name itself doesn’t have to be unique, the logical name does.
• Description – Allows the user to enter a textual description of what or
why the reference is attached.
• Orientation – This is what we have come previously called the
Attachment Method. It tells MicroStation how we want to orient the
attachment. In 3D files you can choose from Top, Front, Back views, in
2D you can only choose Top. Saved Views can also be used to define
the orientation. This is commonly used when placing a border as a
reference.
• Scale – Scales the reference up/down.
• True Scale – Understanding this option is a bit technical. Since this is a
beginning course, we will simplify to say; always have this checked on.
• Nesting – Controls how references are nested. (Discussed in more detail
later)
• Display Raster References – Causes Raster (image) references to be
displayed (more on this later).
• Options – Opens the Attachment Settings dialog

Exercise 102 – Attach a Reference (Coincident)

Before we actually attach any references, let’s discuss what we are trying to
do, and how we think it should look when we are done. For simplicity,
assume that there are only two chunks of data required for this project; the
boundary of the lot as defined in the deed and the edge of pavements of a
new road to be built within that lot. As is customary, the two chunks of data
were separated into two different DGN files to allow two drafters to work
on them simultaneously. You have been given the task of attaching the two
files together to get a complete picture of the project. When you are
finished, you expect it to look similar to the following illustration:

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Now that you know the goal, let’s give it at try.

1. Open CoincidentPlan.dgn. The drawing should look similar to the
following.

Since the goal shows this as being horizontal we should be concerned about
how this data was drawn. Upon examination we find that the elements were
drawn using real world coordinates and in the proper orientation.
2. Rotate the view such that the primary roadway is roughly horizontal.
(Hint use View rotation by 2 Points).
3. Select the References tool from the Primary Tools tool box to open the
References dialog box.

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4. Select the Attach Reference tool ( ) from the tool bar in the
Reference Dialog box. This will be the only icon not grayed out at this
stage, as the rest relate only to existing attachments.
5. Highlight CoincidentDeed.dgn and ensure that the Attachment Method
is set to Coincident and click OK.
6. Fit View to display all the elements in the active model as well as the
reference file(s). Your screen should now be similar to the following
illustration. If you look carefully you will see that the deed and the plan
are separated by a large distance.

When this happens, it is helpful to use another feature of the Fit View
command to “Find” the elements.

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7. Select Fit View, and set the Tool Settings as follows:

8. Datapoint in the view. Now only the active file is fit to the view.
9. Select Fit View again, and set the Tool Settings as follows:

10. Datapoint in the view. This time, only the reference file’s elements
were fit to the view.
11. Fit View with the settings as follows:

12. Because you didn’t actually create the drawings and haven’t taken the
time to familiarize yourself with them, you really don’t know why the
deed and plan are separated by such a large distance. The next steps
will show you one way to figure out what to do.
Figuring out what to do is really a two step process
• Determine if each file was drawn using real world coordinates with the
correct orientation.
• Determine if the Global Origin is the same for both drawings
13. Since we’re unsure about what is going on, un-rotate the view
14. Fit the view on just the active drawing
15. Tentative Snap to the lower left corner of the roadway as shown in the
following illustration. Look at the coordinates that are displayed in the
Message Center. They appear to be 2123487.4596, 293362.7041. More
than likely these coordinates are just to “odd” to be assumed
coordinates. So we’ll assume that they are correct “real world”
coordinates.

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16. Open CoincidentDeed.Dgn and ensure that the view is not rotated.

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17. By zooming in on any of the lines, we see labels for bearings and
distances. Checking a few, we decide that the deed appears to be drawn
in the correct orientation. So let’s check the coordinates.
18. Tentative snap to the endpoint of the line as shown in the next
illustration and notice the coordinates that are displayed in the message
center. (they are 818.7889, -3754.6804 )

While these coordinates are still “odd” enough to not mean they are
assumed, the presence of a negative coordinate should raise a mental flag.
19. Tentative snap to the point shown in the following illustration, and
notice that the coordinates are 0,0…..very suspicious!

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We are now fairly certain that the drafter who was responsible for drawing
the deed used assumed coordinates which is causing us problems. So we
have essentially two choices about how to fix the problem:
• We could move the boundary to the correct real world coordinates
• We could leave it where it is and change how we attached the reference
file.
Since it is generally preferable to fix the incorrect data let’s move the deed
to the correct coordinate.

Important:
In practice, when real world coordinates are know, they should always be used
because it avoids much confusion and extra effort for other people who may use
the file.
The natural exception to this is details which really don’t have real world
coordinates. Use the information you learn in this chapter to help you decide
which is best for your specific situation.

20. Select all the elements and move them to the correct coordinates using
the following illustration.

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21. Open CoincidentPlan.Dgn again. You still don’t see the deed. It should
look similar to the following illustration. (If you can’t see the elements,
use the same method as previously to draw a “helper” element.)

22. This still isn’t what we expected, what else could be wrong? The next
thing to check is if the Global Origins of the two files are different.
23. Keyin “go=$” to ask MicroStation to tell us where the GO is.
24. Review the message center and make note of the values shown there.
(2147483.6480, 2147483.6480). The actual meaning of these values is
not relevant, just note what they are.
25. Open CoincidentDeed.DGN again.

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26. Keyin “go=$” and check the values displayed in the message center.
(0,0). Again, the actual meaning of the values is not important.
Since the values are not the same as the values in CoincidentPlan.Dgn we
know the GO’s do not align. Since we used the Coincident Attachment
method, we again have to decide how to fix the problem. Do we change the
GO in one of the files, move and rotate the reference file or choose a
different attachment method?
Changing the GO is not terribly difficult, but it has far reaching
consequences, confusing and tedious so it is not generally considered a good
choice unless it is absolutely mandatory. So should we consider moving and
rotating the reference or should we choose to use a different attachment
method.
Because we know that the coordinates of each file are correct (now that we
fixed them) we can use the Coincident World attachment method instead.

Exercise 103 – Attach a Reference (Coincident

World)
27. Open CoincidentWorldPlan.dgn.
28. Select the References tool from the Primary Tools tool box to open the
References dialog box
29. Select the Attach tool from the tool bar in the Reference Dialog box.

30. This will be the only icon not grayed out at this stage, as the rest relate
to existing attachments. The Attach Reference dialog opens.

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31. Highlight CoincidentWorldDeed.dgn and ensure that the Attachment
Method is set to Coincident World and click OK. Recall that the
Coincident World method will ensure that the files are properly aligned
when attached.
32. Rotate the view so that the roadway is horizontal and finally we have
what we started out trying to do.

Exercise 104 – Attach a Reference (Interactive)

For this exercise we are going to pretend that we know the global origins are
not the same in the master and reference file and assume that the
CoincidentWorld attachment method would not work.
1. If it is not already open, open InteractivePlan.dgn.
2. Click on the Attach Reference tool in the references tool box
3. Select the CoincidentWorldDeed.dgn and set the attachment method to
“Interactive”. Note that most of the other choices are grayed out. This is
because we are working in a 2D file and the other options only apply to
a 3D file.
4. Click OK to open the Reference Attachment Settings dialog

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5. Select the Top orientation and click OK.

6. Now we are prompted to datapoint where we would like to place the
center of the reference file elements. Datapoint near the road.
7. Move / Rotate reference as needed to place correctly.
While this example is not ideal, since we would prefer the Coincident World
attachment method, it illustrates how the command works. A more realistic
scenario is placing a border as a reference attachment.
We’ll discuss more about creating plan sheets later.

Manipulating Reference Attachments

References may be Moved, Copied, Scaled and Rotated in a similar manner
to ordinary elements, by using a special set of the Reference tools. The
operation of these tools is similar to their Element equivalents.

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Reference Tools
These tools are in a tool box named References, as well as on the icon bar of
the References dialog box. In practice, we will be able to work without the
intrusive dialog box much of the time, as most operations can be performed
using the tool box. The tool box is opened from the Main menu bar with
ToolsÆReferences and may be docked, preferably at the bottom of the
screen.

Note:
When using these tools from the stand alone dialog, you will generally be
prompted to graphically identify the reference file to manipulate. When using
the same tool from within the Reference dialog, you should first select the
reference(s) in the dialog to manipulate, and then choose the manipulation
command.

Figure 41
For simplicity we will skip a formal discussion of all of these tools and
jump straight into using some of them.

Exercise 105 – Rotate and Move Reference File

Recall from previous exercises that when we attached the
CoincidentDeed.Dgn to the CoincidentPlan.Dgn we found a problem with
the Global Origins. We fixed it by changing the attachment method in the
exercise for attaching a reference by Coincident World method.
In this exercise we will use some of the reference manipulation tools to
move and rotate the attachment of the CoincidentDeed.dgn. The rotation is
not really needed since it was drawn in the correct orientation, but it serves
the purpose of illustrating the commands.
1. If it is not already open, open Exercise MoveRotateReference.Dgn.
2. Window the area about the deed reference attachment.

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3. Select the Move Reference tool from the References tool box.

4. As prompted, identify an element in the reference file you want to

move.

5. While still in the move reference command, Fit View to the Active
model and click Reset once to end the zoom command.
6. Datapoint to place the reference close to where it should be. Your
screen should be similar to the following illustration.

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7. Now we need to move the midpoint of the “bottom” of the edge to the
endpoint of the left edge of the roadway.
8. Select Move Reference command
9. Use a Midpoint snap to identify the origin point of the move command
as shown in the following illustration.

10. Snap to the end of the roadway as shown in the following illustration to
place the reference file.

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Even though it serves no useful purpose in these files, we will rotate the
reference by an angle of 30.
11. Select the Rotate Reference tool from the Reference Tool box and enter
30 in the angle to rotate in the tool settings window.

12. Select the reference file, accept the rotation.

13. Fit All. Your screen should now look similar to the following
illustration

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Nested References
While PennDOT does not typically make use of nested references, they are
fairly easy to understand. Consider the situation where we have three DGN
files (A, B, C). If we attach C to B and then attach B to A, what happens to
C?
Here is how it would look if we opened each drawing without any
attachments:

Here is how B would look with C attached:

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So, what would A look like if we attached B? It depends on what option we

choose for Nesting. MicroStation supports three methods.

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• No Nesting – When attaching B to A, any file attached to B is ignored.

Which, using the previous illustrations, would look like this:

• Live Nesting – When attaching B to A, any reference file attached to B

will also be visible in A. If the Depth value were = 2 then it would mean
that any file attached to C would also be visible. On screen it would
appear as follows:

• Copy Nested References – When attaching B to A, any reference file

attached to B would also be attached to A. The drawing would now look
as follows:

You might have noticed that the result of Live Nesting and Copy reference
look the same, so what is the difference between them?

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The difference is that when we use Live Nesting, and examine the
attachments to A we will see only 1 – B. If after we had attached B,
someone else modified B so that it did not have C attached, we would not
see C anymore either. B is “directly” attached while C is “indirectly”
attached.
When using copy reference, both B and C are directly attached so that
removing C from B doesn’t affect A.
This is all kind of confusing, so let’s just do it and see what happens.

Exercise 106 – Nesting of Reference Files

1. If it is not already open, open Nested ReferenceD.dgn.
2. Ensure that no reference attachments exist.
3. Open Nested ReferenceC.dgn.
4. Ensure that no reference attachments exist.
5. Open Nested ReferenceB.dgn.
6. Ensure that no reference attachments exist then attach Nested
ReferenceC.dgn using the coincident world method.
7. Open Nested ReferenceA.dgn.
8. Ensure that no reference attachments exist then attach Nested
ReferenceB.dgn using the coincident world method.
9. Open the Reference Dialog. The screen should now look as follows:

10. Select Nested ReferenceB.dgn in the list of attachments.

11. Select SettingsÆAttachment from the menu

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12. Change the Nesting to Live Nesting and click OK.

13. Your screen should now look something like the following illustration.
Notice that there is only one reference attachment shown in the
references dialog box.

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14. Toggle the Display On/Off for B by clicking on the appropriate column
in the reference dialog. Notice how both B and C are turned on / off as
a unit.
15. Click the Show Hierarchy button in the tool bar of the References
Dialog to show the hierarchy of reference attachments. Expand the
columns as needed to see what is happening. The References dialog
should now look as follows:

16. Expand the hierarchy by clicking on the + signs. The dialog should now
look as follows:

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17. Notice how the master file (A) is selected on the left and the direct
attachments are shown on the right.
18. In the left pane, select B. Notice that now the right pane shows the
direct attachments to B which for now is only C.
19. Using the right pane, toggle on/off the attachment of C. When using the
more dynamic Live Nesting, this is how we gain individualized control
over the entire hierarchy of attachments.

20. In the left pane, select A and toggle off the display of B
21. Modify the logical Name of the B attachment to be “LiveB” by double
clicking on the file and entering the logical name in the Attachment
Settings dialog box.

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22. Open Nested ReferenceB.dgn and attatch Nested ReferenceD.dgn.

23. Open Nested ReferenceA.dgn. It should look as follows. Notice how
the display is dynamic.

24. Open Nested ReferenceB.dgn and remove the attachment for

Nested ReferenceD.dgn.

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25. Open Nested ReferenceC.dgn and attach Nested ReferenceD.dgn.
26. Open Nested ReferenceA.dgn. Notice how D no longer appears. This
has to do with the Depth we set for live nesting. D is now attached 2
levels below B. Since we specified a Depth of 1 it is ignored.
27. Change the Depth = 2 for Live B attachment. Notice how D reappears.
28. Delete the attachment for B.
29. Attach Nested Reference B.dgn again using the coincident world
method.
30. Modify its Logical Name to “Copy B”
31. Change its Nesting method to “Copy Attachments”. Notice how the
change to the Nesting method is rejected. This is because the Copy
Attachments only applies at the time of attachment, not after it has been
attached.
32. Delete the Attachment named Copy B
33. Attach the Nested ReferenceB.dgn again, this time using Interactive
method.
34. Choose Orientation = Coincident World
35. Choose Nesting = Copy Attachments
36. Click Ok. Your screen should now look as follows. Notice that there are
now 3 direct attachments to drawing A.

37. Open Nested ReferenceB.dgn and detach C.

38. Open Nested ReferenceA.dgn.
Notice that there is no change in A, there are still three direct attachments.
This is because the Copy References is a “Snap shot” of when it was
attached, while Live nesting is dynamic.

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Note:
While PennDOT does not use Live Nesting in general, you may see it when files
from an outside source are used.

Levels in Reference Files

We have individual control of the display of levels with every reference
attachment, which includes its Level Symbology. We have full control of
the amount of detail displayed of a reference, and/or its symbology, all
without affecting the active model.

The nested reference attachment to our Layout Sheet View for the Crown of
Road.dgn is an example where we can use this control to good effect.

Exercise 107 - Controlling Level Displays

1. Open Plan_1.dgn.
2. Select the Layout Sheet View. Note that this is a fully detailed version
from the Crown of Road.dgn, but all we need is the Crown of Road
outline (attributes Level 59, Color 6 (Blue), Style 0, and Weight 3).
3. Open the Level Display dialog box, using the Level Display tool from
the Primary tool box. When we have used this dialog box in the past,
we have not been concerned with the Target model; we have always
been working on the Active model. The other Target options are the
References.
4. Ensure that the Heirarchy of targets is displayed. You may have to
expand the section to make your form look as the illustration on the
following page. Please note when reference files are assigned Logical
Names and Assigned to Models. The normal listing from left to right is
the Logical Name, File Name, and then the Model Name.
5. Practice turning on and off levels in the different target models. When
finished, toggle off all levels in all target models except for the active
file (all levels should be on).
6. Select the Crown of Road.dgn, Crown Model, then turn ON level
number 59.

