MicroStation CONNECT Edition delivers new printing and publishing enhancements. The following are just a few, of what I feel, are going to be the most popular. Refer to the “What’s New” documentation for a complete list.
Print Organizer Enhancements
The following enhancements have been made to Print Organizer:
• Support for printing PDF and Raster formats - Print Organizer now supports the following…
By default, when creating plot files using a MicroStation printer driver configuration file, only the name of the file is included when the plot file is generated. There may be a situation where you would like to include the filename extension as well.
To accomplish this, the printer driver configuration file must be edited to change the default value of the “File Name” entry in the “Default Print File Name” category…
Let’s say you desire the ability to set all of the Preferences in Print Organizer to the same values for all of your users. You will need a listing of each of the MicroStation Printing variables associated with the Edit>Preferences option in Print Organizer.
This information is documented in the Printing section of the MicroStation Help file. Choose Help> Contents> Menus> File Menu> Print Organizer> Print…
Typically when using the Text Substitution capability within a MicroStation Pen Table, only one replacement field is specified at a time. In order to allow for more flexibility, multiple replacement fields can be specified all at once. This is accomplished by using an adjusted “Actual” value in the Text Substitution menu which contains the fields you desire on each plot. You would take the same approach with…
By default a MicroStation pen table does not allow you to string variables together but via a named expression you can easily accomplish this.
First open .dgnlib file where you are going to store your named expression
From the pull down menus select Utilities->Named Expressions
Select the New icon
Enter an “Internal Name” and an “External Name”. For this example we will use the same name…
When working with print sets (.PSET) in Print Organizer, the full path to the design file, pen tables, and design scripts are used. Sometimes the files that make up a print set are renamed or moved to another folder. This can cause problems when printing the same .pset at a later date.
There are two ways to modify the saved .pset to use the correct paths. The first way is to manually replace the file paths using the Find…
MicroStation V8i SS3 always processes print styles in the following order.
Have you ever plotted a file and notice a single line or lines that extend to the edge of the plot (known as zingers) that are not in the design file?
This behavior can be caused by a bad element or elements in the design file. More than likely the end points of the element are corrupt. Here are few things to try:
In MicroStation SELECTseries 3 (v08.11.09.292), Print Organizer has a new option to Add Active File to Set.
This is a simple way to create a new Print Set that might allow you a quick way to test a “work-in-progress” Print Style or for simply creating a quick Print/Preview of a new sheet model to make sure everything looks the way you want it.
In a new or existing Print Set (.pset) file just click File…
With the increased need for Portable Document Format files (PDFs), users may look for ways to enhance the quality of these documents. With MicroStation V8i, the ability to produce top quality PDFs is available.
By default, the MicroStation PDF printer driver configuration file (pdf.pltcfg) produces PDFs with very good PDF quality. This is considered “STANDARD” quality. However, the driver also allows for…
At times it is convenient to produce a PDF containing specific Geographic Coordinate System (GCS) data. This PDF could be attached later as a raster image (via Raster Manager) which contains that same GCS information. Here is a step-by-step process to accomplish such a feat:
The first thing that needs to be done is to associate a coordinate system with the design file being used. To determine whether there is a current…
MicroStation V8i (SELECTseries 3) v08.11.09.292 and later provides a way to control level and reference output at print time. By default, both the Print and Print Organizer utilities output levels and references as they were last saved in the DGN file. Pen tables offer the capability to turn levels and references on or off, but you can now do this via the Print dialog or Print Organizer, allowing you to override what…
When using Bentley print drivers, you can print directly to the plotting device or print to file. When printing to file, the following methods are available to submit the MicroStation plot File to the plotting device:
1 – Copy command
The most basic way to submit a plot file to the device is using the DOS COPY command. Open a DOS command window and type the following:
Syntax
COPY /b <output plot file name> …
MicroStation SS3 allows Print and Print Organizer to attach IPLOT design scripts for plotting. This new feature opens the door for many InterPlot users to make the move to Print Organizer. While Print/Print Organizer does not accept IPLOT settings files directly, MicroStation Print Styles contain most of the same functionality as IPLOT settings files. The following technical note explains how to convert each section of…
The following features have been added to the printing system in MicroStation SS3:
3D PDF Property Publishing
You can now publish non-graphical business items to a 3D PDF document. These business items appear as objects in Adobe Reader's Model Tree. For more information, see 3D Property Publishing.
