How to show scaled text unscaled in text editor

I often have to deal with longitudinal sections of pipe trenches where I have to enter the pipe axis heights and ground heights manually. Usually these have a 1:250 length scaled and 1:50 height scale. In order to work on them I have to scale them back to "normal" which also means that all texts are scaled to a fifth of their original width. When I open these in the text editor I can hardly see what I'm writing there. Is there a possibility to set the text editor to show normal width text? I haven't found one yet apart from reading the text in the status bar before and after editing. While typing I'm as blind as a mole.

Unscaled text:

Scaled text:

  • I'll try to explain. When producing sections I draw them in 1:1 (length:height) scale, then scale them to 1:5 (sometimes 1:2.5 or 1:10 depending on the client). When entering the values for axis level, ground level (whatever level needed) I usually scale back to 1:1 in order to not having to calculate the values (which is also easily done in Microstation - when it comes to entering two or three I usually draw a circle from the nearest grid line intersection to the intersection of i.e. the ground line, divide the accudraw value by 2.5/5 or 10 by hitting the slash key and the divisor in the numeric keypad and then change the text accordingly). When creating the section for the first time I normally choose the unscaled version to just grab the values and then entering these. And then the scaled text is almost illegible. I'll see if I can upload an example file.

    It's a somewhat tedious process anyway but I haven't found a way to automate the process of section labelling yet.

  • It sounds like quite a manual procedure to perform what you are doing here with rescaling. It might be better if you could provide an example file(s) to show how this has been performed as there are many methods that can be used to rescale. That is:

    • the sections you produced could be referenced into a sheet model and then rescaled in the X & Y
    • the sections could be rescaled by placing a fence around the elements and manually using the scale elements tool
    • The Drawing Scale tool could be used for the rescaling of these sections

    If you have all the elements on the same level this could be a problem if you just stick a fence around the elements. If the text is on a separate level for these sections then that level could be locked or just turned off during the rescale procedure just so those text elements are not involved.

    If you could provide a step-by-step workflow also including the MicroStation tools being used it would be helpful in identifying a better procedure and tools to you in the process.

    Regards
    Andrew Bell
    Technical Support
    Bentley Systems

  • Basically that's only a selection window plus (in my case) F12 for scaling/rescaling. We don't work with sheet models as we don't see any benefit (yet). All elements are on one level (as per client's request). I've attached an example file.

    Basic workflow:
    1) Drawing the general plan with all cables, sewers, other obstacles and then finding a pipeline route
    2) Reference the general plan into the section plan (plain model) and then number all direction changes
    3) Drawing the section manually step by step (creating grid with ground level, drawing all obstacles and then find the right height for the pipeline)
    4) Enter the pipe axis level (or top or lower edge level depending on the client)

    By the way, this is how Microstation/Powerdraft V8i handled this:

    example section.dgn

  • We don't work with sheet models as we don't see any benefit (yet)

    What???

    You create a single drawing per file or place lots of drawings inside a single file?

    Do you create an ouput plot, PDF or another per single drawing? One by one?

    Haven't you guys saw already the huge advantage to use layout to plot thousands of drawing in a single click [ Print Organizer ] without the need to create a fence like old school, without having to open the drawings one by one?

    Are you guys working with refereces?

    All elements are on one level (as per client's request)

    And what???

    I've never heard something like that.

    José

  • Yes and yes. Our projects often change a few times during their course (especially if I have to find a new pipeline route) and then it's just easier for us to handle things as it is now. I started using sheet models in a project where we didn't have any client specifications but in the end it was just too tedious to change the sheet (rotating and moving of the sheets is a pain) whenever needed because the georeferencing needs to be correct. Also our client needed separate DWGs which back then didn't export properly.

    Whatever can be referenced gets referenced, though - but some things need to be drawn manually, just like these sections with their numbering. It's probably just the nature of our projects that makes our workflow most efficient for us. One of my newer colleagues who has a fairly neutral view on these things told me that it makes sense to him how we work. A couple of weeks ago we had an in-house Microstation administraition training and we showed the lecturer how we work - even him who has loads of MS experience wouldn't come up with a simple solution to our needs. But he showed us the print organizer.

    So one of my colleagues just started using the print organizer, I didn't have the time to properly look into it yet, though. It's not as we needed a full new set of PDFs each and every morning, we print them as we go in the project. So I'm looking at maybe 10 PDFs per day. Only intermediate milestones require a full PDF set. With smaller projects we're talking about 3 to 8 PDFs and with larger ones about up to 50 (and then there's the print organizer coming into play). We only print to PDF, open these automatically and then plot the PDFs. We normally send PDFs to clients and that way we have a first step of quality assurance by seeing these on screen and paper.

    Re putting elements on one level: I'm only talking about the section grid with its texts, not about the whole drawing. We have to follow certain style guides depending on the clients which sometimes leave no room for improvisation.