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7. Close the dialog box and Update the view. We now have the outline of
the Crown of Road along with all the elements contained in the active
file.

Clipping and Masking References

If we need to reduce the area of a reference to hide unwanted geometry, we
can Clip its outside Boundary. In the opposite sense, we can mask an area
within a reference boundary to hide the reference geometry.

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Clip Reference Tool

The Boundary that this tool uses to clip the reference to fit can be defined by
a Fence or by a closed Element. We will use this tool to remove a section of
the plan that extends beyond the sheet border in “plan_2.dgn”. We will
leave the original drawing intact, clipping a reference into a design file.

Exercise 108 – Clip Mask

1. Open Plan_2.dgn
2. Attach 6008755.con as a Reference using the following settings:

3. Fit the view, then window the area around the sheet border starting at
the top left and ending at the lower right. We are going to create a
Shape to define the area for the Clip operation. .
4. Make level 1 Active level, Color: 3 (Red), Style: 2, Weight:2.

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Select the Place Shape tool ( ), use the default tool settings. This tool
is an alternative to the Place Smartline tool we have previously used to
place shapes. It has the advantage of a Close Element option, which may
be useful if snaps were used and there were multiple elements close to
the ending point.

5. Place a shape similar to the one below. Be careful not to run the shape
outside the sheet border. Complete the shape by re-opening the Tool
Settings window (<Ctrl>+<Spacebar>) and clicking the Close button.

6. Select the Clip Reference tool, Method: Element, identify the shape as
the Clipping Element, then accept away from any geometry.

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7. Identify the Reference with a data point to any part of the sheet, accept
away from any geometry. The original is unchanged, but the referenced
file no longer exceeds the sheet border.

Modify Clip Boundary

When using an element to define the clip boundary, we can easily make
changes. While an element used to clip a reference remains in the model, it
continues to define the clip boundary. It follows that if we modify the
element, we will modify the area of the reference that is hidden. In the next
exercise, we will assume our client has just decided to remove part of the
left side of the reference file.

Exercise 109 – Modify Clip Boundary

1. If it is not already open, Open Plan_2.dgn
2. Display the shape created for clipping the reference file.
3. Fit the view if necessary. The clipped reference plan will be
displayed, along with the clipping shape.
4. Zoom in on the Right side in the middle of the sheet.

5. Select the Modify Element tool ( ) from the Main tool frame, snap to
the center of the right boundary, then move the cursor to the left.
Notice when the cursor is moved to the left it reduces the clipping
boundary and if it were moved to the right it increases.

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Before Modifying

After Modifying

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Delete Clip Boundary

We can delete a clip boundary at any time, whether it was defined by an
element or by a fence. A boundary defined by a fence is lost when it is
deleted, but we can delete a boundary while retaining any defining element,
which can be used to re-clip the reference later on.

Exercise 110 – Delete Clip Boundary

1. If it is not already open, open Plan_2.dgn
2. Turn off level 1 in the active file (this level contains the shape used to
define the clipping boundary in previous exercises).

3. Select the Delete Clip tool ( ), identify the reference attachment,

accept the deletion of the clip boundary.

Using a Fence to Define a Clip Boundary

A fence is often a more convenient way of defining a clip boundary than
using an element, as in the last exercise. The advantage of using a fence is
that there are less actions to perform. However, while AccuSnap assisted us
in placing the clipping element, snapping a fence vertex requires manual
snaps. The other disadvantage is that a fence is temporary, whereas a
clipping element may remain part of a model (perhaps hidden).
Since we already have a clipping shape that has been created and modified
to suit the clipping action required, we will use this as a basis for a fence
shape in the next exercise.

Exercise 111 - Clip Using a Fence

1. If it is not already open, open Plan_2.dgn
2. Display all levels in both the active and reference models.
3. Make the level 2 Active.
4. Place a Fence, Type: Element (Mode has no effect), identify the
clipping shape used to clip the sheet plan attachment.
5. Select the Clip Reference tool, Method: Fence, identify the Reference
with a data point to any part of the floor plan.
6. Accept away from any geometry. The sheet plan is clipped exactly as it
was with the Element method. We could have snapped the fence
directly to the reference geometry, but in this case we were able to use
the shape element to define it with one click of the mouse.

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Mask Reference Tool

This is the reverse of Clipping; the defined area hides a part of the reference.
A typical use is to hide some geometry from an existing model to allow
updated geometry to be placed. A fence is the only entity that can be used to
define the area to be masked.
We will use this tool to remove an internal linework from the Sheet plan .

Exercise 112 - Remove Internal Line Work

1. If it is not already open, open Plan_2.dgn
2. Place a Fence, Type: Shape (Mode has no effect) to include the center
section of the sheet.

3. Select the Mask Reference tool ( ), identify the reference

attachment.
4. Accept the masking. The linework that was included within the fence
boundary was removed.

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Exercise 113 - Unmask the Wall

1. If it is not already open, open Plan_2.dgn
2. Window the area about center of the sheet.

3. Select the Delete Clip tool ( ), identify the reference geometry. The
reference geometry will highlight, with two boundaries shown, in
contrasting symbology. We are prompted to “Select clip boundary or
mask”.
4. Select the Mask boundary (the internal one), then accept (once only).
The geometry and the remaining boundary remain highlighted, in case
we need to remove any more boundaries (which we do not).
5. Reset to complete the mask deletion. The internal line work reappears,
but the clipping about the outside is still in effect.

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Raster References
So far we have been working exclusively with “Vector” geometry, the
normal mode for virtually all computer based design applications. This
geometry is in the form of Elements which are defined in every way by data
in the design file, as we have seen when we have investigated Element
Information. When we view these elements, the image we see is re-created
from the numeric data each time we display or print it.
Raster images are “Bitmapped” images, usually composed of many
thousands of individual picture elements or “Pixels”, similar to tiny tiles in a
mosaic. An Image file contains information about color and brightness of
each of the “Pixels”, addressed by their row and column. There are a variety
of different image file formats, differing mainly in the system used to
compress the data. Each format has its own filename extension, such as
“.jpg”, “.tif”, “.pcx” and “.bmp”.
MicroStation supports these, and many more image file formats. They may
be attached by reference in a similar way to DGN models, but they have
their own special set of tools and dialog boxes. There are many possible
reasons for attaching raster images to a model, among them being to:
• Illustrate the completed project or models
• Publish information from “legacy” paper drawings that have been
Scanned to create Raster Image Files
• Create “Hybrid” drawings which are combinations of both Vector and
Raster elements
• To add a company logo or promotional images

Raster Tool Frame

This tool frame is opened from the Main menu bar, ToolsÆRasterÆMain.
It contains two tool boxes, Raster Display and Raster Control.

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Attaching Raster References

The process of attaching raster references is similar to that used with DGN
models. Most raster image formats do not have “real world” dimensions,
however, nor do they generally have any fixed coordinates. There are
exceptions to this, such as certain specialized geographic file formats, but
these are not covered in this course.
We are going to create a new design file and reference images to a Sheet
model within it. The first image we will reference is of a paper drawing,
which has been electronically scanned to enable it to be incorporated into a
MicroStation model. This image is fairly large in terms of “pixels”,
approximately 4000 by 3000, or 12,000,000 in total. We will use some of
the Raster Control tools to make the attachment and to manipulate it.

Exercise 114 – Attach Raster Reference

1. Create a new DGN in our allocated directory named
“RasterWorks.dgn”, using the “2dEnglishGeneral.dgn”seed file.

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2. Create a 2d Sheet Model named Raster Printout, with the description
Drawing sheet for raster front view. Have Model Manager create a
View Group, but this model will not be placed as a cell.
3. Attach “Letter Border.dgn” from our own ...\dgn directory, enter Border
as the Logical Name, select Coincident from the Orientation panel,
ensure that the Scale is 1:1, click OK and Fit the design.
4. Open the Raster Control tool box (ToolsÆ RasterÆControl). We will
not be using tools from the Raster Display tool box at this stage, so we
do not need the Raster Main tool frame open.
5. Select the Attach tool from the Raster Control tool box to open the
Attach Raster Reference dialog box.
6. Highlight the image file “ForeAndAft.tif” from our ...\dgn directory,
Logical Name: Front1, Description:
7. For front view port side, check Raster Preview, Place Interactively and
Open Raster Files Read-Only, click OK. The prompt reads “Enter
Origin” (if not, select the tool again), which will be the lower-left
corner of a rectangle defining the position and size of the image
attachment.

8. Data point just inside the lower-left corner of the border as the Origin
of the interactive attachment.
9. Complete the attachment with a data point near the right side, keeping
the displayed boundary rectangle within the border. The image may
take a short time to appear, as it is being copied from the image file into
the DGN. It is at an indefinite angle, which is not unusual for scanned
images. The paper original may have passed through the scanner at
almost any angle.

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Manipulating Raster References

The tools for manipulation and modification of Raster images are different
in many ways to those we have used on Vector geometry. Since raster
images are composed of independent Pixels, what we would consider to be a
single DGN (vector) line element may consist of thousands of Picture
Elements (pixels). MicroStation snaps (AccuSnap or Manual) do not work
with raster images, so we need to place points visually when we are
manipulating this data.
The boat image we have already referenced is from a “real” set of plans
drawn in the days before Computer Aided Design. Actual dimensions are
available, so we are able to scale the image so that it prints out “to scale”. In
the following exercise, we will rotate the image to be upright in the border
and ready to be printed out at a scale of 1:12, or one inch to the foot.
The process we will use falls in to the category of a Warp in this context,
although we are really only going to rotate and scale it. We will place an
ordinary line in the model, which will be placed vertically and be the scaled-
down length of the keel appendage. This will be used as the standard to
match the size and rotation of the image to, providing what is known as
Monument Points for the image Warp operation.

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Exercise 115 - Warping the Image

1. With the Raster Printout sheet model of
“Exercise 120 RasterWorks.dgn” open, place a 4.5” vertical line
crossing the midpoint of the bottom of the drawing border, projecting
0.5” into the drawing area.
2. Window tightly about the tip of the keel, as shown
3. Select the Warp tool, Method: Similitude (Move, Scale, Rotate), data
point the middle of the intersection of the center line and the keel tip to
“Enter Image Point”.
4. Use View Previous to show the vertical line; manually keypoint snap to
the bottom end of the line to “Enter monument point”.

5. Window tightly about the root of the keel.

6. Reset back to the Warp tool; data point the middle of the intersection of
the center line of the keel and the bottom of the “skeg” for the next
Image Point.
7. Use View Previous to return to the vertical line; manually Keypoint
snap to the top end of the line to “Enter monument point”. We are
prompted to enter another image point, but with this method we only
need these two “Image/Monument Pairs” to define the position, size
and orientation of the image.
8. Reset to complete the operation and the image will resize, reposition
and rotate to be upright.

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We now have an image that is half front view, half back view that we could
print out to scale. It has been decided that we want a front view only,
however, and that it is to be of both sides. We only have one side, but we
can safely assume that the boat is symmetrical, so we can use a Mirrored
version of the same image for the other side. Our next job is to clip away the
back view half of the existing attachment, attach the image again, mirror it,
warp it as before, then clip this attachment’s back view part.

Clipping Raster References

Raster images are clipped in a similar way to Design model references,
except there is a third option for defining the clipping boundary. With DGN
models, we could clip either using a Fence or an Element; with raster we
can use these plus a Block option. Generally, we will not have snaps
available to help us define the boundary, so it will be necessary to window
in on the relevant parts of the image to place the vertices. In the following
exercise, however, the vertical line is still in place from our Warp exercise,
so we can use this to help in defining the clip boundary, a Block in this case.

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Exercise 116 - Hide the Back View

1. With the Raster Printout sheet model of
“Exercise 121 RasterWorks.dgn” open, use the Fit View tool with
Raster as the Files option to zoom to the area about the image.
2. Select the Clip tool from the Raster Control tool box, Method: Block,
Mode: Clip Boundary.
3. Manually Keypoint snap the first point of the clipping block to the
bottom of the vertical line used to provide the monument points in the
previous exercise.
4. Place the opposite corner of the block above and to the right of the
image, accept the clip. The front view half remains, the back view half
is hidden.

Mirroring an Image
This tool operates in a similar manner to its “vector” equivalent. We will
use it to create a new side (a “starboard” side in boating terms) to complete
the front view. We do not have a copy function, so we will attach the image
a second time and clip it as before, then mirror the front view about the
vertical line.

Exercise 117 - Create the Starboard Side

1. Select the Attach tool from the Raster Control tool box to open the
Attach Raster Reference dialog box.
2. Highlight the image file “ForeAndAft.tif” from our ...\dgn directory,
Logical Name: Front2, Description: For front view starboard side,
check Place Interactively and Open Raster Files Read-Only, click OK.
3. Place data points within the border to define the bottom-left and the
top-right corners of the reference display.
4. Repeat the two exercises “Warping the Image” and “Hide the Back
View” providing a second version of the front view, overlaying the
first.
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5. Open the Raster Manager Dialog box; ensure that the attachment with
the logical name Front2 is highlighted.
6. Select the Mirror tool, Mirror About: Vertical, Specify Axis Location:
Checked, manually snap to the vertical line, Reset the tool and close the
Raster Manager dialog box.

Moving Raster References

Raster attachments are moved using the Modify tool from the Raster
Control tool box. Only one image at a time may be moved, but since the tool
is able to be controlled by AccuDraw, moving multiple attachments by the
same amount does not present any problems. We will apply this in the
following exercise. The combined images making up the front view of the
boat are not centered in the boundary, so we will move them up and to the
left.

Exercise 118 - Move the Front View

1. With the Raster Printout model in “Exercise 123 RasterWorks” open,
select the Raster Selection tool from the Raster Control tool box, select
one of the reference attachments. The outside boundary of the
attachment highlights.
2. Ensure that AccuDraw is operating, select the Modify tool from the
Raster Control tool box (no settings required), data point inside the area
of the image, away from any of the “Handles”.
3. Move the image 0.3” (:.3) to the left and .5” (:.5) upward. Only one half
moves.

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4. Select the other raster attachment, repeat the previous 2 steps. The two
images will now be reunited more centrally in the border, but the keel
still protrudes outside the boundary. We will mask it out later.
5. Delete the 4.5” long vertical line used for defining the rotation and
scale of the images.

Masking Raster References

We use the Clip tool for both clipping at a boundary and for masking Raster
references. It will be used in the next exercise to mask the unwanted bottom
section of the keel and the vertical linework in the center of the front view
just created.

Exercise 119 - Masking Raster References

1. With the Raster Printout model in “Exercise 124 RasterWorks” open,
window about the keel section of the view.
2. Select the Raster Selection tool, select one of the images.
3. Place a Fence, Type: Block from just above the border (the top of the
vertical line that we used for Monument Points is suitable), to include
all of the lower section of the keel.
4. Select the Clip tool from the Raster Control tool box, Method: Fence,
Mode: Clip Mask, “Accept the fence as the clipping polygon” as
prompted.
5. Repeat the previous step, but with the other attachment selected.

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6. Repeat steps 3, 4 and 5 for all of the sections of vertical line at the
center where the two images join. Take care not to remove the
horizontal line work.
7. Select the Raster Selection tool, data point away from the images to de-
select any images still selected.

