User’s Guide — CellManager for V8

Chapter 1 — Introduction

Life without CellManager 

Most MicroStation installations use one or more large cell libraries that should be readily shareable and reusable. However, a great deal of time and effort is wasted by operators or supervisors: 

• Recreating cells that already exist in a cell library 
• Trying to remember the appearance, origin, or size of a cell 
• Performing a “trial” placement of a cell to determine its appearance and properties • Wrestling with oversized libraries 
• Creating drawing components from scratch when standard cells exist and should be used 
• Operators asking each other for help finding cells which are right there in the attached cell library

Use CellManager to eliminate all of these inefficiencies! 

Use CellManager to standardize your cell libraries and generate documentation to train your staff! 

Features and Benefits of CellManager 

Automatic cell library documentation 

CellManager’s {Draw Pages...} command allows you to create comprehensive, custom formatted cell library documentation. CellManager’s documentation includes cell graphics and text descriptions. Your pages of customized cell library documentation can then be plotted and assembled into hard copy cell library documentation or plotted directly into a single PDF file for digital distribution. 

New with the V8 version, CellManager creates your cell library documentation in the cell library itself! Library cells are linked to your “notebook” model as reference files — no external file is required. 

Move or copy cells from one library to another 

CellManager’s {Export...} command allows you to copy or move cells from one cell library to another. Collect frequently used cells from multiple cell libraries into a single lean and mean, compact cell library. Harvest your “gems” that are lost amongst obsolete cells in behemoth cell libraries. 

Make bulk changes to cells in your libraries 

Use CellManager’s {Manage...} command to clean up, update or standardize your cell libraries. Examples of bulk changes you can make to cells in your libraries with 

CellManager: 

• Re-scale cells 
• Rotate cells 
• Change working units and working resolution of cells or models 
• Change cell symbology (including ByLevel) 
• Change cell levels 
• Convert cell type from regular to point or vice versa 
• Convert a cell to an annotation cell or vice versa 
• Delete cells 
• Import cells 
• Rename cells 
• Edit cells 

Automatically generate cell selector files 

Use CellManager’s “Create Cell Selector File...” command to generate a MicroStation cell selector file from selected cells contained in one or more cell libraries. This allows users to quickly and easily create custom cell selector files that only contain the cells they regularly use. CellManager also lets you easily add additional cells to your existing cell selector files. 

Generate customized reports about your cell libraries 

Use CellManager’s {Create Report...} command to generate a report about the cells in your libraries — customize the content and format to your requirements. Isolate inconsistencies and standards violations in your cell libraries before the cells get placed in multiple drawings. Create lists of cells needed for your projects. 

Create libraries from the cells found in design files 

Do you have drawings full of useful cells, but the original cell library is lost or unavailable? Use CellManager’s {Extract...} command to create new cell libraries from the cells and shared cells in your drawings!

V8 cell library basics you need to know

• V7 cell libraries had a format all their own. This is not the case in V8 — V8 cell
  libraries use the same file format as V8 design files.
• Design file models and cell library cells are essentially identical. You can now open a
  V8 cell library with MicroStation V8’s File | Open menu. Change from one cell to
  another using MicroStation’s File | Models dialog.
• V8 cell libraries don’t have a fixed dimension — you can intermix 2D and 3D cells
  in the same library. Each cell, of course, is either 2D or 3D.
• When you attempt to attach a V7 cell library to a V8 design file, MicroStation
  automatically converts the V7 cell library to V8 format. As of this writing, there is no
  automatic way to convert a V8 cell library back to V7 format (no “Save As V7” for
  cell libraries).
• Like V8 design files, all V8 cell libraries have a “Default” model. The Default model
  in a cell library is typically empty and is not set as a cell.
• Unlike V7, you can include a reference file as part of a V8 cell’s definition — when
  you place such a cell geometry. Reference files could not be “nested” in V7 cells.
  Any model can potentially be used as a cell. This is controlled by the model properties dialog:

Chapter 2 — Installation

System setup for Installation

Before installing CellManager the plotting system should be installed, configured and running.

Before you install

This chapter will walk you through a typical Axiom product installation. These instructions apply to both MicroStation V7 and V8. V7 products are used in the examples.

To install one or more Axiom products, you need:

• The latest Axiom product CD; and
• A license file on floppy disk for the product(s) you are about to install. Please shut down all MicroStation sessions on your computer before continuing.

Typical installation from CD

1. Insert the Axiom product CD into your CD drive.
2. The dialog box below should come up automatically. This may take a few moments depending on computer and CD drive speed.
   
3. Click the [OK] button and the first installation dialog box (below) will appear.
   
4. Select MicroStation V7 or MicroStation V8 and click [Next].
5. Choose which type of installation you want to perform. The “Typical” installation is best for most situations and asks the user to make very few decisions.
   
6. These instructions will describe only the “Typical” installation path. Choose “Typical” and click [Next].
7. Choose the license file for this installation. Toggle on “I have a license file somewhere else.” And press [Next].
   
8. Browse to the “axiom.lic” file on the CD and click [Open]. The licenses in the specified license file will display in the next dialog box. Press [Next].Although you have already selected the MicroStation family (V7 or V8) for which you want to install Axiom tools, it is common for one computer to have more than one instance of MicroStation installed on it. For example, you might have two versions of MicroStation/J installed (07.01.04.16 and 07.02.04.20). You must choose which of the two you want to associate your Axiom tools with.
9. Highlight the version of MicroStation you want to associate the Axiom tools with and click [Next].
   
   Since this is a “Typical” installation, all programs for which an Axiom license was found will already be “checked-on” to be installed. Other items that are also automatically “checked-on” for installation are the product User’s Guides, individual product sample files and Axiom’s MicroStation pull-down menu.
   
10. To proceed with default selections click [Next]. You’ve now completed the Pre-Setup.
    
11. Click [Next] to proceed with the installation.
12. The [Next]button is grayed-out unless you accept the agreement.If you accept the license and click [Next], the installation will begin. You can click [Cancel] at any time to abort the installation.
    
13. This is the final dialog box. It shows that the installation is complete. By default the “View Readme.pdf” option is toggled on and will display the Readme.pdf document when you click [Finish].
    

    Congratulations

    That’s it! You have successfully completed the installation of your Axiom tools.

Chapter 3 — Uninstalling

Uninstalling Axiom products

Axiom products can be uninstalled easily through the Windows® Start Menu.

1. Go to {Start}, Programs | Axiom.
2. Select “Uninstall V7 products” or “Uninstall V8 products” depending on the products you want to uninstall.
   
3. Choose “Select all.” or “Select components to uninstall.” If you choose “Select components to uninstall.” then each product in the list can be manually checked or unchecked. This allows for any combination of products to be uninstalled. Only installed products will be shown in the list.
4. Once you’ve made your selections, click the [Uninstall] button to complete the uninstall process.
   

Chapter 4 — Quick Start

Quick Start Objectives

The purpose of this Quick Start is to introduce you to the basic features of CellManager

so that you can immediately use the program. This Quick Start should take about 30 minutes.

Prerequisites

1. MicroStation V8 version 8.1.0.7 or later.
2. CellManager must be installed on your computer. You can verify this by selecting the “Axiom” menu from MicroStation’s main menu bar, then select “CellManager for V8”. If CellManager does not open, follow the instructions in the Installation chapter of your User Guide.
3. You will need some design files and cell libraries to practice with. The sample files delivered with CellManager are used in this Quick Start. By default, the sample files are installed to:

C:\ProgramData\Axiom\V8\CellMgr\Sample Files\

CellManager for V8 processes MicroStation V8 cell libraries and design files.

Demonstration Version

The demonstration version of CellManager will randomly select cells from the cell library being processed — approximately 50% of a library’s cells will be processed.

Licensed versions of CellManager do not have these restrictions.

When should I use CellManager?

Use CellManager when you need to:

• Create comprehensive, custom-formatted cell library documentation. CellManager’s

documentation includes cell graphics and text descriptions.

• Copy or move cells from one cell library to another. Collect frequently used cells from multiple cell libraries into a single lean and mean, compact cell library.
• Clean up, update or standardize your cell libraries! Includes:
  • Re-scaling cells
  • Rotating cells
  • Changing working units and working resolution in cells
  • Changing symbology of component elements
  • Changing levels of component elements
  • Converting cell type from regular to point or vice versa
  • Convert non-annotation cells to annotation cells or vice-versa
  • Deleting cells
  • Renaming Cells
  • Importing Cells
  • Editing cell graphics
• Generate an ASCII report about the cells in your libraries — customize the content and format to your requirements.
• Create new cell libraries from the cells and shared cells contained in your drawings. Create custom cell selector files from selected cells in one or more cell libraries.

You will learn how to use CellManager’s main features in this Quick Start.

1. Quick Start step 1 — Getting started
2. Select “CellManager for V8” from the “Axiom” menu in MicroStation’s menu bar.
3. Next we need to select a cell library to work with. In this exercise we will use the sample files delivered with CellManager. By default, these files are installed to:
   C:\ProgramData\Axiom\V8\CellMgr\Sample Files\
   Select “CellMgr2D.cel”.
4. 

Quick Start step 2 — Create a cell library report

With CellManager, you can generate text reports about the contents of your cell libraries.

Report content and format is controlled by report templates. A number of templates are delivered with CellManager.

This step builds upon Quick Start step 1 and assumes you have selected a cell library.

1. From the CellManager main dialog box click the {Create Report...} button.
   
   
2. You can specify any report file name and location you wish. For the purposes of this Quick Start, you can use the displayed default.
3. Select the “Full Report.tpl” report template. By default, this file is located in:
   C:\ProgramData\Axiom\V8\CellMgr\
   The report template defines the content and format of the report — we will see the result of this shortly. CellManager comes with several standard templates you can choose from.
4. Enter whatever you wish into the “Note:” field. Shortly, we’ll see where the Note is added to the report.
5. The “Lines Per Page:” is set to “0” by default. This creates a report that only has a header at the top of the first page. We will use this for our demonstration, however if you want a report with multiple pages, each with a header at the top, enter the appropriate number of lines per page.
6. Click the {Create} button. This generates your report file on disk.
7. Now click the {Display…} button to view your report.
   We won’t include the entire report here in this Quick Start, but here’s an excerpt:
   Cell Library Full Report
   ========================Library: C:\ProgramData\Axiom\V8\CellMgr\Sample Files\CellMgr2D.cel Tuesday, 8 October 2015 at 3:32 pmCell Selection Criteria: Name: ALL
   Description: ALL
   Component Element Levels: ALL Component Element Types: ALLName: IND1
   Description: DUXLAX NODE Type: Graphic cell Annotation Cell: No Resolution: 10000 per Custom
   Range: (0:82.0112, 0:152.2310)
   Component Element Types: 3-4,15,17 Levels: "Level 1", "Level 2"
   Styles: 0 References: <none> Nested Cells: <none>Filename: C:\ProgramData\Axiom\V8\CellMgr\Sample Files\CellMgr2D.cel Name: JBRICK
   Description: 4X16 BRICK Type: Point cell Annotation Cell: No
   Resolution: 10000 per Custom Range: (1:259.8425, 0:419.9475)
   Component Element Types: 3 Levels: "Level 45"
   Styles: 0 References: <none> Nested Cells: <none>
   ====================================================================
   This note will be added to your report. Page #1
   ====================================================================You now have a report of all the cells in that cell library!
   You can modify the format of the report by editing the report template file (or create your own), but that’s beyond the scope of this Quick Start.
   Close the displayed report and the “Create Report” dialog box to prepare for the next Quick Start step.
   Quick Start step 3 — Draw and plot cell notebook pages
   With CellManager you can generate documentation for your cell libraries. The following examples illustrate how you can format your documentation with one or more cells per page:
8. 
9. These examples were generated from the provided sample cell library “CellMgr3D.cel”. This cell library is delivered with CellManager and by default is saved to:
   C:\ProgramData\Axiom\V8\CellMgr\Sample Files\ Now it’s your turn.
   The following steps build upon the earlier Quick Start steps and assumes you have a cell library selected.
   From CellManager’s main dialog box, click the {Draw Pages…} button.
10. 
11. The “Draw Pages” dialog will display:
    
12. On the main CellManager dialog box, select Settings | Change Settings….
    

On the “Change Settings” dialog box, under “Category”, select “Plot Settings”.

For the purposes of our Quick Start, we will use the MicroStation plotter configuration file for a generic system printer “printer.plt” or for later versions of MicroStation V8 “printer.pltcfg”. This file is normally found in:

...\Workspace\system\plotdrv\

Click the {Select…} button and select the generic system printer “printer.plt” or “printer.pltcfg”.

Note: CellManager may notify you that it did not find a paper “size” definition in “printer.plt”. This is not serious.

CellManager uses the paper “size” parameter from plotter configuration files to scale output. The file “printer.plt” does not include a “size” definition, so CellManager defaults to 8.5 x 11 inches (letter size). Virtually all printers support letter size paper, so this should work fine for this Quick Start.

You can select and use any plotter configuration file with CellManager, but for the purposes of this Quick Start, we are using “printer.plt” or “printer.pltcfg” because it will work for the vast majority of users.

There is much more about plotter configuration in the CellManager User Guide. We’re keeping this as simple as possible for the purposes of this Quick Start.

Make sure the “Plotting System” option button is set to “MicroStation”. Click the {OK} button to close the “Change Settings” dialog box.

1. Now, click the {Draw Pages…} button on the “Draw Pages” dialog box.CellManager draws your cell notebook pages in a model named “CellManager Plot Sheet”. You will be able to see this on the screen during processing.Note: If one of your colleagues did these Quick Start steps before you, cell library documentation will already exist in the sample library. CellManager will warn you before overwriting the pre-existing documentation. Go ahead and overwrite this model.Use “Zoom In” to view one of the pages in detail.
2. At this point we’ve demonstrated how to automatically generate cell library documentation — including a “Table of Contents” (on the far right).All of the cell documentation is saved in the cell library itself in the “CellManager Plot Sheet” model. You can return to this model at any time using MicroStation’s File | Models dialog box:
   
3. That’s all there is to it!
4. You don’t have to print hard copies of your cell library now. You can skip the remaining steps and continue with Quick Start step 4.If you wish to send your cell notebook to the printer as a quick test, you can limit the output to one page by setting the “Sheets:” field to “1”.
   
   Click the {Create Plots} button. When you use “printer.pltcfg”, clicking the {Create Plots} button automatically sends your notebook pages to your system printer.Note: When “printer.pltcfg” is selected, CellManager will disable the {Submit Plots} button (because it is not needed). Plots are always automatically submitted as part of the {Create Plots} processing.When you select most other plotter configuration files, plot creation and plot submission are done in two steps. Click the {Create Plots} button and, when finished, click the {Submit Plots} button to send them to your plotter.
5. The preceding steps illustrate the basics of cell notebook creation. There is much more about cell notebook creation, including how to customize output to your requirements, in the “Draw Pages” section of the CellManager User Guide.
   
