Text Symbology Settings
You locate the text symbology controls by selecting the “Settings” icon on the Microsoft Office Importer toolbar.

Then select “Text” under the “Category” menu. This will display the dialog box illustrated below. Notice the option button that has been selected in this illustration. This button is a control that determines how text symbology is set and has two selectable options.

One option is labeled “Take unselected settings from source document”. The term “unselected settings” refers to the three fields, just above the option button, that do not have checkboxes and value fields for “Color”, “Weight” and “Level”. If you select this option and have not checked the “Color” and “Weight” checkboxes, the text will be imported so that it looks as it does in the source document. However, if you check either the “Color” or “Weight” checkboxes, the specified value will override the symbology in the source document. Notice that the “Level” checkbox is checked by default for this option. This is because there are no levels in Microsoft Office documents.

The second option, “Take unselected settings from the active symbology”, in combination with the Color and Weight controls override the symbology imported from the source document.

By selecting this option you can import text using your active color, weight and level, or you can override any one of these three active symbology settings with the checkboxes and values fields. When you select this option, the “Level” value checkbox is enabled so that you can use or override the active level setting.

Setting table lines symbology
The table lines imported by Microsoft Office Importer are controlled with the settings category named “Table”. When this category is selected, you will see a dialog box with a small option button labeled “Import Lines:” near the top.

The “Import Lines:” option controls whether source document table lines are imported or not. This is an illustration of the options available with the “Import Lines:” option button.

If you want a spreadsheet’s cell borderlines to be imported but not spreadsheet’s grid lines, then use the first option for this button, “As in Source”. You can use the “Always” option to import borderlines and grid lines. With the “Never” option selected, neither the borderlines nor the grid lines will be imported.

As in the “Text“ category, the larger option button at the bottom of the dialog box offers you ways to assign symbology to table elements: taking unselected settings from the source document or taking unselected settings from the active symbology.

You use this button to control how the symbology of borderlines and grid lines is assigned. You can use the symbology as in the source document, or you can use the symbology from the active settings. You can also use a combination of the values checked in the color, weight, style or level boxes along with the symbology of the source document or the symbology of the active settings.

Summary
In summary, by using Microsoft Office Importer you can import text and lines just as they are in the source document, or you can import the text and lines so that they have the exact symbology you need to meet your company or client’s CAD standards. The illustrations above show the MicroStation V7 implementation. The symbology controls in the V8 version of Microsoft Office Importer function the same as the V7 version.

In the October 2003 issue of MicroStation Today, I announced the release of SpecChecker for V8. This month, I begin a multi-part series detailing many of the excellent new features waiting to be discovered in SpecChecker for V8.

How SpecChecker for V8 processes models
One major addition to SpecChecker for V8 is its support for MicroStation V8 models. SpecChecker (V7 version) has always had the ability to process multiple design files in batch. SpecChecker for V8 is no exception. But, now that MicroStation V8 supports (multiple) models, the question arises: Which model(s) contain the elements you want SpecChecker to check against your standard? Processing the right models is as important as processing the right files or checking the files against the right standard.

SpecChecker for V8 gives you several options regarding which models to process, as you can see in this picture:

SpecChecker for V8 gives you control over which models to check against CAD standards.

With the “Active model only” option chosen (the default selection), SpecChecker for V8 processes only the active model in all the files processed. Every file with at least one model will have an active model.

Use “Default model only” to have SpecChecker for V8 process only the special “Default” model in all files it processes. Although MicroStation V8’s “Models” dialog box allows you to rename the “Default” model, it prohibits you from deleting it. So any V8 design file or cell library you process should have a “Default” model, even if that model has been named something else. Never fear. No matter what it has been renamed, SpecChecker for V8 will still find the “Default” model.

Use “All models except sheets” to have SpecChecker for V8 process all design models and ignore sheet models. Most files will have at least one design model to process.

Use “Sheet models” to have SpecChecker for V8 process only sheet models (if any), ignoring design models.

Use “All models” whenever running SpecChecker for V8 on cell libraries, as each cell in a V8 cell library is its own model. You may want to use this option when processing design files too, but that depends on which models you want to process. Whether you use this option when processing design files is a personal decision that depends on how your company or project uses MicroStation V8 models.

How SpecChecker handles V8’s symbology settings
SpecChecker for V8 has rich support for level symbology, element symbology and ByLevel symbology and supports any legal combination thereof. Under “Settings | Change settings…”, in the “General” settings category, you will find the “Symbology:” option button (see image below).

