OVERVIEW (background of the course)

MicroStation is the world’s leading information modeling environment

explicitly for the architecture, engineering, construction, and operation of all
infrastructure types including utility systems, roads and rail, bridges, buildings,
communications networks, water and wastewater networks, process plants,
mining, and more. MicroStation can be used either as a software application or
as a technology platform.
a) Microstation manager
MicroStation is a Windows compliant software. As any other software, you can start it from Windows start
menu, double click the icon from desktop, or clicking the icon in quick launch if you put it there.
When you start the application, you will see a dialog box: MicroStation Manager.

Let’s change the user to examples. And change the project to building
and and select file BSI300AE101-Plan You should see it because it’s
included in default installation. Click OPEN.
b) The Interface
This is how MicroStation looks like. It’s not as complicated as this actually. I just arrange them closer so you
can see all components in limited image.
c) Menu
I assume that you already get used to Windows applications. Menu in this application work just the same.
You can access all the tools and settings through available items in this application menu.

d) Task Navigation
Task navigation is where your tools are.
You can change active task from tasks list. Let’s say you need to give your objects dimension. If you want to
focus to dimension tools only, you can switch the active task to drawing>dimension. You will only see
dimension tools in active task.

Main tasks are the tools you will see no matter what your active task is. Main task mostly consist tools
related to objects manipulations and modifications.

See several icons next to active task title bar? You can change the
display by clicking it. Choose which you think suit you most.
Now try to click the icon. That will activate the tool. Windows application works that way? But now try to
click on Place SmartLine tool, hold your mouse button. What do you see? You will see all similar tools to
create lines! You can select any other tools you want.

Try to click the ‘open linear as toolbox’

from the selection. That will open a
toolbar for linear tools.

e) Activating and Using tools

Now you already know how to start MicroStation. You know where
you can access MicroStation tools. You just need to click on a tool
from the list to activate it.

So how do you know what tool is active? You can see it from status
bar and from tool settings.
Tool settings will show you only settings related to active tool. In this example, place smartline. Try to click
several points in your drawing area.
a) Creating Workspace
You can create multiple workspaces in MicroStation. If you need to design
different drawings for different industries, you can set each of them in a
separate workspace. This will avoid you to arrange tools and interface each Type Tutorial
time you need to create drawings in different industry. You can also use
workspace if you have multiple users working on the same workstation.
Let’s create a new workspace that you will use for this
tutorial until the end. Open your MicroStation. If you
already open it, close your file. You will see MicroStation
Manager.
From user option list, select new…

MicroStation will ask you to give description for

this user configuration. Type MicroStation tutorial
then click OK.
We have defined a user configuration for this
tutorial. Now let’s create a new project. From
project option, select new. Give name for this
project: MicroStation Tutorial Files. And give
description: Tutorial Presentation or any.

If you use Windows XP, you can find it in C:\Documents and

Settings\All Users\Application Data\Bentley\… folder.
b) Preparing Tutorial Files
I have prepared all tutorial files we will use. It is available in our civil shared: DGN and CELL. Select both of
them, copy, and paste them inside tutorial files folder (C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application
Data\Bentley\WorkSpace\Projects\microstationtutorialfiles). When Windows ask you to overwrite those
two folder, click yes. Those folder is still empty anyway.
Up to this point, you have set user configuration and tutorial project. Try to change the users and projects
that available on the list. Then change it back to our tutorial project.
Workspace can help you to manage your files for different users, different project. But it doesn’t mean that
you have to save all files in that folder. You can still save your files to your desktop, C:\data folder, etc.

c) Create New File

Let’s try to create a new file. On the upper right of MicroStation Manager, you should see
new file button. Click it.

Give the file name My First Drawing. Do not click save yet. Check the seed file. If it’s not showing
seed2D.dgn, click browse and select it. Seed file is a drawing you can start with. Other applications call it a
template file.

