Element properties using VBA

Question

We are using connect edition of Microstation on windows 10 OS
I wanted the properties of the elements(see attached image) to be written to a text file or excel sheet. Any help is appreciated. I wanted to see this happen using mVBA.

Jan Šlegr · Answer

Hi Ramesh, 
 RAMESH P K said: We are using connect edition of Microstation 
 Please respect the best practices and specify the used product including its exact version. There have been released more than 20 version of MicroStation CE. 
 RAMESH P K said: I wanted to see this happen using mVBA. 
 It is not how (professional) software development works ;-) 
 When there is a goal or requirement, always available tools must be checked, whether they can be used and whether they allow to solve the requirement. MicroStation VBA is very limited, simple "hobby tool", with two main problems: The language + environment itself, and limited API in MicroStation (comparing to C++ and NET APIs). 
 It is very simple to reach VBA limits, when more complex data structures are accessed. 
 RAMESH P K said: I wanted the properties of the elements(see attached image) 
 They are not element properties. 
 In MicroStation terminology, the element properties are level, color etc. What is on your picture, looks like EC data, which are data external to an element (there is a reference between original element and the data). 
 RAMESH P K said: I have marked in color showing Link and Xattributes field. Hope this helps. 
 User data (links) are binary data, attached together with the element (in the element structure). Without further analysis (e.g. to use "analyze element" key-in) it cannot be told what data it holds. VBA can access it (search for "linkages" in VBA help), but because they are binary, with unknown structure (defined by the data author), applications should never access the linkages data, other than created by the application itself. 
 XAttributes are not accessible directly by VBA (there is no such API). They are there, because EC data is stored as XAttributes elements. 
 RAMESH P K said: iModeller generates i.DGN files of which I have taken snaps of properties in plain Microstation connect edition. 
 Data, attached to elements, is in i-model stored as EC data, and in MicroStation GUI displayed as is on your screenshot. 
 The only way, how to access them from VBA, is to use PropertyHandler. See VBA help for description and examples, but be aware this approach is limited and it does not allow to access the data fully, only values. Plus there are some other limitations, so in some situations, VBA can be enough, but some other, depending on data structure and conditions, NET or C++ code must be used. 
 With regards, 
 Jan

Derek Schmidt · Answer

If you have found a way to get the information you're looking for in the way you want it, let us know how you went about it (if you can recall). If you've found a way to get the information in a way you'd rather improve, let us know. 
 In case you haven't, obviously I don't have the file you're working in but what you're displaying in the screenshots makes me believe that you could use something like the following to get that information (meant only to be an inspiration; I haven't tested it): 
 Function GetInformationOnElement(ele as Element, property as string) as variant
 'debug.print getinformationonelement(ele, "RATING") should return "150LB"
 dim oph as propertyhandler
 set oph = createpropertyhandler(ele)
 
 if oph.SelectByAccessString(property) then
 GetInformationOnElement = oph.GetValue
 else
 'GetInformationOnElement should probably remain Empty, but that's up to you
 end if
End Function 
 This or similar code has worked well for me when accessing information held in shapefiles from GIS.