How lock text & data fileds to prevent "graphical" changes but allow editing and fill in?

Hi,

What version of MicroStation are you using?

Are you using the Lock option in either the Element Information Dialog OR under the Edit menu pull down?

(Highlight the element, then go to Edit > Lock)

If these options do not work for you, can you please provide a simple example file that shows the issue?

select objects ie all the text and shapes and hit  control m this will lock objects but anyone can  unlock them..

another way is to  to use submodels to store you work and use self ref attach to show the data in the active master model

then you can turn off locate and snap in the ref manager and you cant change text etc without doing it on purpose

Well I am having the same problem.

My title block text is a tag and I found that many of my colleagues delete the tag without realising it and I need to reinsert the missing tags.

I tried to lock the tags but then I cannot change the text, really frustrating. Specially because, I don't think my colleagues know how to fix the problem and just stick a normal text where the tag should be.

My suggestion is the on the option to lock should have a “locked” and a “lock manipulation” choice.

Been “lock” as a total element lock and “lock manipulation” locked for resizing, level change and position but tag edit to be possible.

I have no idea how difficult this is to add to the software but I think is a essential feature.  

Hi marinallxc,

Would you mind composing your answers to match up with these questions?

It will make filing the Enhancement better if your responses line up with these specific inquiries. Thank you.

What exactly are you attempting to achieve?

Why is this change needed?

How are you currently working without this change?

How will this improve your workflow?

Are you able to provide an example/sample file that provide additional details, if so please attach it to the email with your replies?

Rapheal,

I think there is a misunderstnding  going on here if a object is locked then its locked and cant be edited or  deleted  that is the very nature of locked ... now an experienced good user of mstn would then say to himself why is this not possible to edit this object and would then use the element information or analyze and discover the lock and or if its a tag...and then work accordingly to the correct practice....

As to correct practice of editing tags in title blocks you just have to educate your users this is our company standard and here is the documentation on what to do so follow it  or you will just have to go work somewhere else... sorry to sound hard but but these are the harsh realities of drafting in a modern company .. you either follow the company standards and practices, learn the software....

( but the company has to teach it)  or they  go work in different field but not drafting they are  not suited for it......

Unknown said:

My title block text ...

Why not put text or tags in a file that you attach as a reference to the working drawing or sheet?  A CAD operator can't modify objects in a reference inadvertently: you have to exchange with that reference to be able to edit it.

A further step would be to put that special annotation in a DGN file that is in a protected folder.  By 'protected', I mean the usual Windows file-access control.  If the CAD admin. has read/write access to that folder, and CAD operators have read-only access, then you have what you want.

Hello Dan,

Sorry to take so long to get back to you. But I have been so busy at work and then went on holiday to de-stress.

You probably have heard this a million times but I am an original Autocad user and sometimes I try to find tools from Autocad in microstation and not always is a straight forward mission.

So I need your help to improve my skills on microstation. And I am glad you are taking your time to help me.

Here are the answers to your questions:

What exactly are you attempting to achieve?

I am trying to find a tool that allows me to create a title block containing text with the position, font, colour and height locked but able to edit the text.

I try to do that with the “tag” tool and because I created the tag I know what to do if something goes wrong, like deleting a field not yet used.

But when I lock the text from “element information” the text locks 100% including editing.

Why is this change needed?

For me this change would make a massive improvement on the dynamic of my work. This change would avoid mistakes to happen by me and others.

One of my colleagues deleted by mistake one of the text from the tag and instead of asking how to solve the problem he just “added” a normal text on the place where the tag was suppose to be. Nightmare! I found this “fixing” by chance.

How are you currently working without this change?

The only provisional solution I found is locking all the text in the tag apart from the one with the biggest text height (drawing number).

This way I protect the tag and the person that is trying to edit it probably will try and change from the “largest” tag on the title block.

The other issue is that... If I lock all the tag and copy then past on another drawing and/or sheet I loose the locking.

How will this improve your workflow?

Really, you have no idea what I have been through.

Everything I suggest to be implemented has been a battle, standards, seed file, change font from “WORKING” to arial, reference, cells, tag, levels (draw by level), layout, dimension and text style.

None of the above were used! And all 700+ drawings have no organization or the same method of work throughout.

Any little change that “blocks” others to mess up the drawings (seed file) would improve workflow.

