[V8i] Move to Contact tool not working

Hi Ryan,

I agree with Andrew Bell 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

Jan Šlegr said:

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?

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?

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.

Ryan,

Try the method shown in this video clip.

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

I'll see that option and raise this:

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

And another question, it looked like you selected all the horizontal lines and the two outside curves and then pressed something to hide the stuff you didn't have selected, how did you do that?

Its a custom VBA project, it works on the premise that you have a constant distance X between intersection points of Arc & Line and Circle and Line. Its not quite finished but I'll upload it when it is.