Click save.
You will see it created a new file with that name. Select it, and click open.
d) Set your Working Unit
MicroStation works
differently in handling
working unit compared to
AutoCAD. I feel like I have to
write about this at very
early stage, so if you are an
AutoCAD user, you don’t
get confused.

While in AutoCAD you can

work with any working unit,
and change it later, you
can’t work that way here.
You have to define your
working unit at the very
beginning. Before you start
drawing. You can check your
working unit by accessing
menu settings>design file.
Click on category working
units on the left.
By default, in country using metric, MicroStation will define the master unit (MU) as meters and sub unit as
millimeters. If it’s not your working units, change it now. After you finish, click OK.

That’s how you create a new file. I’ll stop right here now, and we will discuss more about working units.
e) To Understand Working Units
Have you copied the tutorial files to our tutorial project? Click open. You should see several files if you have
copied them. Find working_unit.dgn and open it. Don’t laugh at the design :) Yes, it is a very simple drawing.
See the dimension. They show measurement in mm. Open design file settings, and change the MU to
meters. Close the dialog and see what happen.

Now try to activate

Place Smartline.
The dimensions Click anywhere on your drawing area, and look at the AccuDraw.
are showing It’s showing measurement in meters. Click several times to draw
meters now! lines. Right click to finish. When it ask you to choose right click
button function, just let it be default value. Click OK.

Try to change the working unit again. Now try to place smartline again. You will see the measurement
showing different scale, even you create approximately line with same length! Now it’s using the new
working units. So don’t forget to check your drawing unit first!

f) Saving File and Settings

Close MicroStation. Did it ask you to save your design file? No. You placed some lines before, when you open
the file again, you will still see the lines. Even you didn’t save the file. MicroStation automatically save it to
your file, every time you create an object. It can be a good news for you, or maybe a bad news for some of
you. However, I still recommend you to save your file regularly by accessing file>save or press [ctrl] + S.
But now look at the dimensions. We have change the working units to meters (or you may have changed it
to something else) but it still showing millimeters! You need to save settings separately with saving file.
There are a lot of settings you can save. We will get to this later. You can save the settings by accessing menu
file>save settings or press [ctrl] + F.
 Mouse as a pointing device has become indispensable in all design applications,
including MicroStation. Each applications may have unique function on mouse
buttons.
View control (or in other software they call it view navigation) also have important
role. You will do a lot of zooming out, zooming in, panning, and other control during
the design.
a) Mouse Button Function
a.) Left click (1) is called data point (DP). When we place an object, we will need to
define a data point. Either a start point, center point, next point… any kind of points! We
can define it by clicking the left mouse. I guess that’s why they call it data point. We can
also use data point to activate tools from task navigation and as OK/accept button.

b.) Right click (3) is called as Reset. We can choose it as reset button. Reset is used to
cancel a running process or finish using a tool.

c.) Tentative button is when you press both left (1) and right (3) button at the same time.
We use this for temporary snap.

d.) X Button is your mouse mid button (2). It’s only available for 3 button mouse. But I
guess no body using CAD still using 2 button mouse anyway :)
Clicking this button will activate/deactivate pan (no need to hold it).
Clicking it twice will activate fit view. MicroStation rescale your view to show
every objects in your drawing.
Scrolling this button will zoom in/zoom out the drawing area.
b) View Control
You can find view control toolbar under each view. If you are familiar with Windows applications, it shouldn’t
be hard. We will discuss most used tools first, and the others later. Not all of them available for 2D drawings,
so you might not see some of them.

The magnifier button with the + Pan view is used to pan

is zoom in. Clicking it will enlarge or move your drawing These are just like back
your drawing, just like you move area. Just like you and forth button. Just
your eyes closer to your paper to move your paper like undo and redo. But
get a better look. With – is zoom around to see another only for view control
out. Clicking it will reduce your part of your drawing. tools.
drawing. Activate it, and click
your data point to pan
We can use window area to view. Alternatively, you
magnify selected area in our can press your X-
drawing. You need to define button.
two data points when you
use this tool. Fit view will adjust the drawing
view scale automatically until you
can see all of your object.
Alternatively, you can double
click your X-button.
You can find AccuDraw above status bar. You can tear it off and make it floats like image in
this tutorial. It’s your choice.