   The “Manage” dialog box will open with the cell library name displayed in the title bar:
6. 
7. Scroll through the cell list with the up and down arrow keys, scroll bars, etc. Click the {Details…} button on the “Manage” dialog box.
   The “Model Information” window displays a table of information about the current cell. You can leave the “Model Information” window open as you scroll through the cell list.
8. Click the {View…} button on the “Manage” dialog box.
9. The “View” window displays the cell’s graphics. You can leave the “View” window open as you scroll through the cell list.
10. Close both the “View” and “Model Information” windows for now.
11. Now we will introduce another CellManager feature that allows you to precisely control the cells that are processed by CellManager commands.
12. Click the {Select Cells…} button on CellManager’s main dialog box, not the “Manage” dialog box. You may need to move the “Manage” dialog to find CellManager’s main dialog box:
13. 
14. Now, click the {Manage...} button and note the cells that now appear in the cell listing:
15. 
16. Note: This is just one example of CellManager’s {Select Cells…} feature. You can use {Select Cells…} with {Create Report…}, {Draw Pages…} and {Manage…} commands — to control report content, to control which cells are included in your cell library documentation and to control which cells are processed by the
    {Manage…} commands.
17. Click the {Tag all} button on the “Manage” dialog box to tag all displayed cells:
18. 
    Click the {Export…} button on the “Manage” dialog box, which displays the “Export” window:
19. 
20. On this “Export” dialog box, you have to first select the output file format. The default is “MicroStation cell library”, which is what we will use for this Quick Start lesson.
    Now, specify an output cell library name, for example “NewLibrary.cel”. Click the {Copy To} button.A new cell library is created and the selected cells are copied to it — easy as that!
    We want all cells to be processed in the subsequent Quick Start steps, so we need to clear the “L*” cell name wildcard in the “Select Cells” dialog.Close the “Export” and “Manage” dialog boxes.From CellManager’s main dialog box, click the {Select Cells…} button. From the “Select Cells” dialog, select {Clear} and then {Apply}:

    CellManager will now include all cells in subsequent processing. Close the “Select Cells” dialog box.
    That completes this Quick Start section. Please continue — just two more sections remain.

21. Quick Start step 5 — Extracting cells from design files
22. CellManager’s {Extract...} command allows you to create a cell library from regular and shared cells that have been placed in your design files. This allows you to re- construct lost or unavailable cell libraries.It’s easy:
23. From CellManager’s main dialog, click the {Extract...} button:
    
24. The “Extract Cells” dialog box will display:
    
25. Specify the name of the design files from which to extract cells. For the purposes of this Quick Start, we will use the file “HasCells.dgn” which is delivered with CellManager. This design file is one of CellManager’s sample files which, by default, are installed here
26. 
27. Easy as that, the cells in the source design files are extracted and placed into the specified output cell library.
    Now click the {Manage...} button on CellManager’s main dialog box to immediately view the cells extracted from the sample design file.
28. 
29. You can extract cells from multiple V8 design files. Quick Start step 6 — Creating a cell selector file.
    

    Continuing with the “Manage” dialog box from the previous step, tag all of the cells by clicking the {Tag all} button:

    Now, select Tools | Create Cell Selector File… from the “Manage” dialogs menu bar.

    On the “Create Cell Selector File” dialog box, click the {Select...} button. This opens the “Save cell selector file.” dialog box, which allows you to navigate to an appropriate folder to save your cell selector file. Just click the {OK} button to save the cell selector file with the default name “cellmgr.csf”, which returns you to the “Create cell selector file...” dialog box.

    

    Note: The cell selector file will be saved in the folder defined by the MicroStation configuration variable “MS_CELLSELECTORDIR”. The default name of the created cell selector file is “cellmgr.csf”. You can, however, save the cell selector file out in a folder and as a name of your choice. For the purposes of this Quick Start, just use the defaults.

    1. There are several “Cell Selector File Options” available on the dialog. For this demonstration use the default “Show” and “View” options.

    Now, on the “Create cell selector file.” dialog box, click the {Start} button. This opens an “Alert” message box asking you to confirm “Are you sure you want to create a CSF for ALL tagged cells?”. Click the {OK} button. After some processing, the cell selector file is created. A message box displays, showing the name and location of the cell selector file. Click the {OK} button and your cell selector file will be activated, ready for you to use to place cells:
    

    
    Congratulations — that completes the CellManager Quick Start!

    As you begin to process your own files with CellManager, remember that the entire

    CellManager User Guide is available from its “Help” menu.

    If you have any questions, please contact Support@AxiomInt.com.

Chapter 5 — Using CellManager

Starting CellManager

Load CellManager from the “Axiom” menu on the MicroStation menu bar. Select a cell library to work with. Then select an activity to perform with the selected cell library. The CellManager main dialog box is shown below:

Files:

Select the cell libraries or design files that you want to process.

In addition to selecting cell libraries and design files themselves you can also select a text file containing the names of cell libraries and design files or a MicroStation cell selector file (.csf) and CellManager will load the cell libraries defined by the text or cell selector file.

When CellManager is re-started, it automatically attempts to re-open the file loaded when you last saved settings.

CellManager saves a history of recently processed files on the “File” menu.

Activity

The “Activity” section of the main dialog box presents the major functions of

CellManager.

A section of the document is devoted to each CellManager activity.

You can leave one activity dialog open while performing a second activity. For example, while working with {Manage…}, you can activate {Select Cells…} and change your selection criteria; then click {Apply} and cells matching the new criteria will appear in the {Manage...} dialog box.

File menu

When you first install and load CellManager, the file menu offers just the “Exit” option.

As you work, CellManager adds the name of up to five recently used cell libraries to the File menu:

Settings menu

The “Settings” menu on the CellManager main dialog box handles CellManager general settings that describe your preferred operating environment.

The CellManager settings may be saved and reloaded at a later time using the “Settings” menu. Settings are saved as ASCII files with a “.ini” extension.

When you save settings without specifying a settings file name, the settings are saved to “cellmgr.ini”. This file is loaded each time CellManager starts. If “cellmgr.ini” does not exist, CellManager creates it with the factory default settings.

Change Settings...

The “Change Settings…” option opens the “Change Settings ” dialog box.

Load Settings…

When CellManager is started the settings from “cellmgr.ini” are always loaded by default. Use the “Load Settings” option to load settings from other “.ini” files that have been previously saved.

Use “cellmgr.ini” to hold your default settings.

Save Settings

Use “Save Settings” to save all currently selected options into the active settings file.

Save Settings As…

Use “Save Settings As…” to save your current selections to a filename of your choice. This file becomes your active settings file.

Restore default settings

This option gives you the ability to restore CellManager to its factory defaults. Selecting this option will reset all the settings throughout the program to the factory default values.

Settings file:

The “Settings file:” line displays the name of the active settings file. If you select “Save Settings”, your current settings will be saved to this file name.

Local settings and network installations (CELLMGR_INI)

Use the configuration variable CELLMGR_INI to define the CellManager INI file you want loaded at startup. This is particularly useful when running the program from a network installation and each user wants to run his own INI file.

The CELLMGR_INI variable supports the use of other MicroStation configuration variables and Windows environment variables when defining the location.

When this variable is defined, the Settings | Load Setting…, Settings | Save Settings and

Settings | Save Settings As… menu choices are disabled.

Help menu

Help | Contents…

Help | Contents… will display the CellManager User’s Guide.

Help | About...

Help | About… opens an HTML page in your default browser, showing licensing version information for CellManager, as well as links to the Axiom web site and information to help you contact Axiom for help or questions on licensing, support and sales.

 

Chapter 6 — Configuring CellManager

 

Overview on configuring CellManager

To modify the configuration of CellManager, choose Settings | Change Settings. This

will open the “Change Settings” dialog box. This dialog box has a number of different choices under “Category”, where you can change the settings of CellManager as needed.

The following sections go over the “Change Settings” dialog box in detail.

 

Confirmation

 

Use this settings category to set the display of “Are you sure?” message boxes when performing different operations from the “Manage” dialog box.

If you want to confirm making changes to more than one model at a time, but not when changing a single model, un-select options in the left column.

General

 

The “General” category gives you access to general CellManager settings and options. Each of the settings and options are covered in detail in the following sections.

 

Automatically save settings on exit

When this option is turned “On” (checked), CellManager’s settings will be saved automatically when you exit the program. This option is “Off” (unchecked) by default.

 

Re-open child windows when opening the parent window.

 

When this option is turned “On” (checked), CellManager restores dialog boxes that were previously open.

For example, with this option activated, if you had the “Manage” and “View” dialogs open when you last exited CellManager, then the next time you reload CellManager both the “Manage” and the “View” dialogs will re-open.

Continuing with the example, if you then closed the “Manage” dialog, the “View” dialog (being a child window to “Manage”) would also close. But whenever you open “Manage”, “View” will automatically open. If you close the “View” dialog box, this tells CellManager to no longer do this.

This option is “On” (checked) by default.

Automatically re-open last file(s) processed

 

When this option is turned “On” (checked), the cell library that was last processed by

CellManager will be re-opened the next time you run CellManager.

This option is turned “Off” (unchecked) by default.

 

Output for undefined model properties

When this option is turned “On” (checked), it allows you to define a string that is output in reports and notebook documentation rather than a blank. In the example below, the “References:” and “Nested Cells:” shows “<none>”, instead of just being blank:

Name: ANSI31

Description: ANSI31 AREA PATTERN References: <none>

Nested Cells: <none>

 

Delimiter for two part description

This feature was originally added in response to a customer requirement to generate cell documentation in two languages. Two different descriptions were entered into the expanded V8 cell description, separated by “|”.

You can use this feature to store any two descriptions and selectively include one or the other description in reports or cell notebook pages. The delimiter can be any unique character. The default delimiter is “|”.

When generating reports or notebook pages, the keywords <DESC1> and <DESC2> are replaced by the first or second half of a delimited description in a report template or cell notebook layout.

The original keyword <DESC> is always replaced by the full cell description (ignoring the delimiter).

Notification

CellManager checks for potential error conditions during processing and notifies you when the condition is encountered. Possible solutions are also presented. You may not want to be notified about each condition all the time. Use this dialog to control which conditions are reported and which are ignored.

 

Duplicate name detected in cell library.

Because cells are referred to by name, each cell name within a library must be unique. MicroStation only recognizes the first of any cells with the same name. CellManager can check for duplicate cells when attaching (opening) the library.

This option is “On” by default.

Duplicate name created by Export command.

When you use “Export…” from the “Manage” dialog box, you can copy or move cells to an existing cell library. As a result, you may export cells that have the same name as cells in the existing cell library. When a duplicate is encountered, this option causes an “Exporting Duplicate Cell” dialog box to open (shown below), informing you about the duplicate and giving you options for handling.

 

The “Exporting Duplicate Cell” dialog box displays the graphic of the exported cell (“From Cell”) and the cell with the matching name in the output cell library (“To Cell”). This makes it easy to compare the graphics of the cells to determine if their graphics (as in addition to their names) are duplicates. You also get a number of button options for handling the possible creation of a duplicate cell.

This option is “On” by default.

Existing CellManager Plot Sheet model will be overwritten.

 

After you have created a notebook plot sheet using CellManager’s {Draw Pages...}, that notebook plot sheet is open as the active design file. If you then utilize {Draw Pages...} to generate a new notebook plot sheet, when this option is turned “On” (checked), a warning message box will display, informing you that the current notebook sheet will be overwritten. This will give you the opportunity to save off the current notebook plot sheet saving it for later printing/plotting. An example of this message box follows:

 

When this option is turned “Off”, this message box will not display and, if you then create a new notebook plot sheet, the current active one will be overwritten.

This option is “On” by default.

 

Existing CellManager report file will be overwritten.

When this option is “On” (checked), a message box will display when your existing

CellManager report will be overwritten.

As a result, if you wish to keep the previous report, you can stop and rename the report in the “Report File:” field and then continue your work.

 

When this option is turned “Off” (unchecked), you will not be notified when the existing

CellManager report file is overwritten. This option is “On” by default.

 

Missing nested model caused by Delete command.

This option displays a warning when you attempt to delete a cell that is nested within other cells.

This option is “On” by default.

Missing nested model caused by Rename command.

This option displays a warning when you attempt to rename a model that is nested within other models.

This option is “On” by default.

 

Missing nested model detected in a cell library.

Cells may contain other cells. In such a case, the nested cell header usually looks for a cell with its name in that library (or in another library) for its graphic elements. Without the nested cell’s definition, the nested cell will appear blank. You may wish to be notified when nested cells are missing.

This option is “On” by default.

 

Missing “size” parameter in plotter configuration file.

CellManager uses the “size” parameter in a plot configuration file, to determine the page size for plotting. If the “size” parameter is missing from the plot configuration file, CellManager defaults to a letter size page. CellManager will inform you of this condition.

This option is “Off” by default.

 

Parent cell Transformation changes a nested cell.

This option displays a warning when you attempt to change a nested cell using

{Transform...}.

This option is “On” by default.

Output Settings

 

The “Output Settings ” category gives you options for controlling the printing of your cell notebooks. Each option and field is covered in detail in the following sections.

 

Output and Post Processing

 

CellManager gives you the options to print to a file or a device. For example, you could utilize these settings to print to a PDF or JPG file.

For outputting to a device, like a specific printer on your network, choose “Device” and fill in the port data for that particular printer, for example:

 

Use quotes in commands

Spaces in file or queue names can be a problem when generating and submitting to IPLOT systems because a space in the queue name makes the command string appear to have one or more additional parameters.

The solution is to create command strings with quotes around the parameters. For example:

queue=net hp4

becomes:

queue="net hp4"

Activate this option to add quotes to command strings.

 

Plot without margins

This controls CellManager’s fencing of the page area. Normally, CellManager generates a margin for each page. Some plotters have or use a built-in margin. This can result in a double margin. If your plotter automatically calculates page margins, set “Plot without margins” to “On” (checked).

If you select a paper size that has only one page per sheet this option is automatically enabled.

 

Highlight fence

Turn this option “On” (checked) to cause CellManager to highlight the sheets as they are being processed while plots are being created and submitted. This gives you some immediate feedback on the progress of the plot creation and submission.

Output to PDF

 

CellManager allows you to create a single PDF document containing all the pages of your cell library notebook. If you do not wish to combine each page into a single document you can uncheck “Create single PDF document for all pages.” This setting is “On” on by default.

