Help! I need to turn off reference file display.

MicroStation User — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:30:32 +0000

by Rick Sewell, Customer Support

Clearwater, Florida, USA — Large MicroStation projects tend to be broken up into multiple design files by discipline. You might have one set of designers working on plumbing, another set on electrical and so on. Then, a corresponding file from each discipline is referenced to a master file to complete the picture for that one set of files. Of course, that one finished set of files is only one of many such sets needed to complete the project — but normally each set of files is handled in the same fashion.

Now, what happens when you need to print out a copy of this master design file to give to the electrician who will be responsible for the wiring? If you print it with every discipline’s details, that electrician is going to get the printed file and not have any idea what most of the stuff in it is. This problem is easily fixed! Just turn off the display of each inapplicable reference file in the master design file and print it again. Fast and easy, right? Sure, unless there are two hundred master files to print.

The need to turn off the display of specific reference files in multiple master files is very common. This is why it is a frequently used feature in RefManager.

How to turn off the display for a specific reference file in many files
Ok, so we’ve got our set of 200 MicroStation design files containing “plumbing.dgn” as a reference file. I’m going to walk you through exactly how to turn off the display for the “plumbing.dgn” for all files.

Load RefManager from the Axiom pull-down menu.

Think of this dialob box as RefManager’s front door. Starting with this box, you can make all kinds of modifications to any number of design files on your system. RefManager is a great MicroStation time-saver.

In the main dialog box, set “Command” to “Modify Reference File Attachments”. This will automatically load the “Modify Reference File Attachments” dialog box.

Change any reference file setting with the “Modify Reference File Attachments” command.

In the “Modify Reference File Attachments” dialog box, set the “Category” to “Vector Settings”.
The very top option is “Display”. Click on the menu next to it and you will have three choices, “No Change”, “Turn On” and “Turn Off”. Select “Turn Off”. Then press to go back to the main RefManager dialog box.

Right now, if you were to press the button, you would end up turning off the display of all reference files. This is not the desired result. So we need to set a filter to turn off the display only for “plumbing.dgn”.

From the RefManager main dialog box, press the button. This will load the “Filter Reference File Attachments By” dialog box.

Type the name of the reference file that you want to process in the “String” field. [Note: You can specify multiple reference files to process by entering multiple filenames in the “String” field, using semicolons as separators.

Ensure the “Category” is set to “File Name”. In the “String” field, enter the name of the reference file to be processed – in this case, “plumbing.dgn”. Then press to go back to the main RefManager dialog box.

With RefManager, you can select as many design files as you want to process.

In the main dialog box is the “Master Files” field. Press the button to bring up the “Choose Files to Process” dialog box. Click the button. You can now navigate to and select as many files to process as you want. Remember that the files you are selecting to process aren’t the reference files themselves, but the master files containing the reference files that have the attributes you want to change. When you have selected all of the master files you want to process, press to return to the main RefManager dialog box.
Press to process your files.

When the process is complete, the reference file display attribute will be turned off for “plumbing.dgn” in all the master files that you processed. You’re now ready to start printing all of the files for the electrician!

Dragging and Dropping Reference Files

MicroStation User — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:28:44 +0000

Save some time and attach reference files to a design file by selecting them in Windows Explorer and dragging and dropping them into the “Reference Files” dialog box in MicroStation. This can be especially helpful for users with multiple monitors and can be done with both vector and raster reference files.

To attach a reference file to a design file, drag and drop the file from Windows Explorer into the “Reference Files” dialog box.

MicroStation Tips » Reference File Tips

Help! I need to turn off reference file display.

Dragging and Dropping Reference Files