If you’ve been playing with MicroStation for a while, you might have close AccuDraw by
accident, and now wondering how you can turn it on again. You can turn it on/off by
clicking Toggle AccuDraw on Primary Tools bar.

a) Rectangular Coordinate
Activate Place SmartLine by clicking the button on task navigation. Click
anywhere on your drawing area. You will see a compass on your pointer.

Try to move your mouse pointer around. You will see the X and Y value
changing. Move it to the right or left of your compass. You will see the field
focus is on X field. We can tell where the focus is by the highlighted field.
Now move your pointer up and down near the compass. You will see the
highlighted field now on Y.

Now move your pointer near to X or Y axis. You will see

the line is thicker and sticky to the axis. We call it indexed.
Indexing will help you to draw lines parallel to X or Y axis.
b) Polar Coordinate
During the design process, you may need to use other method to input your object. Not by X and Y
value, but using distance and angle. This is known as polar coordinate.

When AccuDraw get the focus, press [space] to change it to polar coordinate. You will see the X and Y
now is changed to distance and angle.

If you need to change it back to X and Y, simply press [space] again.

c) AccuDraw Challenge

Tips:
As mentioned previously, AccuDraw compass follows the previous data
points orientation. When you get to point (1), you need to reset the
compass orientation. Press V to reset the compass to view orientation.
 When we place drawing elements, we need to reference to an existing point. We need to place a
point exactly at the end of a line, midpoint of a line, center point of a circle, et cetera.
AccuSnap only active when MicroStation is asking you for a data point.
By default, the AccuSnap mode is set to find key points.
a) Overiding Snap Mode
During the design, we need to use more snap tools than just the key points.
Don’t worry, MicroStation has enough tools you can use. You can override
the default mode by clicking the AccuSnap button on status bar.

Or if you feel more comfortable with toolbar,

you can show the button bar. Click the
AccuSnap button and select button bar.

b) Active and Setting Defualt Snap

How do we know which mode is active? Active snap is shown as a pushed
icon. When you see the center point icon is pushed, then the active snap is
center point. But there is more.

c) Tentative Snap
If you move your pointer close enough to a key point, you
will see this point.

It’s almost like the snap point, but it’s not yellow. It’s a
dashed cross. If you move your pointer closer to that point,
then it will change to snap point.
a) Using tool settings
We use tool settings to change the element parameters. Tool settings will show you all available parameter
for active tool. When you activate place circle, it will show you parameters for circle. When you activate
place line, it will show you all parameters for line. Not just for drawing, it’s also used for modify and view
navigation tools.
With the place circle still active, lock the diameter value in your tool settings,
and type the diameter value.
Move your pointer to drawing area. Now you can see a circle attached to
your pointer.
b) Linear Element

c) Place Line
Another linear element that we can consider as basic is ‘place
element’. You only can place a simple line using this tool. Every
line you created only has one segment. You create four line
segments, then it will be four separate lines.
Let’s take a look at the tool settings. There are only two
parameters: length and angle. Try to lock the value for these two
before you place your line.
d) Place Smartline

We’ve been using SmartLine a couple of times. It’s named SmartLine, but we can place several elements
type just using this tool. The elements can be:
 Line, if it only has one line segment
 Arc, if it only has one arc segment
 Line string, if it has several line segments
 Complex chain, if it has several line and arc segments
 Complex shape, if it’s a closed element
A SmartLine can have arc and lines. You can change the segment type from line to arc and vice versa during
placing the element. You can also change the vertex type to rounded or chamfered.

