Miscellaneous Enhancements

Following are miscellaneous enhancements in MicroStation V8 2004 Edition.

• You can match the active settings to some or all attributes of an existing element by merely hovering the pointer over the element and entering a MATCH key-in that has appended to it the keyword FROMCURSOR. To best take advantage of this enhancement, assign key-ins of this form to function keys or AccuDraw shortcuts.

• You can import multi-line styles and dimension styles into the open DGN file from within the Edit Settings dialog box.

• You can selectively import v7 custom line styles (“.rsc”) and AutoCAD line styles (“.lin”) into the open DGN file from within the Line Style Editor dialog box. You can also export all custom line styles from the open DGN file to .rsc files for use with v7.

• You can use the 2004 Edition to create digitizing tablet menus. Also, the method and syntax for attaching (activating) these menus has changed.

  MicroStation now reads menu DGN files directly, eliminating the need for a menu cell library. If you want to use existing menus with the 2004 Edition, it is unlikely you will need to modify their DGN files. Furthermore, there are not compatibility issues regarding existing menu cells, so it is not necessary to change working menus.

  Since the new attachment method does not require range adjustment, the matrix menu concept is obsolete. If you want to use matrix menus drawn with previous versions, there is a good likelihood they will work as menu DGN files without modification.

• There is a digitizing tablet menu designed for use with MicroStation V8 supplied with the 2004 Edition. To use this menu, you must print the menu DGN file. The filename is "v8menu.dgn", and the file is installed in Bentley's "Workspace\system\menus\dgn" directory.

  This menu was contributed by MicroStation V8 user Andrew Novinc.

• You can open a Command Prompt and execute a system command from the Key-in window.

• From the Key-in window you can start another Windows application. Optionally, you can disable MicroStation first.

• You can use configuration variables in key-ins.

• As an alternative to the Configuration dialog box (Workspace > Configuration), you can use key-ins to define configuration variables or check their values.