By default when you combine the pages into a single PDF CellManager places the table of contents at the beginning of the document. If for some reason you want the table of contents at the end of the PDF you can uncheck “Place Table of Contents at the beginning.”

 

Page Settings

 

Use the “Page Settings” dialog box to set the method for setting the cell size on the notebook pages, number of cells per page, how the cell origin is designated, text attributes, borders, rotation and page size.

Method (Choose the cell or model sizing method)

 

CellManager supports three scaling methods to suit your needs. Each scaling method is described in this section.

 

Fit method

The “Fit” scaling option enlarges or reduces the size of each cell as needed to make it fit within the page. Calculations are made to determine the scale factor needed to fit the cell within the box with a small margin. “Fit” is the easiest CellManager scaling method to use, but has one drawback — cells which only differ by size will appear identical in the output pages.

For example, in an automotive cell library, the cell “CAR” might be automatically scaled down by a factor of 0.081, while the cell “TIRE” might be enlarged (scaled up) by 2.1, but both cells would fit in the page. The same library might also contain a cell representing an “11 mm hex head bolt”. This bolt cell would also be re-scaled to fill the box on its output page. Using the Fit scaling method all cells from this example automotive cell library would be visible on the printed page, despite the wide difference in their real-world size.

 

Actual method

The “Actual” method places your cells at actual (real world) scale. For example, if the cell “STAPLER” is 4.5 inches long, it can be drawn on the page 4.5 inches long. The “Actual” scaling method uses the “Page Width” and “Unit” fields to scale each cell. You define the page’s width and cells are scaled to match.

For example, if you are using letter size paper, the “Page Width” is 8.500 “units” — the units can be “Master units” (MU), “Sub-Units” (SU) or “Units of Resolution” (UOR). Let’s say your “Sub-Units” are set to “inches”. So, if you specify 8.500 and select “Sub- units” (inches), each of your cell notebook pages will be 8.5 inches wide and each cell will be scaled up or down accordingly.

 

For example: let’s say a library contains nuts and bolts. The largest object represented in the cell library is a bolt four inches long. The smallest object in the cell library is a nut ¼ inch wide. Relative size of the nuts and bolts is important — in fact, the different nuts and bolts would be indistinguishable if output using the “Fit” scaling method. To output the cells at actual scale, select “Page Width” of 8.5 and select SU (inches). These settings will direct CellManager to draw the nuts and bolts at actual scale on pages 8.5 inches wide. When plotted, the cells will be printed at actual size.

Scale method

The “Scale” method allows you define the scale of output cells relative to the width of the printed page. This allows you to create cell documentation, for example, printed at 1:36 scale.

 

Example: let’s say your plotting device’s paper size is 8.5 by 11 inches. If you select Scale of 3 and your seed file’s master unit is feet, then using the “Scale” method, CellManager would scale your cells to 3 feet per inch (which is 1:36 scale).

 

Scale

Enter the number of Units per plotted unit (inch or mm per the Page Size). This field is used with the “Scale” method.

 

Page Width

Enter how many Units wide the page is. Typically it is 8.5 (inches) or 850 (hundredths) or some such entry. This field is used for the “Actual” scaling method.

 

Unit

Specify the units for the Scale or Box Width figures entered. The choices are “MU” (Master Units), “SU” (Sub-Units) or “UOR” (Units of Resolution). This field is used for both “Actual” sizing and “Scale” sizing.

 

Models per Page

 

The choices here are 1, 4, 9, 16 and 25. Selecting more than 4 models per page limits the amount of text information that will be included.

 

Cell origin

Use the dropdown menu to set how you want the origin of the cells handled when you setup and output a cell notebook.

Leader line — This selection (on by default) draws an arrow from the origin label text element to the location of the cell’s origin.

 

Cross hair — This selection draws an “X” where the cell origin is with the origin label right next to it.

 

None — When “None” is used, no indication of the origin of the cells will be made in the cell notebook pages.

Level

This level designation is used for three things:

 

1. The origin indicator is placed on the level entered.

 

1. The word “origin” as well as the leader line or origin symbol are placed on this level minus one.

 

1. The page outline and other text is placed on this level minus two. The lowest level allowed for text is level three.

 

Font

This setting allows you to choose the output font of for your cell notebook pages.

 

Origin label:

This sets the value for the text element used when showing the origin of a cell. The default for this field is “Origin”.

 

Draw page border

If you will plot to “E” size paper you will probably want to turn on Draw Page Border, this will make it easy to cut the pages out of the large plot sheet.

This option is also useful if you want to cut out your “cells” and use them like 3x5 cards.

A page border is not normally needed when outputting to letter size paper because the border lines will be on the very edge of the paper.

Line style 2 is used for the page outline.

 

Draw sheet border

When you are using “Letter” or “A” size paper, CellManager normally generates one page per sheet of paper. You could, for example, configure CellManager to output more than one sheet per “Letter” or “A” page, if this was your desired output.

When outputting directly to letter size paper do not draw sheet borders because the lines will be on the very edge of the paper.

With larger paper sizes (“C”, “D”, “E”, etc.), CellManager normally generates more than one page per sheet of paper.

When plotting manually fenced areas, set the “Draw Sheet Border” option to “On” (checked). You can snap to the borders to make accurate fences as needed.

 

Don’t rotate

Turn this option “On” (checked) for landscape oriented “layout” pages (wider than high).

You can also use this option to force the arrangement of pages on large sheets of paper.

When this option is turned “Off” (unchecked), CellManager always rotates the paper to a “portrait” orientation (taller than wide).

If you want to use landscape oriented layouts you will need a paper size that is wider than it is high and a layout file that is setup for landscape oriented pages.

 

Page size

This option allows you to choose between the standard letter size paper (8.5” x 11”) and A-4 size paper (297mm x 210mm). This is the size of the final paper output.

 

Plot Settings

 

Use this category to set the plot configuration file(s), page size, plotting system to use and IPLOT settings (if you use IPLOT).

 

Configuration File

Specify the “.plt” file that corresponds to the plotter you are using. Click the {Select...} button for help in locating available plotter configuration files. These are usually in your MicroStation “...\Workspace\system\plotdrv\” directory.

{Select…}

Click the {Select…} button to open a window that allows you to navigate and choose the plotter configuration file you want to utilize.

 

Paper

The paper sizes in the selected plotter configuration file are extracted and displayed here for you to choose from.

If you are using, for example, “E” size paper, there will typically be more than one notebook page per sheet of plotter paper.

 

Plotting System

CellManager for V8 supports two plotting systems: MicroStation and IPLOT. Select the one you use want to you to output your cell notebook pages.

Your computer must be setup for and able to plot MicroStation drawings. If CellManager cannot output the plot, first, try to plot a file directly from MicroStation. If MicroStation is unable to plot with the selected plotting system, CellManager would also not be able to plot until that situation is debugged and corrected.

 

MicroStation

CellManager generates plot files using the same style as MicroStation’s File | Plot

command.

The plot files are written to the directory defined by the MS_PLTFILES configuration variable. The resulting files inherit the design file’s base name with a numeric extension indicating which sheet it belongs to.

 

IPLOT

CellManager expects IPLOT to reside in the directory defined by the MicroStation environment variable PRO_DD_IPLOT. You may have to add/define this variable from within MicroStation. See the MicroStation documentation on how to add or define “Workspace Configuration” variables.

When you click the {Create Plots} button on the “Draw Pages” dialog box, IPLOT creates an IPARM file (IPLOT parameters file). The plot file names created have a base

name that consists of the first five characters of the design file, three digits for the sheet and finally the standard extension.

 

IPLOT Queue

If you are using IPLOT to plot over a network you need to specify which queue to use. The configuration of the queue controls the generation of the plot files.

 

IPLOT Settings

CellManager expects IPLOT to reside in the directory defined by the MicroStation environment variable PRO_DD_IPLOT. You may have to add/define this variable from within MicroStation. See the MicroStation documentation for adding/defining “WorkSpace Configuration” variables.

After you click the {Create Plots} button (on the “Draw Pages” dialog box), IPLOT creates an “IPARM” file (an IPLOT parameters file). Plot file names have a base name created from the first five characters of the design file and three digits for the sheet and finally the standard extension if “.i” or “.m”. The files are placed in the standard directory used by IPLOT.

Chapter 7 — {Select Cells...}

 

Why select cells

In the “Select Cells” dialog, you select which of the cells in the library to work with and how the cells will be sorted. If no selection criteria are entered, then all cells in the library will appear in the Manage dialog and will be processed by CellManager commands. This allows you to produce reports or create a notebook on selected cells only.

 

Select Cells dialog box

 

Click the {Apply} button to refresh the cell count displayed at the top of this dialog. This count reflects how many cells are in the library and how many will be accessed using the filters defined when the {Apply} button was last clicked.

Cell & Model List

 

You can use the “Cell & Model List” feature if the cells you need to process are not selectable by any regular criteria. This feature supports the use of a text file that contains one cell name per line or a MicroStation cell selector file.

When turned on the “Use List File” check box deactivates the other fields in this dialog box. When “Use List File” is checked, the file type radio buttons become active and the “File:” field becomes available. Click the {Select…} button to navigate to the text or cell selector file containing a list of cells you want filtered. When done click the {Apply} button at the bottom of the “Select Cells” dialog to activate the list.

 

From text file

When the “From text file” radio button is selected CellManager gets the list of cells from an ASCII text file. Give the text file an “.lst” extension. The format of the list file is one cell name per line like the names shown below:

DOOR WINDOW ELEC FAN SDOOR DDOOR

 

From CSF file

When the “From CSF file” radio button is selected CellManager gets the list of cells from a MicroStation cell selector file. MicroStation cell selector files can contain any number of cells and have a “.csf” extension.

Select by Name, Description or Text String

Each of the following selection criteria can be used individually or in combination with each other.

 

String Matching

The “Cell Name” and “Description” fields can use wildcards or regular expressions.

Wildcard — In “Wildcard” mode, use “*” to match any substring and “?” to match any single character. The asterisk can be placed in the middle of the wildcard expression (not just at the end). For example, “B*Y” would match “BY”, “BAY”, “BOY”, and “BATTERY”.

For added flexibility, in addition to “?”, CellManager also uses “%” as a wildcard to match any single character.

Regular expression — This is a very powerful and flexible string matching language but requires in-depth study and practice to use. Refer to the Regular Expression section of this guide for a description of regular expressions.

 

Name

You use the “Name” field to select cells and models by name using a wildcard or regular expression.

Leaving this field blank matches all cells and models regardless of their names.

If you want to work with all the ANSI pattern cells, select “Wildcard” for “String Matching”, then enter the wildcard “ANSI*”.

If you want to work with cells or models that have names starting with “A”, “B” or “C”, select “Regular Expression” for “String Matching” and enter match these would be “^[ABC]” or “^[A-C]” to select these.

 

Description

You would utilize the “Description” field to select cells or models by description using a wildcard or regular expression.

Leaving this field blank matches all descriptions.

If you want to work with all the switch panel cells, select “Wildcard” for the “String Matching” type and enter “SWITCH*”.

If you want to work with the cells that have descriptions with the string “BUS” in them, select “Regular Expression” for the “String Matching” type and use the regular expression “BUS”. This would match “BUS PANL”, “MAIN BUS” and all descriptions that contain the string of “BUS”.

 

Text String

Utilize the “Text String:” field to select cells or models based on the string value of a text or tag element that is a component of the cell or model. Numeric tag values will be treated as text strings automatically.

Leaving this field blank means no search of text or tags will be done when selecting cells and models.

For example if you added the string “Cable Box*” to this field and clicked {Apply}, only cells or models that had a least 1 tag or text element with this string would be selected.

 

Levels

 

Select cells by the levels occupied by their component elements. If any cell component element matches one of the specified levels, the cell will be selected. When this field is blank, CellManager disregards element levels.

Enter a level number, a numerical range of numbers (such as “1-5”), a list of numerical levels (such as “1, 3, 5, 7”) or a list of quoted level names.

If you want to combine numerical levels with level names, list the numerical levels first, followed by the level name list. For example:

1, 3-5, "Dimensions", "Symbols"

Level names must be quoted and delimited by commas (as in the illustration above).

A V8 level picker is available for level selection (the magnifying glass icon):

 

To select multiple levels, hold down the {Ctrl} key while making selections with your mouse or click and drag.

 

Element Types

 

Select cells by the types of elements they contain. This field accepts a number or numerical range to specify component element types.

Leaving this field blank matches all cells regardless of their component elements.

Individual numbers may be listed alone, or in groups separated by commas or spaces. If you are looking for cells with lines or line strings in them, enter “3,4” in the “Elements” field and CellManager will select cells containing lines (Type 3) and line strings (Type 4).

Clicking the icon to the right of the field will open a dialog that lists the element types by name to make it easier.

 

Table of V8 cell component numbers and types

Element Number

Type

 

3	Line
4	Line String

 

Element Number

Type

 

6	Shape
11	Curve
13	Conic
15	Ellipse
16	Arc
17	Text
21	B-Spline pole
22	Point String
23	Truncated Cone
25	B-Spline Surface Boundary
26	B-Spline Knot Element
36	Multiline Element

 

Cell Types to Include and Models to Include

 

How the cell was created determines whether the cell type is a “Graphic”, “Point” or “Menu” cell. You also have separate check boxes to tell CellManager what models to include. The choices are “Design Models”, “Sheet Models” or “Cells”. Enable the appropriate option to include that cell type or model in the selection. By default only “Cells” are enabled in the “Models to Include” section.

 

Graphic

Graphic cells are the most common type of cell placed in drawings.

 

Point

 

Unlike regular cells, point cells are view independent, are placed on the active level and are placed with the active settings.

Menu

 

There are many different types of menu cells:

• Function key menus assign commands to function keys.
• Cursor button menus can assign commands to the digitizing tablet puck buttons that are not already assigned.
• Command and matrix menus are paper menus used in conjunction with digitizing tablets.

 

Design Models

This option includes all models of type “design”. Design models with the “Can be placed as cell” attribute checked will not be included in the display unless the “Cells” option is also turned on (checked).

 

Sheet Models

This option includes all models of type “sheet”. Sheet models with the “Can be placed as cell” attribute checked will not be include in the display unless the “Cells” option is also turned on (checked).

 

Cells

 

This option displays both design and sheet models if the “Can be placed as cell” option is turned on. Models without the “Can be placed as cell” option turned on, will not be displayed.

Sort order

 

You may specify the order of the cells and models. This option defines how they will be displayed in the Manage dialog and the order they will be processed.

This option does affect “Cell & Model List” operation — the processing order will be defined by this option.

No sorting — Without any order specified the cells and models are listed in the same order they exist in the library file.