A little tip: You can quickly change the top most parameter in tool
settings by pressing [~] in your keyboard.
An engineering drawing always has text. In this section we
will discuss about placing and editing text, changing the text
attribute, and understanding text style. Here are the text tool
you can find in text tools group.

a) Placing and Editing Text

Placing Text:
You can place text by activating place text tool. After you
activate the place text tool, MicroStation will open the
Word Processor Window.Type the text you want in the
Word Processor, use the ruler to arrange the paragraph, Tutorial files only
tabs. You can also create superscript, subscript, insert
symbols, etc. This is just like a simple version of Word
Processor you use in the office!
Editing Text:
You can edit text by:
Double click the text
Select the text, hold [reset] until you see the context menu, and
select edit text.
Click edit text button from task navigation.

b) Text style and Text Attribute

Edit text is not just for editing the text content. We can also use it
for editing the text attribute. Look at the tool settings. You can
change the value and accept it by clicking data point on your
screen.
The basic way to do this is by holding [ctrl] and pick every single element we want. This will add the
elements to our selection set. Or, we can click and drag our pointer and select every element inside the
boundary.
a) Microstation Element Selection Tool
MicroStation ‘Element Selection’ tool is the default tool that active
every time you start MicroStation.

You can move your pointer to an element and see a tooltip

(unfortunately doesn’t appear in my screenshot) before picking it.

b) Element Selection Settings

Like any other MicroStation tools,
element selection has some settings on
tool settings window. Let’s take a look.
Selection method
The options for selection method are: individual, block, shape,
circle, and line. If you activate the block/shape/circle method,
then we are defining the shape. Every elements inside the
shape will be selected.

If you have selected element in your
drawing, then the selection mode will
change. You will see another tool: clear
selection set.
Selection mode
The options are: new selection, add to selection set, subtract
(remove) from selection set, invert your selection set, and
select all elements. You can also press [ctrl] + A to select all
elements.
a) Defining and Modifying Fence Content
We can place fence by accessing place fence from task navigation. It’s the button with number 2.
Click the tool, hold it until you see all the
MicroStation fence tools. Click open ‘fence’
as a toolbox.

Activate the place fence tool. You can’t use other fence tools
before you define your fence. Let’s take a look to the tool settings.
We can choose existing elements in our drawing to be a fence, but
I’m more likely to define it by creating blocks or shapes.

b) How to modify the elements?

After we defined the fence, we can manipulate elements in two ways:
Using Manipulate Fence Content Tool
You can use the ‘manipulate fence content’ tool in the fence tools group.
You can see the copy, move, scale, and more MicroStation manipulation
tools here.

Using MicroStation Manipulation Tools

If you use any MicroStation tool, take a
look into the tool settings. You will see an
option to use fence! It is disabled if you
haven’t defined any fence yet.
 a) COPY j) MOVE TO CONTACT

b) MOVE i) MOVE PARALLEL (OFFSET)

c) SCALE h) STRETCH
d) ROTATE g) ALIGN ELEMENT BY EDGE
e) MIRROR f) ARRAY

a&b) COPY AND MOVE ELEMENT;

Moving and copying MicroStation element have the same workflow. We select the elements, define the first
point and then define the distance and direction for the duplicate location. If we use copy, then the original
elements will remain. But move, the original elements will be deleted.

c) SCALE;
We can resize elements by using MicroStation scale tool. If we know the scale value, then we can use active
scale. But if don’t know the scale value, just the final size, we can use 3 points. We define the scale base
point, reference 2nd point to define existing size, and then 3rd point as the expected size.
Be careful with X scale and Y scale in active scale method, or proportional in 3 points method. MicroStation
can resize elements to only one axis.

d) ROTATE;
We can rotate MicroStation elements using 3 methods: by active angle, 2 points, and 3 points. Active angle
and 3 points are the same with the one we use in MicroStation scale tool. 2 points is almost similar with 3
points, but it will use X positive axis as the 0 degree.
e) MIRROR;
This tool name is already explain what it does: mirror elements. We can mirror element vertically,
horizontally, or use a virtual line as a mirror line.

