Personal settings manager

Original Article Date: Nov 19, 2002

How many times have you entered a design file and found that the Fence mode has been inadvertently set to Clip Void? Or that the Level Lock has been left on? Well, no more! With this V7 program, designed and contributed by Gary Mansager, National MicroStation Manager for HDR Engineering Inc., you can be sure that all your settings will be correct when you launch MicroStation V7!

The Personal MS Settings Manager is an executable that is run outside of the MicroStation environment. When lauched a dialog will be presented allowing you to adjust your personal settings as desired.

Once the settings have been adjusted, you simply do a File > Write Macro or File > Save As and the program will create a MicroStation BASIC macro containing the information about your preferred settings.

Of course some thought should be given as to where the macro is stored. One nice thought is to place it in your /workspace/standards/macros/ folder so that it will be available at all times. Note that when you choose File > Write Macro, the default name of the macro will be MySettings.BAS and will be placed in the same folder as the executable.

To actually adjust the settings as per your preferences, the macro must be run within the MicroStation environment and this can be done several ways. For example, you could:

• Once in a file, you could run it manually by keying in Macro MySettings
• Place the above keyin on a function key for quick and easy deployment at anytime during your design session.
• Kick off the macro everytime you open a design file by utilizing runmacro.ma in conjunction with MS_DGNMACROS. For further information on doing this, please refer to the following article: Run commands or BASIC macro when opening files.

A few notes to keep in mind:

• This program relies on the existance of a file called COMDLG32.OCX to be present in your System32 folder. In the event that the file is not present, there is a copy in the delivered zip file
• If Apply to Views is ON, the program will turn on/off the display of the views selected. If this switch is OFF, the views remain as per the file's previously saved settings.
• If Open 2 Application Windows is toggled ON, the program will indeed open two application windows when the next session of MicroStation is started.
• Level Symbology is conmpletely ignored by the Personal MS Settings Manager.

The following are set by default:

• TP mode = Locate
• Active Scale = 1
• Active Angle = 0
• Text Nodes = OFF
• Fast Fonts, Cells, Linestyles, and Fast Reference Display are all OFF

The source code is also available for those with a Visual Basic 6 background. Note that this program acutally writes another program and it's strongly suggested to spend adequate time reviewing both the code and output macro for workflow purposes.

For those of you who do not have a VB6 background, it's suggested to simply edit the output macro to suit your needs; you'll also find comments within the MySettings macro to help explain it's contents.

This program is supplied as is. AskInga, Bentley Systems Inc., and the author of the program assumes no liability for damages direct, indirect, or consequential, which may result from the use of this program. Use this program at your own risk.

AskInga Article #132