Units not correct in Microstation plug-in

Hey Everyone,

I'm developing a plug-in for Microstation that inserts several text elements in the Active Model. It seems that everything I insert, the units (such as Point3dOrigin(71,44,0))

end up being multiplied by 39.73 even though the Master and Subunits in the design file settings are both set to "inch". Anyone have any idea what I'm doing wrong?

Here is a sample of code

        Dim rotmatrix As B_Interop_UstnDGN.Matrix3d
        Dim pt3dOffSet As B_Interop_UstnDGN.Point3d
        Dim pt3dOrigin As B_Interop_UstnDGN.Point3d
        Dim el As B_Interop_UstnDGN.TextElement

        rotmatrix = ActiveUstn.Matrix3dIdentity

        pt3dOrigin.X = 71
        pt3dOrigin.Y = 44
        pt3dOrigin.Z = 0

        pt3dOffSet.X = 0
        pt3dOffSet.Y = -0.5
        pt3dOffSet.Z = 0

        'start in upper left corner
        For Each row_Tags As DataRow In datatbl_Tags.Rows

            el = ActiveUstn.CreateTextElement1(Nothing, row_Tags.Item("name").ToString, pt3dOrigin, rotmatrix)

            el.Redraw()

            ActiveUstn.ActiveModelReference.AddElement(el)

            pt3dOrigin = ActiveUstn.Point3dAdd(pt3dOrigin, pt3dOffSet)

        Next

Thanks

Dave

0 Offline Jon Summers Sat, Jan 14 2017 4:38 PM
Please reveal the version of MicroStation!
Unknown said:

The units end up being multiplied by 39.73

If that number were 39.37 I'd postulate a metres-to-inches conversion.

Regards, Jon Summers
LA Solutions
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0 Offline Daverode Sat, Jan 14 2017 5:05 PM in reply to Jon Summers

Microstation V8i(Select Series 4). Yes I believe it is 39.37.
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0 Offline Jan Šlegr Sun, Jan 15 2017 5:21 AM
Hi Dave,

Unknown said:
Anyone have any idea what I'm doing wrong?

In my opinion there is nothing wrong with your code and because master units are used in VBA COM API, it should work as you described.

Some questions to better understand your configuration and environment and also ideas what you can try:

Is MicroStation only used or is there any other application active?

How your application is created: Is it exe started outside MicroStation accessing to MicroStation using interop or it's add-in (derived from addin class)?

Can you try the same code from VBA?

How do you check the coordinates: In GUI or using e.g. "analyze element" key-in?

Is this problem file-dependent? Can you try another one, can you try metric?

Is it possible to create working project (not only code snippet) and to share it?

Unknown said:
Here is a sample of code

A few notes about the code, a bit more in a subjective way "how the code is written":

In my opinion to declare all variables at the beginning is wrong style. It's not required by the language itself and often recommended style is to declare a variable when it's used, not earlier.

Don't set X,Y,Z separately, use e.g. pt3dOrigin = ustnApp.Point3dFromXYZ(71, 44, 0);

Don't use .Redraw, it's not required. MicroStation takes care about element redraw when an element is added to active model automatically.

With regards,

Jan
Bentley Accredited Developer: iTwin Platform - Associate
Labyrinth Technology | dev.notes() | cad.point
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0 Offline Daverode Sun, Jan 15 2017 9:15 AM in reply to Jan Šlegr

Jan,
Thanks again for the information. I'm not sure where I got into the habit of declaring variables at beginning. I'll look into some of the questioned you had for me, but in the meantime I notice that in my "Locks" toolbox the "unit distance" is 3.937 and if I change it to 1 manually it solves the problem.
Thanks
Dave
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0 Offline Daverode Thu, Jan 19 2017 9:27 AM in reply to Daverode

Everyone,
Thanks to all who replied on this topic. I fixed the problem by dividing all my numbers by 39.37 as I didn't want to change any internal scale settings that promis.e may be using. Oddly enough though when I actually compiled it and loaded it, as opposed to debugging, it worked as originally written without dividing by 39.37.
Dave
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