f) ARRAY;
We use MicroStation array tool to copy elements several times at once. We can copy it as a rectangular
pattern, polar pattern, or along path.

g) ALIGN ELEMENT BY EDGE;

MicroStation Align by Edge is used to align elements to another element edge as reference.

h) STRETCH;
This MicroStation tool is used to stretch elements at it’s vertex inside a fence. We can create a fence directly
using this tool, but it’s limited to rectangular fence only. If you need complex shaped fence, define a fence
first, then use this tool.

i) COPY PARALLEL;
This MicroStation tool is used to copy an element parallel to original element. There are 3 modes we can
use: miter, round, and original. Round will create rounded edges. Miter will keep the result distance the
same, and might try to add more vertex. You can only see the effect for some element types, such as ellipse.
Original, will keep the original shape. It might not true parallel with original object.

j) MOVE TO CONTACT;
Move to contact will move the objects to the defined direction, and stop when find first element as a
contact.
a) MODIFY ELEMENT l) CONSTRUCT CHAMFER

b) PARTIAL DELETE k) CONSTRUCT CIRCULAR FILLET

c) BREAK ELEMENT j) DELETE VERTEX
d) EXTEND LINE i) INSERT VERTEX
e) EXTEND ELEMENTS TO INTERSECTION h) INTELLITRIM
f) EXTEND ELEMENT TO INTERSECTION g) TRIM ELEMENTS

a) Modify Element
This is the basic modification tool. We only can modify one MicroStation element using this tool. And only
verb-noun selection. What this tool do is basically move a vertex point. It can be a rectangle corner,
midpoint, circle or arc edge, arc or line end points, etc.

Modify tool when

picking vertex on center

Modify tool when picking Remember: pay attention to the tool settings. Each object type
vertex on edge will show different options.
b&c) Partial Delete and Break Element
Both tools name should be self explanatory. Partial delete will delete some part of
the MicroStation element. You need to define 2 points for the start and end points
for cutting. You also need to define the cut direction by moving your pointer.
d) Extend Line
Although the tool name is extend line, we can also use it to ‘shorten’ line. This
tool is pretty similar with modify tool. However, extend line will lock your
pointer parallel to your line, to make sure the only property you change is the
line length.
e&f) Extend Element to Intersection
There are two similar tool to extend element(s) to intersection. The only difference is the first one will
extend 2 elements until they intersect, and the last one only extend one element to the intersection point.
Either the elements are actually intersecting or not.
g) Trim Elements
We use this tool to trim element by using other element as cutting element. To cut several elements, select
the cutting element first, then activate the trim tool.
h) Intellitrim
Trim allows you to pick one element to trim (or cutting element) at a time. When we need to trim several
elements at once, or we need to use more than one cutting elements, then we can use Intellitrim.
i&j) Insert and Delete Vertex
I think the tools name are self-explanatory. If you delete a vertex from a rectangle, then it will become a
triangle. If you add a vertex to a rectangle, then it will become a five sides polygon.
k&l) Construct Circular Fillet and Construct Chamfer
These tool will change a corner to a fillet or chamfer. We can do this by using modify tool. However, in
construct chamfer there is something modify tool can’t do. We can define each distance.
MicroStation levels are used to separate and distinguish your drawing objects. When the drawing become
complex, you will need to control the object appearances. You will need to show them in different colors,
different line weight, and different line style… or you may need to show/hide objects in a certain category.
You can use levels and their attributes for this purpose.
a) Managing Levels and Controlling Level Display
MicroStation Level Manager
You can create, delete, and manage your levels in MicroStation level manager. To open level manager, you
can access MicroStation menu: Settings>Levels>Manager. You can create a level, rename it, and change its
attributes. You can also see whether the levels are used in your drawing or not.

