Introduction to Sheet Border

This blog is about the Sheet Border utility in MicroStation. Many times we need to develop our drawings at different standard drawing scales. To overcome this difficulty, MicroStation provides sheet borders to develop a perfectly scaled sheet layout. These customized sheet borders are actually design files available in the System folder of the MicroStation Workspace, and are ready to use with minimal modifications.

The System folder that comes along with the MicroStation Workspace contains a folder for Borders. In this Borders folder, there are subfolders with the names of the standard border graphics that they contain, such as ISO, ANSI and Architectural. Each of these subfolders contains different design files as per the standard sizes available for different border types. For example, the ISO folder contains the following design files named as A0-border.dgn, A1-border.dgn, A2-border.dgn, and A3-border.dgn.

Fig. 1: Border folders hierarchy in MicroStation's WorkSpace

These files contain different models. The Models dialog box lists the different models along with a Default model. The Default model contains the border graphics which is referenced to different models with appropriate scale. For example a 1:4 scale model contains the Default model referenced at a scale 4:1. So each of these models just contains the Scale mentioned in the Scale field of the title block and the rest of the title block graphics comes from the Default model as reference. Thus, if required, you can make any change to the Default model and it will be applied to all other models. For projects in which most of the particulars of title block remain the same for various sheets as per the company standards, the only thing that needs to be changed is the scale factor. So once you set the title block, margins etc. in Default model, it becomes universal and is updated on all sheets. Only the scale is different on each sheet.

 

Fig. 2: Standard ISO sheet border

Fig. 3: List of models in ISO border design file

The sheet border can be attached as a reference to a sheet model, you need to just select the appropriate scale model and set the Master:Ref scale factor to 1:1.

To associate border attachment to the sheet boundary, in the Model Properties dialog box, select the border graphics file from the Border Attachment drop-down. By doing this the sheet boundary remains interactive to the border.

 

More blogs coming up, so be there...