[V8i] Move to Contact tool not working

I can't get the "Move to Contact" tool to work. I click on an element, define my direction, and then nothing happens. I've got V8i select series 10 version 08.11.09.919 on windows 10.

Parents
  • Hi Ryan,

    I agree with that to share e.g. picture in what context the tool is used can help to analyze the problem.

    But, when I tried this tool in V8i SS10, I see the same problem: The tool does not work. When I used the same tool with the same DGN file in current MicroStation CE U16, everything is fine. So to create Service Ticket to report bug probably makes sense.

    Regards,

      Jan

  • But, when I tried this tool in V8i SS10, I see the same problem: The tool does not work. When I used the same tool with the same DGN file in current MicroStation CE U16, everything is fine. So to create Service Ticket to report bug probably makes sense.

    What point is there in doing that if Bentley aren't going to release any further updates to V8i?

  • I do not understand this note. The issue was identified and should be reported as bug. Until bug number is assigned, formally the problem does not exist.

    It's quite simple. Bentley have been aggressively advocating that users should move from V8i to CONNECT for quite some time now as is evidenced by frequent spam emails in my inbox, staff posts on this communities site and the introduction of billing charges for those not moving to CONNECT licensing albeit this is the only supported license model for V8i now. It seems quite clear to me that a line in the sand was drawn quite some time ago with regard to V8i development. In short, Bentley likely don't want people (like me) to keep using V8i and probably don't care about reported bugs in V8i so long as they have fixed the issues in CONNECT (which you have confirmed is the case with Move to Contact). Why? Simply because V8i is the past and their only concern is the future i.e. CONNECT. "Full Support" likely covers assistance on how to perform a task etc..

    I recall a relatively recent reply in a different thread, where it was explained to another user, that Bentley's historical approach to software updates has only ever been by providing major releases at infrequent intervals, instead of a more frequent hotfix/updates approach. If they did do the latter then I would agree that it would be worthwhile reporting the bug because, assuming the issue was isolated and easy enough to fix, there would be a greater chance of correcting the issue or perhaps several at a time and upload a patch to solve the problems. As much as I would like to believe the contrary, it's my view that there is no evidence to support any logical reasoning that V8i users will receive a final update(s) before January 1st, 2022 and as I am not in the habit of wasting my own time, reporting bugs in V8i is therefore effectively pointless. Some bugs in V8i have recently been identified yet I've not seen any of the Bentley staff, who frequent the communities, comment that those issues will be addressed.

    the first V8i SS10 was released (08.11.09.908) ... and a few months later, new versions were released (08.11.09.916 and 08.11.09.919).

    I cannot seem to find any official release notes but I'm pretty certain that only change that 08.11.09.919 provided was CONNECT licensing and everything else was the same as SS4.The only reason I changed to SS10 was effectively being forced to due to the licensing charges.

    Alas, I digress...

    I can't get the "Move to Contact" tool to work. I click on an element, define my direction, and then nothing happens. I've got V8i select series 10 version 08.11.09.919 on windows 10.

    Hi Ryan, although I never used it in my typical workflows, the tool did work at one time however it seems now that it does not ask you for a datapoint to accept the chosen element and direction, which is strange. That said, I'm sure we can help you achieve what you are trying to do without it. As Andrew and Jan have suggested, a picture or sample .dgn file would help a lot to understand your issue however, my initial 'blind' suggestion would be using the move tool, rotate accudraw (if required) then lock the axis to your chosen direction and use nearest snap on the target element.

  • Thanks Barry, I need to copy this horizontal stirrup vertically at 6" intervals and keep them following these curved rebar. I was hoping with the "Move to Contact" tool I could just copy them all up at 6" intervals and then snap them over horizontally to follow along the curve (I figured I might have to do it to the circle at the end of the stirrup first, turn off the curved rebar, and then attach the rest of the stirrup to it that way). Is there a better way you can think of that I could quickly accomplish this? Second picture shows the finished product I was trying to achieve and ended up doing manually.

  • Hi Ryan,

    Its unclear if its 6" intervals constantly on the Y-axis or measured along the curve. I've assumed the latter but you'll need to confirm. I've roughly mocked up your situation and would then do this:

    1. Select the item to be copied (I have a line with a circle at each end grouped)
    2. Activate Array Element with 'Along Path' as the method and set mode to distance.
    3. 6" is roughly 150mm so I enter that as my distance.
    4. Your items do not appear to be rotating to follow the curve so leave 'Rotate Items' unticked (this has consequences as you will see).
    5. I then tentative snape at the end of the line and provide a data point
    6. I do the same again but this time on the curve. If you cannot snap to the curve at this point you can snap to line again, left click accept, then right-click cancel (the curve will now highlight), and finally left-click accept. Sounds confusing but is precisely whats needed when an element has no snap point  where needed so you borrow it from an adjacent element which does.
    7. Now you will see transient elements of where the copies will go (1 copy and dots at each copy location), move your mouse upwards and left click to accept.

    This is the above process demonstrated.

     The issue is that the copies elements retain their size but the length between curves increases. This can be overcome by doing the above process on the circles individually but you need to select the large curve which each circle is in contact with. The line I would make oversized, array as above then use the outer curve to trim. If however your members should actually retain the angle to the curve, enable 'Rotate Items' and no further work should be needed.

    Does that help any?

  • Thanks Barry, I appreciate the in depth answer, however I don't think the array along path method words for me because the 6" spacing needs to be along the Y axis, not along the curve. Do you know of any way to quickly achieve that?

  • The lines are obviously not a problem however the arcs are potentially more challenging as the contact point between the arc varies at each location. Do you have a close-up view of the end interface?

Reply Children
  • I'm mostly concerned with just aligning it along one side, I'm not too worried about where the other end of the stirrup ends up. For background I'm just trying to lay out a series of column hoops along some curved column rebar. The hoops themselves are supposed to all be the same size in this region, so I just want them to follow the constant 6" vertical spacing and then be aligned with the column rebar as they go up. So all I really care about is keeping one side of the hoop in the same location with respect to the column rebar and the exact location of the other side doesn't matter much to me. I've just got about 30 bars to lay out in each segment so I'm just looking for anything that saves me from having to position each bar manually. Here's a closeup of one end of the stirrup if that helps, ideally along this column bar the stirrup and column bar intersection would be at the same place on the stirrup for each bar.

  • Ryan,

    Try the method shown in this video clip.

  • Ron, that's awesome, thank you for that! I will definitely try that out!

  • Okay that was really cool, was that window a macro you wrote to do that?