Element Templates

Let me first say that I have not yet studied templates.

But I do know microstation well enough to say 

Single element shape  has the fill and boundary as an attribute of the element and hence are both on the same  level but the fill is an attribute that can be toggle on or off like colours can

you cannot have the outer and the inner on two levels and be the same element of a shape..

This can only be acheived if you have  two shapes  that are the same  one  on level A with no fill say is red, the other shape  super imposed is on level B and is a red filled or green filled shape,  now select both and  control G to group them  the result is a cell ( graphic grouping) and you can make the levels on or off independant of each other but the graphic act  as an element if you move  scale or delete.. if you turn this into a real cell not a graphic grouping then you can recall it with all the settings preset ie colours level names and use place cell to add it to a drawing but make sure your level names  in the cell make sense to some one who didnt  build it..

See my attributes via information or properties tool of a filled shape notice only one level name is available.. ie level A

Lorys

Thanks for your reply. I understand the principals your are saying, but i was investing element templates when they first appeared and found you could add multiply levels colours etc  (see below) but could not find how to use them, the only thing i could do was add them. I have now been asked to look again at element templates and thought i would try the forum to see if anybody new how to use or what the additional levels colours etc were for.

Mark

We use the template levels to designate different states of different sitework line styles. For example, a template for Storm Drain - level 0 for existing; level 1 for proposed and level 2 for abandoned - one template containing 3 different line styles, weights, etc.

The orignal poster  Mark stated  and I quote "fill and shape all applied to different levels" 

I must not be understanding this  but as far as I can tell templates may offer you multiple options but it cannot create

 a shape or polygon that the fill and  out line are on different levels to eachother..

Unknown said:

If there are multiple instances of the same property and you do not want to use the default property, before drawing the element use the appropriate toolboxes to select “secondary” properties that match those in the template.

It would be noted that there is no any dependency or linkage between active template and a selection of parameters implemented, so if multiple properties are defined in the template definition, it's not indicated anywhere and user is not aware of it. In my opinion it makes the whole concept of multiple elements pretty ineffective and hardly usable. The only tool which accepts and works with multiple properties is Standard Checker.

With regards,

  Jan