“Name Ascending (ASCII)” & “Name Descending (ASCII)” — In order of cell and model name. In ASCII ordering the numeric characters sort before the alphabetic characters. “Name Ascending (ASCII)” is the default order.

“Desc Ascending (ASCII)” & “Desc descending (ASCII)” — In order of the cell and model descriptions.

“Size Ascending” & “Size Descending” — Sorted by the cells and models’ file size, not the graphical size.

“Type” — The sequence of “Type” is “Graphic”, “Menu”, “Tutorial” and finally “Point”.

 

{Clear}

 

Clicking the {Clear } button clears the two “Select by Name & Description” fields (matches all) and sets the “Cell Types to Include” to all cells. The “Models to Include” options are set to select “Cells” only. This is the default of “all” cells. However, clicking

{Clear } does not change the cell sorting order.

{Apply}

 

After changes in the selection criteria and cell order have been made, you need to click the {Apply} button to rebuild the name list. The new list will reflect the current settings. If you make no selections, clicking {Apply} will just load the currently selected file.

 

{Close}

 

Clicking the {Close} button simply closes the “Select Cells” dialog box.

Chapter 8 — {Manage...}

 

Manage dialog box

When you click the {Manage…} button (on CellManager’s main dialog box), the “Manage” window displays. You can view and work with cell libraries and their cells as well as design files and their models from the “Manage” window.

Cell libraries and design files are listed on the left side of the “Manage” dialog. Cells and models are listed alphabetically on the right side. By default, all files are highlighted and all cells display in the “Manage” window. However, you can set up selection criteria using {Select Cells…} (on the main dialog box). When you do this, only the selected cells display in the “Manage” window.

Click on any file to display only the cells or models in that one file. Use {Ctrl+left-mouse click} and {Shift+left-mouse click} to select more than one file. Selecting the “All Files” text at the top of the tree, on the left side of the “Manage” window will display all cells in all files.

 

When you click just one of the files displayed in the “Files” window, only the cells or models in that file will display in the data displayed on the right side of the window, as shown below:

 

At the top of the “Manage” window, CellManager displays counts of total cells in the library, the number of cells that match the selection criteria, and the number of cells that are tagged. If “design models” or “sheet models” are included in the “Select Cells” criteria, then the “Total Cells” message (upper left corner of the “Manage” dialog box) will change to read “Total Models”.

 

“Tagging” models or cells

 

The “Manage” dialog box includes “Tag” functions to control which cells and models will be processed. There are four buttons used to tag and untag highlighted cells and models:

{Tag} will tag any currently highlighted models in the list.

{Untag} will untag any currently highlighted models in the list.

{Tag All} will tag all models in the list.

{Untag All} will untag all models in the list.

When a model has been tagged, a check mark appears to the left of its name as shown in the screen shot below:

If any models are tagged, {Create Report…} and {Draw Pages…} will only process the

tagged models, otherwise these commands process all models.

{Convert}, {Delete}, {Export}, {Modify} and {Transform} will process all the tagged models if any have been tagged, otherwise they will only process a single highlighted model.

When you tag or untag a model using keystrokes (“T” or “U”) or clicking on {Tag} or

{UnTag} the highlight bar moves to the next line. This way you can efficiently tag an entire series of models.

Use {Ctrl-Click} to highlight non-consecutive models. Use {Shift-Click} to highlight a large range of models.

Double clicking on a model will toggle the tagged or untagged state of the model.

You can also highlight or unhighlight all models in the same file. This is done by placing the mouse cursor over a model on the right side of the dialog and click the right mouse button. A menu (shown below) displays with options that allow you to highlight or unhighlight all models in the same file. For example:

 

Clicking “Highlight all models of CellMgr2D.cel” in the above example, will cause all the cells in that cell library to be highlighted, shown below:

 

Now, by clicking the {Tag} or {Untag} button, you can tag or untag all of the models in that one file.

 

Manage shortcut keys for Tag actions

 

Keystroke	Action
{T}	Tag
{U}	Untag
{Alt-G}	Tag All
{Alt-L}	Untag All

 

{View…}

 

Click the {View…} button to display a graphical representation of the first highlighted cell or model. You can leave this window displayed while you scroll through the list of cells and models in the “Manage” window.

 

The “View” window displays an image of the model. Everything is shown as line weight

1. Distortion may occur at extreme levels of magnification.
   

 

Background

The “Background” color menu allows you to select the background color of the model display area.

 

Image

The “Image” color menu allows you to select colors for model display.

 

The default setting is “True Colors.” Any other choice will override the element’s true color.

 

3D orientation

The “3D Orientation” menu allows you to choose the display orientation for 3D models.

 

{Details…}

Click the {Details…} button to display a table of information about the selected model. The “Model Information” window does not allow you to make changes.

The “Model Information” window can remain open while you scroll through the models in the “Manage” window.

 

The “Model Details” dialog box is resizable. Flyover text appear when you move the mouse cursor over a truncated field.

 

Dimension

With MicroStation V8, 2D and 3D cells and models can be intermixed in the same file. Each cell’s dimension is included in the “Model Information” dialog box.

Annotation cell:

An annotation cell is a cell that can scale according to the annotation scale of the model it is placed in. The ability to set the annotation property of a cell was added in MicroStation XM. “Yes” will display if the cell can be placed as an annotation cell.

 

Nested cells (models):

Nesting occurs when a model (or cell) is placed inside another model or cell. Any nested cells are shown here.

 

The “Nested cells (models)” field lists only nested cells placed as type 2 (cell header) or 35 (shared cell) cells.

 

References:

 

The “References” field lists self-referenced and externally referenced models.

Only the quoted model name is listed for self-references [current cell library is assumed]. For an example, see “IND1” in the image above.

External references include the base filename followed by “:” (semi-colon) followed by model name.

 

Attribute linkage

In MicroStation V8, every cell has linkages that contain the cell’s name and description.

CellManager does not report these usual linkages.

CellManager only reports “Attribute linkage: Yes” when additional linkages exist.

 

Last Modified

Each element in a cell has its own modification date (the time it was added or modified). The cell or model itself also has a modification date. All of these are examined and the most recent date is displayed.

 

Number of components

This is analogous to “Number of components” in a V7 cell. For V8, this is the number of elements in the model. Complex elements are counted as one element.

Resolution

MicroStation V8 models have a resolution value in addition to working units. This displays the units of resolution for the highlighted cell or model.

 

{Edit…}

 

Click the {Edit…} button to open the selected cell or model in MicroStation as the active model. All CellManager dialogs will close except a small dialog with a {Done} button that has the title of “Modifying <cell_name>”. Closing the dialogs gives you unobstructed access to the cells graphics for editing.

Then use MicroStation’s tools to modify the cell or model, as needed. Once complete click the {Done} button on the small dialog to restore CellManager’s closed dialog boxex.

 

{Rename…}

Click the {Rename…} button to change a cell or model’s, name or description. Simply highlight a cell in the “Manage” window, click the “Rename…” icon and enter the new data in the “Rename” dialog that appears:

 

Name and description

In MicroStation V8, the following characters are not valid for model names:

• “&” (Ampersand)
• “*” (Asterisk)
• “,” (Comma)
• “/” (Forward slash)
• “:” (Colon)
• “<” (Less than sign)
• “=” (Equal sign)
• “>” (Greater than sign)
• “?” (Question mark)
  
• “\” (Back slash) and
• “|” (Pipe symbol or vertical bar)

 

{Copy…}

 

Click the {Copy…} button to modify a cell or model and also retain the original version.

{Copy…} creates a copy of the original cell or model. You must then rename the copied cell or model. The “Manage” dialog box will then be updated to include both the original and newly named cell or model.

 

{Delete}

 

Click the {Delete} button to delete the tagged cells or models from the cell library or design file.

{Modify…}

Click the {Modify…} button to display the “Change Attributes and Modify Text” dialog that allows you to modify the symbology and level of selected component elements as well as the text of the tagged cells and models from the Manage dialog:

 

.

 

When checkboxes in the “Element Selection Criteria” section are activated, the specified element attributes will be used to determine which component elements will be changed.

Any combination of options can be activated at the same time.

If an option is unchecked, it will not influence component element selection. If none of the options are turned on then all component elements will be processed.

Turning on a checkbox in the “Element Modification Specifications” section will determine the change to make to the component elements selected in the “Element Selection Criteria” section.

 

Element Selection Criteria

“Color” and “Weight” fields may contain only numbers or ‘ByLevel’. The “Type” field must contain MicroStation element type numbers. A selection box has been provided to select the elements types by name(for example, “Line” ”Ellipse”, or “Arc”). The “Style”

field may contain numbers and quoted custom line style names and ByLevel. The only valid entries for the “Level” field are quoted level names.

The “ByLevel” keyword should be placed without any quotes. Example:

 

Element modification

 

The component elements of processed cells or models will have their properties changed to match what you enter here.

Check an option to activate it. Only activated attributes are changed.

 

Modify Text

CellManager can be used to modify text in one or many cells and models at the same time. You can expand the “Change Attributes and Modify Text” dialog box to display the “Text Modification Criteria and Specifications” options by activating the “Modify Text” checkbox:

 

Only process text that fits the Element Selection Criteria

 

When this option is checked (activated), only text elements that match your element selection criteria will be processed.

When this option is unchecked (disabled), all text (regardless of symbology) will be processed.

Editing Method

 

CellManager supports several different text editing modes.

None — Ignore the Search and Replace fields.

Case Sensitive Search Only — Use the Search field to select which text elements to apply font or size modifications to. Text search is case sensitive, so “cat” matches “cat” but not “Cat” nor “CAT”.

Case Insensitive Search Only — This choice is the same as a “Case Sensitive Search Only” except that CellManager doesn’t consider case when selecting text (for example, “cat” matches “CAT” as well as “cat”).

Regular Expression Search Only — This choice is the same as “Case Sensitive Search Only” except that it uses the Regular Expression string matching methods to select text to modify. Refer to the “Regular Expression” section of this guide for a description of this method.

Case Sensitive Substitution — Use “Case Sensitive Substitution” to match strings by exact case only. Both the Search and the Replace fields are used.

For example, if the Search fields is “t” and the Replace field is “@”, then “Text” will be changed to “Tex@”

Case Insensitive Substitution — Use this choice to ignore case when selecting strings to modify. Both the Search and the Replace fields are used.

For example, if the Search fields is “t” and the Replace field is “@”, then “Text” will be changed to “@ex@”

Regular Expression Substitution — Searches text elements for Regular Expression (in the Search field) matches and replaces them with the contents of the Replace string. Refer to the “Regular Expression” section of this guide for a description of regular expressions.

 

Search

 

Enter text to be matched (or a regular expression).

CellManager searches text components for a substring which matches your entry.

Replace

 

Enter the text to replace the matched text.

 

Width and Height

 

Both of these fields have two modes of operation: enter the new Width or Height in working units (as above) or enter a size multiplier. To specify a size multiplier, type an “x” in the field. For example, “x2” to double the size, “x0.5” to halve the text size:

 

Change Font

 

To change the font used in text, activate the checkbox and select the font you want to use.

 

{Process}

The {Process} button begins the modification process.

If any cells are tagged in the “Manage” window then only tagged cells will be processed.

If no cells or models are tagged then only the currently highlighted cell or model will be processed.

To abort processing press the {Esc} key.

For example: if you select type “17” (Text) in the Element Selection Criteria “Type:” field and then “3” for the Element Modification Specification “Color” field, clicking the

{Process} button would make all text red (using the default color palette).

 

{Close}

Clicking the {Close} button closes the “Change Attributes and Modify Text”.

 

{Transform…}

 

Click the {Transform…} button to display the “Transform Models” dialog box that allows you to change the scale, rotation, working units and working resolution of cells and models.

 

Scale and Rotate

Use the “Scale and Rotate” tab to scale or rotate cells and models

 

Scale Cells

Click the “Scale Cells” checkbox on and enter a value for each axis you want to scale. This will scale the cell’s components by the indicated amount. An entry of “2” will double their size while an entry of “0.5” will halve their size. The default value is 1.0, which is equivalent to “no change”. The origin of the cell (xyz coordinate 0,0,0) is used as the scaling origin.

 

Rotate Cells

Rotation is expressed in degrees. The value entered will be used to rotate the cell’s component elements about the origin of the cell (xyz coordinate 0,0,0).

Positive numbers rotate counter-clockwise; negative numbers rotate clockwise.

 

{Process}

Clicking the {Process} button begins the transformations.

If any models are tagged in the “Manage” window then only tagged models will be processed.

If no models are tagged then only the currently highlighted model will be processed. To abort processing, press the {Esc} key.

{Close}

Clicking the {Close} button closes the “Transform Models” dialog box.

 

Change Working Units and Resolution

Use the “Change Working Units and Resolution” tab to change working units and the working resolution of cells and models

 

Change Resolution

To change the working resolution of cells or models click the “Change Resolution” checkbox. In the “Resolution” field add an integer number for the number of resolution units and then select a unit type from the drop-down menu. When the unit type changes from a standard unit like “Feet” to a different standard unit like “Meters” CellManager will scale the cells to maintain their original size. If the current cell’s units are “Unitless” then this scaling is not done.

 

Change Working Units

To change the working units of tagged cells and models click the “Change Working Units” checkbox “On”.

Choose the unit type for the Master Unit you want to use. You can use the default “Label” string or change it to a different value.

Choose the unit type for the Sub Units you want to use. You can use the default “Label” string or change it to a different value.

{Process}

Click the {Process} button to change the resolution and working units of tagged models. If no models are tagged then only the currently highlighted model will be processed.

To abort processing, press the {Esc} key.

 

{Close}

Clicking the {Close} button closes the “Transform Models” dialog box.

 

{Convert…}

Click the {Convert…} button to open the “Convert Cells and Models” dialog box (shown below). This dialog box gives you options to convert cells to models (or models to cells), convert cells from “Graphic” to “Point” cells (or vice-versa) or to convert between annotation and non-annotation cells.

 

Convert Cells and Models

Turn on this checkbox to convert between models that can be placed as cells and models that that cannot be placed as cells.

 

Model to cell

All tagged models will be converted into cells by turning on the property “Can be placed as cell”. If no models are tagged then the currently highlighted model is converted to a cell.

Cell to model

All tagged cells will be converted into models by setting turning off the property “Can be placed as cell”. If no cells are tagged then the currently highlighted cell is converted to a model.

 

Convert Point and Graphic Cells

Turn on this checkbox to convert between point and graphic cells.

 

Point to graphic

Point cells that are tagged will be converted into Regular cells. If no cells are tagged then the currently highlighted Point cell is converted.

 

Graphic to point

Graphic cells that are tagged will be converted into Point cells. If no cells are tagged then the currently highlighted Graphic cell is converted.

