What does this mean - "??È" when referring to ModelName?

Some elements in my drawings are reporting "??È" as the ModelName. It looks corrupted, and trying to write that text into a text file will cause an error. Has anyone seen this?

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  • Hi Viktor,

    I agree with Volker that without knowing more, it's hard to guess. You do not follow the forum best practices, so it's not clear what product, version, API and language do you use.

    In addition to these crucial information, I'd like to ask also about:

    • Is there any issue visible in MicroStation GUI or it's solely API issue?
    • What does it mean "elements are reporting ModelName"? Can you provide a code snippet?
    • Is it specific to a particualr file, specific model...?
    • Also, can you provide a file example? E.g. to delete everything and to keep just a few elements in the model and compress the rest?

    With regards,

      Jan

  • Jan, I may be a chronic "forum best practices" violator.

    But in reality, this was meant to be a generic question, to see if anyone has seen this behavior, surely that's a very unique symbol that may rattle some memory. Being general also limits everyone from blaming "connect" or "your drawing is messed up", or "you're not coding right". If it isn't a common issue, then sure I can share details and even provide the file if needed. 

  • But in reality, this was meant to be a generic question

    In such case, the best practice is to specify explicitely it's generic question :-))))

    ... but my feeling is that it's not generic question.

    to see if anyone has seen this behavior, surely that's a very unique symbol that may rattle some memory.

    The discussion is a bit pointless, because you have not specified where you encounter the problem. And MicroStation GUI, native code, managed code and VBA are completely different and pretty separated worlds with own set of problems.

    Also, you have not shared any code snippet, so how model name was retrieved is not clear.

    With regards,

      Jan

  • This is in VBA and the file is opened using OpenDesignFileForProgram, then iterated through elements and ModelName is accessed via:

    TextElement.ModelReference.Name

    So for example where telem is the text element, I would do something like:

    Dim modelname as String

    modelname = telem.ModelReference.Name

    Its also displayed this way in the Watches inspector.

  • Ok, now it become clearer.

    Two another questions:

    • In what software the files were created? In MicroStation or another Bentley solution or they are e.g. converted DWG files?
    • Are the file names in English or another language and alphaber (Russian/Cyrilic, Greek/Alphabeta etc.) are used?

    Maybe you discovered a bug in VBA implementation, but I am also thinking whether there can be any issue because of OpenDesignFileForProgram (because some limitations exists in this mode).

    Regards,

      Jan

  • From what I know, the files were created in V8i SS3, and never been in AutoCad. This error does not show up if I scan the file with OpenDesignFile, but that's way too slow for what I need. This was not an issue in SS3, now it shows up on files from various clients.

  • This error does not show up if I scan the file with OpenDesignFile

    That's probably crucial information! Regardless of known limitations of "for program" mode, my assumption is that Model names should be always retrieved correctly and when you can confirm it works fine when the same code is used for the design files opened normally, the bug looks quite probably.

    Maybe can do some more testing?

    Regards,

      Jan

  • This is in VBA and the file is opened using OpenDesignFileForProgram

    OpenDesignFileForProgram() creates more problems than it solves.  DGN elements are stored in a DGN model that is stored in a DGN file.  Opening a file is not enough: you must activate or reference a model in order to enumerate its elements.

    What happens after you use that method to open a file?  As Jan notes, it's hard to provide a diagnosis when the patient is hiding under a table.

    This error does not show up if I scan the file with OpenDesignFile, but that's way too slow for what I need

    Probably because that opens the default model.  Why do you think that OpenDesignFileForProgram is faster than OpenDesignFile?  What measurements have you made?

    If performance is important, then discard VBA and use C++, provided by the MicroStationAPI.

     
    Regards, Jon Summers
    LA Solutions

  • Hey Jon,

    Let me climb out from under the table for a min... 

    I can give you a statistic, when iterating through 100 files looking for various objects the user has requested, I can scan through all 100 in around 2-3 seconds, depending on the objects being retrieved. With OpenDesignFile, I would be able to scan through 2 files in that amount of time (and its the opening/closing of the document that eats 95% of the time). The difference is huge. You're probably thinking if the file is open, then you would be correct, and given the fact that you can't use EnumeratorScanCriteria with program mode, it may even be a bit slower than just running on the ActiveDesignFile. 

    I understand that there are limitations of opening this way, but for what I am after, this should be doable, and if "it creates more problems than it solves" why is it even available in the API?

    Here's the gist of my code:

    For Each f In files
    
                Set CurrentCollection = New Collection
                Dim dgn As DesignFile
                Set dgn = Application.OpenDesignFileForProgram(f, True)
                Dim m As ModelReference
                For Each m In dgn.Models
                    CurrentModel = m.Name
                    ScanEnumeratorSlim m.Scan
                Next
                WriteCollectionToTextFile (f)
            
      Next

    The "ScanEnumeratorSlim" method just runs through the enumerator until it finds various objects, if the object can be enumerated (such as cellelement) it submits to it again. The result gets written out into a temp text file where another process parses that data.

    Oh, and as far as using c++ for performance, if this was my company, my product, then yea we can talk about that, but since this is something that someone will need to manage after I leave then I have to deal with vba or C# or whatever else that is more likely to be in the skillset of my peers. C++ skill is dead no matter how you slice it, it's not that they don't teach it, and it's not that it's SOOO complicated, it's just that there are much easier alternatives and people gravitate to those, unless their job depends on it. I'm sure you understand what I mean. What is the percentage of c++ content on your site vs VBA or C#?

  • The difference is huge.

    Yes, because when a file is opened "normally", all MicroStation "submodules" (RasterManager...) are initialized, styles and other configurations inside the file are evaluated, GUI is refreshed etc. In contrast to it, when the file is opened "for application", the file is just opened and no further action is run. So it's both advantage and disadvantage: It's fast, but available functionality is pretty limited.

    But back to original topic: For me, based on the information you shared, it's bug: It worked in V8i but the discussed issue exist in CONNECT Edition. I have not any time to test it, but because it can be checked using VBA code, I hope will be able to help with the issue.

    With regards,

      Jan

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