More Manipulations
We have been introduced to the Raster Control tools, but not to all of the
facilities they offer. We will be working with a colored image in the
following exercises, where we will be introduced to more warping and
rotation operations.

Affine Warps

This warp method will change the proportions of an image, not just its
overall scale as with the other methods.

Exercise 120 – Fitting Image into Area

1. With the Raster Printout model in “Exercise 125 RasterWorks” open,
Pan the view to a clear area, about the same size as the border.
2. Place a Block 8” wide by 2” high on the Default level.

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3. Attach the image file “BEN Logo.jpg” interactively, with the Logical
Name of Logo1. Position it inside the block, leaving some space around
it, as in Figure 42. The broken line boundary displayed around the
attachment indicates it is already Selected. We are going to Warp the
image to fit the block, which will involve changing its x and y scale by
different ratios.
4. Select the Warp tool, Method: Affine (Move, Scale, Rotate, Skew);
Window Area about one corner of the image; Reset back to the Warp
tool and place an Image Point on the corner.
5. View Previous back to the larger area; Manually snap to the
corresponding corner of the block as a Monument Point.

Figure 42
6. Repeat the operation to place Image/Monument point pairs on all 4
corners, then Reset to complete the Warp. The image has changed in
proportions and position to fit the block, Affine being the only one of
the three available Warp methods that will change the image like this.
We will now try increasing the degree of Warp further.
7. Undo the warp
8. Use the Modify Element tool to identify the block near the midpoint of
its bottom segment and “shear” it approximately as shown in Figure 43.
9. Repeat the Affine Warp as in steps 4, 5 and 6. The image and
monument points are forced to coincide.
10. Delete the block (the raster image will remain). Use the Place Shape
tool to place an irregular 4-sided shape around the image as shown at
the bottom of Figure 8.35; repeat the Affine Warp again. A “ready
warped” image may be warped again. In this case, the shape was not a
parallelogram, so the image only approximates the area of the shape.

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Figure 43

Raster Display Tools

This tool box may be opened from the Raster Main tool frame, or directly
from the Main menu bar. It holds tools for changing the appearance of
images.

Exercise 121 - Changing the Image Display

1. With the Raster Printout model in “Exercise 126 RasterWorks” open,
ensure that the “BEN Logo.jpg” attachment is in the view.
2. Delete the shape previously used to provide monument points.
3. Attach the “BEN Logo.jpg” interactively with the Logical Name of
Logo2 so that it overlaps the existing attachment without hiding it, as in
Figure 44.
4. Select the Raster Selection tool from the Raster Control tool box, select
the original (warped) image.
5. Select the Bring To Front tool from the Raster Display tools, Action:
To Front, click the data button to bring the original image to the front.

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6. Select the Send To Back tool from the Raster Display tools, Action: To
Back, click the data button to return the original image to the back

Figure 44
7. With the warped image still selected, open the Raster Manager with the
tool from the Raster Control tool box. Note that the image with the
highlighted border is also highlighted in the Raster Manager Dialog
box.
8. Highlight the attachment with the logical name Logo2 in the Raster
Manager. Now the image highlighted in the Raster Manager Dialog box
has the highlighted border.
9. Select the Raster Selection tool from the Raster Control tool box, data
point in a clear area of the view to de-select all images. The highlights
are cleared from both the dialog box and the image boundary.
10. Highlight logical Logo1 (the warped image); choose Detach from the
dialog box File menu. An Alert box opens, make sure that the warped
image has the highlighted boundary (move dialog boxes as necessary),
click Yes. The warped raster reference is detached, leaving only one
logo image (plus the boat images).

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Exercise 1226 – Experiment with Image Display

Tools
1. With the Raster Printout model in “Exercise 127 RasterWorks” open,
ensure that the remaining “BEN Logo.jpg” attachment is in the view;
Select it (see previous exercise).
2. Select the Fit to View tool, Mode: Selected Rasters, data point
anywhere in the view. Only one Raster attachment was selected, so this
is now fitted to the screen. We could have selected more than one by
holding down the <Ctrl> key while selecting subsequent attachments,
either with the Raster Selection tool or in the Raster Manager.
3. Examine the quality of the image (sharpness in particular), then select
the Actual Resolution (1:1) tool. Data point on the logo. This tool
changes the magnification to make one image pixel equal to one screen
pixel, mainly for quality judgment purposes.
4. Select the Contrast/Brightness tool. Experiment with different settings,
either using the sliders or by keying in + or – percentages into the
fields.

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Challenge Exercise - Add a Logo to the Drawing

Using the tools for both types of reference, replace the Vector “Bentley”
logo with the Raster image “BEN Logo 2.jpg” in the drawing border of the
existing Raster Printout sheet model in “RasterWorks.dgn”.
Allow a small amount of clear area between the logo and the title block line
work, as shown.

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This chapter introduces the general concepts of text, but not of
dimensioning, which is the subject of a chapter by itself.
A Model, especially a Sheet model, will almost invariably need to have text
placed in it. This text may be as complex as a complete list of materials for a
project, or as simple as the name of a view. It may be input directly into
MicroStation’s “word processor” style text editor, or created by another
application and imported. A virtually unlimited number of Fonts may be
used, including the huge range of TrueType fonts.
The text facilities available in MicroStation are comprehensive. As well as
placing text for titles, descriptions etc.; text may be placed in the form of
notes with leader lines and arrowheads, or as entries to prepared Enter Data
Fields. Once placed, the text may be edited, with the usual word processor
functions such as Find and Replace available.

Objectives
When you have completed this chapter, you will be able to:
• Label a design with text having the required set of attributes
• Place text by a variety of methods to orient it as required
• Place multi-line text, either created in the internal text editor, or
imported from another program
• Place Empty Text Nodes and Enter Data Fields to define the attributes
and position of text to be placed later.

Text in General
Text is a type of MicroStation element, with symbology and level attributes
like any other. Most of the tools that manipulate and modify other elements
will also affect text, but there are a large collection of tools for text alone.
There are also some View Attributes that are specific to the display of text
elements. These are Text, Data Fields and Text Nodes. For instance, if Text
is not checked on, text elements will not be displayed.

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Text Tool Box

The range of tools available in this tool box is displayed below. We will be
introduced to all of them in this chapter.

Figure 45

Text Styles
A Text Style is a set of text attributes which will normally be saved for re-
use, either within the DGN where it is being applied, or (preferably)
externally for general application. We will start by examining the range of
these attributes, defining some of these and placing a text label.

Exercise 123 - Place Text

1. If it is not already open, Open TextChanges.dgn.
2. Select the Place Text tool. The word processor Text Editor Dialog box
opens, as well as the Tool Settings window.
3. Click the magnifying glass Browse icon to open the Text Styles Dialog
box, ensure that the General tab settings are displayed. The settings we
will make now are all in the Value column. Some rows will be grayed
out until we turn them on.

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4. Set the following attributes - Font: PENNDOT_SLANTED, Color:
Checked (click the Color row to highlight it, then click the Value
column), Color Value: 3 (Red), Underline and Overline: both
Checked.

5. If we had not checked Color, the active element color would have
applied. Dismiss the dialog box.
6. Click in the Editor dialog box, key in Fence (do not press Enter)
7. Move the pointer to a point just above the fence line (the broken line
with Xs), data point to place the text. The text may tend to snap to
undesired locations. When placing text in circumstances like these, it
may be worthwhile to temporarily toggle AccuSnap and AccuDraw
Off.
Note:
The text we just keyed in was in both upper and lower case characters, but when
it was displayed on the screen it is all upper case. This is because some fonts
(like Architectural) do not include lower case characters.
More about different fonts later.

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Changing Text Attributes

Text attributes may be changed using two methods:
• They may be Changed from the defined style using the Change Text
Attributes tool
• They may be Updated to reflect changes made to the Style since it was
placed.
We will experiment with the Change Text Attributes tool now, and then
introduce some more details about Text Styles later. In the next exercise, we
will change the Font of the text element placed earlier.

Exercise 124 – Changing the Font Attribute

1. If it is not already open, open TextChanges.dgn.
2. Ensure that Fill is checked On in the View Attributes dialog box.
3. Select the Change Text Attributes tool from the Main tool frame
4. Click the Expand arrow to display the lower part of the Tool Settings
window.
5. Remove all checkmarks except for Font.
6. Choose Arial Black from the Font options menu. This is one of the
TrueType fonts distributed with Windows.
7. Identify the text element “Fence” placed in the last exercise, and accept.
8. Remove the checkmark from Fill in the View Attributes dialog box and
Apply the change.
9. The text is now displayed in both upper and lower case, but in outline
only. The characters in some fonts are outlines similar to complex
shapes; others are single lines like Architectural.
10. Select the Change Text Attributes tool again, this time choose
PENNDOT_VERTICAL from the Font options menu.
11. Identify the text element “Fence” as before and Accept.
12. Note that the font is now solid, even with Fill turned Off. The displayed
width of the text line work is controlled by Line Weight, just like any
other element.
13. Select the Change Element Attributes tool from the Main tool frame
14. Turn Off all check boxes except Weight, experiment on the text with
different line weights.

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Creating a Text Style

The attributes set for the text placed in TextChanges.dgn will remain only
until they are overwritten. It is worthwhile to save these settings for future
use, especially when the settings can be used later in other designs. The
arrangement of settings is saved as a named Text Style within a DGN.

Exercise 125 – Create a Text Style

1. If it is not already open, Open Furnished Cottage.dgn and display the
Layout Sheet model.
2. Choose ElementÆText Styles from the Main menu bar. This is another
method of opening the Text Styles dialog box, which we previously
opened by clicking the magnifying glass Browse icon. The Text Styles
panel will show Style: None in the top section.
3. Click the New icon in the dialog box icon bar. The new text style is
given the temporary name of Untitled - 1.
4. Select the Advanced Tab. Most of the attributes in the General tab are
colored blue, which warns us that these settings are as yet unsaved.
5. Change the name of the new style by clicking in the Value column on
the Style Name row and entering 1:1 General.
6. Change the Font for the style by clicking in the Value column on the
Font row and choosing Arial from the option menu.

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7. Set the Width and Height both to 0.12” (:.12) by clicking the Value
column and entering each value.
8. Highlight the Color row and click the Value column to enter a
checkmark. Checking this row enables the setting of a fixed color for
the text. If it is not checked, the Color Value remains grayed out and
any text placed using this style will take on the Active Color, like other
elements.
9. Set the Color Value to 0 (on the General Tab)
10. Click the Advanced tab and set the Line Spacing to 0.08” (:.08).
11. Click the General tab again and review the settings, then Save the Text
Style by clicking the Save icon in the dialog box icon bar. The text in
the dialog box will change to black, indicating that the settings have
been saved.

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12. Dismiss the dialog box.

Using Text Styles

Now we have a style saved in the DGN, we can apply it at any time in the
future without having to make any more settings. The style just created is
intended for general labeling; we will save another one later on for major
captions etc.

Exercise 126 – General Text Placement

1. If it is not already open, Open the Layout Sheet model of Furnished
Cottage.dgn.
2. Ensure that the view attribute Fill is turned On
3. Set the active Line Weight to 0.
4. Select the Place Text tool from the Main tool frame
5. Select Text Style: 1:1 General, Method: By Origin, Active Angle: 0°
(the Coordinate Readout Angle Mode for this DGN is Conventional).
6. Enter the text “11 lighting pillars along this fence line” into the Text
Editor Dialog box.
7. Position the text and place it above the site plan outline, as shown in the
following illustration.

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Child Text Styles

We may find that just one text style is not enough, for example we may
need a text style larger than 1:1 General for the captions of drawing views.
We can define a whole new set of text attributes and save these as a new
style, but there is a more efficient method available.
It is likely that many, but not all, of the attributes will need to be the same as
a 1:1General style so we should consider using a Text Style that inherits
most of its attributes from another style, or a “Child” Text Style.

Note:
When discussing hierarchical lists it is often convenient to think in terms of the
relationship between the items in the list in similar terms to that of a family.
For example: if we consider three people in the same family, Person1, Person2
and Person3. If I were to tell you that Person1 is the Grandparent of Person3

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and Person3’s parent is Person 2, you would likely realize that Person 2 is the
Child of Person1
The same logic applies to Text Style. If we have three Styles named: S1, S2 and
S3. If we refer to the grandparent of S3, you would understand that I am
referring to S1.
This concept is important because, just like people inherit traits (or attributes)
from their parent, so do Text Styles. A Text Style inherits all of its parents
attributes except for those that it specifically overrides.

In the next exercise we want to create a text style that is exactly the same as
1:1General with two minor exceptions, the height and width should be
0.15”.
We could do this in two ways; Create a new Text Style (with no parent) and
define all of the attributes, including color, level, font, height, width, line
spacing etc. or we could simply make a the new text style a child to
1:1General and override two attributes – the height and width.

Exercise 127 - Create a Child Text Style

1. If it is not already open, Open the Layout Sheet model of Furnished
Cottage.dgn.
2. Choose ElementÆText Styles from the Main menu bar.
3. Create a New Text Style named 1:1Captions.
4. Click in the Value column of the Parent Style Name row, and choose
1:1General as the parent.
In the Text Styles panel, the name of the new style changes from being
shown at the “root” of the structure to being a Child from the Parent
1:1General.
Under the General tab, the Override column has checkmarks on all except
the top 2 rows. The checkmarks in the Override column indicate that the
attribute settings shown will override those of the Parent.

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5. Remove all of the Override checkmarks except for the Height, Width,
Justification and Color Value (not Node Justification) rows. Apart from
Height, Width, Justification and Color, all of the attributes of
1:1General will apply to the new style.
6. Set both the Height and the Width to 0.15” (0:.15).
7. Set the Justification to Center Center.
8. Set the Color = 2
9. Click the Advanced tab, and remove the Override checkmark in the
Line Spacing row.
10. Return to the General tab, review the settings
11. Save the style.

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12. Choose a color for the text from the Attributes tool box. The
1:1Captions text style does not have a defined color.
13. Select the Place Text tool from the Main tool frame, Text Style:
1:1Captions, Method: By Origin, Active Angle: 0°.
14. Enter the text Floor Plan - Scale 1:100 to the text editor dialog box,
`place the caption under the floor plan on the layout sheet.
15. Replace the text in the text editor dialog with Site Plan – Scale 1:500,
place this caption under the site plan on the layout sheet.

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Editing Text Styles

Defining a text style may take time. We may need to change the definition a
few times before we get exactly what is wanted. For the next exercise we
will assume that the sizes and other attributes are fine, but we would like to
try a change of Font for both styles. Since Font was one of the attributes
“inherited” from Parent to Child style, we will only have to change this
once.

Exercise 128 - Changing an Attribute in a Text Style

1. If it is not already open, Open the Layout Sheet model of Furnished
Cottage.dgn.
2. Open the Text Styles dialog box.
3. Highlight the 1:1General style in the left panel
4. Click Font in the right side panel General tab.
5. Choose Times New Roman from the options menu.
6. Save the changes. All of the text placed with either 1:1General or its
Child style 1:1Captions will immediately change to the new font.

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Importing Text Styles

When we have defined Text Styles in one DGN, we have the option of using
them in other DGN’s. In practice, it is likely that we will have a special
DGN that has definitions of text styles for Importing into other DGN’s, but
no actual design or sheet models.

Exercise 129 – Importing Text Styles

1. If it is not already open, Open Exercise 134 RasterWorks.dgn.
2. Display the Raster Printout model.
3. Select the Place Text tool, click the magnifying glass icon to open the
Text Styles dialog box.
4. Choose StyleÆImport from the dialog box menu bar.
5. From the Text Style Import Dialog box, select FurnishedCottage.dgn
from our own Student directory, click OK. The 1:1General style will
appear in the left panel of the Text Styles dialog box, with a “+” sign
beside it, indicating there is at least 1 Child style imported. There may
be other styles as well, depending on the version of the seed file
supplied with your installation.

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6. Click the “+” sign to see that the child style 1:1Captions has been
imported.
7. Close the dialog box.

8. Open the Tool Settings window (Click the tool - input focus is probably
in the text editor, so <Ctrl>+<Spacebar> will be ignored) and choose
1:1Captions from the Text Style options, Method: By Origin.
9. Enter the text “Starboard” and place it under the boat to the left of the
keel.
10. Change the text to “Port” and place this to the right of the keel
11. Dismiss the Text Editor Dialog box.
12. The color of the text is one of the Text Style attributes, but this may be
changed at any time without affecting the saved style.
13. Select the Change Element Attributes tool from the Main tool frame;
Method: Change
14. Check the Color box (only), Color: 2 (Green)
15. Identify the text “Starboard” and accept the change.
16. Change the Color tool setting to 3 (red), change the color of the text
“Port”

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Text Placement Options

So far we have placed text using the By Origin method, where the Origin or
“handle” we place the text with is at the Justification point. When the
justification is set to Left-Top, the Origin is at the Left-Top of the text being
placed. If we need to snap to the text to manipulate it, this is the only key
point. There are other placement methods apart from By Origin available.

Fitted Text
The size of this text is not affected by the text style settings. It adjusts to fit
between two data points, thus we can both orient it and adjust its size
visually to suit the application.

Exercise 130 – Place Fitted Text

1. If it is not already open, Open TextWorks.dgn.
2. Select the Window Area tool,
3. Keyin “xy=0,0” and press the Enter key to define the lower left corner
of the view.
4. Keyin “xy=150,100 to define the upper right corner of the view area.

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5. Import the text styles from Furnished Cottage.dgn.
6. Select the Place Text tool, Text Style: 1:1Captions, Method: Fitted.
7. Enter the text “Text fitted between data points” into the Text Editor.
8. Place a data point near one corner of the view, and then complete the
placement with a data point near the center.

Text Style and Working Units\

We are now working with a design file with Working Unit settings of
millimeters as the master unit, but we have imported a Text Style from a
DGN with English units. Since the working units in the seed files used are
arranged to be compatible, the text height and width attributes will be the
same, just expressed in different units. 1:1General for example was defined
in Furnished Cottage.dgn with a text height of 0.12”. When it was imported
to TextWorks.dgn, the height reads 3.048, which is the exact millimeter
equivalent.

View Independent Text

Text placed by this method remains at the same orientation, regardless of
the rotation of the view. Fitted VI text behaves the same way, with, like
Fitted, its size specified by data points.

Exercise 131 – Place View Independent Text

1. If it is not already open, Open TextWorks.dgn.
2. Select the Place Text tool, Text Style: 1:1Captions, Method: View
Independent, Active Angle: 0°.
3. Enter the text “View Independent Text” to the Text Editor, place the
text near the center of the view.
4. Rotate the view to any arbitrary angle. Note that while the Fitted text
appears rotated, the View Independent text does not.
5. Un-rotate the view.

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Above or Below Element

These methods of text placement are used for labeling lines, or for any
purpose when the text needs to be placed at a fixed spacing from a line or
line segment.

Exercise 132 – Place Text Above/Below Element

1. If it is not already open, Open TextWorks.dgn
2. Window area or pan to an empty area and place two 60 mm horizontal
lines.
3. Place a 60 mm vertical line with its origin (starting point) at the bottom
of the view.
4. Place a second with the same length, but with its origin at the top of the
view.
5. Select the Place Text tool, Text Style: 1:1Captions, Method:
Above Element, Line Spacing: 2 mm.
6. Enter the text “Above Element” and identify one of the horizontal lines
at its midpoint and accept.
7. Change the text in the Editor to read “<ORIGIN”
8. Identify each of the vertical lines at their midpoints and accept. When a
line is vertical “Above” and “Below” are defined by the position of the
origin, it will always be to the left of the text. There will be no
ambiguity with lines at any other angle.
9. Change the Method to Below Element, enter the text “Below Element,”
identify the horizontal line with the text “Above Element” at its
midpoint and accept.

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Note:
The Line Spacing setting is the measurement between the line and the nearest
point of the text.

On Element
The identified element is partially deleted and the text inserted in the gap
with this method.

Exercise 133 – Place Text On Element

1. If it is not already open, Open TextWorks.dgn
2. Select the Place Text tool, Text Style: 1:1Captions, Method:
On Element.
3. Enter the text “On Element”, identify the horizontal line currently
without text at its midpoint, and accept.

Note:
The line was “Partial Deleted” so there are now two separate lines in the file.

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Along Element
Curved or circular elements can have text placed following the curve using
this method. Each character is automatically rotated to be parallel to the
element at its closest point, which can cause them to overlap when placed
along the inside of a small-radius curve. There is a setting for Inter-character
Spacing in the Tool Settings window to fix this.

Exercise 134 – Place Text on Element

1. If it is not already open, Open TextWorks.dgn
2. Pan the view to a clear area.
3. Use the Place Smart Line tool to place a 180° arc in a clockwise
direction from left to right, with a radius of 30 mm.

4. Select the Place Text tool, Text Style: 1:1Captions, Method:

Along Element, Line Spacing: 4mm.
5. Enter the text “Along Element”
6. Identify the arc at its midpoint. Two sets of highlighted text display,
one inside the curve, the other outside.
7. Accept the text on the outside with a data point outside the curve and
above the text.

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Word Wrapped
The Word Wrap option makes placing a “block” of text easy. We define the
diagonally opposite corners of a temporary rectangle to form a boundary for
the text we are about to place, and then enter the text. As a line of text
reaches the sides of the block, it “word wraps” like a word processor to start
another line.

Exercise 135 – Placing Wrapped Text

1. If it is not already open, Open TextWorks.dgn
2. Select the Place Text tool, Text Style: 1:1General, Method:
Word Wrap.
3. Place a data point in a clear area of the view, followed by another 45
mm to the right and 20 mm down. The block is placed in the direction
the text is written - down and to the right. It will have the active
symbology attributes, but it is only a temporary element.
4. Key in the text as shown in Figure 46 (the block is filled in as the text is
keyed in), accept when completed. The block disappears when the text
is accepted.

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Figure 46

Instance Specific Overrides

An instance-specific style override is a change of text attributes for a single
placement of text. These changes do not become a permanent part of the
saved Text Style. These changes can be made in the extended Tool Settings
window for the Place Text tool, or (more conveniently) in the Word
Processor style text editor. This is the default text editor style and is the one
used in all of our text exercises. To see the text editor style setting, look at
WorkspaceÆPreferencesÆTextÆText Editor Style.
The word processor style text editor has the options common to word
processors for the selection of Font, Bold, Italic, Underline, Stacked
Fraction and Color.

Exercise 136 – Apply Overrides as text is placed

1. If it is not already open, Open TextWorks.dgn
2. Select the Place Text tool, Text Style: 1:1General, Method:
Word Wrap.
3. Make the text boundary block 45 mm wide and 40mm deep, from
top-left to bottom right.
4. Key in the text as shown in Figure 47, selecting the changes as the text
is keyed in.

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Figure 47

Text Nodes
Multi-line text, such as the text we have been placing with the word wrap
method, is known as a Text Node. With Text Nodes extra settings like the
Line Spacing come into effect. The justification setting is separate for Text
Nodes as well.
Text Nodes are recognized when we are using the Dialog Box style text
editor as opposed to the word processor style, so we will temporarily change
over to this in the following exercise.
Text Nodes have a number and they are accompanied by a marker, which is
only displayed when Text Nodes are checked on in the View Attributes.
We have the option of placing Empty Text Nodes in a model, which are
used as “place markers” for text that is entered later on. By placing Empty
Text Nodes, we define the location of the text and the Text Style, which will
be the style active when the node is placed. The operator entering the text
later on need not be concerned with the style to be used, as it is already
specified in the Text Node.

When the Text Node Lock is On, text can only be placed on empty text nodes.

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Exercise 137 – Using Empty Text Nodes

1. If it is not already open, Open TextWorks.dgn
2. Choose WorkspaceÆPreferences from the Main menu bar.
3. Choose Text from the Preferences dialog box, then set Text Editor
Style: Dialog Box, click OK.

4. Place a checkmark in the Text Nodes box of the View Attributes Dialog
box, click APPLY
5. Close the dialog box. Text Node markers will appear on any multi-line
text in the view.
6. Open the Text Styles Dialog box and highlight the style 1:1General in
the left panel to make this the active text style, and close the dialog.
7. Select the Place Text Node tool, View Independent: Unchecked,
Active Angle: 0°.
8. Place a Text Node in a clear area of the view. The marker will display a
Node Number, starting from 0 and incrementing with each node placed
in the design.
9. Select the Place Text tool, Text Style: 1:1Captions, Method: By Origin.
10. Click the arrow to expand the Tool Settings window
11. Check the Text Node Lock box. In practice, the text style does not
matter, as it will ultimately be determined by the Text Node. We have
only chosen one here to make the effect of the Text Node obvious.
12. Key in “Text placed on a Text Node”, move the pointer over the
crosshairs of the Text Node, which highlights as AccuSnap finds it. The
text style currently active is larger than the one used to define the Text
Node, and its justification is Center rather than Left.
13. Accept the text placement.

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14. All of the text attributes will be those defined for the style active at the
time the Empty Text Node was placed (1:1General in this case). Note
how the text “jumps” to the left justification and the smaller size when
the placement is accepted with the second data point.
15. Return to View Attributes and uncheck Text Nodes, Apply.
16. Click the Lock icon in the Status Bar, uncheck the Text Node lock.

Copying and Pasting Text

With the help of the word processor style text editor, we can copy text from
virtually any Windows application, including a web browser. We will use
some text copied from the MicroStation Help facility in the following
exercise.

Exercise 138 – Copy Text to DGN File

1. If it is not already open, Open TextWorks.dgn
2. Choose WorkspaceÆPreferences from the Main menu bar.

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3. Choose Text from the Preferences dialog box, then set the Text Editor
Style to Word Processor, click OK.
4. Click the Help tool from the Standard tool box to open MicroStation
Help.
5. Click the Search tab, key in text to the words to search for field,
6. Click List Topics
7. Double-click Text Styles at the top of the Topic list. MicroStation Help
automatically highlights the word we are searching for.
8. Highlight the top paragraph and its heading, press <Ctrl>+<C> to copy
the text to the clipboard.
9. Close Help.

10. Select the Place Text tool, Text Style: 1:1General, Method:
Word Wrap.
11. Place the text boundary block 80 mm wide and 50 mm deep (placed
from top-left to bottom right).
12. With input focus in the Text Editor (flashing cursor), press <Ctrl>+<V>
to paste the text, place a data point to accept it.
Note:
The Width of the block is the critical dimension when placing with word-wrap. It
does not matter if it is too short or too long, the text will be placed just the same.

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Editing
It is essential to be able to make changes to text (including correcting the
spelling) after it has been placed. Editing MicroStation text is similar to
editing text in most other Windows® applications, we can change anything
to do with its format or content. We have the usual options available from
the Edit menu of the Main menu bar, including Find and Replace, Cut,
Copy, Paste etc. These options are standard to many applications and will
not need introduction next

Edit Text Tool

This tool provides two means of editing the text. It has Tool Settings to
change some text attributes, and it opens the text editor dialog box.
With the default user preference settings (which we have assumed for the
following exercise), the Word Processor Style text editor opens, the same
dialog we have already used for placing new text. We can use this to do the
usual word processor functions to delete or add text, apply modifiers (such
as Bold, Underline etc.) or spell check. Again, these options and the tool
icons used are standard to many applications and will not need introduction
here.

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Exercise 139 – Edit Text Attributes

1. If it is not already open, Open TextWorks.dgn
2. Select the Edit Text tool.
3. Click the down arrow to display the extra settings in the Tool Settings
window.
4. Identify the line of text “Text fitted between data points” placed earlier.
The Text Editor opens, with the identified text in the dialog box. We
will not be using this dialog box this time, however.
5. Highlight the text in the Text Editor dialog (press and drag the cursor
over it), re-open the Tool Settings window by moving the pointer over
the tool or the PopSet icon.
6. Click the expand arrow.
7. Change the Text Height to 6, the Text Width to 4 and the Font to Arial,
place a data point in the view to accept the edit.

Matching Text Attributes

When making changes or adding to an existing drawing, we may need to
place text with identical attributes to the text already there. The easiest way
of setting up the text attributes to achieve this is by matching them to an
existing text element with the desired appearance. We will also be
introduced to the “general purpose” tool for matching all element attributes
in the following exercise.

Exercise 144 – Matching Text Attributes

1. If it is not already open, Open TextWorks.dgn
2. Select the Match Text Attributes tool (no tool settings).
3. Identify the text element “Text fitted between data points” that was
edited in the previous exercise, accept.
4. Change the Active Color to be different to the text just identified.

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5. Ensure that the Text Node lock is not checked in the Status Bar Locks
menu.
6. Select the Place Text tool, Method: By Origin, leave all other settings
as they are.
7. Place some text and note the attributes - the Text attributes are the same
as the original, but not the ordinary Element attributes.
8. Select the Smart Match tool, identify and accept some different text.
9. Place some more text and note the attributes - the Text and the Element
attributes are both the same as the original.

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Enter Data Fields

Enter Data Fields are single line text placeholders placed in a model, for text
to be entered at another time. One example for the use of Enter Data Fields
is in the title blocks of sheet models. In this case, such detail as the variable
part of the drawing number could be an Enter Data Field. Title blocks are
often created as Cells that incorporate enter data fields, which are placed in
the border area of the sheet model. The main advantages of Enter Data
Fields over ordinary text placement is that the position, the text style and the
maximum permissible number of characters are defined when the fields are
originally placed.

Creating
To create an Enter Data Field we place a reserved character using the
ordinary Place Text tool. This character is the underline (“_”) in the default
MicroStation configuration, but it may be re-configured if necessary. These
fields can be combined with other text in the same text element, as is
illustrated in Figure 48. Enter Data Fields may be filled in singly,
automatically, or by copying using the related tools from the Text tool box.

Figure 48

Exercise 140 – Create a Cell with Enter Data Fields

1. Open our Student(nn) cell library.
2. Create a new Design Model. Name: “DrawNo” ; Description:
“Drawing Number Field”; Can Be Placed As Cell: true; Cell Type:
Graphic
3. Turn On and Apply the Data Fields View Attribute.
4. Select Place Text, Text Style: 1:1General, Method: By Origin.

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5. At coordinate 0,0 place the text “Drawing No.” followed by a space
and 4 underline characters, as shown in Figure 48.
Exercise 141 – Filling In a Cell with Enter Data Field
1. If it is not already open, Open TextWorks.dgn
2. Select the Place Active Cell tool, Active Cell: DrawNo, Active Angle:
0°, x and y Scale: both 1.
3. Place the cell in a clear area of the view.
4. Select the Fill In Single Enter-Data Field tool
5. As prompted, Identify one of the underline characters on the cell just
placed.
6. Key-in “A001” to the Text Editor, press <Enter> to fill in the field and
then accept.

Note:
Regardless of our Preference setting, (WorkspaceÆPreferencesÆText), the
Dialog Box Style of text editor opens for filing out data fields. All of the
Attributes were set when the Enter Data Field was placed, so the word
processor style would not have any advantages.

There are three other tools for filling in Enter Data Fields, experiments with
these are optional:

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• Copy Enter Data Field - used to copy the contents of one enter data
field to another.
• Copy and Increment Enter Data Field - used to copy and increment the
contents of an enter data field that contains numbers into another enter
data field. The amount it is incremented by may be varied.
• Automatic Fill In Enter Data Fields - Used to fill in all empty enter
data fields in a view, automatically identifying them in the order they
were placed.

Annotations
Text often needs to be visually linked to particular features of a drawing.
There are tools to place notes with arrows linking the text to the drawing
and other tools that allow us to place normally hidden messages along with
a Flag symbol to indicate their presence.

Place Note Tool

This tool uses lines and arrowheads similar to a dimensioning element (to be
introduced next chapter). In fact the settings for the line work associated
with the text may be affected by the settings made for dimension elements.
The active text style in the supplied file is already set to 1:1Annotations and
this will define the text attributes for the tool.

Exercise 142 – Placing Notes

1. If it is not already open, Open SpindleAssy.dgn
2. Ensure that the “Drawing sheet model” is open.
3. Window in on the lower-right part of the spindle assembly.
4. Find location marker No. 1. If the grey circles are not visible turn on
construction class elements in view attributes.
5. Select the Place Note tool, Text Frame: None, in-Line Leader and
Association check boxes checked On.
6. Key-in the text “Brake Plate”.
7. Keypoint snap to the vertex within the No 1 location circle.
8. Move the pointer up and to the right, visually placing the arrow line and
the text approximately as shown in Figure 49.

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Figure 49
9. Pan the view to display the upper-right part of the assembly to find
location marker No. 2.
10. Reset back to the Place Note tool
11. Place a note at location 2 with the text “Spool Locator”.
12. Place a note at location 3 with Text Frame: Box, with the text
“Upper Pulley”.
13. Choose Text Frame: Line, Justification: Right
14. Place the text “Single Row Bearing” <Enter> “SKF #6020” (2 lines of
text), to the left of the assembly at location 4 (top-left).
15. Change the Justification back to Left, place the same text as in the
previous step at location 5 (upper-right).

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16. Change the Text Frame to None, the Justification to Dynamic

17. Key-in the text “Lower <Enter> spindle <Enter> weldment” (3 lines).
We will use a new snap mode in the next step, Intersection Snap. This will
involve observing both of the intersecting elements.
18. Select Intersection snap and move the pointer over the intersection of
the centerline and the base line at location 6, ensure both highlight and
become dashed, accept.
19. Move the pointer either side of the centerline, note the effect of
Dynamic justification, and place the note to one side.
20. Place a note at location 7 (upper right) with Text Frame: None, with the
text Spindle Plate.
Note:
When we use Dynamic Justification we can determine the side of the text as it is
being placed.

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Associative Notes
When we were placing the notes in the last exercise, we had the Association
box checked. This means that the arrow linking the text is Associated with
an element and will stretch to maintain the association if the element is
manipulated.
In this case, the association is with an element in a Referenced model. To
observe the effect, we will stretch one of the components in the Spindle
Assembly (master) model, and note the effect in the Drawing model.

Exercise 143 – Experiment with Association

21. If it is not already open, Open SpindleAssy.dgn and display the Spindle
Assembly (master) model.
22. Window the area about the spindle plate at the top of the assembly
23. Place a block type fence about the end of the plate at location 7.

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24. Select the Move tool, Use Fence: Checked, Fence contents/mode:
Stretch
25. Move the fence 2” (2 master units) to the left.
26. Display the Drawing Sheet View from the View Groups tool box
27. Window the area of the assembly about location 7. The end of the plate
is now to the left of location marker 7, but the arrow still connects to it.
28. Display the Spindle Assembly (master) model once more. Undo the
change and Update the view.

Challenge Exercise – Improving the Borders

We have used two drawing borders so far in this course, “Letter
Border.dgn” and “B Border.dgn”. We have attached “Letter Border.dgn”
ourselves as a reference to some designs, and “B Border.dgn” was already
attached to the sheet model of “Spindle Assy.dgn”.

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When we print out these designs, we place a fence around the border to
define the area to be printed The size of this fence is critical, if we make it
too large, we may not be able to produce a printout at the desired scale. If it
is too small, some of the geometry may be hidden. To solve this problem,
Active Points are provided at the top-left and the bottom-right to snap the
block type fence to.
Our job is to convey the purpose of these active points to any future users.
We will place text outside the area of the border that will be printed as
shown in figure 9.33. Only “B Border.dgn” is shown in the illustration, but
add the text to “Letter Border.dgn” as well. Since “Letter Border.dgn” is
smaller than “B Border.dgn”, the text will also be smaller.
The text is to be on the same level as the border.
Its color and line weight are both to be 0.
The top of the text is to be spaced 0.2” from the bottom line of the border
and be spaced in evenly from the ends by approximately the same distance.
The Font is to be Arial, with the size set to make the text fit across the width
as shown.

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Dimensioning is an essential component of most drawings, the designed
objects cannot be fully defined without them. In the MicroStation context,
Dimensions are labels combining geometry and text into one Element which
are generated automatically. We can create linear, angular and radial
dimensions for any element or combinations of elements. There are many
types of dimensioning, with a large number of individual tools to enable us
to create each type. A dimension label may optionally be Associated with
the element or points being dimensioned. Dimensions automatically update
to remain accurate after elements have been manipulated if this Association
is established.
Dimensioning styles may vary to comply with state and country standards,
with the particular discipline we work in, even with our personal
preferences. Every component of the dimensioning style can be customized
to suit the requirements of the project being undertaken.

Objectives
When you have completed this chapter, you will be able to:
• Recognize the components of a Dimension Element
• Use the Linear Dimensioning tools to dimension distances
• Use the Radial dimensioning tools to dimension arcs and circles
• Configure the various dimension components to create a Dimension
Style
• Modify existing dimension elements.

Dimension Element
A Dimension Element may be a single dimension or a “chain” of
dimensions, all placed in a single operation. The element is composed of
several components, which, depending on the type of dimension, may
include:

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• Extension Lines - lines extended from the dimensioned points

• Dimension Line - a line the same length as the dimension, usually
parallel to the direction of the dimension
• Dimension Line Terminators - symbols such as arrowheads used to
define the ends of the dimension line
• Dimension Text - the dimension in the chosen units of the design file
• Prefix or Suffix - may be used to indicate that the dimension is of a
diameter, radius etc.
These components are illustrated in Figure 50.

Figure 50

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Dimensioning Tools
These tools are all highly configurable to create a large variety of types of
dimensions.

Figure 51

Quick Dimensioning of Elements

Individual elements and segments of elements may be dimensioned by using
only two clicks of the data button, or only one “press, drag and release”
action. The Dimension Element tool automatically adapts to suit the element
being dimensioned.
We will use this tool in the following exercise, which uses the supplied
DGN called “BEN_Dim1.dgn”. This DGN is saved using a Lock we have
not used so far in the course, Level Lock. When this lock is checked on, we
can only select elements that are on the Active Level, elements on other
levels cannot be manipulated. This feature is used to prevent the guide
numbers and circles being accidentally identified for dimensioning instead
of the intended geometry. The circle and bar symbol will appear when the
pointer is moved over elements on locked levels.

Note:
This means Level Lock will need to be turned off temporarily if we need to delete
any dimension elements placed in the next exercises, as they are being placed on
a level named “Dimensions” which will not be active.

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Exercise 144 – Dimension Elements and Segments

1. If it is not already open, Open BEN_Dim1.dgn
2. Select the view group “Dimension Elements” from the combo box in
the View Groups tool box. A group of simple elements will display,
along with some numbers and circles for guidance. Clicking the Lock
icon in the Status Bar will reveal that the settings of this DGN were
saved with Level lock on.
3. Ensure that the “Sample Elements” level is Active. If this is not the
case, Level Lock will prevent the elements for dimensioning from
being identified.
4. Select the Dimension Element tool

5. With the default tool settings as shown in the following illustration.

6. Identify the line at location 1, move the pointer to location 2 and

accept. The horizontal line is dimensioned with the Dimension Lines
outside the extension lines and the Dimension Text inside them.
7. Identify the circle at location 3 and move the pointer to location 4 and
accept. The tool has changed to placing a Radial instead of a Linear
Dimension. Since we identified a circle, it dimensions the Diameter.
8. Identify the Arc segment at location 5 and accept at 6. The tool is now
dimensioning an arc, so it dimensions the Radius.

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9. Identify the line at location 7 and accept at 8. The vertical line is
dimensioned with the Dimension Line and the Dimension Text inside
the extension lines.

Figure 52

Dimension Alignments
The Alignment of a dimension element is basically the direction the
Measurement is made for the Dimension being placed. The alignment
setting also defines the direction of the dimension line and (usually) the text.

Exercise 145 - Place Dimensions with Various

Alignments
1. If it is not already open, Open BEN_Dim1.dgn
2. Select the view group “Alignments” from the combo box in the View
Groups tool box. A group of angled lines will display, along with
location numbers and circles.
3. Select the Dimension Element tool, Alignment: View (as before).
4. Identify the line at location 1, accept at location 2. The dimension is
aligned with a view axis, y in this case. The dimensioning is placed at
the left side, as we moved the pointer to the left after we identified the
element.
5. Select the Rotate View tool, Method: 2 Points.
6. Keypoint snap to the lower end of the line at location 1 as the first
point, and then define the x axis of the view with a snap to the upper
end of the same line. The view is now rotated to make the lines appear
in the view to be horizontal and vertical.
7. Reset back to the Dimension Element tool, Alignment: View

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 10 Dimensions
8. Identify the line at location 3, accept at location 4.
9. Repeat step 8, except this time set the Alignment to Drawing. Note that
the view rotation is ignored this time. The dimension is aligned with the
y axis of the Drawing or the Design Plane.

Figure 53
10. Select the Rotate View tool, Method: Unrotated to restore the view to
its usual rotation.
11. Reset back to the Dimension Element tool, Alignment: True
12. Identify the line at location 5, accept at location 6. The measurement is
made along the line, regardless of its angle.
13. Set the Alignment to Arbitrary
14. Identify the line at location 7, accept at location 8. This is a version of
True alignment, but it allows the arbitrary angling of the extension lines
to suit the situation. A typical application is on Isometric views.

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Figure 54

Associative Dimensions
There is another Lock setting involved here, Association Lock. When this
lock is enabled, we are able to place our dimensions with associations
created to the points in the drawing that they dimension. The effect of this
association is that when the point on the element changes position due to a
manipulation or modification, the dimension automatically updates. This
association is similar to that used with the Place Note tool. It applies even
when the dimension point is on an element in a reference attachment. The
lock may be controlled from the Tool Settings windows of the dimensioning
tools, or from the locks menu in the Status Bar.

Exercise 146 - Placing Associated Dimensions

1. If it is not already open, Open BEN_Dim1.dgn
2. Select the view group “Associated” from the combo box in the View
Groups tool box. Two horizontal lines will display, with location
numbers and circles.
3. Select the Dimension Element tool, Alignment: View, Association:
Checked
4. Identify the line at location 1, accept at location 2.
5. Remove the Association checkmark from the Tool Settings window.
6. Identify the other line at location 3, accept at location 4.
7. Change the length of each line in turn to 6”. The top line was
dimensioned using Association, the bottom one was not, so its
dimension was not updated.

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Figure 55

Dimension Size Tools

The Dimension Element tool provides a quick method to do exactly as its
name implies, Dimension Elements. What it cannot do, however, is
dimension across multiple elements or segments. The two Dimension Size
tools are available for this type of dimensioning, Dimension Size with
Arrows and Dimension Size Stroke. The only difference between the two
tools is the type of Terminator.

Exercise 147 Placing a String of Dimensions

1. If it is not already open, Open BEN_Dim1.dgn
2. Select the view group “String” from the combo box in the View Groups
tool box. The drawing shown in Figure 56 will display without
dimensions.
3. Select the Dimension Size with Arrows tool, Alignment: View,
4. Association: Checked.
5. Identify the line at location 1, “Define length of extension line” at 2,
“Select Dimension Endpoint” at 3, 4 and 5. The prompt will still read
“Select Dimension Endpoint”.

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6. Reset (the prompt will change back to “Define length of extension line”
in case we want to continue the string of dimensions around the corner),
Reset a second time to complete the string.
7. Place a new dimension string from 6, define the length of the extension
line at 7, an endpoint at 5, finishing (Reset twice) at 4.

Figure 56

Dimension Angle Tools

The most commonly used tool for dimensioning angles is Dimension Angle
Between. This tool will dimension an angle between two elements, or two
segments of the same element.

Exercise 148 - Dimensioning Angles

1. If it is not already open, Open BEN_Dim2.dgn
2. Select the view group “Angle Between” from the combo box in the
View Groups tool box. The drawing shown in Figure 57 will display
without dimensions.
3. Select the Dimension Angular Tool
4. Select the Angle Between Lines option in the tool settings
5. Identify the segment of the triangle at location 1 to “Select first line”,
“Select second line” at 2, position the dimension element at 3.

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6. Repeat the above for locations 4 to 6, 7 to 9 and 10 to 12.

Figure 57

Radial Dimensions
The Dimension Element tool was used for dimensioning arcs and circles
previously, but this tool only provides enough functionality to do basic
dimensioning. We need to choose from more options and make an extra
mouse click or two with the Dimension Radial tool, but it offers more
functionality.

Exercise 149 - Placing Radial Dimensions

1. If it is not already open, Open BEN_Dim2.dgn
2. Select the view group “Radial”. The drawing shown in Figure 58 will
display without dimensions.
3. Open the Radial Dimensions toolbar (ToolsÆDimensionÆRadial)

4. Select the Dimension Radial tool, Mode: Center Mark,

Alignment: View, Association: Checked, Center Size: 0.
Note:
Center Size is an override setting. The Dimension setting for the text height
applies if it is left at 0 (the default).

5. Identify the arc at location 1, Accept the center mark away from the
geometry.
6. Change the Mode to Radius and identify the arc at location 3, position
the inner end of the dimension at 4.

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7. Change the Mode to Radius Extended and identify the arc at location 5,
position the outer end of the dimension at 6.
8. Change the Mode to Diameter and identify the circle at location 7,
position the inner end of the dimension at 8.
9. Change the Mode to Diameter Extended and identify the circle at
location 9, position the outer end of the dimension at 10.

Figure 58

Dimensioning from an Origin

We are able to label distances along a line known as an Ordinate Axis from
an Origin or Datum. The tool for this job is called Dimension Ordinates.

Exercise 150 - Dimensioning From an Origin

1. If it is not already open, Open BEN_Dim2.dgn
2. Select the view group “Ordinates”. The drawing shown in Figure 59
will display without dimensions.
3. Select the Dimension Ordinates tool, Alignment: View,
Association: Checked.
4. Identify the outline at location 1 as the Ordinate Origin. All of the
dimensions placed during this operation will be measured from this
point.
5. Place a data point to the right of the origin (about location 2) to define
the Ordinate Direction.

