editing properties of a model externally

Question

Is there a way to edit the properties of a sheet model externally (without opening the file)? It seems that there must be a way to do it. I use project explorer to change sheet numbers and the way that that works is that it changes the value in the sheet number property of the sheet model. My thought is that if Project explorer can make a change to that one particular property of the sheet model without opening up the file, then it must be possible to edit other properties of the sheet model without opening the file. Some of the things that would be helpful to be able to edit externally are the model name, the sheet name, the model description and the sheet size. Sometimes we use the sheet name on our plans as a sort of sub-sheet number. For example, if we have a set of plans that consists of a title sheet, 3 construction plans, and 2 detail sheets for a total of 6 sheets. The title sheet would be sheet 1 and would not have a sub-sheet number. The construction plans would be sheets 2, 3 & 4 and would also have a sub number of CP-1, CP-2 & CP-3 and the Detail sheets would have sheet number 5 & 6 and sub-numbers D-1 & D-2. We would number the sheets by having a field which is linked to the sheet number property of the sheet model. Sometimes we link a text field to the sheet name property of the sheet model similar to the way the sheet number field is linked to the sheet number property of the sheet model. But there is no way that I know of that we could update the sheet name property of the sheet model without opening up the drawing. If we were to add a sheet, we would use project explorer to renumber the sheets. But as far as I know there is no way to update the sheet name property of the sheet model without opening up the drawing. This becomes very frustrating when I have to open up every sheet to make that one simple edit. 
 The example that I used above is not a real example and our projects usually consist of many more files than that. Sometimes we may have 50 or more construction plans, 50 or more Profile sheets, 5 to 10 typical section sheets, a handful of detail sheets and other sets of plans, sometimes totaling hundreds of sheets. It is really frustrating opening up that many drawing to make one simple edit.

Jayson Perry · Answer

Hi Michael, 
 Thanks for the post. I'm not sure what version of MicroStation CONNECT Edition you are running, but Update 16 has a new technology preview feature where you can update the Sheet Model properties directly from the Sheet Index tab in Explorer. https://communities.bentley.com/products/microstation/b/microstation_blog/posts/new-in-microstation-connect-edition-update-16-public-technology-preview---sheet-link-and-update-sheet-properties 
 Also, the key-in field update all could be utilized with multiple files at once in a batch process command script. 
 HTH, Jayson P.

Lorys · Answer

I think would VBA be able to do that? There are custom off the shelf products that can manage your files and title blocks such as Caddpro by adam Lambert ( Australia) and Flexitable by LASolutions UK. But it appears that Bentley have finally added this long promised feature to CE.

MaryB · Answer

For V8i, you would probably need, as Lorys suggested below, a VBA macro. 
 You could set one up to run on all files in a directory, a selection of files, or just the open file (that you would run through a Batch Process to get all the files you want). The nice thing about VBA is that it can interact with other applications - I know a few people who use Excel spreadsheets to manage this sort of information, and have macros to update the design files with that data. 
 While they won't write the program for you, you can search posts over at the MicroStation Programming Forum , and post your own questions. Do make sure to post with your specific version number, because solutions may vary by version. I also strongly suggest looking into LA Solutions UK (also as suggested by Lorys). They have dozens of articles and code snips that can be used to develop a lot of what you might need. The MVBA Help file is also surprisingly helpful, but you will have to look for it. Mine is saved to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Bentley\MicroStation V8i (SELECTseries)\MicroStation\MicroStationVBA.chm" 
 While it can take a little time to develop and troubleshoot a tool like this, it will save you weeks and weeks over its lifespan.