 

Annotation and Non-annotation Cells

Turn on this checkbox to convert between annotation and non-annotation cells. This action is comparable to turning on the “Can be placed as an annotation cell” check box in the model properties of a MicroStation V8 model that has the “Can be placed as a cell” property turned on. The “Can be placed as an annotation cell” cell property was first introduced in MicroStation XM. Earlier versions of MicroStation do not support this property.

 

To Annotation Cell

Converts all tagged cells that are non-annotation cells to annotation cells.

 

To Non-annotation Cell

Converts all tagged cells that are annotation cells to non-annotation cells.

 

{Process}

The {Process} button begins the selected conversion.

If any cells are tagged in the Manage window then only tagged cells will be processed. If no cells are tagged then only the currently highlighted cell will be processed.

To abort processing press the {Esc} key.

{Close}

Clicking the {Close} button closes the “Change Attributes and Modify Text”.

 

{Export…}

Click the {Export…} button to open the “Export” dialog box that provides options to either copy or move cells to another V8 cell library or into individual files.

 

Exporting

All tagged cells and models are exported to the output file. Cells may be selected from one or many files.

One way to do this (which shows the flexibility of CellManager) is to pop up the “View” and “Model Details” windows at the same time the “Export” window is up. In the “Manage” window, you can scroll through the models using up and down arrows, then click the {Copy To} button when you come across a model of interest. CellManager will add your selected cell to the output file.

 

Output File Format

Select the output file format, either “MicroStation cell library” or “Individual files (one cell per file)”. When choosing Individual files as the output format, you have the option to choose MicroStation V8 design files (“.dgn”) or MicroStation V8 cell libraries (“.cel”).

Output Directory

When you choose the “Output File Format” option “Individual files (one cell per file)”, fill in the “Output Directory” field with the directory you want the files to be exported to. You can optionally click on the {Select…} button and navigate to the output directory.

 

Output Library

 

When you choose the “Output File Format” option “MicroStation cell library”, fill in the “Output Library” field with the name of the cell library you want created or appended to. If the output library doesn’t exist, CellManager will create it using the current cell library as the “seed”.

If the specified output cell library already exists then output cells will be appended to it. Clicking the {Select…} button allows you to pick an existing cell library.

{Copy To} and {Move To}

 

These two commands work on the tagged cells. If there are no tagged cells, the commands act only on the currently highlighted cell.

These commands copy the cell(s) to the output library. If {Move To} is used, the original cell is deleted from its source library.

To abort the process, press the {Esc} key.

 

How to export cells

Here is the procedure to move or copy cells and models from many files to a single MicroStation cell library:

 

1. In the CellManager main dialog box, select the cell libraries that contain the cells you want to move or copy.

 

1. Click the {Manage} button on the main dialog box.

 

1. Tag the cells you want to copy or move.

 

1. Click the {Export} button.

 

1. Select the output file format.

 

1. Select a new or existing cell library name or an output directory.

 

1. Click {Move To} or {Copy To} to begin processing.
   

Handling Duplicate Cells on Export to another Cell Library

CellManager for V8 will not allow you to create duplicate cells in an output cell library. When duplicates are detected, CellManager prompts you for the appropriate action.

 

The “From Cell” image represents the cell or model that you are exporting. The “To Cell” image represents the cell of the same name in the output library.

 

Cancel Copy/Move Operation

This option stops the operation. All models exported before this duplicate are still exported, but no others will be exported.

 

Don’t Export This Duplicate

This option skips the current duplicate. Processing will continue with the next selected cell or model.

 

Don’t Export Any Duplicates

This option copies all the tagged cells or models to the output library but skips all duplicates.

Replace Cell In Output Library

This option replaces the duplicate cell in the output cell library with the duplicate cell or model in the active file.

 

Replace All Duplicate Cells

This option replaces all duplicate cells in the output cell library with the corresponding duplicate cell or model in the active file.

 

Rename Cell In Output Library

This option allows you to rename the duplicate cell in the output cell library. Once this is done, the cell or model from the active file is exported.

 

Export Cell With New Name

This option allows you to rename the duplicate cell or model in the active file. Once this is done, the cell or model from active file is exported.

 

Tools Menu

 

Create Cell Selector file…

Click Tools | Create a Cell Selector File… to create a MicroStation “Cell Selector File” (.csf). A “.csf” file is used to visually display cells on a tool palette for quick activation and placement when designing in MicroStation. This feature of CellManager automates the task of creating a new cell selector file from all tagged cells or appending the tagged cells to an existing cell selector file.

 

Sample MicroStation cell selector palette

 

From the CellManager “Manage” dialog box, tag the desired cells to include in the “.csf” file. Then, click Tools | Create a Cell Selector File… to create a MicroStation “.csf” file from the tagged cells. The “Create Cell Selector File” dialog opens.

 

Output File

The “Output File” field is used to choose an existing CSF file or create a new CSF file by name and location. Click the {Select…} button to use the “Save Cell Selector File” dialog to do this.

 

Overwrite Output Cell Selector File If It Exists

When the “Overwrite output cell selector file if it exists” checkbox is turned on the CSF file in the “Output File” field will be created if it doesn’t exist and overwritten if it does exist. Turning this option on also activates the “Cell Selector File Options”.

When the checkbox is turned off and the cell selector file in the “Output File” field exists the tagged cells will be appended to the existing CSF file. In this case the Cell Selector File Options” will be grayed out and inactive. The appended cells will use the cell

selector options of the existing CSF file. If the selected CSF file doesn’t exist then the “Cell Selector File Options” will be active and the CSF file will be created.

When appending tagged cells to an existing CSF file if a tagged cell already exists in the CSF file it will not be added again.

 

Cell Selector File Options

{Show}: The show option button controls how the cell shows up in the cell selector palette. The “Cell (graphics)” choice shows an image of the cell on the palette icon. “Cell Name” shows the name of the cell on the icon. “Description” shows the cells description and “Cell and Name” shows the graphics on the icon and the name of the cell underneath.

{View 3D}: When 3D cells are added to the CSF file this option controls the view orientation of the cell graphics on the icon. The choices are “Isometric”, “Top”, “Bottom”, “Left”, “Right”, “Front” and “Back”

The “Cell Selector File Options” are only available when creating a new cell selector file. When appending cells to an existing CSF file the options used, when the existing CSF file was created, are used.

If you want to recreate the cell selector file with different “Show” and “View” options for the existing cells, use the “Select Cells” dialog accessed from CellManager’s main dialog to filter and tag the cells that are currently in the “.csf” file and then turn on the “Overwrite output cell selector file if it exists” checkbox and set the options as desired.

When done CellManager displays a completion dialog. Click {OK} to load the output cell selector file in MicroStation.

 

Start

Click the {Start} button to create or append the tagged cells to the output CSF file.

 

Cancel

Click the{Cancel} button to close the dialog without making any changes.

 

Refresh Display

Click Tools | Refresh Display to update the models displayed in the Manage dialog. CellManager is designed to automatically refresh after completing a task, but it may be necessary to perform a manual refresh if you change the cell libraries in the main dialog while the “Manage” dialog is still open.

Chapter 9 — {Extract...}

 

Extract Cells dialog box

 

CellManager’s {Extract} command searches source design files and extracts all regular (type 2) and shared cell (type 34) definitions and saves them all in an output cell library.

 

Source Design Files:

Specify V8 design files that contains regular cells or shared cell definitions. If the design files don’t contain any cells nothing will be added to the output cell library. Duplicate cell instances will be ignored.

CellManager automatically searches all models in the selected V8 design file.

When the source design files contain shared cells, the cell description is preserved in the output cell library. The cell description is not available when extracting non-shared cells

— the cell description is initialized with “IMPORTED CELL” in the output cell library.

 

Cell Seed File:

Since the Extract command creates a new cell library, a seed cell library must be specified.

MS_CELL_SEEDFILE is used by default, but if not defined, you will be prompted to select a cell library seed file (selection directory defaults to MS_SEEDFILES).

 

Output Cell Library:

Name the V8 cell library you want to create. If a library of the same name already exists, it will be overwritten if the “overwrite cell library(if it exists)” option is selected.. When the “Extract” process is done, this new cell library will contain all the cells that were in the source design file.

After running the “Extract” process, the new output cell library name now appears in the “Cell Library” field of the main dialog. You can immediately perform any CellManager command on the newly created cell library.

The “Extract” feature was designed with the following operational method in mind:

1. Using “Extract”, creates a cell library from all the cells in the selected design files.
2. Jump back to CellManager’s “Manage” window where you can give the cells meaningful descriptions with the “Rename” function (the cells in drawing files don’t have any descriptions, so Extract just gives them all the description of “IMPORTED CELL”). You might also delete some cells from this library at this time.

 

1. Use the “Export” function to move all or selected cells to a permanent (say, a project) library.
2. Use the “Draw Pages” function to fully document your new library cells.

 

{Extract…}

Click the {Extract…} button to begin processing.

Chapter 10 — {Create Report...}

 

Create Report dialog box

 

The “Create Report” function allows you to design and create reports that describe the contents of your cell library.

 

Report File:

In the “Report File:” field, enter the path and name of the report file to be created or use the {Select…} button to select a directory and report file name.

If the specified file already exists, it will be overwritten.

 

Template:

Templates control the content and format of CellManager’s reports.

A variety of report templates are delivered in the CellManager installation directory. The templates are ASCII files with a “.tpl” extension.

Use the {Select…} button to choose an existing template file. Use the {Edit} button to modify (or create) a template file.

Template file details are covered in the section “Report Templates and Cell Notebook Page Layouts” in this User Guide.

Note:

 

You can add your own note or comment to each report.

Your note replaces “<NOTE>” wherever it occurs in the report template.

 

Lines Per Page:

The “Lines Per Page:” field defines the number of lines between page breaks in a report.

Enter zero if you plan to view your report in Notepad (or another text editor) and do not need to print your report. Headers and footers will be inserted into the report only once (if defined in your report template).

The default is 0 lines per page. This is appropriate for displaying reports on the screen with Notepad. If you intend to print your report, use 60 lines per page.

 

{Create}

 

Click the {Create} button to generate the report file. Abort the process by pressing the {Esc} key.

 

{Display...}

Click the {Display…} button to display your report.

 

Example Report (created with “Full Report.tpl”)

Cell Library Full Report

========================

 

Library: C:\Program Files\Axiom\V8\CellMgr\sample\CellMgr2D.cel Monday, 23 April 2007 at 5:35 pm

 

Cell Selection Criteria: Name: ALL

Description: ALL

Component Element Levels: ALL Component Element Types: ALL

Filename: C:\Program Files\Axiom\V8\CellMgr\sample\CellMgr2D.cel Name: IND1

Description: DUXLAX NODE Type: Graphic

Component Element Types: 3-4,15,17 Levels: "Level 1", "Level 2"

Range: (1:389.9000, 2:320.0000)

Styles: 0 References: <none> Nested Cells: <none>

 

Filename: C:\Program Files\Axiom\V8\CellMgr\sample\CellMgr2D.cel Name: JBRICK

Description: 4X16 BRICK Type: Point

Component Element Types: 3 Levels: "Level 45"

Range: (38:400.0000, 12:800.0000)

Styles: 0 References: <none> Nested Cells: <none>

 

====================================================================

This note will be added to your report. Page #1

====================================================================

Chapter 11 — {Draw Pages...}

 

Draw Pages dialog box

 

The {Draw Pages…} command allows you to create comprehensive, custom-formatted cell library documentation. CellManager’s documentation includes cell graphics and text descriptions. The pages of customized cell library documentation can then be plotted and assembled into hard copy cell library documentation or a single PDF document for digital distribution.

 

The following illustration is an example of documentation pages which can be generated by CellManager.

 

Two methods

There are two methods to produce notebook pages.

The first is to use customizable “layout” files. The main advantage of using a layout file is that you have total control of the format of the resulting pages. A number of layout examples are delivered with CellManager — you can use them as-is or customize them according to your requirements. CellManager “layout” file details are covered in the section “Report Templates and Cell Notebook Page Layouts” in this User Guide.

 

The second method is to let CellManager build your notebook pages automatically (no layout file is used).

 

The “Layout” check box controls which method is used. Both methods are described in the section titled “Report Templates and Cell Notebook Page Layouts” in this User Guide.

 

Printing from CellManager

CellManager has the capability to print directly to a local printer, a network device or to a file. You can also create a single PDF file as output when you select a MicroStation V8 PDF plot driver.

 

“SUBMIT.BAT” contains the commands necessary to send each plot file to the plotter and perform post processing when you use CellManager’s plot to file setting.

The contents of “SUBMIT.BAT” will be specific to your system.

By default, your plot files (one plot file per “page” of drawn cells) are copied to the “PRN” port by “SUBMIT.BAT”.

The “PRN” port is a device often used to access a local printer. Your computer may not have “PRN” defined.

To send your plot files to a different printing device (such as LPT1 or LPT2) or a network printer (such as “\\server\printer1”) you will need to edit the following line in the “SUBMIT.BAT” file:

copy %1 PRN > NUL

to something like:

copy %1 \\server1\@printer > NUL

Or to plot to an IP address:

copy %1 \\10.0.0.251\@printer > NUL

Below is an example of the “Output Settings” with the “Device” field pointing to a network printer using a UNC path.

 

What is the name of my printer?

The name of your printer can be determined from Windows Start | Settings | Printers. Right click on the printer icon, select “Properties” and you will see the port name.

 

Example for Windows NT

 

Example for Windows 2000

 

Example for Windows XP

 

Layout

 

When you activate the Layout option, the selected layout file will take precedence over CellManager’s “Page Setting” options accessed through CellManager’s “Change Settings” dialog.

 

CellManager Layout file details are covered in the section “Report Templates and Cell Notebook Page Layouts” in this User Guide.

Page Width and Page Height

 

When working with Layout files, CellManager needs to know the dimensions of the final output. “Letter” size is 8.5 by 11 inches.

 

3D orientation

 

This allows you to select the orientation with which to place 3D cells.

 

Sheets

 

By default, CellManager plots all pages in your notebook.

You can specify a sub-range of pages to be plotted. {Create Plots} and {Submit Plots} will be restricted to the sheets specified here.

Enter a range (1-20 or 1:20 to get one through twenty) or specific sheets (“1,2,5”). Ranges and specific numbers may be combined, for example, “1-10,12,13”.

Leaving this field blank means “all sheets.”

Note

 

This field will be used as a comment for each page when you are using default page generation (without a layout file). When using a layout file, it will replace the <NOTE> key string.

 

Plot Config

 

This displays a summary of the selections made in the “Plot Settings” category of

CellManager’s “Change Settings” dialog.