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6. Place a data point at location 3 to define the length of the extension
lines.
7. Keypoint snap to the ends of the lines at locations 4 through to 9
8. Reset to complete the operation.

Figure 59

Dimension Styles
A Dimension Style, like a Text Style, is a set of Dimension element
attributes which will normally be saved for re-use, either within the DGN
where it is being applied, or externally for general application.
A Dimension Style may be created in one DGN and imported into others, in
the same way as Text Styles. In practice, special DGNs are often created
without any geometry placed in them, just to hold Dimension and Text
styles.
In the next series of exercises, we will create dimension styles of our own
and save them for later use. The first style will be based on some
dimensions already placed in a supplied drawing, BEN_DimS.dgn.

Exercise 151 - Create a Dimension Style

1. If it is not already open, Open BEN_DimS.dgn
The End Plate design is displayed, with some dimensioning and annotation
already in place. It is shown (at reduced size) in Figure 60. Our first job will
be to match the current dimension settings to an existing dimension.

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Figure 60
2. Select the Match Dimension Settings tool
3. Identify one of the dimension elements in the design. This will restore
the attribute settings that were active when the identified dimension
element was placed.
4. Select the Dimension Element tool, Style: None,
Alignment: View, Association: Checked.
5. Zoom in on the area about the top of the drawing.
6. Identify the line beside location 1 (not on the location marker circle),
position the dimension at location 2.
7. Manually snap to the dimension element just placed and note the
pop-up info. We find that the dimension element has been placed on a
level named “Supplied Dims”. We need our dimensioning to be placed
on the “Dimensions” level, so we need to change the Level setting of
the current Dimension Style.

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Figure 61
The current Dimension Style is actually “none” according to the tool settings
window. We are now going to change the Level setting and save the current
collection of dimension attributes as a named Dimension Style.
8. Choose ElementÆDimensions to open the Dimension Settings Dialog
box. We can also open this dialog box with the magnifying glass icon in
the Tool Settings window of any tools used to place dimensions.
9. Highlight Dimension Lines in the left side panel, ensure that the Level
box is checked and then choose Dimensions from the Level option
menu. The dialog box may be left open and moved aside as necessary.
We will now use a new tool called Change Dimension (to active settings) to
update the dimension we placed earlier.
10. Select the Change Dimension tool
11. Identify the dimension at location 2 and accept away from any
geometry, then manually snap to it and note that its level is now
Dimensions.
Now we have a collection of attribute settings that we will save as a
Dimension Style.
12. In the Dimension Settings dialog box, click the Create Dimension Style
icon to open the Create New Style dialog box.

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13. Name the new style 1:1MechExt, with the description “With Extension
Lines”
14. Click OK.
15. Click the Save Style icon in the Dimension Settings dialog box to save
our new style
16. Close the dialog box.
We now have a dimension style that matches the dimensioning supplied
with this drawing, except for the level it is placed on. This style may be used
in the current DGN, and/or imported into other DGNs

Figure 62
The Dimension Style we have just saved can now be put into service and
checked out. If we find any deficiencies, we can easily fix them. We can
also use this style as a base for other new styles, as we will see. For now, we
will place some more dimensions on the “End Plate” model.
In this case we are going to place our dimensioning on the Design model,
not on a Sheet model like our annotations of the “Spindle Assembly” made
last chapter. It is OK to place our dimensioning in any model, although it is
usually more convenient to place the dimensions on the Sheet when scaling
is going to be involved. The dimensions of this model are suitable for
printing out at full size, so scaling will not be an issue.
The following exercises will require identifying elements at locations
marked with the usual small circles. If the location circle highlights instead
of the desired element, just Reset and another element will highlight.

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Using and Updating

Exercise 152 - Dimension the Model

1. If it is not already open, Open BEN_DimS.dgn
2. Select the Dimension Size with Arrows tool; Alignment: View,
Association: Checked.
3. Using Keypoint snap, identify the line at location 3, “Define length of
extension line” at 4, “Select Dimension Endpoint” at 5 then 6, Reset
twice.
We have placed a dimension string. The first Reset indicates that there are
no more dimensions to be placed in the original direction, but we could still
continue around a corner. The second Reset resets the tool ready to start a
new dimension.
4. Select the Dimension Angle Between tool
5. Identify the lines at location 7 to “Select first line”, “Select second line”
at 8, position the dimension element at 8.

6. Select the Dimension Radial tool, Mode: Diameter, Alignment: View,

Association: Checked.
7. Identify the arc near location 9, position the dimension at location 10.
We were not given any chance to position the dimension text to the left or
the right, which can be a problem when dimensions overlap other geometry
or each other. We will change the method of placement in our dimension
style to provide more control.
8. If necessary open the Dimension Settings dialog box, highlight
Placement and choose Location: Manual.
9. Delete the dimension placed in step 4
10. Select the Dimension Radial tool, settings as before.
11. Identify the arc at location 9, position the first endpoint at location 10.
12. Move the pointer slowly from side to side and note the effect, then
define the leader direction with a data point at 11, Reset.

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This time we were able to decide which side of the dimension line the text
was placed. Since we made the Placement change, an asterisk in the style
name field indicates we have unsaved changes. If we choose not to save the
change, the style will revert to the original setting the next time the DGN is
closed. We will assume that we want to keep the PlacementÆLocation
setting as Manual.
13. Click the Save Style icon to save our modified style, clicking OK in the
resulting alert box; close or move the dialog box as preferred.

Figure 63

Note:
When we make changes to any settings of a Dimension Style, all dimensions
placed with that style will update, this is why the alert box appeared in the last
step. It will only appear when there are dimension elements in the design that
were placed with that particular style.

The next element we place will be another radial dimension, but we will use the familiar
Dimension Element tool, utilizing some more of its capabilities.

14. Select the Dimension Element tool

15. Identify the arc at location 12. The element is recognized as being an
arc, so a radius dimension is immediately offered, however it is not the
type we require. The existing radius dimension on the smaller arc (22)
has a dimension line emanating from the arc center and we need this
one to be the same.

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16. Re-open the Tool Settings window (<Ctrl>+<Spacebar>), click the
Next button, move the pointer outside the window. The dimension line
is emanating from the center, just as we want it.
17. Complete the dimension at location 13.
Note:
This tool does not support manual location, unlike the Dimension Radial tool.

Overriding a Dimension Style

We are able to temporarily override settings if we only need to place a small
number of dimensions with different settings to the main style, such as
“1:1MechExt”.
If the main style is unsuitable for an appreciable number of dimension
placements, we would normally create multiple styles, which we will
experiment with later on.
We will place a dimension between two parallel lines in the next exercise,
which will need to be placed without extension lines. The “1:1MechExt”
style obviously has this part of the dimension element turned on.

Exercise 153 - Overriding Dimension Settings

1. If it is not already open, Open BEN_DimS.dgn
2. Select the Dimension Size with Arrows tool, Alignment: View,
Association: Checked.
3. Highlight Extension Lines and uncheck the Extension Lines box. If
necessary, click the magnifying glass icon to open the Dimension
Settings dialog box; highlight Extension Lines and uncheck the
Extension Lines box.
4. Make Nearest the default snap mode
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5. Identify the line that passes through location 14
6. Data point at location 15 to position the dimension, and then snap to the
line that passes through location 16 to define the endpoint.
The dimension text is being positioned manually, as this is the setting we
saved as part of our dimension style (page 10-16). It may tend to snap to
undesired locations as was the case when we were placing text in
circumstances like these.
7. Temporarily toggle AccuSnap and AccuDraw Off, but do not forget to
turn them both back On after the dimension has been placed.
8. Place the dimension text between the two lines, Reset (twice).
9. In the Dimension Settings dialog box, click the Restore Settings icon to
revert to the saved style. Without restoring, the setting will remain until
the DGN is closed.

Figure 64

Settings for Associated Dimensioning

We have already been introduced to Association with dimensioning
elements. The association between a dimension element and the geometry it
is dimensioning can be established via a Reference attachment, in the same
way as our note leaders were associated via the spindle assembly reference
attachment. It naturally follows that we generally have Association On when
we place dimensions. However, we may need to make some preparations for
this in our Dimension Styles.
We will start by changing the thickness of the mounting plate section of the
End Plate drawing. This thickness is dimensioned as part of a “string” of
dimensions in a single element.

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Exercise 154 - Association with Multiple Dimension

Elements
1. If it is not already open, Open BEN_DimS.dgn
2. Place a Fence block (Inside mode) about the entire length of the vertical
line starting at location 5, making sure no other vertical elements are
within the fence.
3. It does not matter if the location marker circle is included, as this is a
Locked element, which means it will not be manipulated.
4. Select the Move tool, Mode: Stretch, move the fence contents 4mm to
the right, thus reducing the mounting plate thickness to 7mm.
The dimension string updates to reflect the change.

This example is of a modification that did not alter the distance between the
dimension line and the element(s) being dimensioned. This will not always
be the case, as we will see.
5. Pan the view to a clear area and place a 50 wide by 30 high block
6. Use the Dimension Element tool to place dimensions across the top and
another along one side, with the dimensions outside the block.
7. Use the Modify Element tool to increase the height of the block from
the top by 15.

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The side dimension updates correctly, but the top dimension is now
“buried” inside the block, not as we originally placed it. To fix this problem,
we must force the dimension line to retain its relative distance from the
element being dimensioned. In other words, when the element is moved the
dimensioning moves with it.
8. If necessary, open the Dimension Settings dialog box, highlight
Placement; check the Relative Dimension Line box. Save the changes
to the style (OK the alert).
9. Undo the modification, delete the top dimension, then place it again
(this time it will have the Relative Dimension Line feature)
10. Modify the block again as in step 5.

Figure 65
There are many more settings that may be made, far too many to be detailed
in this course guide. We will do exercises on some of the main settings; with
the rest explained very well by their Focus Item Description in the
Dimension Settings dialog box (see Figure 65). We have already seen the
Placement and Extension Line categories; we will now look at Dimension
Line and Text categories. In the process we will create another dimension
style.

Important:
To save words in the following exercises in this chapter, it is assumed that we
will click OK in the alert box each time we Save the Dimension Style..

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Dimension Line Settings

The active element attribute settings may be (and usually are) overridden by
settings saved as part of a Dimension Style. There is a hierarchy of
overrides applying here, with those set for the Dimension Line being at the
top. Dimension Line settings may have an effect on all of the components of
a dimension element, not just the Dimension Line itself. The Level setting
applies to all of the components of the dimension element; the Symbology
(Color, Style and Weight) also applies to all components, except when the
individual components (such as Text) have overriding settings of their own.

Exercise 155 - Change Dimension Line Settings

11. If it is not already open, Open BEN_Dim1.dgn
12. Open the Dimension Settings dialog box;
13. Ensure that “Experiments” is the active dimension style.
14. Click the Save Style As icon in the dialog box, save the style as
“Settings” with the description “Style for settings practice”; Click OK.
The new style becomes the active style.
15. Highlight Dimension Lines, change the settings as necessary to those
shown in Figure 66.
16. Highlight Extension Lines and uncheck the Color override if necessary;
click the Save Style icon to save the style.

Figure 66

Setting Units
The Units settings for a Dimension Style are independent of the Working
Unit settings made under SettingsÆDesign File. These settings provide a lot
of flexibility - we may even choose to place dimensions in Metric units in a
DGN with English working units and vice-versa.
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Exercise 156 - Experiment with Units Settings

1. If it is not already open, Open BEN_Dim1.dgn
2. Open the Dimension Settings dialog box and positioned in the lower
part of the view.
3. Ensure that “Settings” is the active dimension style.
4. Select the view group “Dimension Units” from the View Groups tool
box.
5. Use the Dimension Element tool to dimension the size of the line
6. Zoom in to make the dimension text more legible
7. Pan the text to the top of the view.
8. Highlight Units in the Dimension Settings dialog box; change the Label
to MU-SU; save the style.
The foot and inch labels disappear from the dimension text.
9. Change the label again as above, except choose SU Label; Save.
The line will be dimensioned in inches.
10. Uncheck the Use Working Units box; change the Master Units and Sub
Units both to Millimeters, Label: MU Label, Accuracy: 0; Save.
11. Change all the Units settings back to the originals (as in the complete
dialog box in Figure 67) and Save.

Figure 67

Unit Format
This setting relates mainly to angles, where the two main formats in use are
Decimal Degrees and Degrees, Minutes and Seconds. The other settings are
less often used and are self explanatory, so they will not be introduced here.

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Exercise 157 - Change Dimension Angle Format

1. If it is not already open, Open BEN_Dim1.dgn
2. Open the Dimension Settings dialog box as in the previous exercise.
3. Select the view group “Unit Format” from the View Groups tool box.
4. Highlight Unit Format in the Dimension Settings dialog box
5. Ensure that the settings are as shown in Figure 68.
6. Select the Dimension Angle Between tool
7. Identify the lower segment first, then the upper one and position as
illustrated.
The angle is dimensioned in Decimal Degrees format to 4 decimal places.
8. Under Unit Format, change the Display setting to DD^MM’SS” and the
Accuracy to 0; Save the change.
The dimension text will change to read the angle in degrees, minutes and
seconds, with the seconds rounded off to a whole number.

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Figure 68

Alternate Labels
Under the Units settings, there is a section relating to Alternate Labels. With
this feature, we can define a separate Units setting depending on the size of
the dimension. For example, building plans may show any dimension equal
to or greater than two feet in feet and inches, but those less than two feet in
inches only. The smaller dimensions may also be shown with greater
accuracy.

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Exercise 158 - Defining and Placing Alternate Labels

1. If it is not already open, Open BEN_Dim1.dgn
2. Open the Dimension Settings dialog box so that it is positioned in the
lower part of the view
3. Ensure that Settings is the active dimension style.
4. If necessary, select the view group Dimension Units and zoom in on the
dimension text as in the previous exercise.
5. Check the Alternate Label box and make the settings as shown in
Figure 10.23, Save the style.
The dimension will change to read in Sub Units only (inches), at the
accuracy of 1/32”.
6. Select the Extend Line tool, check the Distance box and enter 1 (foot)
7. Identify the line and accept the lengthening.
8. If necessary Pan the view to see the dimension text, which will have
reverted to feet and inches with 1/8” accuracy.
9. Uncheck the Alternate Label box and Save the style.

Figure 69

Secondary Units
Another option for our Dimension Styles under Units settings is Show
Secondary Units. These are typically used where a design is to be issued to a
variety of constructors, some of whom may be using English units, some
metric. They may also be used to display the same units in different formats,
for example inches and fractions and decimal inches.

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Exercise 159 - Defining and Placing Secondary Units

1. If it is not already open, Open BEN_Dim1.dgn
2. Open the Dimension Settings dialog box and position it in the lower
part of the view
3. Ensure that Settings is the active dimension style.
4. If necessary, select the view group “Dimension Units” and zoom in on
the dimension text as in the previous exercise.
5. Check the Show Secondary Units box and click Settings to open the
Secondary Units dialog box.
6. Make the settings as shown in Figure 70
7. Save the style and dismiss the Secondary Units dialog box.
8. The dimension text will now show secondary Metric units under the
primary English. Opening the other view groups will show all the other
dimensions with secondary units.
9. Uncheck the Show Secondary Units box and Save the style.

