Good day,
I have just started a new job where they have always used MS V7J and used InterPlot to print their maps. They have recently upgraded to V8I and I have never worked with anything other than V8I which is why I was hired. I am not proficient in plotting rules and set up as I have always been fortunate to have the plotting infrastructure set up before I arrived at a job. They have a .pen file that they use from InterPlot; I was wondering how I can get the rules from that file into a .tbl.
Thank you,
CRM
Depending upon the version of V8i, you might be able to use the .pen file in V8i.
Initially, the use of IPLOT pen tables was limited to the Print Organizer - calling it a script.
At come point in V8i's development, the ability to use .tbl or .pen was added to MicroStation.
With that said, if the version you are in does not support .pen files, you would have to try and manually create the logic in a .tbl file.
The issue is that if their .pen file is not well written, it can be almost impossible to create a matching .tbl file.
For example, in a .pen file, you can use multiple if-endif constructs in one file so that every element gets tested and may be acted upon more than once. In a .tbl file, the methodology limits elements to a single match.
In a .pen file, that would be more like an if-else-else-else-endif or the select case approach.
Please realize that the syntax I am using may not be correct for .pen files, but the program flow is more important than the syntax for this discussion.
Charles (Chuck) Rheault CADD Manager
MDOT State Highway Administration
I realize this is a 2-year-old thread, but for the record, I'd like to submit a correction:
Unknown said:In a .tbl file, the methodology limits elements to a single match.
Between BEGIN_GLOBAL and END_GLOBAL, you can use the code MATCH_MULTIPLE_SECTIONS = 1. This doesn't really change the fact that converting a robust .pen file to .tbl could be immensely complicated, of course. (This was true with MicroStation V8i SS2 as I had been using it until earlier this year.)