You can only delete level that is not in used. When the level has bullet in used column, then you can’t delete it.

You can rename and change the level attributes by clicking on desired column. In this example, you can choose
the line style from the pop up menu.
MicroStation Level Display
You can see which level is used (has objects on it) in the
used column (1). The used levels have bullets in the
column. The active level is highlighted in green (2). Active
level is where your objects will be placed when you use
drawing tools. The hidden levels are shown in white (3),
while the shown levels are highlighted in blue.
Changing MicroStation Active Level
There are several ways you can set the active level:
*From level manager or level display, right click
above desired level and choose ‘set active’
*From key in window, type ‘active level
LEVELNAME’. Change the LEVELNAME with the level
name you want to use.
*Choose the level from attributes toolbar.

b) Microstation Levels Attributes

MicroStation has many level attributes. By default, it will only show you three attributes: color, line style, and
line weight. Open level manager, right click above an attributes title bar and you will see the complete list of
level attributes. You may not need all of them, but when you do, click the attributes to show it on level
manager.
MicroStation cell can be a standard objects/parts, annotation, symbol, etc.. We can define and save the
objects on a cell library. And whenever we need it, we just look for it in our library and use it. No need to
draw the same object repeatedly.
a) Loading Cell Library
Before we can use the cell, we need to load a MicroStation cell library. You can define which cell library you
want to use from cell library dialog box. Access it from MicroStation menu element>cell. MicroStation will
open a dialog box. From this cell library dialog, access file>attach file… Find the file you have downloaded
and attach it. You will see the cell list. All the cells are in the cell library file.
Pay attention that you can attach a folder. It means that if you have multiple cell library inside a folder, you
can attach them at once by selecting the folder. Cell library usually contain cell for similar
purposes/discipline. However, if you have large cell library, some people prefer to use folders to manage the
files too.

Now see the buttons in red

rectangle. You can define how do
you want to use this cell. The most
basic use of MicroStation cell is for
placement. You simply select a cell
and place it to your drawing.
b) Placing Cell
Access place active cell from task navigation. Now you
can see the active MicroStation cell on your pointer, and
dynamically determine the cell location. Click your
mouse at the desired position.

You can change several settings before you place it.

These are the basic settings for placing cell.
Tips: You can double click the cell name in cell library list.
This will also activate place active cell.

c) Understanding Shared Cell

You can stretch MicroStation cell and change the text data field value within cell. So if you have similar
objects, but have different sizes, you can create a cell and stretch it later. However, there are some cells that
you don’t need to modify. To prevent this type of cell being modified, you can use shared cell. Activate use
shared cell in cell library dialog box.

The other advantage of using shared cell is, you can

reduce your MicroStation design files. Shared cells using
the same information for every instance in your drawing.
Without shared cell, if you have 100 cells, then you have
100 cell information.
a) Understanding Cell Library
Before we can actually create our cell,we need to create a cell library first. A cell library usually holds several
similar cells. For example, you want a library of cars. You can create a cell library file named cars. Then you
might want to create a cell library to keep your annotation symbols, or probably AEC symbols. That’s what a
cell library is for. It keeps a similar cells within one file.

From MicroStation menu, select element>cells. The cell library dialog box will be opened. Take a look to the
dialog title. It says cell library: [NONE].

It means that we haven’t attached any cell library yet. From this dialog menu, click file>new. Type a name for
the new cell library. Something like Training Cell will do. Click save.
Now the dialog title will show you the cell name, but this cell library is still empty. Look at the right bottom
of this dialog. you will see several buttons to create and modify cells. But all of them are grayed and
disabled. Why the create cell button is disabled? We need to define the cell origin before we start creating
it.

b) Creating Cell
Now that we have created a cell library, we can start saving our cells here.
This is a little bit tricky, especially for AutoCAD users. Move away the dialog
box a bit, but don’t close it. Just enough for you to see the objects you are
going to convert as a cell. Let’s start with the elevation symbol. Select all
objects that make that symbol. You should see the whole symbol highlighted
and turns to purple.
Now from navigation task, click and hold on place active
cell, choose define cell origin from the drop down menu.

