I need to place a lot of barrels in a construction zone. The Array Along Path tool is great for this, however, it would be nice if all the barrels along any one path could be saved into their own Graphic Group.
I'll admit, I am woefully ignorant of Graphic Group usage. I was scared away from them after some disastrous unanticipated consequences early in my career. I'm still leery of them because there is no visual clue when an element is a member of a GG, but I will admit there are times that it is nice to have elements treated as one large group instead of just a bunch of single elements. Due to my ignorance, I am unsure of the ways to create GGs, or if there is a way to do so somewhat automatically.
The other option that would be nice, if it is possible, would be to make my array Associative to my path. I don't see that option in the tool settings, so I assume it's not possible...But could I be wrong?
I am using MicroStation and/or Power Geopak SS10. Thank you.
Those would be nice, but I actually do not need 3D - these are 2D representative plans, and will be for probably another decade at this rate. I'm not certain that would work anyways, because depending on speed, my barrels would need different spacing. I'd either have to make a linestyle for every possible spacing, or my barrels would shrink as I scaled the linestyle up or down (which is where I am today).
I am looking forward to this day, but I am afraid today is not it.
MaryB
Power GeoPak 08.11.09.918Power InRoads 08.11.09.918OpenRoads Designer 2021 R2
OK, there isn't a way to make managing all these barrels this any easier. I suspected as much, but it was worth asking.
I do know I can select anything I want in my graphic group. I really don't know the benefits of a Named Group. The few times I have tried them, they didn't seem any better than regular GGs, just a fancier interface and an actual name.
You can think of a Named Group as a saved selection set. There is an option in a Named Group that if you select one member, all of the members are selected. No messing around with the GG lock.
Rod WingSenior Systems Analyst
Mary,
Ohio DOT has custom 2D linestyles for different drum spacings. I've attached the .rsc file if you want to use them.
ODOT_Linestyles.rsc
Matt
Answer Verified By: MaryB
MaryB said:I'm still leery of them because there is no visual clue when an element is a member of a GG
MaryB said:And a Named Group is little more than a graphic group with extra work
It's not just a little more. As you've noted, you can have multiple Named Groups, and groups can be nested. A legacy GG is just a set of DGN elements having the same non-zero number.
The Named Groups Dialog gives you information about all Named Groups. It provides tools that work with groups.
But I can see that we have more work to do to convince you.
Regards, Jon Summers LA Solutions