Time-saving Solutions
for MicroStation^®

Plotting tips from ControlAltDelete

This month's plotting tips come from Australia's premier MicroStation quarterly magazine, ControlAltDelete (www.penbrush.com). We hope you enjoy these tips!

Fence and load plot dialog
Here is a key-in command line that will fence all the elements in view 1 and load the plot dialog:

FIT ALL; SELVIEW 1; PLACE FENCE ALL; SELVIEW 1; PLOT ELEMENT FENCE; PLOT

Here is a breakdown as to what this key-in means:
FIT ALL - Fits the entire design in the view window.
SELVIEW 1 - Executes FIT ALL command on view 1.
PLACE FENCE ALL - This places a fence over everything in the active view.
SELVIEW 1 - Executes PLACE FENCE ALL command on view 1.
PLOT ELEMENT FENCE - PLOT ELEMENT FENCE tells the plot mdl to plot the fence that contains the elements selected. This is a bit of overkill, but older versions (95 and older) of MicroStation needed this in order to include the fence in the plot. If you are running a version after 95, then you can remove this statement from the key-in. This last PLOT statement submits the plot.

Add this key-in to a function key so it loads with just one keystroke.

Raster images printing too light
Having problems plotting raster images (like JPG and TIFF files) that are inserted into drawings, when using the "File | Import | Image" command? Do these images always plot "light and very fuzzy"?

Avoid this by adding the following setting to your PLT drivers: MS_PLT_NORASTERTRANSPARENCY=1

To modify your plot drivers, just locate the PLT file you want to modify (usually located in Bentley\Workspace\system\plotdrv), add the setting above and save the file.

By making the value "1", you are turning off the transparency of the raster images and improving image quality.

Send us your MicroStation tips!
Send us your favorite MicroStation tip to tips@AxiomInt.com. We will give you full credit for the tip and your peers will look at you with the reverence a MicroStation guru rightly deserves!

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