Text Styles And Dimension Styles and How They Interact

The way I have  been using  text and dim styles is not to set any  text style in the dim  style settings  but set up the symbology there  as I may  want to use different text  heights and fonts etc...  because the  place note tool is also a dimension it too is affected by dimstyles

SoI have set a  series of heights  for specific text styles so when I need place a dimension  I choose the text style I want and choose the dime style usually  the text style is the active text style anyway  and this works very well for me and I have these set  in a dgnlib file as well as a  back up copy  on my desktop that I can use  import with  just incase the network drops out I can still keep working on current drawing on C : drive, and  later  update network files or even projectwise .. what ever the client uses...

Stewart,

Your understanding of the relationship between Dimension and Text Styles is accurate. If a Dimension Style specifies a Text Style, all the text properties (font, height, etc.) from the TextStyle will be applied to the dimensions. The Dimension Style can override a small subset of the Text Style properties using the check boxes as you've described. In that case the property values for the dimensions will be controlled by the Dimension Style and not the Text Style.

Regarding the different icons in the Text Style list, those tell you the relationship between the local style and the dgn library. There are four possibilities:
1) Grey book: The style is in a library but not in the local file.
2) Blue book: The style is in the local file but not in a library.
1) Blue book with green check: The local style matches the library style.
2) Blue book with blue triangle: The local style is different from the library style.
ription.

And last for style:(none). It exists as a hold out from the days before MicroStation supported styles. In addition to the list of named styles every dgn file also has an un-named set of dimension parameters (and text parameters, etc), which are labelled with style:(none). If style:(none) is active as you create new dimensions, those dimension will not have any reference back to a Dimension Style. In my opinion, there isn't any advantage to using style:(none) and I recommend against it. Likewise, I recommend that every Dimension Style should refer to a named Text Style. In the end this gives you the most control over your dimensions.

HTH,
Josh

Thanks Josh for the response, it has really helped.

Just a follow up;

When I create a Text or Dimension Style, are these styles stored within the dgn file or are they stored elsewhere i.e. in my C drive somewhere.

Where you have said " 1) Grey book: The style is in a library but not in the local file"

Am I correct in thinking that I can create several different Text Styles for example and save them as a library similar to Cells i.e. I can have many cells in a cell library - if so how would I do this?

Where you have mentioned "local file" and "local style" what do these mean?

PS I know these maybe silly questions but I am still slowly learning the software and I don't have many people whom I can turn to for help.

Thanks

Unknown said:

Thanks Josh for the response, it has really helped.

Just a follow up;

When I create a Text or Dimension Style, are these styles stored within the dgn file or are they stored elsewhere i.e. in my C drive somewhere.

Where you have said " 1) Grey book: The style is in a library but not in the local file"

Am I correct in thinking that I can create several different Text Styles for example and save them as a library similar to Cells i.e. I can have many cells in a cell library - if so how would I do this?

Where you have mentioned "local file" and "local style" what do these mean?

PS I know these maybe silly questions but I am still slowly learning the software and I don't have many people whom I can turn to for help.

Thanks

When you want to create a dim or text style  by rights  you should do it in the dgnlib file pointed to by  your workspace config

creating these inside an active dgn  only stores it locally in the active dgn, however it can be imported...

My preference  is to copy out the  dgnlib  create the additional styles  then later  outside microstation replace the dgn lib

I also prefer to have text and dims in a separate dgnlib to any  customised  interface or menus dgnlib its just better  organised and easier to maintain ie 

TEXT_Dim.dgnlib

Interface.dgnlib

Level_Names.dgnlib ( this also has the symbology for your standards of level names)

FYI you can contact me directly offline anytime I'm happy to help teach you anything I can about microstation.. use the pm link if you cant  find my  email...

Unknown said:

When I create a Text or Dimension Style, are these styles stored within the dgn file

They are stored in the active DGN file — the file you have open at the moment.

A DGN library (*.dgnlib) is a DGN file with a different extension.  The way to create a library of styles is to open a new DGNLib, or edit an existing DGNLib.  The DGNLib should be in a folder where MicroStation subsequently looks for library files (e.g. ..\Workspace\Standards\dgnlib).

Subsequently, when you open a DGN file for model creation or editing, the libraries are attached automatically.

A cell library is another DGN file with a *.cel extension.  It's a box of models, any one of which can be placed as a cell in another DGN model.  Since any DGN file may contain multiple models, there's not much difference between a cell library and the DGN file you use to create drawings.

Unknown said:

Where you have mentioned "local file" and "local style" what do these mean?

If you never use a style, its definition remains in the DGNLib untouched.  When you first use a style, it's copied into your active file — the local file in Josh's terminology.

Because the style becomes local, it's then possible to edit either the local definition or the DGNLib definition and inadvertently get them out of sync.  The different icons that Josh describes provide a visual clue.

Unknown said:

I know these maybe silly questions

Not a all!  MicroStation is a big topic, and some of its nooks and crannies are bewildering.  I doubt that there's any one of us who uses every bit of MicroStation.  We all have something to learn.