The display consists of the name from the “MODEL” line found in the plotter config file, plus the name of the selected Paper Size plus the Plot System and the Plot Queue (if applicable).

 

{Draw Pages}

 

Click on {Draw Pages} to initiate documentation page creation. While the pages are being drawn, all the dialog boxes are hidden so that you can watch the cells being drawn.

To abort the process, just press the {Esc} key.

 

{Create Plots}

 

CellManager automates the process of plotting the pages it has drawn.

Click {Create Plots} to create the plot, prf or meta files for the specified sheets (depending upon which plotting system and plot driver you’ve specified).

CellManager creates plot files in the directory specified by the MS_PLTFILES configuration variable. Plot file names are the first five letters of the cell library name followed by a three digit number (zero padded). So pages for a library such as “CM2D.CEL” may be named “CM2D001.msp”, “CM2D002.msp” and so on.

When CellManager creates an image file as output it uses the extension value designated in the MicroStation plot configuration file.

When plotting to a PDF file CellManager assumes you will want a single PDF file that contains all the pages. After creating the PDF you can display the results by clicking the

{Display} button that will become available to the right of the {Create Plots} button.

 

To plot the pages, your computer must be properly configured for plotting from MicroStation (including the plotter, the plotter config file, the ports, the plotting system and any needed queues). If you can manually plot a fenced area in one of your design files, your system should be properly configured to work with CellManager.

CellManager saves information about how to plot your pages in a special non-displayable element which is saved in your file along with the cell graphics, descriptive text, borders, etc. Therefore:

 

To abort the plot creation process, press {Esc}.

 

{Submit Plots}

 

The {Create Plots} function creates plot files. Use the {Submit Plots} button to send them to the plotter.

To abort the process, press the {Esc} key.

CellManager will run “SUBMIT.BAT”.

 

Typically a “submit” file would run a program to send the file to the plotter, copy the file to the PRN device or copy the file to a “queue” directory. The “submit” file may need to modify or adjust the plot files as part of the submission process. The “submit” file may also delete the plot or intermediate files as the final step.

For more information, see the example in the “SUBMIT.BAT” section of this guide.

Chapter 12 — {Import...}

 

Import files to a cell library dialog box

The {Import…} function allows you to import MicroStation V7 files, AutoCAD blocks and default models of MicroStation V8 files into a MicroStation cell library.

Files to Import:

Click the {Select…} button to open the “Choose Files to Process” dialog box from which you can choose one or more files to import.

You will have to pay attention to the version of AutoCAD supported by the version of MicroStation you are using for the import.

See the “Choose Files to Process” section in this document for more details on this tool.

 

Cell Seed File:

Select a 2D seed file if you want to import blocks as 2D cells. Select a 3D seed file to create 3D cells.

 

Output Cell Library

Type in or select the name of your output cell library. If the cell library does not exist, it will be created. If the cell library already exists, CellManager will overwrite it after

displaying a warning message. After running the import process, the “CellManager – Import files to a cell library” window will close and the “Output Cell Library” name will fill the “Cell Library:” field of CellManager’s main dialog box.

 

Overwrite output cell library if it exists

When this option is “On” CellManager will overwrite the output cell library without prompting the user. This option is “Off” by default.

 

Import

 

Click on the {Import} button to start the import process.

 

Display Report

The import process creates a report file detailing what occurred during the import. This report has the same name as the output cell library with a “.rep” extension and is placed in the same folder as the output cell library.

 

Importing cells (custom feature)

CellManager’s Import tool has the ability — almost completely hidden from the user interface — to import cells from multiple cell libraries into one “output” cell library. This is a custom feature which was created in CellManager 8.4b for a small number of users.

This ability is available for all CellManager for V8 users but it requires some very specific setup: to tell CellManager what cells to import (and what libraries to import them from) you must create a text file that has a line for each input cell plus the library to get it from. These text files are called cell list files because they contain lists of cells.

Once you’ve created a cell list file, you specify it in the “Files to Import:” field of CellManager’s “Import files to a cell library.” box and press {Import} to perform the import.

 

Cell list file format

You can optionally define the output cell library on the first line of the cell list file. For example, the first line might be

#OUTPUT_FILE#,c:\project\output.cel

The rest of the lines in the file define each input cell and its cell library. For example

DOOR,c:\project\library1.cel

You can also place an optional description on each of these lines. This description is only for readers of this file — it will have no effect whatsoever on the output of the import.

For example

DOOR,c:\project\library1.cel,Optional description here.

Combining the above examples, here is a cell list file that will import two cells that happen to be in the same library into the output cell library “c:\project\output.cel”

#OUTPUT_FILE#,c:\project\output.cel

DOOR,c:\project\library1.cel,Optional description here.

CHAIR,c:\project\library1.cel,Optional description here too.

 

Whenever the full path to the cell library is not defined in the text file, CellManager searches for the specified cell library in the location defined by the MicroStation configuration variable “AXI_CELLMGR_IMPORT_SRC”.

 

Importing cells via key-in

CellManager also lets you perform an import job from a cell list file using a key-in. There are two ways to do this:

1. When loading CellManager, for example

mdl load c:\axiom\cellmgr\cellmgr.ma import [-s] c:\project\input_cell_list.txt [c:\cells\output.cel]

The parameters in brackets [] are optional.

1. After CellManager is already loaded, for example

import [-s] c:\project\input_cell_list.txt [c:\cells\output.cel]

Again, the parameters in brackets [] are optional.

The optional -s parameter means “Stop the import job as soon as one input cell cannot be found.”

If you do not specify the output cell library in the key-in, the output file name saved in the cell list file will be used. If no output file name is specified in the cell list file, the output file will be created in the directory defined in the MicroStation configuration variables MS_CELLOUT with the same name as the cell list file and an extension of “.CEL”.

If you decide to specify the output cell library, do not forget to include its path. Otherwise it will be created in the same location as the “Cell Seed File” defined in CellManager’s “Import files to a cell library.” box.

If the output file already exists, it will be overwritten automatically during a key-in- initiated import job.

Chapter 13 — Choose Files to Process

 

Using Axiom’s “Choose Files to Process” box

Use Axiom’s “Choose Files to Process” box to create a list of files to process. Here is an empty list (no files chosen yet):

 

The first button shown in this picture  — — will only display if you have MicroStation connected to ProjectWise. When this is not the case, this button will not display.

 

Adding files to the list

There are up to five ways to add files to the list:

• By browsing for them in a ProjectWise datasource with the “Browse ProjectWise” button  . This button is only displayed when MicroStation is connected to ProjectWise.
• By browsing for them with the “Browse for files” button .
• By searching for them with the “Search for files” button , which brings up the “Search for Files” box.
• By dragging and dropping them from Windows Explorer into the “Files to Process” list. You can open a Windows Explorer window using the button.
• By importing an existing ASCII text file with files listed in it using “File | Import File List…”

 

File and Edit menus

Most of the options in the “File” and “Edit” menus are duplicated along the button bar or on the right-click menu in the “Files to Process” list.

 

Browse ProjectWise

Click on this button or press {Ctrl-P} to open the “Axiom ProjectWise Navigator” box. You will be prompted to log into a ProjectWise datasource.

 

Browse your ProjectWise datasource, select the files you want and press

{Add to List}. No files are shown in the above picture but you’ll see files once you log into a datasource.

Here you simply select the files you want to process and press {Add to List} to add them to your list of files to process. You can also right-click and choose “Add Files to List” to get the same result.

When you are done adding files to your list of files to process, press {Close}.

 

Browse for files

Click on this button or press {Ctrl+O} to open the “Browse for Files” box:

 

Select one or more files and press {Open} to add them to your list of files to process.

 

Search for files

Click on this button or press {Ctrl+F} to open the “Search for Files” box (with its “Basic” tab activated):

 

Search in:

 

Choose the folder you want to search for files in. Click the “Choose a folder to search” button  to browse to the folder you want to search.

 

Include subfolders.

Enable this if you want to search for files in subfolders too.

 

Search for files using:

Use this to restrict your search to files with certain names or extensions. Most users search by file extension, such as “*.dgn”.

Search for files by date:

Choose files to process based on their modification date. You can choose to search for files that were last changed before or after a specific date and time.

 

{Search Now}

Once you have made your file search choices, click {Search Now} to perform the search. When the search is done, you will see a count of the number of files found. Press {Add Files} to add the files to your list of files to process.

 

{Add Files}

After searching for files, press this button to add the found files to your list of files to process.

 

{Close}

Press this button to close the “Search for Files” box.

 

Search for Files: Advanced tab

If you want to search for files in more than one folder at a time, click on the “Advanced” tab of the “Search for Files” box.

 

Here you can choose any number of folders to search by checking them on in the folder tree.

 

Drag-and-drop files from Windows Explorer

Click this button or press {Ctrl+E} to open a Windows Explorer window from which you can drag and drop files or entire folders into your “Files to Process” list.

Dragging a folder into the list adds the files in that folder to the list, not the folders themselves.

 

Dragging folders (not files) into the list

Dragging folders into the list is different than dragging files. Dragging files is direct — the files go right into your list. But since folders could include files you don’t want to process, dragging folders initiates a search of those folders. You can then fine-tune the search by adding or removing folders, choosing which types of files to include and limiting the search by file modification dates.

Once you’ve made your search choices, click {Search Now} to begin the search. When that’s done, click {Add Files} to add the found files to the list of files to process.

 

Remove selected files

Press this button to remove the selected files from the list.

 

Remove all files

Press this button to remove every file from your list.

 

Remove Missing Files

This removes any files from the list that cannot be found. This is available only from the Edit menu, there is no dedicated button for it.

 

Save list to file

Press this button or {Ctrl+S} if you want to save the currently displayed list of files to a text file that you can reuse in the future.

 

Files to Process

The object of this entire box is to put files in the “Files to Process” list.

 

Right-clicking on the list

Right-click anywhere in the list to see this context-sensitive menu of available actions:

 

Selecting files in the list

You might want to select one or more files in the list so you can remove them. There are multiple ways to select multiple files in the list.

 

Using {Shift-left-click}

You can select multiple adjacent files in the list by first left-clicking on the first file then holding down the {Shift} key while left-clicking on the last file in the series.

 

Using {Ctrl-left-click}

You can select multiple files arbitrarily by holding down the {Ctrl} while left-clicking on each one.

Removing files from the list

There are several ways to remove files from the list:

 

1. Select one or more files and click the {Remove selected files} button.
2. Select one or more files and right-click on one of them, then choose a removal option from the menu which appears.

 

1. Select one or more files and press the {Delete} key on your keyboard.

 

1. Click the {Remove all files} button.

 

Version

 

Right-click on the title bar and choose “About Axiom File List Processor” to bring up a box containing version information which is useful if you are calling Axiom for support.

 

{OK}

 

Once you have chosen all the files you want to process, press {OK} to close the “Choose Files to Process” box.

 

{Cancel}

 

If you change your mind, press {Cancel} and any changes you made to your list of files to process will be discarded.

 

Advanced Commands

The “Choose Files to Process” box is extremely powerful and easy to use. However, for those users who want more raw power, it is possible to create a list of files to process without even picking up your mouse.

Instead of opening the “Choose Files to Process” box, you can type wildcards and other special commands directly in the file specification field in the main dialog box of the host program (for example, FileFixer’s “Which Files:” field.)

Using these commands, your list of files to process will be created automatically when you start processing. Or you can open the “Choose Files to Process” box to view and edit your list of files before you begin processing them.

This table describes the most popular of these advanced commands.

 

Command	Examples	Description
*	c:\work\*.dgn c:\work\*.* c:\work\project1.*	This wildcard will match zero or more characters anywhere in the file name and extension. It does not work on the path.
?	c:\work\project1.dg? c:\work\project?.d?? c:\work\?project?.dgn	This wildcard will match exactly one character anywhere in the file name and extension. It does not work on the path.
/S	c:\work\*.dgn /S c:\work\border*.dgn /S c:\work\project?.dgn /S	This command causes subfolders to be searched for matching files. It is usually used with a wildcard.
/L	/L c:\work\list.lst	Follow this command with the name of a list of file to process, including its full path. The list file is a text file with one file per line, including full path on each line, usually with the extension “.LST”.

 

Chapter 14 — Report Templates and Cell Notebook Page Layouts

Overview

CellManager “Report Templates” define the content and format for a cell library report.

A number of report templates are delivered with CellManager. “Report Template” files, by convention, have the extension “.tpl”.

Example report generated using a CellManager Report template:

Cell Library Full Report

========================

 

Library: C:\Program Files\Axiom\V8\CellMgr\sample\CellMgr3D.cel Friday, 28 July 2006 at 3:46 pm

 

Cell Selection Criteria: Name: ALL

Description: ALL

Component Element Levels: ALL Component Element Types: ALL

 

Name: 3DCUBE

Description: 3D Cube Type: Graphic

Component Element Types: 3-4,6,17 Levels: 1(Level 1)

Range: (0:67.0538, 0:78.3530, 0:74.2487)

Styles: 0 References: <none> Nested Cells: <none>

 

Name: AAFOAM

Description: RSC FOAM Type: Graphic

Component Element Types: 3 Levels: 30(Level 30)

Range: (12:166.6667, 15:500.0000, 8:250.0000)

Styles: 0 References: <none>

Nested Cells: <none>

...

 

====================================================================

Our Cell Library Documentation Page #1

====================================================================

 

CellManager Notebook Page Layouts define the content and format for cell library documentation.

A number of layouts are delivered with CellManager. Layout files, by convention, have the extension “.lay”.

Example cell library documentation page generated using a CellManager Notebook Layout:

CellManager Report Templates and Page Layouts use a common “language” for defining

content.

Placeholders, called key strings, are used to represent the data to be inserted into a report or notebook page.

For example, the key string “<LIBRARY>”, is replaced by the current cell library name. The key string “<LIBRARY>” was used to include the cell library name in both the report and notebook page examples above.

CellManager supports a number of key strings. Some key strings are appropriate for reports but not notebook pages, and vice versa.

Details about CellManager key strings follow in the remainder of this section.

Key strings

Key strings consist of a key word enclosed in angle brackets. Example: <LIBRARY>. All supported key words are listed later in this section.

