HOW TO ROTATE TEXT OR ELEMENT TO ANOTHER ELEMENT V8I

Ive been trying to do this  for ages  an it was driving me  nuts... too many  steps with accudraw to go wrong, found a few clues in old posts and  filled in the blanks

keyin ROTATE VIEW ELEMENT; %d;%d;ACTIVE ANGLE PT2

( THE ABOVE COULD BE SET TO AN F KY  IF YOU USE IT ALOT)

You'll be  prompted t select an element ( text or line or shape) to set the  view rotation

Then you'll need to Tentatative twice on the reference  line element ( the  one you want to rotate to) one end first and then the other end last

now you active angle is the angle of the reference  line

next  we click on the rotate icon and it has the new angle set, so now click on the text or element you want rotated

now key in vi=top to return the view ot original state and our text or line as adopted the angle of the reference element line... 

I tried to make another  keyin  

rotate icon;%d;vi=top

but it works like this select the text to rotate, data point in the view and  reset button mouse. then it rotates the text to right angle and sets view back to normal but doesnt

work if you use your  mouse buttons in any other order it fails to do what you want  cant work out why  but works.. other wise the rotate bit can view top can just be done by hand  or icons etc

Autocad has all this  much easier R for rotate  and option is reference so r and  two clicks and  done... 

I wish we had a simple tool or  macro with two clicks... 

Parents
  • Maybe I don't get the issue right. When want to place any element (text, tag or e.g. a shape) relative to another I use ACCUDRAW "RE".

    1. start e.g. "attach tag"

    2. select the element you want to tag - insert the values into the dialog - your tag is dangling at the cursor

    3. key RE (AccuDraw is active)  and click on the element to orient "along" - and the tag is oriented to the element

    4. with another datapoint (thats the left mousebutton...for newbies)  you place your tag

              That's it -  just the keyin RE and 2 datapoint clicks 

    ...1a. if AccuDraw is not active - like for text, lines or polygons commands - I like to use the [default] right-left mouse "tentative" click - to an empty spot to activate it... any time ... instead of F11 ...

    ...3a. If - say for a line - the orientation is flipped I like the old angle dialog (I have created a button with keyin "dialog activeangle")  with that you can easily set 180° or any odd angle (AA) for a placement relative to the accuDraw coordinates)

      That also works fine in 3D:

    (?)I would like to add my dgnlib with the buttons I created, but I seem not to be able find the function any more here to insert a file - only pictures/videos(?)

  • The line and tag already  exist as placed in the  file  but has to change its  alignment some time long after it was placed as things has progressed  in the  life of the  drawing and its no longer correct ... in my  case it was  part of the  title block edge of inner frame and  hence  aligned  with it  now I want it  to rotated to  be in line  with a match line that isnt parallel to the edge of the sheet... along the the  design line at that  point in the the design...

    Lorys

    Started msnt work 1990 - Retired  Nov 2022 ( oh boy am I old )

    But was long time user V8iss10 (8.11.09.919) dabbler CE  update 16 (10.16.00.80) 

    MicroStation user since 1990 Melbourne Australia.
    click link to PM me 

  • I just uploaded it, I think. It said "uploading 54%" then I saw nothing, pressed reply but can't tell if anything is attached.

  • no it didnt  try making it into a zip and  upload that...

    Lorys

    Started msnt work 1990 - Retired  Nov 2022 ( oh boy am I old )

    But was long time user V8iss10 (8.11.09.919) dabbler CE  update 16 (10.16.00.80) 

    MicroStation user since 1990 Melbourne Australia.
    click link to PM me 

  • I found an public domain old MS-Basic tool that  would do the job of rotate text parallel to  an element even in a rotated view but it  only worked on text element, after some analysis  of how it  worked I was able to comment out  the part that made it work only  on Text, now it works on TAG text and most other elements , I have not tried it on every element  but it  definitely  works now on tag text even in rotated view... pity  its still in basic,  vba would be better for  future proofing  if any one  would like a copy  and or would be interested in reworking it to vba I'd be glad to post it  here or to your email

    I works nicely from F key load macro  , then asks to select text then select the reference object to rotate parallel to and accept then reset to exit... boom perfect! works better than angle assistant as that doesnt work on TAG text and is  protected so cant edit it to make it work...

    Lorys

    Started msnt work 1990 - Retired  Nov 2022 ( oh boy am I old )

    But was long time user V8iss10 (8.11.09.919) dabbler CE  update 16 (10.16.00.80) 

    MicroStation user since 1990 Melbourne Australia.
    click link to PM me 

  • Hi Gerd, would you mind to share the key-in used for this awesome tool you have there? What is the "RE - orientation dp of the tag" means?

