I'm working in ORD 2021 R1. Wondering if there is any way to remove individual annotation groups from the cross sections? I originally annotated all drawing models with EAV and have ultimately decided I wanted to remove it. We can add individual annotation groups to all drawing models but I don't see a way to remove individual groups, only remove all groups at once. Does anyone have a workaround for this?
Hi Matt,
There is a way to do this via VBA. As every Annotation Group placement instance has a unique Named Group, you can use vba to get the Named Group from a selected element and delete all elements that are part of the same one. You could then get it to iterate through all Drawing models to delete other instances of it.
Unfortunately no native tools for this...yet.
Regards,
Mark
OpenRoads Designer 2023 | Microstation 2023.2 | ProjectWise 2023
The VBA code below should do what you need. To run:
Sub deleteAnnoAll() Dim oScanEnumerator As ElementEnumerator, oScanEnumerator0 As ElementEnumerator, ph As PropertyHandler Dim oGroupName As String, ph0 As PropertyHandler, oElement As Element, oSelected As Element, oModel As ModelReference If ActiveModelReference.Type = msdModelTypeDrawing Then For Each oModel In ActiveDesignFile.Models If oModel.Type = msdModelTypeDrawing Then countDrawings = countDrawings + 1 End If Next If ActiveModelReference.AnyElementsSelected = False Then CadInputQueue.SendCommand "beep" ShowMessage "ERROR - No elements selected", , msdMessageCenterPriorityError, True GoTo finish Else Set oScanEnumerator0 = ActiveModelReference.GetSelectedElements oScanEnumerator0.MoveNext Set oSelected = oScanEnumerator0.Current If oSelected.ModelReference.IsAttachment = False And oSelected.ModelReference.Name = ActiveModelReference.Name Then Set ph0 = CreatePropertyHandler(oSelected) If ph0.SelectByAccessString("Groups[0].Description") = True Then oSearch = InStr(ph0.GetDisplayString, "\") oGroupName = Left(ph0.GetDisplayString, oSearch) If ph0.GetDisplayString = "" Then CadInputQueue.SendCommand "beep" ShowMessage "ERROR - Selected element is not Civil Annotation", , msdMessageCenterPriorityError, True GoTo finish End If Else CadInputQueue.SendCommand "beep" ShowMessage "ERROR - Selected element is not Civil Annotation", , msdMessageCenterPriorityError, True GoTo finish End If Else CadInputQueue.SendCommand "beep" ShowMessage "ERROR - Only elements in active model can be used for this tool", , msdMessageCenterPriorityError, True GoTo finish End If ' Save current model name 'currMod = ActiveModelReference.Name Dim oScanCriteria As New ElementScanCriteria ' Cycle through models and delete matching annotation group elements For Each oModel In ActiveDesignFile.Models If oModel.Type = msdModelTypeDrawing Then totmodels = totmodels + 1 count1 = 0 oScanCriteria.IncludeOnlyVisible oScanCriteria.ExcludeNonGraphical Set oScanEnumerator = oModel.Scan(oScanCriteria) oRun = 1 'oModel.Activate ShowTempMessage msdStatusBarAreaMiddle, "Processing Drawing model " + CStr(totmodels) + " of " + CStr(countDrawings) + "..." Do While oScanEnumerator.MoveNext Set oElement = oScanEnumerator.Current countTot = countTot + 1 If oElement.IsGraphical = True And oElement.ModelReference.Name = oModel.Name And oElement.ModelReference.IsAttachment = False Then Set ph = CreatePropertyHandler(oElement) If ph.SelectByAccessString("Groups[0].Description") = True Then oSearch = "" oSearch = InStr(ph.GetDisplayString, "\") oNew = Left(ph.GetDisplayString, oSearch) If StrComp(oNew, oGroupName, vbBinaryCompare) = 0 Then oModel.RemoveElement oElement count = count + 1 count1 = count + 1 End If End If End If Loop If count1 > 0 Then countMod = countMod + 1 End If End If Set oElement = Nothing Set oModel = Nothing Set oScanEnumerator = Nothing Next ' Return to original model 'ActiveDesignFile.Models(currMod).Activate CadInputQueue.SendCommand "beep" If count > 0 Then ShowMessage CStr(count) + " total annotation element(s) deleted from " + CStr(countMod) + " Drawing models." & vbNewLine & vbNewLine + "Removed Annotation Group: " + vbNewLine + Left(ph0.GetDisplayString, oSearch - 1), , msdMessageCenterPriorityInfo, True Else ShowMessage "No associated Civil Annotation found in any Drawing models", , msdMessageCenterPriorityWarning, True End If End If Else CadInputQueue.SendCommand "beep" ShowMessage "ERROR - Tool can only be run in a Drawing model", , msdMessageCenterPriorityError, True End If GoTo finish skip: finish: CommandState.StartDefaultCommand Exit Sub End Sub
Hi Mark,
First of all, thanks for sharing this solution! I'm looking at making use of this to remove some annotation groups. However, my issue is that all of my drawing models are in separate DGNs, so I'm going to try to run this with a batch process. This means I won't be able to select the annotations to be deleted with a mouse click...
