I have a cell library in which I have defined Item Types and attached them to an element in the cells so that when they are placed, they will have the Item Types already attached. My aim is to produce a report that contains all the Item Type values along with the X,Y,Z coordinates of the cell origin. My report runs on 'Cells + related items.' which are Item Types. I have added all the columns for cell coordinates & Item Types. When I run the report though my table only populates results related to cell property values & not Item Types. The Item Type values do not come through. In the course of testing I have found that my report will work if I place a cell without an Item Type already attached, and then attach the Item Type after it has been placed. This seem like an unnecessary step, & will not work for me anyway as I am also displaying the Item Types in text field built into the cells. So I can’t add them later. I suspect that I can get it to work if ‘Add related Item’ the correct way. However, when I look at doing this I find myself in an endless loop going through an Item Type into a cel into an Item Type into a cell and so on. The screen capture below hopefully demonstrates this. Hoping for some feedback on how to get this to work.
Jovan Djukanovic said:I suspect that I can get it to work if ‘Add related Item’ the correct way. However, when I look at doing this I find myself in an endless loop going through an Item Type into a cel into an Item Type into a cell and so on
If you were to write "I find the Reports UI bizarre", then I would agree with you.
Post a DGN file with some tagged cells and your Item Type definition.
Regards, Jon Summers LA Solutions
I have attached a dgn file containing sample data & the report. I would prefer to do this just using Item Types Import/Export. I don't know if it's possible to define coordinates in an Item Types definition using an Expression for the cell origin? Seems to work for my MAST-X Item Type definition when producing a table.
Jovan Djukanovic said:I don't know if it's possible to define coordinates in an Item Types definition using an Expression for the cell origin?
If I understand your statement correctly, you don't need an Item Type or Expression to show cell coordinates.
Here's an example cell report. It doesn't even use Item Types, but shows coordinates.
Yes, that part is working (extracting the cell coordinates), but I also want the Item Types associated with the cells in there.
Jovan Djukanovic said:that part is working (extracting the cell coordinates), but I also want the Item Types associated with the cells
Here's your DGN file with added Report definitions.
1881.Example Layout - Cells with Item Types & Reports.dgn
The trick is to add first one category (e.g. cell info) then add the other (e.g. Item Type data) as a related item.
Mangesh.Shelar revealed that pearl in this thread. The result is a Report that shows — in the same row — both cell data and Item Type data attached to that cell.
OHW Test Layout.dgn
Thanks Jon, much appreciated but I don't think the first file I sent was refined enough to demonstrate the issues I have. I have attached another file (with instructions) to hopefully better demonstrate the problems. I have found that you can actually use an expression in an Item Type definition to export the coordinates. Using, ''this.GetElement().Origin' will result in a value such as '<DPoint3d xyz="17.3452053966919,36.2674282093657,0"/>.' This is a pretty good result. But I want all this to work with an Item Type already attached within a cell. I'm aware that Element Templates can assist but that still seems like an extra step.
Jovan Djukanovic said: I want all this to work with have an Item Type already attached within a cell
Bentley Systems tell us that MicroStation Tags are obsolete because Item Types are better. However, this is one example where Item Types are not better: if you place a cell that has tags, then those tags are also placed when you place a cell, but that is not true for Item Types.
I posted this Idea.
Jovan Djukanovic said:I have found that you can actually use an expression in an Item Type definition to export the coordinates
Well, yes, but I don't see why you want to do that. You can already export the properties of a DGN element, such as cell coordinates, as well as Item data.