We published a freeware text replacement tool some time ago. It works with MicroStation CONNECT and MicroStation V8i...
The tool operates as a simple text & replace tool. For example: search for a string abc and replace it with another string def.
It also works at a more advanced level, using regular expressions both to find and to replace text. We received an enquiry from a MicroStation user, where use of regular expressions solves his question:
I have a text element with content 123456. I want to replace that with 123+456. In other words, split the text in two and reassemble it with a plus sign in the middle. We solved that with a regular expression to find the six-digit string and another regular expression to create the required result.
123456
123+456
The search expression is ^([0-9]{3})([0-9]{3})$. It means: find two groups of exactly three digits, one at the beginning of the text and one at the end. Each group is saved for use in the replacement expression.
^([0-9]{3})([0-9]{3})$
The replacement expression is $1+$2. It means: use the first group, followed by a plus sign, followed by the second group. That is, text 104400 is replaced with text 104+400.
$1+$2
104400
104+400
Great tool. No fancy animate feature which slows everything down and more advanced regex.
I use regex to add prefix or suffix to text(using ^ or $ characters) but it messes with the animate option in default MS tool so good to have alternative. The native search is so slow on large files with lot of text elements so will test if VBA is faster.