associating tags with a title block

Hi Andre,

This file is quite the mess, there are many things which I wouldn't do personally, though I'm unsure what control you have over the decision of how the Title Block is composed. For me, placing Tags in amongst the Title Block geometry is non-starter, it just gets messy.

Instead, I would advise this, which is my approach to Title Block composition:

1. Create a DGN file with multiple Design models where each model represents your required paper sizes, and contains only the Title Block geometry and any static Text. I would refer to this DGN file as a Title Block seed file.
   My Models dialog for this file looks like this:
   
2. Create a Cell Library (.dgn or .cel is fine). This file will serve as the place where you configure each arrangement of your Title Block Tags for all of your papers sizes.
3. For each paper size in 1 (above), temporarily reference in the Title Block. Now draw a Point Element on a non-printing level and position it at the bottom right of the Title Block reference file. This Point will be the host element for the Tags.
4. Import your Tag library into the Cell file, activate Attach Tags and select the host element (point)
5. Your tags should be visible so now you need to configure their size, font, colour etc and move each tag into the correct position relative to the Title Block. Delete the Title Block reference attachment when you are done.
6. Repeat for each paper size (some Tag arrangements may work with multiple paper sizes, so unique cells for each paper size might not be necessary, it's a choice you need to decide, but for simplicity I do create 1 per paper size.
   My Models dialog for this file looks like this (the pink point is my Tags host element):
   
7. Next create a DGN which I call my Sheet Seed File. This time, I create Sheet Models for each paper size, reference into each model the correct Title Block (created in step 1) and then place the Tags Cell at the bottom right of each sheet.

When you place the Cell, only the Point Element stays part of the Cell, the Tags become dropped from the Cell BUT they do retain their association to the Point Element. Notice that if you move the Point Element, all of the associated Tags move with it, and if you delete it, the tags are also deleted.

Anyway, that's my approach and I would recommend that, if you are able to, try it out. With this, all of your tags will be contained within the Tags Dialog box when you double-click on any of them, like this:

As for your own file, you appear to have 2 different host elements and a number of tags which have none. It would be quite a task to correct so you might be as well as consider what I advise above. It'll take a bit of setting up but once its done, you'll have a consistent setup that you can rely upon.

Hello Barry!, thank you such a prompt and detailed response. I have full control of this file. Its an inherited file from previous setup. I have basic understanding of what you are outlining. I will give that a go, but may need to lean on you again for some help, as I have not set up like this before.

many thanks again, I will keep you posted on any issues/progress,

regards

Andre

Hi barry, ok so I have got up to Point 4.

I followed point 1 and I have made a dgn with just the title block elements, no tags. I only require an A3 title block. So this makes the task a bit easier.

Point 2. I made a dgn with all the tags( i know they are not correct or all assosicated properly) 

Point 3 - So do i then attach the Title block dgn to the Tag dgn?

Sorry What do you mean import tag library? if I am in the tag dgn? with the Title block referenced in.

Its still the same mess.

Sorry, stuck here at Point 4 ( as there is already the old tag set its picking up.

Thanks

Morning Andre (Evening for you in Eastern Australia I guess),

Andre Gutauskas said:

I will give that a go, but may need to lean on you again for some help, as I have not set up like this before.

No problem, feel free to ask away.

Andre Gutauskas said:

I followed point 1 and I have made a dgn with just the title block elements, no tags. I only require an A3 title block. So this makes the task a bit easier.

Sounds good, and it does simplify things quite a bit.

Andre Gutauskas said:

Sorry What do you mean import tag library? if I am in the tag dgn? with the Title block referenced in.

When I open up the DGN file from your original post, I can then go to Element (Menu)\Tags\Define to load the Tag Sets dialog (I'm on V8i SS10, if you are on Connect/MS23 you'll need to open it up as per these instructions if you don't already know how. In this dialog I can see your Tag Set 'CityLink_Panel_A3' and the individual tags.

If you go to File\Export\Create Tag Library, you can Save a .tlb file e.g. CityLink_Panel_A3.tlb and then you can open up another DGN file and use File\Import\From Tag Library, select your .tlb file, and you will get all of your tags as per the image above. When you perform stage 2 of my instructions, my assumption is you create a brand new empty DGN file that contains an empty Design Model, so you wont have any tags in it at that time. Point 4 is as described above using File\Import\From Tag Library.

Andre Gutauskas said:

Point 3 - So do i then attach the Title block dgn to the Tag dgn?

Firstly, for clarity, name your Model (in the Title Block Tags file) something that makes sense like CityLink_Panel_A3_Tags and if you ever have to create an extra paper size, you just create a new model with suitable name e.g. CityLink_Panel_A1_Tags.

Yes, attach your Title Block dgn into your Title Block Tags file, using Coincident. The bottom left of my Title Block is at 0,0 just as your sample dgn file was. The reason for attaching this file temporarily is so that we know exactly where each Tag needs to be positioned. As per Point 3, select a Level that doesn't print, set a line weight that decently noticeable (I use 3) and draw a Point Element on the bottom right corner of the dotted sheet outline. TBH, if you are using Sheet models, you don't need that outline, but it is of course your choice to keep or not.

One thing which is helpful to do that I didn't mention yesterday, is to place the same point elements at the position where each Tag is to be positioned (but perhaps with line weight 0 so that is barely noticeable), like below. Remember, these Point Elements live IN the Title Block Seed DGN and the Point Element that hosts the Tags lives in the Tags dgn or cel file.

I firstly created a file without the tags, saved it as the Title Block DGN and then referenced in your original DGN file so that I could see the tags ( I had to drop them all to text because many would not be visible when referenced for whatever reason)

With the Title Block attached, we can now associate the Tags to the host element, then format the Tags to match your original DGN file i.e. Point 5 above. When finished, detach the reference file(s) and you are ready to go to Point 7: