Chad Crowe's Activities

Using VS 2005 Express Edition

Chad Crowe — Fri, 08 May 2015 12:37:11 GMT

Hello all, I have Visual Studio 2005 Express edition installed on my computer. I open up the MicroStation Developer Shell, move to the already created project basic and run bmake.exe.

I get the same error as when I had Visual Studio 2013 installed

C:\Users\ccrowe\Desktop\basic>bmake.exe
Bentley Systems Make Utility. Version 08.11.09.02, Jan 5 2010
Fri May 08 07:34:53 2015
PolicyFile = C:\PROGRA~2\Bentley\MICROS~1\MICROS~1\mdl\include\AssertPublicMicr
oStationPolicy.mki
BMAKE: Error - Attempting to build with VS 2005 but location is undefined!
BMAKE: call trace
line: 120, C:\PROGRA~2\Bentley\MICROS~1\MICROS~1\mdl\include\AssertToolSet.
mki
line: 109, C:\PROGRA~2\Bentley\MICROS~1\MICROS~1\mdl\include\ConfigurePolic
y.mki
line: 28, C:\PROGRA~2\Bentley\MICROS~1\MICROS~1\mdl\include\mdl.mki
line: 20, C:\Users\ccrowe\Desktop\basic\basic.mke
Fri May 08 07:34:54 2015, elapsed time: 0:01

C:\Users\ccrowe\Desktop\basic>

I have not yet been able to get my hands on the professional edition. I was hoping I could be pointed in the right direction for using VS 2005 Express Edition for compiling files.

Thank you.

Scanning through References

Chad Crowe — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 13:56:48 GMT

Good morning from America,

This is a VBA question.

I want to wholesale grab all the text from some MicroStation documents I have. Not only the active design file, but also from its attachments. My problem is that I only want the text from the active design file and its attachments that falls within a clipped area.

What I have now is a recursive function that loops through attachments, grabbing textelements, anytags, textnodes, and complexelements. If it is a complex element it then recursively creates a new scan Object and loops through it looking for text. This works great, except it grabs everything and not just what falls within the clipped area of my original file.

I want to know how I can target elements in attachments that fall within a clipped area in my active design file.

Thank you for your help.

Developer Shell Problem

Chad Crowe — Mon, 13 Apr 2015 17:20:19 GMT

Hello helpful community,

I am trying to create a simple C++ application. I am using the example 'basic' as given in the SDK.

I open up the command prompt and run mstndevvars.bat. I get the following output

"""

C:\Users\ccrowe>"C:\Program Files (x86)\Bentley\MicroStation V8i (SELECTseries)\
MicroStation\mdl\bin\mstndevvars.bat"

C:\Users\ccrowe>REM To not see this information echo to the screen

C:\Users\ccrowe>REM set ECHO as an environment variable in your system configura
tion.

C:\Users\ccrowe>REM For more information see the MicroStation SDK README.

C:\Users\ccrowe>REM ** SET MS **

C:\Users\ccrowe>set msdrive=

C:\Users\ccrowe>set mssource=

C:\Users\ccrowe>SET MS=

C:\Users\ccrowe>for %I in ("") do set MS=%~sI

C:\Users\ccrowe>set MS=

C:\Users\ccrowe>IF "." == "." goto USAGE_Error
#-----------------------------------------------------------------------
# ERROR: Bad parameter
# Usage = MSTNDEVVARS.BAT [MicroStation dir] [MicroStation SDK dir]
# e.g. C:\windows\system32\cmd.exe /x /k "C:\Program Files\Bentley\MicroStation\
mdl\bin\mstndevvars.bat C:\Program Files\Bentley\MicroStation\ C:\Program Files\
Bentley\MicroStationSDK\"
#-----------------------------------------------------------------------

C:\Users\ccrowe>GOTO end
C:\Users\ccrowe>

"""

I am not sure what the error means.

I then cd into the basic file and run bmake.exe

I get the following output

"""

C:\Users\ccrowe\Desktop\basic>"C:\Program Files (x86)\Bentley\MicroStation V8i (
SELECTseries)\MicroStation\mdl\bin\bmake.exe"
Bentley Systems Make Utility. Version 08.11.09.02, Jan 5 2010
Mon Apr 13 12:16:45 2015
C:\Users\ccrowe\Desktop\basic\basic.mke(20) : error : can't open include file md
l.mki
BMAKE: call trace
line: 20, C:\Users\ccrowe\Desktop\basic\basic.mke
Mon Apr 13 12:16:45 2015, elapsed time: 0:00

C:\Users\ccrowe\Desktop\basic>

"""

I am unsure why these errors are occurring. Thank you again for your help.

C++ Example

Chad Crowe — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 12:15:53 GMT

Hello again,

Can you point me in the right direction for creating a simple C++ app for microstation? I know there are examples in the SDK, I just don't know what they are called. Which place in the SDK should I look at for the basics of creating a C++ app.

I am comfortable with C++, I just do not know where to start off. Is bookstore, gasmain, propviewer, and webstore what I should look at? They are not .ma files, so I was unsure if I could load them into Microstation.

Thank you again for your time, help, and patience.

C++/CLI

Chad Crowe — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 16:15:52 GMT

Hello. I have figured out how to compile DLLs in VS for Excel and create my own C++ functions. My ultimate goal is to be able to write C++ programs that operate within Excel and Microstation. My question concerns C++/CLI or the C++.net. Is one able to access C++ API in Microstation from these other platforms? I want access to as much of Microstation functionality as possible. I already do VBA in-between Excel and Microstation and am looking to access all that Microstation can offer to developers.

Your guidance is very much appreciated. I am sorry for my abundant ignorance on this subject.
Thanks

Create .ma with C++

Chad Crowe — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 22:50:05 GMT

Hello,

Thank you for your help in advanced. I have been reading these forums for months and have spent a couple hours reading on creating .ma files from a .cpp file.

About me, I have been programming in Microstation with VBA for 4 months. I have a couple years experience with VBA and about 6 months in C++. I also do a lot of Python, SQL, ...ect unimportant for this stuff.

I can create a C++ file. I have even been able to create a .dll file for my C++ file by following youtube videos by creating a Win32 Console Application in Visual Studios and then using a static __declspec(dllexport) void function() in my header. Anyways, I created a .dll file of my c++ program. I am unsure how to end up with the part where I "load mdl" for my dll app.

I have downloaded the SDK.

I know that there is mcomp.exe, which is supposed to build a DLL from c++ (which I was unable to figure out how to use).

I then know we have rcomp.exe and mlink.exe. I also know that bmake.exe fits into this somehow.

I have tried running the bmake.exe (and the others) with my dll file to no avail. I have also tried to create a file and name is .ma with the following inside of it:

DllMdlApp  DLLMDLAPP_MYAPP =
{
    //   MDL Application name     VC++ DLL in MDLAPPS or %PATH%
    "MYAPP",                      "MYAPP.DLL"
};

My dll file is called SimpleDll.dll.  I changed the file to the following:

DllMdlApp  DLLMDLAPP_MYAPP =
{
    //   MDL Application name     VC++ DLL in MDLAPPS or %PATH%
    "SimpleDll",                      "SimpleDll.DLL"
};


I then saved it as SimpleDll.ma.  But I think this is wrong and it has something to do with the bmake.exe.  I would much appreciate help in how to get my dll or c++ file as a .ma file.
And when someone says, run the .exe, like bmake.exe, do I just drop the .dll file into the bmake.exe, or something else?

Once again, I really appreciate the help.  Thank you so much.