Key words are insensitive to case. <LIBRARY>, <library> and <Library> are equivalent. You can control string justification and length as follows:

Key String	Description
<Desc>	Full cell description is output at location of the key string. Leading and trailing spaces are trimmed.
<Desc-40>	Up to 40 characters of the cell description are output, left-justified, in a 40 character fixed- width field at the location of the key string.
<Desc+40>	Up to 40 characters of the cell description are output, right-justified, in a 40 character fixed-width field at the location of the key string.
<Desc /40:Name>	Allows you to define alternate output if the first string exceeds the space available. In this example, if the cell description exceeds 40 characters, the cell name will be output instead.
<Desc /wrap=65 /max=400 /linespacing=0.4	/wrap controls the number of characters per line. The number of characters per line will vary depending on the font you select. In this example, a maximum of 65 characters will be output per line. /max controls the number of total characters which will be output. MicroStation V8 supports up to 512 characters in a cell description — you might, for example, want to limit your output to the first 400 characters. /linespacing controls the line spacing between description lines. CellManager converts the cell description into a text node — /linespacing controls the line spacing in the text node. Line spacing is defined in proportion to text height, so 0.4 means line spacing = 0.4 x text height (or 40% of text height). If the /linespacing parameter is omitted, CellManager defaults to 0.5.

Adding a numerical width forces fixed-width output. Fixed-width output is useful for columnar reports and headers. If the actual string is shorter than the specified field width, output will be padded with blank spaces to maintain the column width.

 

Key strings which represent cell properties

 

Key String	Description
CLASS	Lists classes of cell components; Primary, Construction, Dimension, etc.
COLOR	Lists colors used by cell components.
COMPONENT_CELLS	A list of cells nested within the current cell (one nesting level deep). 64 characters max.
DESC	The cell description.
DESC1	First part of a two-part cell description when a delimiter is used. See Settings | Change Settings…| Features.
DESC2	Second part of a two-part cell description when a delimiter is used.
DIMENSION	V8 cell libraries can contain 2D or 3D cells. Use this key string to output “2D” or “3D” for each cell.
ELEMENTS	A list of component element types for the current cell.
EXT_LEVELS	A list of level names occupied by the components of this cell. 64 characters max.
FILLCOLOR	Lists fill colors used by cell components.
FILLTYPE	Lists fill types used by cell components.
LEVELS	A numeric list of the levels occupied by the components of the cell (64 characters max.).
LEVEL_NAMES	List of quoted level names only, no level

 

	numbers. Supports /wrap /max and /linespacing options (see Key Strings section for explanation).
LINESTYLE	Lists line styles used by cell components
LINKAGE	“Yes” or “No” is reported based on the existence of attribute linkage.
MODIFIED	The date when cell was last modified.
NAME	The cell’s name (64 characters maximum)
RANGE	This is the X, Y and Z dimension of the cell in MU:SU:PU format (not the range rectangle or range cube).
REFERENCES	Names of reference files attached to the current cell.
RESOLUTION	Gives the units of resolution for the cell.
SCALE	Scale is based on the cell sizing method used and is only relevant to layout files (for notebook pages) — not applicable to reports.
SIZE SIZE_BYTES SIZE_WORDS	The cell’s length in bytes and blocks (64 characters max.) or just bytes or just words.
TYPE	Graphic, Point, Tutorial or Menu.
WEIGHT	Lists weights of component elements.

 

Key strings which do not represent cell properties

The following keys/fields are best suited for use in a report header or footer or for repeating page content in a layout.

 

Key String	Description
LIBRARY	The name of the cell library being reported on, as entered in the CellManager Main dialog. The string is limited to 127 characters.
FILENAME	The full path and file name to the file containing the cell.
NOTE	Replaced by your note from the Note: field. The Note is limited to 65 characters.
SEL_NAME SEL_DESC SEL_ELEMENTS SEL_LEVELS	These are the fields entered in the Cell Selection dialog. It may be useful to note which cells of the library are being reported. Each field is limited to 64 characters.
MM DD YY	The two digit values for today’s month, day and year. They can be used for construction of dates such as MM/DD/YY or DD.MM.YY. The year 1999 will show as “99”, 2000 as “00”, 2001 as “01”, etc.
TODAY	This is replaced by a date/time string in the format “Monday, 12 May 2003 at 3:15 pm”. This is a shortcut for what normally would otherwise require three key strings.
YEAR	The full four-digit year (for example, “2003”).
MONTH	The fully month, spelled-out (for example, “November”).
MON	The three letter abbreviated version of the month (for example, “Dec”).
PAGE	The number of the page currently being drawn or printed.

 

Report templates only

 

Key String	Description
HEADER_START HEADER_END	Each page of output will start with a header consisting of the text and strings between these two key strings. Both <HEADER_START> and <HEADER_END> need to be on a line by themselves.
FOOTER_START FOOTER_END	Each page of output will end with a footer consisting of the text and strings between these two keys. Both <FOOTER_START> and <FOOTER_END> need to be on a line by themselves.

The header will be started on the first line of the page. The page will end with the footer calculated from the lines-per-page field. After the footer is printed, a form feed character is inserted. The lines of text in a template file that do not comprise the header or footer are reprinted once for each cell.

 

Notebook layouts only

Use these key strings to indicate which cell orientation to use when placing the cell.

 

Key String	Description
BOTTOM, LEFT, RIGHT, FRONT, BACK, ISO, TOP	These represent the various 3D orientations. Use TOP for 2D.

 

Chapter 15 — SUB MIT.BAT

 

Example SUBMIT.BAT file

@echo off

 

rem CELLMANAGER - SUBMIT

rem ======================

 

echo Submitting %1 for plotting...

 

rem..Microstation plotting with a printer (say an HP Laser Jet 4) rem connected to the PC's parallel port...

 

copy %1 PRN > NUL

rem ...using MicroStation’s serial port com program... rem set USTNRESD=

rem set MS_PLTFILES=D:\ustation\out\plot\

rem set MS_PLTR=D:\ustation\plotcfg\HPLJET4.PLT

rem D:\ustation\plotutil.exe %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9 rem set MS_PLTFILES=

rem set MS_PLTR=

 

rem ...using IPLOT...

 

rem (probably not all of these command lines will

rem be needed for your configuration to output properly, rem some may be combined.)

 

rem iplot modify %1 -origin=0.0,0.0 rem iplot modify %1 -rotation=90 rem iplot modify %1 -ysize=10.5

 

rem iplot generate %1 rem iplot submit %1

rem the iplot parameter "%1" has no path or extension rem (iplot "knows" where the file is)...

rem del /ustation/iplot/out/%1.i (?) rem del /ustation/iplot/out/%1.m (?)

 

rem ...optional clean up... rem del %1

Chapter 16 — Tro uble Shooting & Technical Notes

 

Cell library anomalies

CellManager for V8 processes healthy V8 cell libraries. If you experience anomalies with a V8 cell library, clean it up with FileFixer for V8.

 

Plot file not found due to a space in the path

Plot files are created in the directory specified in the MS_PLTFILES. You may have difficulty if the path contains a space such as “C:\Program Files\”. To handle this, change the path or put double quotes around the path.

 

The CellManager plot sheet does not show all cells in the library

The plot sheet is re-created every time you run “Draw Pages”. If you run “Draw Pages” on selected cells, the plot sheet will show only the selected cells.

To create a full notebook, make sure that all cells are selected and no cells are tagged. Then re-run “Draw Pages.”

 

Anomalies with Extracted cells

In the process of Extracting cells from a wide variety of real-world client files, we have found it is very common to find extracted cells with no components and other anomalies. If you need help cleaning up your cell libraries created by the Extract command, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Here’s a trick you can use to clean up cell libraries created by the Extract command:

After the extract process is complete, use the Manage window to view each cell one at a time. Display the View window to see each cell. If a cell appears blank, press CellManager’s {Edit} button, then from MicroStation’s main menu bar, select Edit | Select All. Then select the Element Information tool (or key-in ANALYZE) and check the Element Information “Detail” tab.

This procedure will often identify cells that have no size.

Press CellManager’s {Delete} button and check the next cell in the list.

MS_CELLLIST

The MS_CELLLIST variable tells MicroStation where to search to satisfy missing cell references. To ensure there is no confusion during CellManager processing, CellManager temporarily clears MS_CELLLIST while it is running, then restores it on exiting.

 

Fence Fill and Highlight Fence option

There have been instances where MicroStation was configured to fill the fence area — so each page was being covered as the fences were created and only blank pages were plotted. If this is happening on your system, disable the Highlight Fence option.

 

Troubleshooting IPLOT Systems

 

Configure CellManager

Go into CellManager’s Draw Pages and select the Configure menu items, checking each to make sure the data fits the system you are running. In particular you need to set up Plotter and Plotting:

Plotter: Despite the fact that your IPLOT system is itself configured to handle the plotter you must select a plotter here. If your plotter doesn’t show up on the list of available ones then pick one that has the same paper sizes. CellManager needs to know the size of paper you are going to be outputting to and uses the size definition selected.

Plotting: Of course here you need to select IPLOT and then enter the configured queue.

 

Create fresh plot files

Make a fresh drawing for your CellManager pages by pressing the {Draw Pages} button.

Press {Create Plots} to create the actual plot files. In the case of IPLOT these will be the intermediate (*.I) files and they will be created in the directory as configured within IPLOT. CellManager doesn’t control where they are put.

Run submit.bat stand-alone

We need to see what submit.bat produces. Run it from the “cellmgr” directory by typing it in from the command prompt (in a DOS window if you are running Windows NT or the like).

The intermediate and meta files (IPLOT products) have names based upon the cell libraries’ names. CellManager uses the first five letters of the cell library name followed by a three digit number (zero padded). So a library such as “SWITCHES.CEL” would create files like SWITC001.I, SWITC002.I, SWITC003.I and so forth. CM2D.CEL results with CM2D001.I CM2D002.I, etc.

Run submit on one of the intermediate files. With IPLOT, submit doesn’t need any extension, so a proper command would be SUBMIT SWITC001.

 

What did it do?

 

Were there any error messages as submit.bat ran?

This will require you to go in and change some of the data in submit.bat to fit your system.

 

Did the output look right?

If not then go into submit.bat and add/change the lines as required.

If you encounter errors not covered in this Troubleshooting section, send a detailed email to Support@AxiomInt.com. Please include as much information about your operating system, the problem that you are experiencing and exactly what you did when this problem occurred. Also make sure to include the version number of MicroStation and CellManager that you are running.

Chapter 17 — Regular Expressions

 

Using Regular Expressions

A simple regular expression is also called a sub-string search. The data (that is, the cell’s name or description) will be searched for an occurrence of the string entered. There are various characters with special meanings. All other characters are seen as literals to be matched in the target string.

 

Special characters

The special characters are: . ^ $ * [ ] - \

 

Backslash ( \ )

Removes the special characteristics of a character. “\$” matches the dollar sign in strings.

 

Period ( . )

Matches any alphanumeric character

 

Asterisk ( * )

Repeats any number of the last pattern, including zero repetitions. “test*” matches strings containing “tes” followed by any number of t’s or none. Note that “tes”, “testtt”, and “tesh” would all be matched.

 

Brackets ( [ ] )

Specifies a limited range or variety of given characters. “^[abcd0123]” will match strings beginning with any one of the specified characters (“abcd0123”).

 

Hyphen ( - )

Denotes a range of characters in [ ] ranges. “[A-Z0-9]$” matches strings ending with a capital letter or a digit.

Caret ( ^ )

Matches the beginning of the string. “^#include” will match strings beginning with “#include”.

 

More about carets

When the caret is used as the first character after a left square bracket, it reverses the meaning of the search, as if to say “not”.

“[^A-Z]$”

will match strings not ending with a capital letter. “^[^A-Z]”

will match strings not beginning with a capital letter. Note that in this case the caret is used in both contexts.

If a caret occurs anywhere but at the start of a regular expression, it will be interpreted as a literal character. This does not affect or change the meaning of ^ within expressions.

“This^”

will match strings containing the string “This^”, treating the caret as a literal. More properly this expression would be written as:

“This\^”

 

Dollar ( $ )

Matches the end of the string. “}$” will match strings ending with a closing brace.

 

More about dollar signs

If a dollar sign occurs anywhere but at the end of a regular expression, it will be interpreted as a literal character. This does not affect or change the meaning of \$ within regular expressions

“$ is money”

will match strings containing the string “$ is money”, treating the dollar sign as a literal. This expression would more properly be written as:

“\$ is money”

Repetitions

A regular expression may also check for limited repetition of a one-character regular expression primitive (as above). It can check that a particular pattern repeats either:

 

1. X times

 

1. X or more times

 

1. at least X times and no more than Y times. The formats are:

1. P\{X\} matches exactly X repetitions of P.

 

1. P\{X,\} matches at least X repetitions of P.

 

1. P\{X,Y\} Matches any number of repetitions of P, between X and Y inclusive. X and Y must be non-negative integers less than 256. Whenever a choice exists, as many occurrences will be matched as possible.

 

Segments

One of the powerful aspects of the regular expression code is the ability to record which sections of the target string matched particular sections of the regular expression. The regular expression format is extended through the use of “segments” via the “\(“ and “\)” operators which may be placed around any section of the regular expression.

\( denotes the beginning of a segment.

\) denotes the end of a segment.

Use of the caret (^) and dollar sign ($) primitives to match line beginnings and endings respectively must occur outside of any segments. The following expression will treat both the caret and dollar sign as literal characters:

“\(^This expression$\)”

and will not match the string “This expression”, but instead: “^This expression$”. The following will match the line terminators:

“^\(This expression\)$” Example:

Given a filename, the regular expression “\(.*\)\.c” will match only filenames ending in “.c”.

 

Chapter 18 — The Layout File

 

What is a Layout File?

A layout file is a design file that defines the output format of cell library documentation generated by CellManager’s {Draw Pages} command.

The use of layout files is optional and can be considered an advanced CellManager

feature.

CellManager is delivered with a number of layout file examples, identified by the .lay file name extension. One or another of the examples might serve your purposes — or could be quickly adapted to suit your needs.

If you need assistance customizing a layout file, contact Support@AxiomInt.com. For the adventurous, the details of layout file format follow in the next section.

Note: The key words used in CellManager Layout files are covered fully in the “Report Templates and Cell Notebook Page Layouts” section of this User Guide.

Layout File details

Sample layout file for one cell per page, “2d-1x1.lay”:

 

Resulting output using the above “2d-1x1.lay”:

The dimension (2D or 3D) of the layout file should match that of the cell library being plotted. If the cell library contains any 3D cells, you should use a 3D-layout file to generate your documentation.

 

The outline of each Layout Page is a rectangle on level 20, by convention, a dashed rectangle to indicate cut lines. Each Layout represents one page of output — many pages will be automatically generated to include all cells in your cell library. CellManager arranges multiple instances of the Layout for efficient use of large paper sizes.

 

More than one cell can be placed per page. The following examples were generated using one of the provided 2x2 and 3x3 layouts:

The following example was created with the provided “3D 1x2.lay” layout:

The first cell, its enclosing rectangle and associated details, should be placed on level number 21. Other cells, enclosing rectangles and details should be placed on levels 22, 23, etc. Use the examples delivered with CellManager as a guide.