Figure 70

Dimension Text Settings

The choice of settings may depend partly on the standards applying within
the organization owning the drawing, or perhaps on National and State
imposed standards. They may also depend on the personal tastes of the
operator. Regardless of where the choices are made, no settings have more
influence on the appearance of the style than the Text settings. These
settings not only define the text itself (font, size etc.), but how the text is
placed. In the text style “1:1MechExt”, we had the text set to Horizontal,
which is not suitable for some types of dimensioning. We will change this
for our new Text Style.

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Exercise 160 - Change Dimension Text Settings

1. If it is not already open, Open BEN_Dim1.dgn
2. Open the Dimension Settings dialog box
3. Ensure that Settings is the active dimension style.
4. Highlight Text and click on each of the settings, including the check
boxes, the entry fields and the option menus, noting the Focus Item
Descriptions for each one at the bottom of the dialog box. Make the
settings as shown in Figure 71.
5. Highlight Placement; if necessary choose Location: Automatic.
6. We set this to Manual in the 1:1MechExt style to suit the dimensioning
we were doing at that time, but Automatic is more generally used to
locate the dimension text.
7. Click the Save Style icon to save the latest changes.

Figure 71

Tool Settings
There are many Tool Settings that may be applied to each of a large number
of dimensioning tools. In practice, there are more tools listed in the settings
than there are in the Dimensions tool box, as each mode of every tool may
be configured separately. For example, the Dimension Radial tool has five
modes - Center Mark, Radius, Radius Extended, Diameter and Diameter
Extended. Each of these has separate settings. Fortunately, once a set of
standards have been agreed upon, these settings seldom need to be changed.

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Exercise 161 - Change the Dimension Radial Tool

Settings
1. If it is not already open, Open BEN_Dim1.dgn
2. Open the Dimension Settings dialog box
3. Ensure that Settings is the active dimension style.
4. Highlight Tool Settings; select Radius Extended from the right side
Tool options.
5. Set the Prefix to None and the Suffix to R.
6. Click the Save Style icon to save these changes.

Figure 72

Exercise 162 - Prove the New Dimension Settings

7. If it is not already open, Open BEN_Dim1.dgn
8. Choose the String view group.
9. Turn Off Level lock
10. Delete the dimension elements currently in place.
11. Check Level lock back On
12. Ensure that Sample Elements is the Active level.
Having this lock on ensures that we will not unintentionally identify other
dimensions, or the location guide circles and numbers when placing new
dimensions.

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13. Select the Dimension Size with Arrows tool, Dimension
Style: Settings, Alignment: View, Association: Checked, place a string
of dimensions from location 1 through to 5, as we did previously. The
prompt will still read “Select Dimension Endpoint”. Reset twice.
14. Place a second dimension string starting at location 6, finishing at 4.
15. Select the view group Dimension Element
16. Turn Off Level Lock and delete the dimension placed on the arc at
location 5
17. Turn Level Lock back On.
18. Select the Dimension Radial tool, Dimension Style: Settings,
Mode: Radius Extended, Alignment: View, Association: Checked
19. Re-dimension the arc at location 5.
20. Re-open the Dimension Settings dialog box; highlight Text and check
the Color box, select a color (other than blue).
21. Change the Font to 23 Italics and Save the change
The Dimension Style has been updated, so all of the dimension elements in
the DGN placed with this style will change to reflect this.

Figure 73

Modifying Dimension Elements

Existing dimension elements may be operated on by some of the same tools
used to modify other MicroStation elements.

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• The position of components of a dimension element may be moved with

the Modify Element tool
• Extension lines may be added to a string of dimensions with the Insert
Vertex tool
• Extension lines may be removed from a string of dimensions with the
Delete Vertex tool
• The dimension text may be edited to change values or add text using the
Edit Text tool.

Moving
The legibility of dimension text can often be enhanced by changing its
position along the dimension line, moving it away from other geometry.

Exercise 163 - Moving Dimension Text

1. If it is not already open, Open BEN_Dim1.dgn
2. Open the Dimension Settings dialog box
3. Ensure that Settings is the active dimension style.
4. Choose the Units settings, change the Accuracy to 0. Save the
dimension style.
5. Choose the String view group
6. Turn Off Level lock, AccuDraw and AccuSnap.
7. Select the Modify Element tool and identify the dimension text 5/ 8”
8. Move it to fit between the extension lines, accept and Reset.
The lower dimension line will reduce in length to match the upper one.
9. Identify the same text again, this time move it to above the upper
extension line, accept and Reset.
10. Turn Level lock, AccuDraw and AccuSnap back On.
The upper dimension line will increase in length to remain under the text.

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Figure 74

With Leader
It is occasionally necessary to move dimension text right away from the
dimension line, either to make it more legible or to prevent it from hiding
other geometry. This is sometimes referred to as “Ball and Chain”
dimensioning. We can only do this if the dimension is placed with Allow
Dimension with Leader enabled. When the text is moved away (using the
Modify tool, as in the previous exercise) we can optionally have a line or a
curve joining the text to its dimension line.

Exercise 164 - Moving Dimension Text Away from

the Dimension Line
1. If it is not already open, Open BEN_Dim1.dgn
2. Open the Dimension Settings dialog box
3. Select the view group Unit Format from the View Groups tool box.
4. Highlight Dimension With Leader in the Dimension Settings dialog
box, make the settings as shown in Figure 75.
5. Dimension the angled lines as shown in the top illustration using the
Dimension Size with Arrow tool to place a Dimension String.
6. With Level Lock Off, select the Modify Element tool and move the text
away from the dimension lines, as in the lower illustration.

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Figure 75

Moving and Extension Lines

When placing linear dimensions, the dimension line is positioned when we
define the length of the extension line. The start and end points of the
dimension are defined with snaps to the geometry. We can change both of
these definitions at a later time, using the Modify tool in both cases.

Exercise 165- Moving Dimensioning Linework

1. If it is not already open, Open BEN_Dim1.dgn
2. Open the String view group
3. Toggle AccuSnap On if necessary.
4. Select the Modify Element tool
5. Identify the dimension lines one at a time and move them with respect
to the design geometry, (optionally) accept the new positions.

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Figure 76
6. Still using the Modify Element tool, snap to the inner end of the lowest
extension line.
7. Snap the extension line to the vertex on the internal geometry as shown
in Figure 77.
8. Move the dimension lines again if necessary, as in step 2

Figure 77

Changing the Number of Dimensions in a String

Dimension strings are single elements, but that does not prevent us from
making changes to individual components of the dimension element, as we
have already found out. If, for any reason, we need to add an intermediate
dimension to a string, or add an extra dimension to either end of the string,
the ordinary Insert Vertex tool is used. Conversely, if a dimension in the
string is not needed, it can be removed with the Delete Vertex tool.

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Exercise 166 - Adding and Deleting Extension Lines

1. If it is not already open, Open BEN_Dim1.dgn
2. Open the String view group open
3. Select the Insert Vertex tool and identify the right side dimension
string.
4. Snap the new extension line to the original start point for the dimension
as shown in Figure 78.
Another dimension is added to the end of the string in this case, but it could
have been an intermediate dimension - this will depend on the point chosen
on the geometry being dimensioned.
5. Select the Delete Vertex tool, identify the extension line extended from
location 5 as shown in Figure 78, and then accept when snapped to the
desired extension line.
6. Use the Modify Element tool to move the text 1 7/8” (on the right side)
downwards to center it between its extension lines. The dimension
string is now in one line, as the “stacking” is no longer necessary to
accommodate the dimension text.

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Figure 78

Editing Dimension Text

Dimension text may be edited using the Edit Text tool. It should seldom be
necessary to change the automatically generated value of a dimension, as it
is generally possible to change the design itself to the correct dimensions.
This is especially easy with Associated dimensions.
It is also possible to adjust the “rounding off” Accuracy of dimensions in the
Units setting of the Dimension Settings dialog box. However, apart from
forcing a change of value for the dimension, we have the option of adding
extra text while retaining the automatically generated value. We will use the
latter option to add the Alignment settings used when we placed the aligned
dimensions.

Exercise 167 - Editing Dimension Text

1. If it is not already open, Open BEN_Dim1.dgn
2. Open the Alignments view group
3. Choose WorkspaceÆPreferences from the Main menu bar
4. Choose Text from the Preferences dialog box, then (if necessary) set
Text Editor Style: Dialog Box.
5. Select the Edit Text tool and identify and accept the dimension text
associated with locations 1 and 2.

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A special text editor window (smaller than the “word processor” style
window) opens for editing dimension text. The asterisk (*) in the entry field
represents the automatically generated text.
6. Click in the text entry field to position the cursor to the right of the “*”
7. Keyin a <SPACE> followed by (View); click OK.
8. Repeat the process to add (True) after the dimension at locations 5 and
6, then again to add (Arbitrary) to the text at 7 and 8.
9. Identify the text at 3 and 4, this time replace the “*” with 5.25.

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Figure 79

Dimension Scale
By now, we will be quite used to creating all our models at full size. We
have used scale when we have referenced these models to a drawing sheet,
as we did with “Furnished Cottage.dgn”. We may also have noticed a Scale
setting at the bottom of the Dimension Settings dialog box when we were
working with the Units settings. Is this a setting we need to make when
dimensioning a drawing sheet model, such as the one in
“Furnished Cottage.dgn”?
The answer to that is No. In practice, this setting will only be used in
unusual circumstances, such as when working with drawings created with
older versions of CAD software. Dimensioning to scale is automatic,
providing we always snap to the element being dimensioned, either with
AccuSnap or manually. When we snap a dimension start or end point to a
reference attachment, the scale of the attachment becomes irrelevant, the
dimension text will show the actual size of the design model.

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Exercise 168 - Dimension a Sheet Model

1. If it is not already open, Open FurnishedCottage.dgn
2. Select the Layout Sheet Views from the View Groups tool box.
3. Zoom in on the site plan area of the drawing sheet.
Before we can start dimensioning, we are going to need a Dimension Style,
so we will Import some that we created in “BEN_DimS.dgn”
4. Open the Dimension Settings dialog box if necessary, choose
FileÆImport.
5. Select BEN_DimS.dgn from our own allocated directory; click OK.
6. Select the 1:1MechExt dimension style in the Dimension Settings
dialog box
7. Highlight Units; change the Label to MU Label-SU Label.
The Working Units box is checked, so we will be using the working units
specified for this model, feet and inches. The dimensions will be rounded to
the nearest inch, since the Accuracy is set to 0.
8. Highlight Placement, choose Location: Automatic.
9. Select the Dimension Size Stroke tool
10. Ensure that AccuSnap is on and place a dimension from the lower-front
corner of the site to the lower-front corner of the house, as shown in
Figure 80.
The dimension shows the distance to be about 48 feet.
11. Toggle AccuSnap Off, repeat the dimension, but this time place data
points without snapping (zoom in further for more accuracy).
The dimension shown this time is 1 inch, which is the approximate distance
along the drawing sheet. This proves that we must Snap, as when we do we
can forget about the Scale.

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Figure 80

Design Problem – Dimension the Mounting Plate

Figure 81 is the drawing that we used in previously to create the model in
our “MountingPlate.dgn”. Our task is now to place dimensioning on the
design.
We are to create new Dimension Styles which will place dimensions that
look somewhat similar those in the illustration, unless stated otherwise
below:

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• The dimensioning is to be placed in the design model on a level named

Dimension
• The Text Height is .1” and the Font is Arial
• The Trailing Zeros are suppressed in the illustration - we must find this
setting for ourselves
• The radius and diameter dimension text is at various angles in the
illustration, but we are to place those appearing outside the plate outline
with the text horizontal - again, we must find this setting for ourselves
• The remaining settings are our own choice, but the result must either
closely resemble the illustration, or be as stated above.

Figure 81

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From the very beginning of this guide we have worked towards the ultimate
goal of creating printed documents from our CAD files. When CAD first
became popular, the devices used to commit drawings to paper (or mylar
etc) were called plotters. They got this name because they literally moved
mechanical pens over the paper, drawing the lines much like a ships
navigator would plot a course on a map. In modern times, true plotters are
not as common anymore as they have given way to printers of both large
and small format. CAD has therefore adopted the more generic term
“printing”. Regardless of which term you see used, the process is really the
same.
2D drafting may be regarded as creating a collection of electronic images
that will be copied to paper on completion. The paper copies will not
necessarily be created at the same site as the original drawing creation; the
computer generated information may be transmitted to a distant location via
the “web” for printout. When a design is to be transmitted electronically,
however, there will probably be printouts generated locally for checking.
While it is true that any DGN can be printed, in a typical project there are
three general types of DGNs:
• Design Files are design files that are used by the designer/drafter as a
“working drawing”. This usually means that they are not intended to be
a complete representation of the design, or plotted directly.
• Reference Files are design files that are intended to be attached to plot
sheets. They contain some logical chunk of data and are generally used
to breakup the data to allow multiple users to remain productive on a
project. They are not usually printed directly, because they too do not
show all the pertinent data.
• Plot Sheets are design files that are intended to be printed and delivered.
As such, they make use of many reference files, and have been
“dressed-up”. They should generally not be changed without careful
consideration.
This chapter will not go into great detail about how each a plot sheet is
physically constructed as that will be covered in the advanced course. We
will however, discuss the “normal” way that prints are made within the
PennDOT environment and explain the general process of printing.

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Objectives
When you have completed this chapter, you will be able to:
• Attach printers
• Print files to produce small or large format printouts
• Make use of various saved configurations for the printed output
• Use IPlot Organizer to print.
• Use IPlot to print.

Overview of the process

Before we get to the specifics of what buttons to click to create a print, we

need to discuss the general workflow used, as well as some background
information needed to understand the big picture. The general procedure for
printing is as follows:
1. Define the area of the CAD file we wish to print.
Because we typically define the area before we open any of the print
commands, this is the first step in the process.
As you can imagine, the scale at which we wish to print the drawings
will have a dramatic effect on what area we need to define. In general,
we define a large area and then scale it “down” to fit on a piece of
paper. For example, assume we are attempting to print onto an 11x17
sheet of paper where we want 1” = 100’ scale, how big would the area
we define in the DGN be? For simplicity, assume that the printer is
capable of printing on the entire 11x17 sheet. If we define an area of
1100’ x 1700’, and apply a scale of 1”=100’ then we will end up with
a printed image that is 11” x 17”.

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While there are several ways to actually define the area, the two most
common are to place a Fence or to use a Plot Boundary. The plot
boundary is just a special graphical element that can be searched for
based on its specific symbology. It defines the plotting area around an
entire sheet cell. The plot boundary can be found on the PLT-BNDY
level, has a LineStyle = 7 and Weight = 0. The following image
shows the upper left corner of a Sheet and indicates its plot boundary.

Figure 82

Note:
Because PennDOT’s Sheet Cells come with a predefined Plot Boundary this is
the preferred method for plotting an entire sheet. If, however, you find that you
need to plot a small area of the sheet at some other scale, then a Fence is the
way to go.

Caution:
It is very important to maintain the symbology of the plot boundary as IPlot
Organizer will use the precise symbology to locate the shape(s) to be plotted.

2. Decide which printer and layout to use

Different printers have different abilities and can therefore have an
impact on the area defined in the previous step. Whenever changing
printers, pay special attention to the scale at which it will be printed as
it may change based on the printers ability.

