[CE12] Titleblocks and Tags

You are correct that Item Types have replaced Tags in this particular operation. The following Wiki gives an overview of this.

https://communities.bentley.com/products/microstation/w/microstation__wiki/30233/introduction-to-microstation-connect-edition-item-types

The following may also be helpful with upgrading your Tags to Item Types.

https://communities.bentley.com/products/microstation/w/microstation__wiki/30235/upgrade-tag-set-to-item-type

There is a new tool being developed that you may be interested in specifically related to Item Types and Excel interoperability.

https://communities.bentley.com/products/microstation/b/microstation_blog/posts/new-in-microstation-connect-edition-update-11-item-types---excel-interops-technology-preview

I hope this information is of assistance.

Barry Lothian said:

Tags are now considered deprecated

That what Bentley would like us to accept.  But remember that Microsoft deprecated VBA many years ago, when .NET arrived?  VBA is still with us.

Item Types are great, but there remain one or two things that tags do that Item Types don't yet offer.  We already offer a set of TagWorks tools that use Item Types in MicroStation CONNECT.  Contact me by e-mail if you would like to discuss a TitleBlocker using Item Types.

Barry Lothian said:

Is the replacement for tags (Item Types?) something that can be as easily manipulated via Excel VBA?

VBA support for Item Types arrived with MicroStation CONNECT Update 10.

Morning Andrew, thanks for the reply.

I'll need to take a look at Item Types to get an understanding of what they are and how I need to use them.

The new tool sounds interesting but I have a couple of immediate concerns:

1. "You can export instance data from All item Types in a dgn model or only from instances in your current selection or those included in a fence."
   From reading the article I'm unsure how this new technology preview tool would work specifically for harvesting titleblock information as this sounds like you have to select each text element in a sheet model before you can extract the data to Excel or otherwise you end up pulling everything and are left with a mess that needs tidied up in Excel, This then has to be repeated in every sheet DGN file, or am I misunderstanding?
   
   My existing VBA project operates like this:
   a) Open the specific XLSX file and activate the Macro via a button on the QAT.
   b) Press the browse button on the now visible form and select the DGN files you wish to harvest tag data from
   c) Press OK and wait a few seconds
   
   The data arrives in a preformatted table ready for edit. Once Edits are complete:
   
   d)Press the export button and wait a few seconds whilst the updated tag values are applied to the relevant DGN files
   e)Open the DGN files are the changes can be seen.
   
   Its a pretty slick operation but I'm not sure the proposed tool is going to come close.
   
   
2. My dislike of exporting from MS to Excel is each time the data is exported it would need formatted to a visual style that I like to work with. Of course this is purely a personal preference of my own because I dislike unformatted data in an xlsx spreadsheet.

Jon Summers said:

That what Bentley would like us to accept.  But remember that Microsoft deprecated VBA many years ago, when .NET arrived?  VBA is still with us.

Indeed however there is enough evidence to suggest Bentley will remove tools considered deprecated as we have examples of them already doing so in relatively recent past:

Intellitrim

Dimension Stroke

Dimension Arrow

Those are just a few that come to mind (as an aside, each of those was not replaced with a superior alternative - in my opinion) so I don't hold much hope for tags.

Barry Lothian said:

Bentley will remove tools

Bentley Systems tend not to break long-standing technology.  Why are enter-data fields still with us? Many people have incorporated tags into their workflow since the technology was introduced with MicroStation v5 (approximately).  It would break too much to eliminate tags.

That's rather different than replacing a tool with something superior (or otherwise).  A new tool doesn't break the DGN file format.