Cell details are defined by “Key” strings such as “<NAME>” and “<DESC>”. See the “Create Report” section of this guide for a description of supported “Key” strings.

Key strings on levels numbered 20 or below are not cell-specific (they are placed on every output page). Examples of these key strings are “<TODAY>” which is replaced by today’s date and “<LIBRARY>” which is replaced by the cell library’s name.

Keys on levels numbered 21 and above are replaced once for each library cell. Cell name

<name> and description <desc> are examples of cell specific keys.

Cell graphics are positioned with the cell origin snapped to one of the following key strings: <top>, <front>, <iso>, <right>, <left>, <back> or <bottom>. These key strings must be placed on the same level as the enclosing rectangle and associated key strings (e.g., <name>, <descr>). The enclosed layout examples illustrate this.

Please refer to the {Create Report…} section of this guide for a full description and list of the key strings.

If you need assistance, please contact Support@AxiomInt.com.

Chapter 19 — We’ ll make (almost) any enhancements you want

 

We welcome your suggestions

CellManager is a powerful program — in some ways, one of the most powerful MDL applications ever written. Nonetheless, we realize that you, a skilled and creative MicroStation user, will think of ways in which it can be improved. We invite you to tell us your ideas.

Since 1986 we’ve listened to you, the skilled MicroStation professional, and have implemented the features you’ve requested. Every widely acclaimed product we’ve ever developed, including FileFixer evolved in this manner.

We’d like to make CellManager perform every function you could ever imagine such a product being able to do. We intend to make you such a satisfied CellManager customer that you can’t wait for the next user group meeting so you can tell your friends and associates how much you like CellManager and how strongly you recommend it.

Your suggestions on how to improve CellManager are most welcome.

Chapter 20 — New Features and Fixes

 

8.11a — 9 October 2015

New: Added support for Windows 10!

New: To prevent files from being quietly redirected to the “VirtualStore” folders of Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8, CellManager and its installer have new default locations for the following files:

• License files (“axiom.lic”) now get installed to “%programdata%\Axiom\”.
• Layout (*.lay) and report template files (*.tpl) are now installed to “%programdata%\Axiom\V8\<product>”
• Settings files (“<product>.ini” and “settings.dat”) now default to “%appdata%\Axiom\V8\<product>\”.
• Report and log files (*.rep, *.log) now default to “%appdata%\Axiom\V8\<Product>\”.

 

8.10e — 21 August 2015

Fixed a problem that caused the build date to show in the expiration date field of the Help

| About html.

 

8.10d — 17 March 2015

Fixed a problem that would prevent the {Display} button on the “Draw Pages” dialog box from opening a created PDF whose name contained one or more of the following characters: ^ ( ) &

Fixed a problem where CellManager would occasionally add a blank page between the table of contents and the first page of cells when printing all pages to a single PDF.

 

8.10c — 20 February 2015

No longer replace spaces with underbars in the output PDF file name when creating a single PDF in the “Draw Pages” feature.

Fixed an abort that would occur when submitting plots if the number of pages in a PDF cell notebook exceeded 256.

Improved the wording of several warning messages.

8.10b — 22 August 2014

Fixed a problem that would, in certain cases, prevent Draw Pages from correctly evaluating page size and location when creating plots.

 

8.10a — 31 January 2014

 

New! Change the working units and working resolution of cells.

CellManager now allows you to transform the working units and working resolution of cells in your cell libraries.

 

New! Convert between annotation and non-annotation cells.

CellManager now allows you to convert between annotation and non-annotation cells in your cell libraries.

 

New! Added support for annotation cell status.

CellManager added a new keyword, “Is_Annotation”, to the properties that can be reported in text reports and that can be output to layout files. The “Cell Information” dialog in the Manage tools now lets a user know if a selected cell is an annotation cell.

 

Additional Changes

Added support for the use of MicroStation configuration variables and Windows environment variables when defining the CELLMGR_INI variable.

 

8.9a — 1 November 2013

 

New! Select cells based on a cell selector file.

CellManager now allows you to filter cells based on a MicroStation cell selector file (.csf). This makes it easy to see exactly which cells are included in a MicroStation cell selector file even when cells from multiple cell libraries are included in the CSF file.

New! Append cells to cell selector files.

CellManager now allows you to append additional cells to existing MicroStation CSF files.

 

Additional Changes

CellManager now lets you control the “Show” and “View” options when creating a MicroStation cell selector file.

You can now select a MicroStation cell selector file (.csf) to define which cell libraries CellManager loads rather than picking the cell libraries themselves. This makes it easier than ever to create or modify CSF files.

 

8.8a — 22 March 2013

 

New! Select cells based on a text or tag value.

CellManager now allows you to filter library cells based on a text string within a component text or tag element. This feature supports both wildcards and regular expressions.

 

New! Customize the origin label.

CellManager now allows you to customize the text value of the label used to indicate the location of a cell’s origin or insertion point in cell notebooks

 

New! Added a cell library name column to the table of contents.

CellManager now adds a cell library name column to its table of contentswhen more than one cell library is being documented in “Draw Pages”.

 

Additional Changes

CellManager’s “Manage” dialog has been redesigned to make it easier to use.

Tagged cells in the “Manage” dialog now remain tagged even after the view is refreshed.

Messages and dialogs that work with tagged cells now include the exact number of cells they apply to.

Fixed several issues when working with cell libraries from ProjectWise. Minor licensing system update.

Added an element type picker to the “Select Cells” function so that users can easily choose element types by name.

Added support for very long level names and numbers when creating reports on cells.

Improved the way “Modify Text” is activated and configured in the “Change Attributes and Modify Text” dialog box.

 

8.7a — 27 August 2010

 

New! Plotting a cell notebook to a single PDF file automatically.

CellManager now allows you to automatically create complete cell library documentation in a single PDF file.

 

New! ProjectWise support for selecting cell libraries and design files.

CellManager now allows you to select cell libraries and design files directly from ProjectWise.

 

Additional Changes

Improved some dialog box messages for more clarity. Handled aborts that occurred in several unusual situations. Fixed some documentation problems.

 

8.6c — 15 May 2009

CellManager for V8 has been enhanced for use in MicroStation V8i.

 

• b — 28 December 2007

 

New! Extract cells from multiple design files.

CellManager now allows you to extract cells from multiple files. Cells from a whole set of design files can be extracted to a cell library in one process.

 

Additional changes

• Fixed the {Draw Pages...} function to correct a system fault that occurred under certain conditions.
  
• Fixed a customer reported issue with the {Rename} feature that intermittently produced a system fault.
• Fixed a problem where CellManager would occasionally abort when renaming cells.
• Some duplicate hotkeys were removed.
• Some status messages were improved.

 

• a — 7 September 2007

 

New! Automatically create Cell Selector Files

CellManager now allows the creation of a cell selector files (.csf) using any combination of tagged cells from one or multiple cell library files automatically. This allows users to quickly create custom cell selector files containing just the cells they want, without the time consuming task of manually removing all the unwanted cells.

 

New! Added support for non-cell models in V8

The “Select Cells” dialog box has been enhanced to allow processing of any combination of design models, sheet models or cells. Management of models that are not cells is now possible.

Added an “Is Cell” column to the “Manage” dialog box, which indicates cells by displaying a cell symbol.

New — Added the ability to convert models to cell and cells to models.

 

Additional changes

New — Added a “Display Report” button to the “Import files to a cell library” dialog box.

Level numbers greater than 100,000 are now printed when using the {Create Report...} and {Draw Pages...} functions.

Fixed the {Rename...} function so it correctly handles spaces in the description field.

Removed ambiguous plus sign [+] and minus sign [-] symbols from the “Manage” dialog box.

Clarified wording in several dialog boxes and reports.

When you use the {Modify} function, CellManager’s dialog boxes are cleared. Once you finish modifying a cell or model and click the {Done} button, CellManager’s dialog boxes are updated and re-displayed.

8.5a — 18 May 2007

This version of CellManager for V8 has some major improvements. Read on for details.

 

Multiple cell library support added

Previous versions of CellManager for V8 processed only one cell library at a time. Now CellManager for V8 can process multiple cell libraries simultaneously.

Users can select as many cell libraries as they want using Axiom’s familiar “Choose Files to Process” box.

This new support for multiple cell libraries applies to the following areas of CellManager for V8:

• Manage
• Draw Pages
• Create Report
• Select Cells

Other parts of CellManager for V8 are unaffected.

 

Totally redesigned Manage dialog box

Adding support for multiple V8 cell libraries afforded us the opportunity to completely

redesign the Manage dialog.

The redesigned Manage dialog is re-sizeable for the first time ever. Available cell libraries are listed on the left while their cells are listed on the right.

Named buttons have been replaced with buttons using familiar MicroStation icons with descriptive flyover help.

8.4b — 31 January 2007

Added the ability to create a duplicate library cell. This is great for creating similar cells derived from existing cells.

Clarified various informational messages.

Added the ability to import cells from multiple cell libraries into one cell library. Requires the creation of a specifically formatted text file that defines the job. This was a custom feature for one client.

 

8.4a — 29 September 2006

Added a new {Import...} function that gives CellManager the ability to import AutoCAD blocks, V7 design files and default models of V8 design files into an output cell library. For users of MicroStation V8 XM, you can also import 3D Studio files.

The new {Import…} function uses Axiom’s “Choose Files to Process” tool, making it very easy to choose files or a list of files to import. It even supports drag and drop of files from Windows Explorer.

 

8.3a — 17 August 2006

This version of CellManager works with MicroStation V8 XM 08.09.02.52. Improved two report template (“.tpl”) files.

Fixed a text replacement bug.

Improved the behavior of the “Extract” dialog box when it is closed without first selecting a cell library.

Added the ability to rename library cells and their Descriptions.

 

8.2c — 8 June 2006

Fixed the export function so that cells retain their original levels.

Enhanced plotting features to correct problems of improperly scaled plots and blank pages being sent to printer.

Cell Manager’s settings menu was improved to display the settings file name.

8.2b — 11 April 2006

Made many usability improvements, including an overhaul of the layout of all

CellManager’s settings. This version of CellManager is easier to use than ever.

This version of CellManager is the first to support the printer.plt MicroStation printer driver.

{Submit Plots} can now handle a space in the path to submit.bat. Just turn on the option to “Use quotes in commands” in Settings | Change Settings… | Output Settings.

Fixed a problem with 2D elements that had a non-zero Z range.

 

8.1b — (Certified in version 8.2b)

Added support for “printer.plt”.

Added or improved support for printing to locations such as the following:

 

Plotting device	Comment
PRN or LPT	Default printer for your workstation
\\Server\Server-HP Laser Jet 4	UNC and laser printer
\\SERVER\@postscript	UNC and postscript printer
\\10.0.0.251\HP DeskJet	IP address and laser printer
\\10.0.0.25\@printer	IP address and postscript printer

MicroStation V8 configuration variables MS_SHEETMODELSEED (file name) and MS_SHEETMODELSEEDNAME (model name) now define the seed model used to create CellManager’s Plot Sheet model (cell library documentation). If either of these configuration variables is undefined, the active cell library’s Default model is used as the seed model for CellManager’s Plot Sheet model. CellManager’s Plot Sheet inherits all View Attributes from the sheet seed model.

 

8.1a — 2 April 2004

Modify Text features were migrated to V8:

CellManager settings are now saved in a user-editable ASCII “.ini” file rather than an un- editable, binary “.rsc” file. This also allows CellManager settings files to be upwardly compatible (favorite settings can be retained when a new version of CellManager is installed).

Added Dimension, Last Modified and Number of Components to Detail dialog.

CellManager’s automatic loading of previously open cell library is now optional and “Off” by default.

Complex elements in cells are now properly updated by CellManager modify operations. You can now undo CellManager modifications with Ctrl-Z or by selecting Edit | Undo

from MicroStation’s main menu bar.

The Default model is now displayed in CellManager’s Manage list when “Can be placed as a cell” is enabled. (The Default model is often empty/unused in a V8 cell library, but this new functionality handles all cells/models consistently.)

Level libraries attached using {Library…} remain attached. Level libraries can be detached, if desired, using MicroStation’s Level Manager.

Extract command now uses MS_CELL_SEEDFILE by default, but if not defined, you are prompted to select a cell library seed file (selection directory defaults to MS_SEEDFILES).

CellManager’s Extract command now duplicates tag set definitions and values for shared cells from the source design file.

CellManager now notifies the user when a read-only cell library is selected.

Lines per page (for reports) is now 0 by default. This is best when viewing a report on screen with Notepad.

Recently selected cell library history was added to CellManager’s File menu.

CellManager now offers intelligent defaults for File | Load, File | Save As… and “Create Report File” dialogs.

<MODIFIED> keyword can now be used in layouts and report templates.

<DIMENSION> keyword can now be used in layouts and report templates.

Detail dialog now includes the working units for each cell (in V8 working units can be different in each cell).

When using .lay (layout) files to create cell library documentation, CellManager now selects fonts by name (rather than number which can be sequenced differently on different computers).

 

8.0a — 20 June 2003

This is the first version of CellManager for MicroStation V8.

CellManager for V8 includes the most popular features of the V7 version:

• Draw Pages — create cell library documentation.
• Select Cells — filter cells to be processed by CellManager.
• Create Reports about all or selected cells.
• Extract cells from a V8 design file into a new V8 cell library
• Manage functions include:
• View, Detail, Modify, Transform, Edit, Convert, Export and Delete. Additionally, the V8 version of CellManager supports
• Long V8 cell names.
• Long V8 cell descriptions.
• Named levels.
• ByLevel symbology.
• Cells with reference file attachments.
• Cells with tags.
• The {Extract…} command automatically processes multiple models in the source design file and extracts regular cells and shared cell definitions.
  
• CellManager’s Detail Window is now re-sizable to accommodate display of long cell descriptions, lists of level names, etc.

The “File” menu now displays recently accessed cell libraries. Click on a cell library name to load it.

You can create your own settings files to configure CellManager and save and load them under different file names.

When running CellManager from a network installation, you can use the CELLMGR_RSC configuration variable to define a directory on a local drive where your personal cellmgr.rsc settings will be saved.

The {Draw Pages} command takes full advantage of V8 models by generating notebook pages in a sheet model in the cell library file — no external output file. Thus, your notebook remains associated with the cells in your library.

The report “Edit” function now automatically opens Notepad.

CellManager allows you to define two different descriptions for a cell. For example, you could include proprietary information in one description and a non-proprietary description in the second description. Or, you can define an English description and a French description for the same cell. The two descriptions are entered as follows:

Two new “key” strings, <DESC1> and <DESC2> have been added to allow you to control when and where the first and second description are included in your reports or in your cell library documentation.