Place the origin at the center of the symbol.

Origin is the base point or reference point
that you will use when placing the cell. You
may use different location for the origin. But
I guess for this kind of symbol, we use its
center point.

Now back to cell library dialog. You will

see that now the create button is
enabled!

Click the create button. Give the cell

proper name and description.

Now you should see the cell name on

the cell list.
a) Placing Cell as Point
Now how can we place point? The place active point tool is under place SmartLine>Points.

After you activate the tool, look at the tool settings. You will see the point type now is cell. You are still able
to use element as point type, but now cell become the default point type.

Try to place your cell. You can place it by clicking data point, and the cell
will be placed at your pointer position. You may want to try the other
point tools and see if you can use active cell too.

b) Using Cell as Terminator

I created this cell for my terminators. Terminators will automatically find line/arch
segments and place the terminator there. The terminator will also be rotated, parallel to
the line direction. Remember, you need to create the terminator to point to positive X
axis. That is the 0 deg angle, or the terminator direction.
Try to create several lines, SmartLines, arc, etc. Now try to activate the place active line terminator. This tool
is under place active cell tool group.

Click data point close to the line end. Click data point again to
accept. This tool is very useful for placing arrows or other
terminators. Especially if you need to place them with angles like
this. You don’t need to rotate them later. Simply click data points!

c) Using Cell as Patterns

Pattern area tool is under hatch area tool group.

While hatch area only can create

parallel lines pattern, pattern area
can be used for any kind of pattern.
As long as you define the pattern in
cell library. We will discuss about
hatch area in details later.

Just like the other tools, you can see

the active cell as pattern definition.
Even if we create our drawings in exact sizes, plot it in certain scales, we still need to add dimensions. It
doesn’t make sense if people need a ruler and measure every element in our drawing.

The dimensioning tools are in dimensions tools group.

Basically how to use them is just to remember to follow
the guides in status bar.

a) Dimension Styles and Dimension

Attributes

Dimension appearance is controlled by

dimension attributes. While each
dimension can have different attributes,
we can manage them efficiently using
dimension styles. You can save different
attributes settings in each style.
You can access dimension style dialog from
MicroStation menu: element>dimension
styles.

The dimension attributes are group into

four category: geometry, units, text, and
symbology. Each category is represented
in a tab. The last tab, advanced, has all of
the attributes in it.
b) Basic Dimension Settings: Alignment, Dimension Mode, and Association

Try to activate dimension element

MicroStation will open dimension tool settings. Below is the basic tool
settings. You can choose dimension styles and other basic arrangement. If
you want to have more settings, click small triangle at the right bottom of
the dialog box.
(Alignment) This is how you define your dimension alignment.
View will give you dimension aligned with your view. This is useful if
you rotated your views and want to have dimension parallel to your view.
Drawing will give you dimension parallel to your coordinate (ACS). View
rotation will not affect the dimension orientation
True will create dimension parallel to your element.
Arbitrary will place your dimension arbitrarily. This is very useful if you
want to create an isometric dimension.
(Association)
If you activate association, this will associate your dimension with the
element. If you move the element, resize, or do other modification…
then the dimension will automatically updated.
(Dimension Types)
Under location option, you can see what kind of dimension you can
create. In this example, you can see dimension types for dimension
element.
Another ‘must have’ annotation element in a drawing is pattern. Pattern is
used to show object materials, show section area, and some other purposes.
In MicroStation, we have the types of patterns: hatch area, crosshatch area,
and pattern area. Hatch and crosshatch are used for simple pattern, while
pattern area is used for complex pattern. If you need to define your own
pattern, then definitely you have to use pattern area.