How might I modify the code to target a certain annotation group (e.g. "Design Annotations\XS Edge of Pavement\e6dc4e75-6ea0-4131-91f4-f27c47592154", but replace the last part of the string with wildcard?) so that the process of selecting an element from a group is bypassed? Can this be done?
Thanks very much,
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
No dramas at all, this should be possible by changing the oGroup variable to this value and then have the if statement on line 80 check the left characters of oNew match for the number of characters in oGroup. You'll just need to remove parts of the code that check for data from a selected element.
I'll see if I can post what that would look like first chance tomorrow or so.
Mark,
I'm relatively green at MicroStation VBA (and VBA in general), but after some self-study, I was able to understand most of what's going on here. I made some changes, and it worked great.
For now, I have to hard code the name of the annotation group. As I learn more VBA, I might try to set something up that lets the user pick from a list of annotation groups that exist in the cross-section container DGN. Guessing I would have to nest the batch process inside the procedure somewhere after the user picks the annotation group to remove.
Sub deleteAnnoEOP() Dim oScanEnumerator As ElementEnumerator, oScanEnumerator0 As ElementEnumerator, ph As PropertyHandler Dim oGroupName As String, ph0 As PropertyHandler, oElement As Element, oSelected As Element, oModel As ModelReference If ActiveModelReference.Type = msdModelTypeDrawing Then For Each oModel In ActiveDesignFile.Models If oModel.Type = msdModelTypeDrawing Then countDrawings = countDrawings + 1 End If Next 'Set oScanEnumerator0 = ActiveModelReference.GetSelectedElements 'oScanEnumerator0.MoveNext 'Set oSelected = oScanEnumerator0.Current 'If oSelected.ModelReference.IsAttachment = False And oSelected.ModelReference.Name = ActiveModelReference.Name Then 'Set ph0 = CreatePropertyHandler(oSelected) ' If ph0.SelectByAccessString("Groups[0].Description") = True Then 'oSearch = InStr(ph0.GetDisplayString, "\") oGroupName = "Design Annotations\XS Edge of Pavement\" 'If ph0.GetDisplayString = "" Then ' CadInputQueue.SendCommand "beep" 'ShowMessage "ERROR - Selected element is not Civil Annotation", , msdMessageCenterPriorityError, True ' GoTo finish 'End If 'Else 'CadInputQueue.SendCommand "beep" ' ShowMessage "ERROR - Selected element is not Civil Annotation", , msdMessageCenterPriorityError, True 'GoTo finish ' End If 'Else 'CadInputQueue.SendCommand "beep" 'ShowMessage "ERROR - Only elements in active model can be used for this tool", , msdMessageCenterPriorityError, True 'GoTo finish 'End If ' Save current model name 'currMod = ActiveModelReference.Name Dim oScanCriteria As New ElementScanCriteria ' Cycle through models and delete matching annotation group elements For Each oModel In ActiveDesignFile.Models If oModel.Type = msdModelTypeDrawing Then totmodels = totmodels + 1 count1 = 0 oScanCriteria.IncludeOnlyVisible oScanCriteria.ExcludeNonGraphical Set oScanEnumerator = oModel.Scan(oScanCriteria) oRun = 1 'oModel.Activate ShowTempMessage msdStatusBarAreaMiddle, "Processing Drawing model " + CStr(totmodels) + " of " + CStr(countDrawings) + "..." Do While oScanEnumerator.MoveNext Set oElement = oScanEnumerator.Current countTot = countTot + 1 If oElement.IsGraphical = True And oElement.ModelReference.Name = oModel.Name And oElement.ModelReference.IsAttachment = False Then Set ph = CreatePropertyHandler(oElement) If ph.SelectByAccessString("Groups[0].Description") = True Then oSearch = "" oSearch = InStrRev(ph.GetDisplayString, "\") oNew = Left(ph.GetDisplayString, oSearch) If StrComp(oNew, oGroupName, vbBinaryCompare) = 0 Then oModel.RemoveElement oElement Count = Count + 1 count1 = Count + 1 End If End If End If Loop If count1 > 0 Then countMod = countMod + 1 End If End If Set oElement = Nothing Set oModel = Nothing Set oScanEnumerator = Nothing Next ' Return to original model 'ActiveDesignFile.Models(currMod).Activate Else CadInputQueue.SendCommand "beep" ShowMessage "ERROR - Tool can only be run in a Drawing model", , msdMessageCenterPriorityError, True End If GoTo finish skip: finish: CommandState.StartDefaultCommand Exit Sub End Sub
Andrew Wagner said:For now, I have to hard code the name of the annotation group. As I learn more VBA,
I recommend a couple changes as alternatives that might help you in your VBA experience and the longevity of this script and future work.
1. Instead of setting the value of oGroupName in line 24, move that line up to line 2 to make it more obvious and so make the sub more repurposable.
2. Instead of setting the value of oGroupName at all within this sub, have the sub receive that value as an argument and rename the sub: Sub deleteAnnoByGroupName(oGroupName As String). As for using it, create a new sub that does nothing but call this sub with the desired group name: deleteAnnoByGroupName "Design Annotations\XS Edge of Pavement\"