In Microstation v8i I have an mdl app called SWA that drew a rectangle (in 2d or a cube in 3d) showing the extent of the solid working area. Does anyone know a way of doing this in Connect? It's really useful for explaining to people why they are having problems with geometry that's way outside the SWA.
Thanks
Duncan
Duncan Macdonald said:it just indicated the area which I understand to be the swa within which the accuracy was high.
Modeling close to 0 is always a good idea, and wanting to do so in order to facilitate export to another format is a reasonable requirement, so while I understand why you liked this app, it was erroneous that this app would lead someone to believe a solid that is 2 km from the origin when the swa is 1 km is invalid for the dgn format.
The solids extent is implemented as a scale from uors to solid kernel coordinates, operations on the solid are performed in the solid's local coordinate system, not design file coordinates. I don't know the history of this app, but the reason such a feature doesn't exist in MicroStation is that it would re-enforce the incorrect notion that the swa is a volume centered at 0.
-B
Thank Brian. I'm not sure I was clear. The mdl didn't create any geometry. it just indicated the area which I understand to be the swa within which the accuracy was high. I want to encourage our users to draw near 0 and remap coordinates if required so that when we export geometry to other apps ie Rhino and Revit we can bring it in without issue.
Duncan,
That's not how the solids working area is handled, it's a scale, not a volume. No single solid can have extents larger than the solid extent, but it can be positioned anywhere you want in the dgn*.
* Keeping in mind that with double precision floating point you have the most accuracy near 0.