Platform Fundamentals for Promis.e Standalone Users


 Product(s):Promis.e V8i Standalone
 Version(s):08.11.10.xx - 08.11.13.96
 Environment:N/A
 Area:PowerPlatform Support
 Subarea:N/A

Background

The purpose of this document is to demonstrate helpful settings and some basic techniques required for successful use of Promis.e V8i Standalone, which has an integrated MicroStation design platform.  This document is intended for individuals with little or no experience with MicroStation.

Like Inga says, "Pick the tool.  Adjust the settings. Follow the prompts."

Contents

Start-up

It is necessary to create a blank page in promis V8i so that there is a design area to work on. However, to create a blank page you first need to create a project.  Details of project and page creation and the options available on the following dialogs are discussed in the promis Help file.  Most dialogs in promis have a Help button on them which will navigate to the appropriate section of the Help file

To create a project, first start promis V8i. Then from the Welcome To dialog click the link named New Project.

 

If [[Project Manager]] opened instead of the Welcome To dialog, select File > New Project from the Project Manager menus.

Enter a name for the project. The name cannot be longer than 255 characters and cannot contain any of the following characters:

/ \ : * ? ' < > |

Next, click the OK button to create the project.  Again, click the Help button for descriptions of the options in the New Project dialog.

After the project has been created, the New Page dialog should automatically appear.  If not, select Project Manager > File > New > New Page.

 

The New Page dialog will appear.  For this exercise, leave the default values in every field and click the OK button at the bottom of the dialog to create the page.

 

Environment

When the new page is created it will open and Promis.e will look something like this:

Note that the X button near the upper right is for closing the active view.  It does not close the open drawing or project page.  Close a project page by right clicking it in Project Manager and selecting "Close".  To open or select a view, see the View Toggles section.

Task Navigation (Menus)

Promis.e tools are found in the Tasks box. The Tasks box is typically found on the left side of the application.  The animation below shows the various ways the icons can be arranged and how to navigate the tasks.

If the Tasks box cannot be located, use the Tools > Tasks pull down menu to toggle it off and on. 

Enabling "Show Navigation Tools" can make navigating back to the root task easier.  See Workspace Preferences in the Settings section below.

The Page Up and Page Down keys on the keyboard can also be used to go back and forward through the tasks. 

As the above animation shows, different modes of the Task menus can be selected to see more or fewer tools in each screen:

The first button on the blue header bar is Icon Layout Mode.  In this view only one button (the last used tool) is shown for each menu grouping.  You can type the letter (Q, W, E, R...) that is shown next to each button to bring up the whole menu for that grouping, or you can click and hold on any buttons that have the little fly out arrow in the corner.
The second button on the blue header bar is the List Layout Mode.  In this view, you see the icon and text for one button (the last used tool) on each grouping that you can click and hold to bring up the other tools of that grouping.  You can also bring up the rest of the grouping by typing the letter shown next to each icon.
The last button on the blue header bar is the Panel Layout Mode.  In this view you will see all the button in each grouping, and by hovering over each button you will see a tool tip description of what each button is.


 

Frequently Used Tools

The most frequently used promis.e tools can be accessed by pressing the 0 (zero) key on the keyboard, regardless of what submenu may be active.

Status Bar

The Status Bar provides prompts and context-sensitive assistance. Refer to the Status Bar at the bottom of the application window to see what tool is active and what, if any, input the program is waiting for.

View Toggles

The View toggles are found in the View Groups toolbox (Tools > Views > View Groups > Open As Toolbox) which may already be docked at the bottom of the screen. The toggles turn on and off different views of the active drawing. Typically View 1 is the only view enabled. Turn it off to see what happens. Occasionally you may open a promis page and see the same result. In that case, simply turn View 1 on. You can also have multiple views open. This can be useful for viewing different parts of the drawing simultaneously without fitting the entire drawing to the screen, or for having one view fit to screen and another zoomed in on a detail.

Settings

There are some settings that may make using Promis.e Standalone easier for new users and users familiar with other CAD platforms.  It is beneficial to review these settings before trying the drawing techniques discussed in this document.

Workspace - Preferences

From the main pull down menus across the top of the application, select Workspace > Preferences.

Select the Input category.

Select the Task Navigation category.

Select the View Options category

Settings - Design File

From the MicroStation pull down menus, select Settings and then Design File.  Select the Grid category.

MicroStation displays grid lines at every x number of grid points as specified in the Grid Reference setting.  If you prefer not to have grid lines displayed, turn them off, leaving only grid points, by setting "Grid Reference" to 0.

  

Changing the Grid Reference value only affects the active drawing.

To change the default grid line spacing on all subsequently created pages

  1. Open the appropriate page template file (seed file).  These files are located in the \promis-e Data\Templates\Page folder by default.  See [[Options]] > Project Options > *Standards > Grid/Snap Settings to see which seed files a project is configured to use. 

  2. Change the Grid Reference value as described in the previous section.

  3. Select File > Save to save the file when finished. 

Subsequently created pages will then use the Grid Reference setting specified in the page template file.

To change the spacing of the grid dots, see the Grid Settings section.

Zooming and Panning

While working in promis.e V8i, you may want to get a closer look at what you are working on.  To accomplish this you will need to use the zoom and pan tools.  These tools are located on the toolbar at the top of the current view window.  The middle mouse button / scroll wheel can also usually be used for zooming and panning.

Zoom In and Zoom Out

Select the Zoom In tool to make a box appear that indicates the new view boundary.  Move the box with the mouse until it is in the desired location and then select a data point (click the left mouse button) to adjust the view. The tool remains active, allowing you to zoom in further. Once the desired view is achieved use the reset button (the right mouse button) to end the tool.

Select the Zoom Out tool to zoom out by a set factor.

Fit View

Select the Fit View tool to adjust the view so every visible item on the page fits into the view.

Pan View

To activate the Pan tool press the Pan button on the View toolbar, then left click anywhere on the drawing page. Then as you move your mouse around the drawing page the view will change. When you have the desired view, click the left mouse button again to set the view of the drawing. Please note the pan tool will remain active so you can continue to adjust your view until you select the next tool or reset (right-click mouse button).

Mouse Scroll Wheel

You can also zoom and pan using the scroll wheel on your mouse. 

 

Grid Settings

The grid is used to ensure that symbols and wires are properly connected, which is necessary for several features in promis.e.  Because of this, Grid Lock is automatically turned on and should not be turned off for schematic design.  It is possible to change the grid spacing while working on a project.  This change will remain in effect until the grid spacing is manually changed to a different value or the project page is closed. 

To change the default grid size when a page is created, see [[Options]] > Project Options > *Standards > Default Grid & Snap Settings.

The grid tools are controlled from the Display Options area of the Design menu area in the Tasks box. Display Options are also available on the Pneumatic/Hydraulic task area.

The grid button on the right (Show Grid) will toggle the display of the grid on and off on a project wide basis, while the button on the left will allow you to adjust the grid size. When the grid size button is pressed and held, a fly-out menu will open showing several grid sizes to choose from. Select the desired size and the grid will change accordingly. 


 

 

Creating custom grid spacing tools is discussed in the [[3595|Customizing the promis.e Standalone Interface]] article.

Snap-to-grid functionality can be monitored and toggled using the Grid Lock button on the Locks toolbox.  This makes it easier to check the status of the grid lock and to toggle it on and off quickly.  

This toolbox can be opened by pressing CTRL+T (or selecting Tools >  Tool Boxes) and enabling "Locks".

Alternatively, Grid Lock can be toggled by clicking the padlock icon near the bottom of the main application window then clicking the check mark next to Grid to clear it. 

 

Note: It is recommended to leave Grid Lock enabled while designing in modes where logical lines must connect to symbols and to each other.  Such modes include Schematic, Pneumatic, Hydraulic, or Single Line modes.

To remove grid lines and see only dots, see the Settings - Design File section.

Object Snap

Turn on the Snap Mode toolbox (Tools > Toolboxes > Snap Mode) for quick access to the Toggle AccuSnap button which turns snapping to geometry on and off.  Other buttons on this toolbox control which types of object snaps are active.

Drawing Wires

Wires are drawn with one of the various tools in the Wiring area of the Design task workflow.  While the various tools are used to create several different types of wires as explained in [Promis.e Help file|Help], this document covers only single phase continuous wires.


  

Select the Draw Wire tool from the Design menu.  Then left click on the page to define the starting point of the wire. Left click a second time to define the end point. A second wire segment will begin, using the end point of the first wire as its starting point. You can continue doing this for as many wire segments as desired.

Beginning with promis V8i SELECTseries 5, it is possible to start drawing a wire at the connection point of one symbol, select another symbol's connection point as the end point of the wire, and if necessary a bend will be automatically added to the wire so that it consists of only horizontal and vertical (no diagonal) segments.

If you do not want to draw multiple wire segments, you can end the Draw Wire tool after drawing only one segment. When you have marked the end point of your last wire segment, reset (right-click) to end wire placement.

Element Selection

Selection of objects in Promis.e Standalone is handled through the Element Selection tool. The Element Selection tool has several different selection modes and several methods for selecting objects; however this document will only cover basic selection methods. For information on the more advanced selection methods refer to Help > MicroStation Help.

The Element Selection tool cannot be disabled. If it is closed it will open again when needed.  It can be docked, but this may result in inefficient use of toolbar space.  To minimize the "intrusiveness" of the dialog, minimize it instead of closing it, or move it so that it does not obscure the drawing area.  The transparency of the Element Selection box can also adjusted by right clicking it and selecting Transparency.

Note that settings boxes that appear when using some tools will appear in place of the Element Selection box, so moving/docking/minimizing the Element Selection box affects the settings boxes for other tools.

The Element Selection box has two rows of buttons. The top row has different methods of selection; in this document we will discuss the Individual selection and the Block selection. The bottom row allows you to specify selection mode; for this document we will only use the first mode named "New Selection".

