[Connect Update 16 .NET] Updating element inside of cell

Sure. A lot of threads report .NET API has a bug for modifying sub elements in cell. I can replicate this as well.

Two workarounds: 1.Use Interop API as below:

using BIM = Bentley.Interop.MicroStationDGN;
using BMI = Bentley.MstnPlatformNET.InteropServices;
public static void ReplaceInCell(string unparsed)
        {
            BIM.Application app = BMI.Utilities.ComApp;
            BIM.CellElement myCell = app.ActiveModelReference.GetElementByID64(583L) as BIM.CellElement;
            myCell.ResetElementEnumeration();
            int nestDepth = 0;
            while(myCell.MoveToNextElement(true, ref nestDepth))
            {
                BIM.Element tempEl = myCell.CopyCurrentElement();
                if (tempEl.IsTextElement())
                {
                    BIM.TextElement oldTextEl = tempEl.AsTextElement();
                    BIM.Point3d org = oldTextEl.get_Origin();
                    BIM.Matrix3d matrix = oldTextEl.get_Rotation();
                    BIM.TextElement newTextEl = app.CreateTextElement1(oldTextEl, "ReplaceText", ref org, ref matrix);
                    myCell.ReplaceCurrentElement(newTextEl);
                }
            }
            myCell.Rewrite();
        }

2. Use C++ API.

what is the c++ version of modifiying elements within cell?

amender carapace said:

what is the c++ version of modifiying elements within cell?

C++ version is defined by used MicroStation version. The last several versions used C++ toolset, delivered with Visual Studio 2017, plus the latest Update 16.2 allows to use also Visual Studio 2019 (but I guess the same toolset is used there).

Regards,

  Jan

do you have a specific example or code or mdl function?

do you have a specific example or code or mdl function?

amender carapace said:

do you have a specific example or code or mdl function?

Do we well known old MDL-C concept MSElementDescr? A cell can be read as an MSElementDescr, you can iterate every element in it and can replace any element by using mdlElmdscr_replaceElement.

Hi Yongan.Fu , do you know if there were any updates to the .NET API in this regard? Updating elements inside of cell?

Thanks.

No. .NET API still has problems for this. 

is it possible to recreate a cell from scratch in .net, basically clone every element inside it and then replace the original cell with the new cell that has slightly modified elements? 

ChatGPT thinks this should be very easy haha... initially it provided a method to create a new cell elelement and a new text element. So I clarified.

Hi Yongan,

Yongan.Fu said:

No. .NET API still has problems for this.

thanks for the confirmation.

How it can be prioritized? Two main issues in NET API: to place cell from a cell library and to edit a cell content are reported for years from CE release date, but there is still no fix available.

Regards,

  Jan

Viktor_Kulik said:

basically clone every element inside it and then replace the original cell with the new cell that has slightly modified elements? 

I think, when discussed generally, the situation is not simple: There can be data attached both in (user data linkages) and on element (XAttributes etc.), so to create identical copy can be complex task.

When it is clear that the cell is "only graphics", the cloning would be fine. But the question is whether is is not simpler to use Interop or to write own wrapper and to move the functionality to native code.

With regards,

  Jan

Jan Šlegr said:

NET API: to place cell from a cell library

Almost all.NET APIs are encapsulated from C++ APIs. Currently there is no a C++ CreateCellFromCellLib function under the NormalCellHeader nor SharedCellHeader. So there is no a corresponding .NET API for it.

In C++, the workaround is calling old C functions.

In C#, the workaround is calling Interop/COM functions.

Bugs/Enhancements(new name is PBIs) had filed for a long time. 

Yongan.Fu said:

In C#, the workaround is calling Interop/COM functions.

It's exactly what I use, in some projects I used C++/CLI to call native functions.

Regards,

  Jan

Hi Yongan, 

Is there a way we can vote (or something similar) on your enhancement request to show that the community wants/needs such functionality? 
I just ran into the same problem of the C# API not having this functionality, and would be really useful to have it, as to not rely on using C++ or Interop/COM. Creating a new service request for it seems a bit overkill, but if there is no alternative to showing that we would like to see this implemented I might just have to do that.

Regards,
Remy