I have tried to motivate people to improve their skills and get excited about learning new things in microstation (like me) but I achieved little success.

Just one of my colleagues (and my boss) seems to be enthusiastic as me. Very frustrating!

Are you able to provide an example/sample file that provide additional details, if so please attach it to the email with your replies?

See sttachement.

Hello Dan,

Sorry to take so long to get back to you. But I have been so busy at work and then went on holiday to de-stress.

You probably have heard this a million times but I am an original Autocad user and sometimes I try to find tools from Autocad in microstation and not always is a straight forward mission.

So I need your help to improve my skills on microstation. And I am glad you are taking your time to help me.

Here are the answers to your questions:

What exactly are you attempting to achieve?

I am trying to find a tool that allows me to create a title block containing text with the position, font, colour and height locked but able to edit the text.

I try to do that with the “tag” tool and because I created the tag I know what to do if something goes wrong, like deleting a field not yet used.

But when I lock the text from “element information” the text locks 100% including editing.

Why is this change needed?

For me this change would make a massive improvement on the dynamic of my work. This change would avoid mistakes to happen by me and others.

One of my colleagues deleted by mistake one of the text from the tag and instead of asking how to solve the problem he just “added” a normal text on the place where the tag was suppose to be. Nightmare! I found this “fixing” by chance.

How are you currently working without this change?

The only provisional solution I found is locking all the text in the tag apart from the one with the biggest text height (drawing number).

This way I protect the tag and the person that is trying to edit it probably will try and change from the “largest” tag on the title block.

The other issue is that... If I lock all the tag and copy then past on another drawing and/or sheet I loose the locking.

How will this improve your workflow?

Really, you have no idea what I have been through.

Everything I suggest to be implemented has been a battle, standards, seed file, change font from “WORKING” to arial, reference, cells, tag, levels (draw by level), layout, dimension and text style.

None of the above were used! And all 700+ drawings have no organization or the same method of work throughout.

Any little change that “blocks” others to mess up the drawings (seed file) would improve workflow.

I have tried to motivate people to improve their skills and get excited about learning new things in microstation (like me) but I achieved little success.

Just one of my colleagues (and my boss) seems to be enthusiastic as me. Very frustrating!

Are you able to provide an example/sample file that provide additional details, if so please attach it to the email with your replies?

See sttachement.

Dan,

Thak you for your help.

ok now we can see what you need.. its  a bit old school but this is what I've done

All title blocks are reference files and stored in a standard folder

Lets examine my standard  A3 title block

Is two models  the default model has all the graphics lines logos boundaries  scale bar etc

the sub model is all the text as TAGS and it is self referenced into the top or active model

I attach the drawing nested on  sheet title block by top and not coincedent to the  active drawing model

then when happy about placement I merge the submodel and edit the the tag text via the tag editor

for training purposes around the border I have the following text "tagged text  present edit do not move or delete"

for the revision  block I have all the next dozen or so turned off and only the tag edit tool will show them...

If they still destroy you tags you can just reference to rebuild and use the cut text and paste into the tags... painfull but works..

Havent your guys  worked with attributed blocks for drawing sheets in acad...? its no different in mstn..

But its education/ training  and documentation...

BTW my buddy Adam Lambert sells a addon called Cad pro you only need his title block editor manager (not the whole suite)  and it does what you always wanted acad sheet manager to do it will place standard title block with attributed tags ..you dont edit the tags at all you export them to excel and mange the tag set values there and it can be the drawing register and transmital too.. then you export all the tags for several drawings in own pass and it opens and edits and saves closes the drawings incredibly  fast... and it can edit acad DWGs too it just need a defined tag set it can find....

I upreved and added extra text in title blocks ie rev 6 details etc  and added For Construction to the title to 5000 dgns in under an  hour .. it can even send them to pdf as part of the process...I cant even open and close that many in an hour manually.

and it is very inexpensive to just buy the VBA macro for this....  you can google him or email me offline and Ill pass his details

his tools come with pull down menus like add title block , update title block import tags, export tags... etc...

in a production office like I was in roadworks I paid for it in the first day I used it  then everyone wanted to use it...

pretty cool stuff... too bad its not a basic tool in mstn by default...instead of custom VBA programming...

'Enhancement 93722:Lock the position of text' has been filed with development.

Thank you for answering all of the questions and providing the PDF