Individual Select

With the Individual selection mode chosen you can pick an element individually by left clicking on the element on the drawing page. When an element is selected it will become highlighted, indicating it has been selected.

  

 

Selection Block

When you need to select more than one element at a time you can use a selection block. There are two styles of selection blocks: a crossing block and an inclusive block. The crossing block will select any item that is partially in the selection block, while the inclusive block will only select items that are completely within the selection block.

The selection block is the second option in the top row of the Element Selection tool.

TIP: The Block tool does not need to be selected in order to use a selection block.  If the Individual selection mode is active and the mouse button is clicked, held, and dragged from a starting point that is not on an element, a selection box will be drawn.  Release the mouse button to complete the selection.  This behavior is similar to other CAD platforms.

The direction that the block is drawn determines whether the block will be crossing or inclusive.   See also "Create a selection set with crossing mode"

Crossing Block

A crossing block is drawn by selecting the Block tool on the Element Selection dialog and then drawing the block from right to left, or by selecting the Individual tool and dragging from right to left (see previous tip). As the picture below shows, a small block was drawn encompassing the vertical wire and portions of the horizontal wires. Crossing blocks have a dashed border.

 


In this case both the vertical wire and the horizontal wires become selected because the block crosses all three segments.

 

 

Inclusive Block

An inclusive block is drawn by selecting the Block tool on the Element Selection dialog and then drawing the block from left to right, or by selecting the Individual tool and dragging from left to right (see previous tip). As the picture below shows, a small block was drawn encompassing the vertical wire and portions of the horizontal wires. Inclusive blocks have a solid border.

 

 


In this case only the vertical wire becomes selected because only the vertical wire was completely within the selection block drawn.

 

TIP: Switch from an inclusive block to a crossing block (or vice versa) after the starting to draw the block by pressing the SHIFT key.

Modify Tools

Tools of the MicroStation platform can be used to manipulate Promis.e objects.

Move 

Objects can be moved individually or a group of objects can be moved together. To move an individual promis.e object, right click it and select Move from the popup menu.

To move a group of items, select Move from the Main tasks area. To use the keyboard shortcut type 3 and then 2. The items can be selected before the Move tool is invoked by using the Element Selection tool or while in the Move tool.

Then follow the prompts displayed in the Status Bar at the bottom of the application window. The first prompt is "Enter first point." This is the point where you want to "pick up" your objects. To do this, place your mouse pointer over the desired point and click the left mouse button to define the point to "pick up" the objects to be moved.



 
The next prompt is "Enter point to define distance and direction." This is the point on the drawing page where you want to "set down" the objects you are moving. To do this, move your mouse pointer to the desired location on the drawing page and click the left mouse button to "set down" the objects.  If the wrong destination location was selected, simply click the desired location to move the objects to that location.

 

Copy

Objects can be copied individually or a group of objects can be copied together. To copy an individual promis.e object, right click it and select Copy from the popup menu.

To copy a group of items, select Copy from the Main tasks area. To use the keyboard shortcut type 3 and then 1. The items can be selected before the Copy tool is invoked by using the Element Selection tool or while in the Copy tool.

Then follow the prompts displayed in the Status Bar at the bottom of the application window. The first prompt is to "Enter first point." This is the point where you want to "pick up" your objects. To do this, place your mouse pointer over the desired point and click the left mouse button to define the point to "pick up" the objects to be copied.

 


The next prompt is "Enter point to define distance and direction." This is the point on the drawing page where you want to "set down" the objects you are copying. To do this, move your mouse pointer to the desired location on the drawing page and click the left mouse button to "set down" the objects.

 


The Copy tool is essentially a Multiple Copy tool, so if another copy of the objects is to be created, left click on another destination point and the objects will be copied to the specified new location. When all the desired copies are placed, reset (right-click) or press the Esc key on the keyboard to end the tool.

Delete

To delete an individual promis.e object, right click it and select Delete.

To delete a group of objects, select them with the Element Selection tool and then press the Delete keyboard key.  Alternatively, select Delete from the main tasks area or press the keyboard shortcut 8, then select the objects to delete.

 

AutoCAD Command Equivalent

The MicroStation help file often contains references to AutoCAD commands, so the equivalent MicroStation tool can be found by simply typing the AutoCAD command into the Index or Search tabs of the help file.

There is also a "User Interface and Basic Concepts" topic in the MicroStation help file that lists several AutoCAD commands and concepts along with the MicroStation equivalent.  To find this topic:

  1. Select Help > MicroStation Help from the pull-down menus
  2. Select the Contents tab
  3. Select Setting Up Projects > Using DWG and Other File Formats > MicroStation for AutoCAD Users.

 

See Also

[[Inserting Elements By Coordinates]]

[[Inserting Drawings]]

[[Inserting Raster Images]]

[[Customizing the Interface]]

[[MicroStation Function Keys]]

Applicable MicroStation Tips

 Original Author:brian.hron & Matt_P