SpecChecker for V8 has rich support for level symbology, element symbology and ByLevel symbology.

This option button has two choices: “Element” and “As displayed”. To understand how they work, let’s talk about the possible symbology settings of any given element in MicroStation for V8.

First, we have element symbology. Element symbology is the color, weight and style settings stored in the element itself that control how that element looks on the screens and plots. When a MicroStation user offhandedly says just “symbology”, what they are usually talking about is “element symbology”. If an element’s weight is set to 2, it displays and plots at that weight.

One special element symbology setting – introduced in MicroStation V8 – is ByLevel symbology. ByLevel symbology is now a choice for each symbology setting (style, weight and color) for each element. In V8, levels have their own symbology settings, which are passed to any elements whose element symbology settings are set to “ByLevel”. So if a certain level’s ByLevel weight setting is set to 5, each element on that level whose weight is set to “ByLevel” will display at that level’s weight (5). Elements do not have to use ByLevel symbology. And elements can have mixed symbology – just because an element has ByLevel weight doesn’t mean it has to have ByLevel color or style.

The last part of the symbology puzzle is “level symbology”. Level symbology is a whole different beast. And it is beyond the scope of this article to cover level symbology completely. Using level symbology allows MicroStation to display and plot elements based on symbology assigned to each level. There is no element property that controls whether an element is displayed with level symbology. Level symbology is different from ByLevel symbology in that it applies to all elements on a given level – and only if the level symbology view attribute is turned on for that given view, as level symbology is a per-view setting. But for this to really have an effect, the level symbology “Override” setting (there is one setting each for color, weight and style) must be turned on for that level.

With that substantial MicroStation V8 symbology primer out of the way, here is how SpecChecker for V8 handles symbology.

If you choose “Element” (see partial view of “SpecChecker Settings” dialog box below), then the element symbology value stored in each element will be analyzed by SpecChecker. This value may be a number, a custom linestyle name or “ByLevel”.

If you choose “As displayed”, then SpecChecker for V8 will treat each element exactly as it is displayed (in other words, as the user sees it) in the active view in each model. This could incorporate level symbology, ByLevel symbology and element symbology.

So, using “As displayed”, SpecChecker for V8 can support a mix of element symbology (including elements set to “ByLevel” for their color, weight or style) and level symbology – all in the same file.

Axiom has just the solution to this problem — Global File Changer. Global File Changer lets you make almost unlimited changes to multiple design files quickly and easily! The changes you can accomplish with Global File Changer are only limited by your imagination. As an example of its power, Global File Changer can automatically attach a new cell library to 150 design files in as little as one minute and 15 seconds!

In this issue of MicroStation Today, we show you how to accomplish a task for which Global File Changer is frequently used – copying the level symbology settings of one design file to hundreds of design files. This is just one of a myriad of functions that Global File Changer can execute. See the end of this article to find out about other Global File Changer functions that can ease and speed up your MicroStation work.

Copying level symbology settings from one design file to hundreds of others

1. 1. Start Global File Changer from the Axiom menu.

   

2. On the main Global File Changer interface, click the <Edit List…> button next to the “Which design files do you want to process?” field.

   

3. 3. After selecting all the files you want to change, you’ll notice that the “Which design files do you want to process?” field will have “(edited file list)” in it. This means that all the files you selected are included in a file list.

   

4. 4. Next, on the main interface, click on the “Custom” pull-down menu and select “Copy level symbology from another design file…”.

   

5. 5. The screen below appears. Click on the <Select> button to select the design file from which you want to copy level symbology. To get back to the main screen, click on <OK>.

   

6. 6. You’ll notice on the main interface that the field labeled “Which file contains the keyin commands you want to execute?” now contains “#Axiom Copy Level Symbology c:\civil-projects\settings.dgn”. This means that the copy level symbology settings command will be executed using the level symbology settings of the design file you selected, in this case c:\civil-projects\settings.dgn.

   

7. 7. Next, you tell Global File Changer where to place its report file. Click the <Select> button next to the “What should we call the output report file?” field to place the report file in the directory of your choice. The report file informs you of the actions that were taken on each design file, such as opening the file and copying the level symbology settings as in this example. It also reports any problems Global File Changer encounters during processing, such as a file being open by another user.

   

8. 8. Once this is done, all you have to do is click on <Start>. That’s all there is to it.

   

You’ll notice that Global File Changer starts to process the files. After a few minutes, all your selected MicroStation files will have had their level symbology changed.
Click <OK> on the Progress Report dialog box to finish.