a) Hatch Area
Hatch area is used to create hatch pattern with parallel
lines. You can control the spacing and angle of this pattern.
There are several ways to create hatch
area. You can choose the element as
closed boundary. You can also pick
points to let MicroStation find the
boundary using flood, union,
intersection, difference, or pick points.
Associative parameter will associate
your pattern to your elements. If you
move or modify the elements, then the
pattern will adjust to the new boundary.
Snappable pattern by default is off.
Most users don’t want to snap to
patterns since it will make your drawing
messy. To many reference point will be
found. Only activate it when necessary.
b) Crosshatch Area
Crosshatch is very similar with hatch, only here
you have two parallel lines definitions crossing
each other.
c) Pattern Area
Hatch and crosshatch are used for simple patterns.
Pattern area is used for creating complex pattern.
You can use complex pattern from cells or .pat file.
You already learn about cells, so you will not have a
problem using it as pattern. Pat file is extension for
pattern/hatch file from AutoCAD. If you are not
familiar with AutoCAD and you don’t have custom
pattern files from AutoCAD, then you probably will
never use file to define your pattern.Cell is easier to
define.
a) Creating a sheet model
Create a new file. Use seed2d.dgn as seed file.
From MicroStation menu, choose file>models. This will
open a dialog box. By default, using default seed file
will create a file with one design model. Now let’s
create more model. Click create a new model.

Another dialog box will open. Fill the fields as follow:

Type: sheet – 2D
Name: A1 sheet
Description: CAD Notes A1 default (or you may use
your company name)
Size: ISO A1

Click OK after you finished.

You should see the new model opened. It should have sheet
boundary in your view. That is ISO A1 paper size.
So how you can switch between design model and sheet
model? You should see the list in view group, above
MicroStation status bar.

Notes for AutoCAD users: This is similar to AutoCAD layout.

b) Adding title block to sheet
Now we have the sheet. Your next task is to create the title
block inside the boundary. If you already have a standard title
block, you may use it. If you don’t, you can use the sample file.
Open a new MicroStation session. Do not open the file in your
current session.
Browse to this location (for Windows 7, you may need to find it
in other folder if you use Win XP or Vista)
C:\ProgramData\Bentley\MicroStation\WorkSpace\Projects\
Examples\Building\seed
Open BSI300G-0-Border.dgn
It should show title block drawing. Select all objects in the
drawing then choose in menu edit>copy.
Now move back to our previous file. From MicroStation menu,
choose edit>paste.
Place the title block inside the boundary. You may need to
move it later to place it precisely.
Press [ctrl] + F to save the setting. This will make MicroStation
open this model by default, not the empty design model.
a) Creating a new sheet
Now create a DGN file. Use the seed file we created before.
We already have one sheet. Let’s add one more. Go to menu
file>models.
Click create a new model.
In create model dialog, choose type: sheet from seed. Then click the
magnifier to choose our seed file
Find the seed file, open it. You will see a dialog asking you to choose
which model you want to use. Choose A1 sheet we created before.
b) Placing Drawings Click OK. Give name ‘table design’.
If you have a drawing, you may use it.
Let’s open A1 sheet views if you haven’t open it. You can switch to
that view using view groups (see this image).
Go to menu file>references.
In the dialog, click attach reference.
Choose the file you want to put here.
MicroStation will open another dialog box. In
this dialog, change the detail scale to 1:100.
Or if you use your own drawing, adjust the
scale as necessary.

Now you can see the file listed in references

dialog box. You also should see the drawing in your MicroStation view.
• Click place fence, the tool bar will appear, select element@fence type & select clip@fence mode.
• Then select the element (or border).
• At menu bar click file + print then tool box will appear.
Under printer and paper size, select windows driver or bentley driver, select paper size and then
click magnifier to find pen assignment, check full,
• Back to top area and click maximize icon then click printer icon.

Printer icon
Maximize icon
Printer &
Paper size