3D Content in PDF Files
Users can now embed interactive 3D designs directly into PDF documents. Using Adobe Reader…
The current release of Print Organizer in MicroStation Select Series 3 creates Fixed Print Definitions just like it always has. However, you now have the option to create Variable Print Definitions. The two types of Print Definitions are defined as follows:
Fixed print definitions:
Contains detailed information about the master model and views defined within the design file. When you create a Fixed print definition…
With the release of Microstation SS3, (8.11.9.292 or later), we now offer a way to import/export print styles from on DGN library or DGN file to another. This was added to aid users who have created print styles in DGN files thus finding their print styles trapped and usable only via that particular DGN file. Now you can move these print styles to whatever DGN file or DGNLIB file you need.
The import/export commands are…
With the release of MicroStation V8i SS3 you can publish non-graphical business items to a 3D PDF document. These business items appear as objects in Adobe Reader’s Model Tree.
By default, business items are not included in the published 3D PDF document. You must take additional steps to include the business items. To include business items in a 3D PDF document use the 3D Plotting Options dialog.
To include a…
With the release of MicroStation SELECTseries 3, the Print dialog and Print Organizer interfaces now support using design scripts for print resymbolization. Design scripts were previously used in InterPlot in the IPLOT dialog and InterPlot Organizer interfaces.
Design scripts are ASCII files that contain instructions for resymbolizing the printed output of design files. The instructions are contained in statements within…
Placing needful information in the border area of each of your plots can prove to be very useful. The name of the design file and/or the current date/time your plots are submitted can be printed on each plot.
For any of these options to work, the border must be “activated” (turned on). This can be done in several ways. It can be activated on a plot-by-plot basis, by simply checking the “Print Borde…
You can modify various output settings for existing Print Definitions that already exist in a Print Set. For example, if a Print Definition was created using 8.5” x 11” as the Paper Size and you now want your output to be 11” x 17”, double-click on the Paper Size value for that Print Definition in the Print Set and select the new value from the drop-down list provided.
If changing values like…
The Raster Quality Factor and the Rasterized Quality Factor settings are found in the PDF.pltcfg, Printer.pltcfg and the Pscript.pltcfg print driver configuration files.
In the Hpglrtl.pltcfg printer driver configuration file, the Raster Quality Factor setting is called Raster DPI and the Rasterized Quality Factor is called Rasterized DPI.
The Raster Quality Factor is the ratio of printer driver resolution to raster…
In MicroStation V8i (SELECTseries 1), Bentley added the capability of creating a Georeferenced PDF and a PDF that can be measured.
By default, "Enable Georeferencing" is enabled in the printer Driver configuration file, but can be disabled for troubleshooting purposes by editing the PDF.PLTCFG Printer Driver Configuration file. Select the "Base Properties" tab, expand "Driver Properties" and change the value…
Print Organizer provides a seamless upgrade for Batch Print users. Legacy data created for the Batch Print utility such job set files are supported in Print Organizer.
Print Organizer's File > Open menu item can open a print set (.pset) file or a job (.job) file. When Print Organizer opens a job file, each corresponding model in the job set is converted to a print definition. The print definition properties are obtained…
When comparing PDF files with different resolutions, the line widths in the resulting PDF files can vary. The following explains why this occurs.
A 'point' is 1/72 of an inch. This is the common unit of measurement in PostScript and PDF.
The printer driver configuration specifies print widths in millimeters. These are converted to pixels by converting to inches, multiplying by the DPI, and rounding to the nearest…
