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Looking back to when I first started working on MicroStation there was very little information available to those of us with the fiddler in us. Web site have come and gone and it's great to see this build up to the BE Community. I've had this list over the years and thought it would be great to republish and get it growing again. Feel free to add and edit.
Tonight I'd like to share an answer to an e-mail sent in from Juliana. I just want to ask how I could access the macro file as text file,so I would be able to read its contents and understand the program?
No problems here. What you do need to know is that a macro has 2 files to it.
The *.bas file and the *.ba file. The difference between the two is that the *.bas is the file that can be edited in notepad or a similar text editor and the *.ba file is what MS creates when it compiles the *.bas file.
Basically, this means that the file you can edit is the *.bas file.
If this is not available, then I'm afraid you're stuck. there is not a way you can reverse engineer from a *.ba file back to a *.bas file.
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How many of us use the RQ (rotate quadrant) keyin with Accudraw. Well, if you don't, I'd learn it quick. This allows you to align Accudraw along any line at any angle. Sort of like a quick way of setting up an ACS.
How many of us that do use it, find that we have rotate in the top rotation when we want to change to a side rotation. Well don't despair. There is a way.
Once we have used RQ to set Accudraw to a new rotation, the keyin 'E' and Accudraw with cycle the side, tip and front rotations for the new position.
This is a real killer.
It's amazing the things you pick up that you didn't know For instance, did you know that you can scroll through the last few distances in AccuDraw using the keys 'Page Up' and 'Page Down'.
Nifty hey.
What is the most powerful aspect of a CAD system. Most of us would come up with a different view, but to me, one of the most powerful aspects of any CAD package is its ability to be customized by the user.
When it comes to customizing we all think of function keys and custom palettes. How many of us use AccuDraw as a part of our personal customisation.
Not many I bet.
Well, it's easy.
First of all go to Settings/AccuDraw and this will bring up the AccuDraw dialog box. Now click on the 'Shortcut Key-ins' button. We should now have two dialog boxes open as in the image below.
What you see is the list of current available key-ins for AccuDraw. From here we can add our own. Almost like an extension to the function keys.
To do this click on the 'NEW' button. The dialog box below will open.
All we have to do now is fill in the blanks. The 'Shortcut' is simply the letter or combination of letters that we want to make up the shortcut.
All fields must be filled in.
Give our shortcut a description and then fill in the command. The command can be anything from a MS key-in to a key-in string as we have looked at in previous Tips. If you're not sure, go back and check out the site.
OK, now we have all this done, where does it all get stored.
Well, this is the clever bit and the interesting bit.
All shortcuts for AccuDraw are stored in the shortcut.txt file under:
Bentley\Workspace\System\Data
The interesting thing about this file is that it can also be edited to create new shortcuts.
For instance, I added:
H "HELP" "HELP"
to mine to create a quick way to access the help system.
The thing to look out for is the way the rest of the file uses spacing.
It's that easy.
Just to be safe though, keep a copy of the txt file just in case.
'Til next time, happy customizing.
It's nice to see people sending in their favourite keyin. Today's is from Norbert Frank.
Norbert uses the keyins:
reference display on all
reference display off all
to quickly turn on and off all of the reference files.
Did you know that can also use the keyin
reference display on
reference display off
to turn on and off individual reference files. These can then be use in custom palettes.
More on customisation soon.
If you have a favourite keyin to share, drop in to me in an e-mail.
This one in thanks to AskInga. You can change your working units by using a keyin. For example, to change the sub-units to 100 and positional units to 10, use the following keyin:
MDL LOAD CALCULAT;calc tcb->subpermast=100;calc tcb->uorpersub=10
Thanks again to Kathy at ADS. What is the keyin for placing a series of numbers in a set direction:
12345
or
1
2
3
4
5
Place your first number manually.
Start the 'copy and increment text' tool.
Select the text. Set the 'Tag Increment' to your interval value (i.e.. 1)
Keyin dx=(+/- offset value)|number. eg. dx=100,0|3
Not a bad little keyin. the '|' or shift \ can be used for operation that requires a series of data points.