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Automatically Set Element Symblolgy when Importing Data

Axiom’s Microsoft Office Importer can be used to import text and borders from your Microsoft Office documents (like Word and Excel files) so that imported elements look the same as in the source document. However, what if you need to import text using client-specific fonts or symbology that differ from the source document symbology? You may be wondering how you can control the symbology of spreadsheets or Word documents imported into your design files. As you may be aware, you do not have any control over this using MicroStation alone. Fortunately there is a solution: You can use the Microsoft Office Importer’s “Text” and “Table” settings to specify the symbology of imported elements.

Text Symbology Settings
You locate the text symbology controls by selecting the “Settings” icon on the Microsoft Office Importer toolbar.

Then select “Text” under the “Category” menu. This will display the dialog box illustrated below. Notice the option button that has been selected in this illustration. This button is a control that determines how text symbology is set and has two selectable options.

One option is labeled “Take unselected settings from source document”. The term “unselected settings” refers to the three fields, just above the option button, that do not have checkboxes and value fields for “Color”, “Weight” and “Level”. If you select this option and have not checked the “Color” and “Weight” checkboxes, the text will be imported so that it looks as it does in the source document. However, if you check either the “Color” or “Weight” checkboxes, the specified value will override the symbology in the source document. Notice that the “Level” checkbox is checked by default for this option. This is because there are no levels in Microsoft Office documents.

The second option, “Take unselected settings from the active symbology”, in combination with the Color and Weight controls override the symbology imported from the source document.

By selecting this option you can import text using your active color, weight and level, or you can override any one of these three active symbology settings with the checkboxes and values fields. When you select this option, the “Level” value checkbox is enabled so that you can use or override the active level setting.

Setting table lines symbology
The table lines imported by Microsoft Office Importer are controlled with the settings category named “Table”. When this category is selected, you will see a dialog box with a small option button labeled “Import Lines:” near the top.

The “Import Lines:” option controls whether source document table lines are imported or not. This is an illustration of the options available with the “Import Lines:” option button.

If you want a spreadsheet’s cell borderlines to be imported but not spreadsheet’s grid lines, then use the first option for this button, “As in Source”. You can use the “Always” option to import borderlines and grid lines. With the “Never” option selected, neither the borderlines nor the grid lines will be imported.

As in the “Text“ category, the larger option button at the bottom of the dialog box offers you ways to assign symbology to table elements: taking unselected settings from the source document or taking unselected settings from the active symbology.

You use this button to control how the symbology of borderlines and grid lines is assigned. You can use the symbology as in the source document, or you can use the symbology from the active settings. You can also use a combination of the values checked in the color, weight, style or level boxes along with the symbology of the source document or the symbology of the active settings.

Summary
In summary, by using Microsoft Office Importer you can import text and lines just as they are in the source document, or you can import the text and lines so that they have the exact symbology you need to meet your company or client’s CAD standards. The illustrations above show the MicroStation V7 implementation. The symbology controls in the V8 version of Microsoft Office Importer function the same as the V7 version.

Click here to find out more about Microsoft Office Importer.