Best Practice for Converting lines, arcs segments to Smartline????

I am trying to figure out what would be the best practice for converting multiple line segments and arcs to one Smartline (or complex chain I guess). Like in ACAD you would just select all your lines and PEDIT them into one polyline. So I am trying to see what is the best practice in doing the same in MicroStation? Thanks in advance and please let me know if you have any questions or need more information...

Thanks,

Chris

MicroStation V8i SS4

Parents
  • Create Complex Chain is the tool. You can set it to Automatic and it will follow along your connections with no further clicks unless it comes to a fork, and the final click to accept. The only real issue you may run into is if there are gaps or overlaps, but you can set the gap tolerance to work around those somewhat. I believe this command even works with reference elements - as in, you can run the command and select elements in a reference file and a new complex chain will be created that runs along those elements

    I do believe this command is responsive to the Level Lock. I can't recall offhand if it accepts a selection set (and I'm in AutoCAD today for a few more hours).

    MaryB

    Power GeoPak 08.11.09.918
    Power InRoads 08.11.09.918
    OpenRoads Designer 2021 R2

        

    Answer Verified By: Chris LeMay 

  • Looooooooooove the Automatic option. 2 clicks and done! So helpful. Thanks again!.........really 4 clicks, but who's counting.lol..okay, so I added the "Create Complex Chain" toolbox to my Workspace, so now 3 clicks......haha

    C. LeMay

    MicroStation V8i (SELECTseries 4) version 08.11.09.829

  • Very glad to help!!

    MaryB

    Power GeoPak 08.11.09.918
    Power InRoads 08.11.09.918
    OpenRoads Designer 2021 R2

        

  • Looooooooooove the Automatic option. 2 clicks and done! So helpful. Thanks again!.........really 4 clicks, but who's counting.lol..okay, so I added the "Create Complex Chain" toolbox to my Workspace, so now 3 clicks......haha

    You will find that Create Complex line or create region is not as good as ACAD's  PEDIT especially multiple shapes option and join option.. in MSTN we can only do one at a time be it shapes or complex lines.. whish we had all the PEDIT functions in Mstn.. so I jump to acad to do PEDIT then back into msnt ,  in acad we can select several shapes or lines with pedit and  use the join function and it will do lots of shapes at once!!!!!

    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 

  • Have you used the BOUNDARY command in AutoCAD. Another overlooked command that is AMAZING. So it's like hatching an area, but instead of hatching the area, it creates a polyline of the entire perimeter of the selected area. Very cool command to add to your arsenal. Yes the everlasting divide between the 2 worlds always frustrating when bouncing back and forth. I can't tell you how many times I entered Q2 to draw a line in ACAD or L+Enter in MicroStation.hey. is MSTN short for MicroStation.don't laugh...i just never seen it..........lol

    C. LeMay

    MicroStation V8i (SELECTseries 4) version 08.11.09.829

  • Yes, MSTN is shorthand for MicroStation, just like ACAD is short for AutoCAD.

    You will also sometimes see USTN used (for MicroStation) by some of us oldtimers. Back in the DOS era, we only had eight characters for a file name, so "U" was substituted as the "Micro" part of Microstation (because "μ" for "micro" looks like a "u"). This actually is continued at least through SS10 (check your shortcut and you will see the executable is "ustation.exe").

    MaryB

    Power GeoPak 08.11.09.918
    Power InRoads 08.11.09.918
    OpenRoads Designer 2021 R2

        

  • Have you used the BOUNDARY command in AutoCAD. Another overlooked command that is AMAZING. So it's like hatching an area, but instead of hatching the area, it creates a polyline of the entire perimeter of the selected area.

    In Microstation parlay, this is called Create Region. It will flood the area, create from overlap, void or combine. One of my favorite commands, having had to do this 'manually' for years.

    Connect r17 10.17.2.61 self-employed-Unpaid Beta tester for Bentley

Reply Children
  • YEEEEESSSS!!!!!!! THAT'S IT!!! THANKS SO MUCH! WORKS LIKE A CHARM!!!

    C. LeMay

    MicroStation V8i (SELECTseries 4) version 08.11.09.829

  • Create Region also works with a selection set. If you are in a crowded area, you can select only the elements you want to be considered to create your Region, and all the others will be disregarded.

    Pattern/Hatch/Crosshatch can also be created by "flood" in the same way - select the bounding elements and flood away. That's better than AutoCAD, where I have to take the extra step to "Isolate" the selected elements.

    MaryB

    Power GeoPak 08.11.09.918
    Power InRoads 08.11.09.918
    OpenRoads Designer 2021 R2

        

  • This is why I love asking questions here. I have learned so much and always looking to learn more. Thanks for the awesome info. This is so useful. See you on my next questions and have a great day!

    C. LeMay

    MicroStation V8i (SELECTseries 4) version 08.11.09.829

  • Hey Chris,

    Another point that's different with polygons in mstn as to ACAD, in Mstn the fill of a region is a  property of any polygon , it can be on or off can be opague or none.. this is very useful to sect areas by colour or level name and  measure the total area and not count the boundary and the fill as two separate areas  its one boundary so set the selection thru power selector and  level chosen and use measure tool now will give total area of the selected level and  objects.. for road pavements this is great... when I did it acad I got double .. I didn't draw them .. but lack of acad knowledge and how it does patterns hatch  caught me out..... this is good to know and practice

    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 

  • good info....so when you were getting double area for an area.........you were selecting the hatched area along with it's polyline perimeter to get the double area in the properties.(in ACAD)?

    C. LeMay

    MicroStation V8i (SELECTseries 4) version 08.11.09.829