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 11 Printing / Plotting
For example, if Printer1 has the ability to print on the entire 11x17
sheet of paper and we want 1”=100’ we could define the area as 1100’
x 1700’. What would happen to the scale if we changed to Printer 2
which has a margin of .5in? The area we defined of 1100’x1700’
would be forced to a sheet that is 10”x16”. Because the aspect ratio of
10x16 is not the same as 11x17 we would choose the smaller of the X
and Y scale (1”=110’ or 1”=106’). Either way, it is not what we
intended.
Because of this possibility, most borders have graphic elements
defined in them to tell the user what area to print. These elements
usually take into account the limitations of common printers.
3. Send print job to printer
Once the previous steps are completed, we just have to send the job to
the printer. Because the area and layout of a plot sheet doesn’t change
often and we will want to plot it many times, we can save the setup
information for later processing. This allows us to avoid having to
change the settings manually each time we want to plot.
While MicroStation does include built _in printing abilities, at PennDOT
two additional pieces of software are used to standardize the plotting of
drawings.
InterPlot is used from within the MicroStation environment to print the
current DGN. Each sheet must be identified, plot settings configured, and
then sent to the printer individually. IPlot does not recognize Plot
Boundaries. While this method is relatively quick and easy for small plot
sets that are not going to need to be created again, it is very cumbersome for
plots that need to be repeated.
IPlot Organizer is a windows program that is used outside of the
MicroStation environment to print one or more sheets as a plot set in a
single step. PlotSets control both the order and settings used to print each
sheet, so for large groups of sheets this method is preferred.

IPlot
IPlot is used from within the MicroStation environment to print a portion of
the current DGN. Each time a plot is made, the area must be defined by a
fence that is manually placed prior to loading IPlot. It is therefore a
reasonable solution for a small number of plots that do not need to be
plotted often, but becomes inefficient when the number of sheets grows.
The IPlot dialog looks as follows:

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Figure 83
There are many settings that can be controlled with IPlot, because this is an
introductory course, only a few of the most important fields are explained
below.

Job Name

While the Job Name is technically an optional field it is often helpful when
trying to identify your plot in the OCE plotter’s queue.
When printing PDFs the Job Name becomes much more important as PDFs
are all created in the L:\PDF folder and will be named based on the
Job Name. If no job name is specified the name of the DGN is used for the
PDF. This means that if you send multiple plots from the same DGN and
you don’t specify a name, each plot will overwrite the previous one.

Printer

This is one of the most important fields as it defines which device your
output will be sent to. Whenever a printer is selected the default settings file
(.SET) is loaded for that device. This helps ensure that you get the best
results with a minimum of effort.
The .SET file contains many settings, most of which is beyond the scope of
this course.

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Paper Size

The Paper Size is one of the settings that is controlled by the .SET file but
may be overridden by the user. It defines the paper that you will be plotting
to. Since the Scale is calculated based on forcing the plotted area to fit onto
the paper it is integral to obtaining the correct scale.

Caution:
Some printers do not define a default paper size. If you leave the “NONE”
paper size selected they will use the largest piece of paper they can – which is
often a very long roll of paper and quite expensive. In general you should never
have a paper size of NONE defined when you send the output to the printer..

Plot Control

There are many settings in this part of the dialog so we will focus only on
few of them.

Plot Area - shows what area IPlot is attempting to plot. This should
usually be set to Fence.
Size (X,Y) – These fields show the X and Y size of your plot. In some
instances these values will need to be adjusted. A Rotation of 90 or 270
degrees may require you to swap the X and Y values. When you enter a
value in these fields, the other dimension is automatically set based on the
Scale. The following table shows common sized for various paper sizes.

Sheet Size X Value Y Value

22 x 34 33.0 21.250
22 x 36 35.0 22.000
11 x 17 16.5 10.625
11 x 18 17.5 11.000

Scale – shows the calculated scale that the output will be. You should
always check this value before plotting to make sure you get what you
expect. In general it should not need to be changed, but you may override
the scale setting by typing in the desired scale, provided that the plotted area
will still fit on the paper.

Rotation – Occasionally you will need to change the orientation of your

plot to better fit the paper it is being plotted on. Generally rotations of 0, 90,
180 or 270 are used.

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Origin – The origin effectively shifts the plotted image on the paper
allowing you to center the sheet. Typically this will not need to be modified
from its default setting.

Exercise 169 – Attaching Network Printers

1. Open windows explorer, Select Printers and Faxes, then double click on Add
Printer.

2. In the Add Printer Wizard dialog box Select Next.

3. Toggle on the “A network printer, or a printer attached to another computer” option

and Select Next.

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4. Toggle on the “Connect to this printer” option then enter two backslashes in the
Name field, the print server name, followed by another backslash. When the last
backslash is entered, there should be a listing of available printers. Select the
desired printer and Select Next.

5. Select No in the Add Printer Wizard dialog box then Select next.

6. Select Finish

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Exercise 170 – Modifying OCEP1 Printing

Preferences
After attaching the OCEP1 plotter, the following settings must be
changed.
1. Right click on the pd##cdocep1 printer and select Printing Preferences.

2. Select the Preferences button

3. In the Preferences dialog box change the units to inch. In the Printable area toggle
off Image size correction. Select OK

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Exercise 171 – Plotting from MicroStation

1. If it is not already open, open
Plotting\Construction\4033_CON_A_Sheet1.dgn

Figure 84
2. Fit View in view 1 so that the entire sheet is displayed.
3. Place a fence around the sheet by snapping to the top left and bottom
right corners of the Plot Boundary

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Figure 85
4. Select FileÆPLOT to open the IPlot dialog as shown in the following
image.

Figure 86
5. Enter “PLOT WITH FENCE” as the Job Name.
Note:
Remember, that while a Job Name is optional it is often helpful when trying to
identify your print job in the OCE Printer queue so it is recommended that you
always enter a meaningful job name.
Additionally, when creating a PDF it is very important as the Job Name will
become the PDF file’s name.

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Select the Printer to which you will send the output by clicking the browse
button ( ) next to the Printer field. By selecting a printer in this manner,
IPLOT automatically loads a settings file (.SET) for the specified device.
The Settings file automatically configures many plot parameters such as the
paper size, rotation and origin. While the default settings file will generally
produce good results, you can change any of the settings to manipulate the
output as desired.
6. Assuming that the default Settings are appropriate, click the PREVIEW
button to open a separate window with a preview of the plot. While the
preview gives a good representation of the colors, line weights etc. it
does not show one important thing; how the plot fits on the physical
paper.
Note:
Notice that the preview window has a status bar at the bottom which gives
instructions about how to Pan, Zoom on the preview.

7. Close the Preview window

8. If you were to click the PLOT button it would actually send the output
to the printer. For now, do not click the button.
9. Now open Plotting\Construction\4033_CON_A_Sheet2.dgn
10. Click FileÆPlot to open the IPLOT dialog.

Notice how the Scale of the drawing is 52.75Ft : 1in. Why is this?
Hopefully you recognize that we didn’t define the area to plot before we
opened IPlot so it has assumed that we want to plot the entire view – which
is slightly larger than the actual area we want to plot.

There are several ways to fix this, some more convenient than others.
• Close the IPlot dialog, place a fence and then Re-open it. This works the
best but is a bit of a hassle, so remember to place your fence first!
• Select ToolsÆPlace FenceÆBlock from the IPlot dialog’s menu. This
works too, but now we’re unsure what other settings might not have
been loaded so we will have to re-select the printer to re-load the
settings.
11. Close the IPlot dialog
12. Place a Fence on the Plot Boundary
13. Select FileÆPlot to open the IPlot dialog.
14. Check the Scale ( See Figure 86 if you are unsure of where the scale is
shown.) of the drawing to make sure it is what you expect (50:1)
15. Check that the Paper Size is not NONE.

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Exercise 172 – Creating PDF from Microstation

1. If it is not already open, open
Plotting\Construction\4033_CON_A_Sheet2.dgn
2. Place a Fence on the Plot Boundary shape.
3. Select FileÆPlot from the menu
4. Check the drawing Scale
5. Enter “Training Test PDF” in the Job Name field. Recall that this will
become the PDF file’s name.
6. Select “Acrobat Distiller” as the printer.
7. Click Plot button to send the output to Adobe Distiller.
8. Browse to the L:\PDF directory and move/copy your PDF to the
appropriate location.
Important:
It is your responsibility to clean up after yourself. Do not leave the PDF files in
the L:\PDF directory longer than required. After you have moved or copied
them to the appropriate location in the project, delete them from the L:\PDF
drive.

InterPlot Organizer (IPO)

IPO is windows based application that is used for plotting one or more
sheets as a set. There are several advantages of IPO over the IPLOT,
perhaps the two most notable are the ability to automatically recognize a
Plot Boundary and the ability to plot an entire set of sheets in a single step.
IPO gives you full control over plot sets and the plots that they contain. You
can add, delete, reorder, view and modify the properties of individual plots
and preview or print one or more plots very quickly. It is because of these
abilities that IPO is the preferred plotting mechanism when more than one
or two drawing needs to be plotted.
IPO can be found on the PennDOT Shortcut menu or by selecting
StartÆProgramsÆPlotting UtilitiesÆInterPlot Organizer.
When IPO first opens, it usually asks if you want to create a new plot set or
to open an existing plot set. If the sheet(s) that you need to plot have already
been added to a plot set, open the existing set, select them and plot. If they
have not, then you will either add them to an existing set or create new set.

Exercise 173 – Create a new Plot Set

1. If MicroStation is open, please close it.
2. Select IPO from the PennDOT shortcut menu

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3. or Select StartÆProgramsÆPlotting UtilitiesÆInterPlot Organizer to

start IPO
4. If prompted, toggle on the “Don’t display this screen again” option then
select OK in the Welcome to InterPlot Organizer dialog box.

5. Select FileÆCreate Plots from the menu to add plots to this new plot
set or by clicking on the Create Plots icon ( ).

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6. Click the ADD button to select one or more DGN files to be processed.
Note that it is quite possible that there is more than one plot in a DGN.
A good example of where this happens is cross section sheets generated
by InRoads.

As with many Windows programs, you can select multiple files in this dialog by
using the CTRL and SHIFT keys while clicking on the files shown in the dialog.

7. Select all the DGNs in the Construction directory and click OPEN.

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8. You can Click ADD again if you want to add more files to be processed,
but for this exercise once is enough.
9. Click the BROWSE button next to the Settings File Name field so that
we can select the appropriate settings file.
Important:
The .SET files used by IPO are not the same as the .SET files used by IPLOT,
despite having the same extension. In general, the .SET files either begin with
“US_...” ,“Metric…” or “pd…”. Those that begin with “US…” or “Metric…”
are intended for use with IPO while those that begin with “pd…” are intended
for use with IPLOT.

Within PennDOT the appropriate .SET files are located on the

M:\Workspaces\Projects directory. They are sub-classified as English or
Metric. In this course we will use English files. Which means a path of:
M:\Workspaces\Projects\English\Iplot_Settings_Files\
The following chart should assist you in choosing the best .SET file. Note that
there may be variants based on the type of printer(s) that are available.
English Metric
US_Full_New_Oce.set Metric_Full_New_Oce.set
US_Full_Old_Oce.set Metric_Full_Old_Oce.set
US_Full_New_PDF_Oce.set Metric_Full_New_PDF_Oce.set

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US_Half_New_5100.set Metric_Half_New_5100.set
US_Half_Old_5100.set Metric_Half_Old_5100.set

10. Select US_Half_New_5100.set and click OPEN

11. Click OK to process the files and dismiss the dialog. Notice that some
of the DGN files had multiple sheets defined in them.

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12. Once processing is complete, notice that you can change the order of
the plots by selecting plots and clicking the buttons in the Toolbar or
selecting EditÆMove Up etc.

13. Experiment with Right Clicking on various items in the list to see what
options are available to you.
14. To save the Plot Set, select FileÆSave and provide the appropriate
location and filename. For this exercise, save the file to the H drive and
assigne the your first name as the file name.
Exercise 174 – Making PDFs from IPOrganizer
Important:
For more detailed directions on creating PDFs from MicroStation or IPO, refer
to the workflow attachments to Strike off Letter 4300625 : Generating PDF
Files directly from CADD for Electronic Deliverable of Right-Of-Way and
Construction Plans.

1. Create a new Plot Set by selecting FileÆNew

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2. Add all the DGN files in the Construction directory.
3. Select the US_Ful_New_PDF_Oce.set
4. Click OK to process the files. If prompted to apply the common
sections to the plot, click YES.
Note:
You could select a number of plots to be exported to PDF, but at this time IPO
will put each of the plots into a single PDF file. In this exercise we only want to
export a single plot to a single PDF file.

5. Select the Plot that you want to make a PDF of and Right Click and
select Export to PDF

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6. Select the PDF FORMAT CONFIGURATION button and verify that the
resolution is 600DPI.

7. Click OK on the PDF Format dialog to close the dialog.

Caution:
It is important not to change any of the other settings found in the PDF Format
Configuration dialog other than the Resolution (if needed).

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8. Click CREATE PDF button and specify the Location and Name of the
PDF to be produced.

Note:
There are several print queues within PennDOT, each of which serves a
different purpose. The following chart summarizes them:
Queue Description
OCE P1 Used for both full and half size black
and white plots of the “New” sheet
size (22x34 or 11x17)
OCE P2 Used for both full and half size black
and white plots of the “Old” sheet
size (22x36 and 11x18)
5100 Used for New half size (11x17) Black
and white plots
5500 Used for New half size (11x17) Color
plots
DJet P1 Used for Full or Half Size Color plots
from MicroStation
DJetP2 Used for Color plots from any other
windows application
Acrobat Distiller Used for creating PDFs

Exercise 175 - Plotting and Existing Plot Set

1. If MicroStation is open, please close it.
2. Select IPO from the PennDOT shortcut menu

3. or Select StartÆProgramsÆPlotting UtilitiesÆInterPlot Organizer to

start IPO

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4. Select File>Open and browse to the H drive and select the IPS file
(created in exercise 177 or open example.ips).
5. IPO loads the Plot Set and contains 11 plots. The dialog should look
similar to the following image:

Notice that there are three plots that originated in the 4033_con_c.dgn file.
This is because there were three plot boundaries found in that file.
6. Select the first three plots
7. Select FileÆPrint Preview to open a preview window of each plot.
Notice the navigation arrows at the top of the preview window.

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8. Close the Preview window

9. Select FileÆPrint to open the Print Dialog

10. Select “Sepearte Print Jobs” in the Submit Plots as section.

11. Verify that you have the correct Printer selected

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12. By clicking the Ok button you would actually make the plots. To
conserve paper, do not click the Ok button now.
That is all it takes to print each of the selected plots. Hopefully you realize
that it would be just as easy to select a larger set of plots and send them all
at once.

410 Issued: 1-Jul-07

 12 Conclusions

12 Conclusions
You have reached the end of this introductory course to MicroStation. If all
went well, you are now more comfortable with the basic operation of the
program than you were when you began this course. Of course the only way
to become truly comfortable is to use MicroStation, so go ahead – dive in
and get your feet wet.
Naturally you will continue to have issues and questions as you use
MicroStation in the PennDOT production environment. As these questions
or issues arise don’t forget to use the internal resources that are available to
you to further your learning. Talk over problems with the lead operator,
contact the CAD Support group if needed and perhaps get involved in an
advanced course.
Good Luck.

Issued: 1-Jul-07 411