Scheduling Element Coordinates - Structural Steel or Concrete Piles Example

Currently the DataGroup System does not store coordinates for structural elements, however they are stored as EC data accessible to the Items dialog. Methods to schedule coordinates using Power Platform (MicroStation) reporting tools are covered below for both CONNECT Edition and V8i versions.

OpenBuildings Designer method

OpenBuildings Designer is able to use the Power Platform Reports functionality to schedule information that is not accessible to the OpenBuildings DataGroup. Reports can combine DataGroup and EC Schema data into one report. DataGroup objects are listed as Item Types in the Reports dialogs. Note that the Item Types and their Properties listed in Reports dialogs are populated by the elements present in the Active File or it's attachments (if the Report Definition is set to include reference attachments, as shown in the video below). More information on Reports can be found in the MicroStation Wiki.

This method can be applied to any other building elements or reportable properties that are amenable to sorting in Excel.

V8i SS6 method

This example will look at extracting the start and end point coordinates of a group of piles from the model to Excel.

The ABD SS6 Edit In/Update From Excel feature has been used to populate the 'ID | Asset Tag' field ready for them to be exported along with the coordinates:

Open the Item Browser, ABD Elements will be listed by type.

1. Highlight Piles:Concrete
2. Click 'here' to list the details
3. Once the Details dialog opens right-click on the grey background to export to Excel, choose 'Excel Workbook (*.xlsx)'

The resulting Excel workbook will contain a raw output of the properties listed in the Details dialog. This can then be manipulated with Excel VBA to produce a neatly formatted schedule containing selected columns.

This ABD Excel Macro Examples is an example that will work with Concrete or Steel Piles with the resulting output:

To use the example file, ABD_MacroExamples.xltm:

1. Copy it to your Excel personal templates folder (the location will vary with version).
2. Create an new Workbook from this template
3. Copy the raw output from ABD into Sheet1 of the new Workbook
4. Run Macro 'ABD_CopyItemColumns'

This will create a new WorkSheet named PileSchedule as shown above.

Note: this macro will only work for structural piles as the columns output from Catalog Items vary, this macro is a very simple (and thus accessible to non-programmers!) example that uses particular column ranges to rearrange and format the data.