  • if you watch the video he used  rotate 3 point tool then uses accudraw keyin RE which is rotate to element and  selected the element  a line to rotate the text relative to that line.. pretty neat solution but it takes a couple of practice go's to get the sequence down pat .. I found my basic was easier to load and run from a F key  and just pick the two objects in order and  its done... but you gotta know how to do it from scratch as Basic wont run any more after V8i or v10ss...

    Lorys

    Started msnt work 1990 - Retired  Nov 2022 ( oh boy am I old )

    But was long time user V8iss10 (8.11.09.919) dabbler CE  update 16 (10.16.00.80) 

    MicroStation user since 1990 Melbourne Australia.
    click link to PM me 

Reply
  • if you watch the video he used  rotate 3 point tool then uses accudraw keyin RE which is rotate to element and  selected the element  a line to rotate the text relative to that line.. pretty neat solution but it takes a couple of practice go's to get the sequence down pat .. I found my basic was easier to load and run from a F key  and just pick the two objects in order and  its done... but you gotta know how to do it from scratch as Basic wont run any more after V8i or v10ss...

    Lorys

    Started msnt work 1990 - Retired  Nov 2022 ( oh boy am I old )

    But was long time user V8iss10 (8.11.09.919) dabbler CE  update 16 (10.16.00.80) 

    MicroStation user since 1990 Melbourne Australia.
    click link to PM me 

Children
  • Thank you! I noticed after using "accudraw rotate element", I need to set to "accudraw rotate top" in order to draw normal line again.  

    Also for folks using ProjectWise, are you able to auto load ActiveAngleAssistant.mvba? I tried entering this line to my untitled.ucf but seems like it's not working, have to manually load it up, better than nothing. 
    MS_VBAAUTOLOADPROJECTS > "C:/ProgramData/Bentley/MicroStation V8i (SELECTseries)/WorkSpace/System/vba/ActiveAngleAssistant.mvba"

  • for folks using ProjectWise, are you able to auto load ActiveAngleAssistant.mvba?

    Depending on your ProjectWise admin, you find that the PW configuration has redefined some configuration variables.  Consequently, MicroStation can't see the macros in your local folder.  Your explicit full path by-passes the PW overrides.

     
    Regards, Jon Summers
    LA Solutions

  • Your explicit full path by-passes the PW overrides

    what does that mean exactly  ?

    Lorys

    Started msnt work 1990 - Retired  Nov 2022 ( oh boy am I old )

    But was long time user V8iss10 (8.11.09.919) dabbler CE  update 16 (10.16.00.80) 

    MicroStation user since 1990 Melbourne Australia.
    click link to PM me 

  • Your explicit full path by-passes the PW overrides

    what does that mean exactly  ?

    When something is reached via a configuration variable, such as MS_VBAAUTOLOADPROJECTS, MicroStation first evaluates that variable before appending a file name.  So, if MS_VBAAUTOLOADPROJECTS is defined thus...

    MS_VBAAUTOLOADPROJECTS = C:/MyProjects/VBA/

    MicroStation knows to look in folder C:/MyProjects/VBA/ when seeking a VBA macro file lorys.mvba.  But that's a shortcut: if you know where that variable points, you could substitute the full file path C:/MyProjects/VBA/lorys.mvba.  We don't do that, because it's easier to let MicroStation do the work, and it enables us easily to re-path variables if necessary.

    When ProjectWise (PW) client is installed, it takes over the assignment of MicroStation configuration variables.  Many are left unchanged, but some are replaced to suit the PW environment.  For example, MS_RFDIR is redefined to point to one or more of PW's temporary folders.  MS_VBAAUTOLOADPROJECTS is also replaced, pointing at a PW-defined folder, because PW is a control freak and want to govern everything.

    If you specify a full path to a file, then no configuration variable is involved, so there's nothing for PW to replace.  That's what I mean by Your explicit path by-passes the PW overrides.

    Happy New Year!

     
    Regards, Jon Summers
    LA Solutions

  • If you specify a full path to a file, then no configuration variable is involved, so there's nothing for PW to replace.  That's what I mean by Your explicit path by-passes the PW overrides.

    So you just browse to the vba via the vba project manager and  load it manually then?

    But can pwise be set to stop using non defined vba's  or external vba's?

    Lorys

    Started msnt work 1990 - Retired  Nov 2022 ( oh boy am I old )

    But was long time user V8iss10 (8.11.09.919) dabbler CE  update 16 (10.16.00.80) 

    MicroStation user since 1990 Melbourne Australia.
    click link to PM me