What's New?
What's New?
What's New?
What's New?
What's New?
What's New?
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One of the most significant enhancements in MicroStation V8 2004 Edition is support for generating output in PDF format. PDF (Portable Document Format), developed by Adobe, is an industry standard format for electronic publishing.
A PDF printer driver is provided with MicroStation V8 2004 Edition. The file is named "pdf.plt", and it is installed in the "Workspace\System\plotdrv" directory.
You can use the Batch Print utility to generate a multiple-page PDF file with one page per file. In this case a bookmark is generated for each page by default. You can generate a single-page PDF representation of the open DGN file using the Print dialog box (File > Print).
You can edit the PDF printer driver to set the following options for PDF generation:
bookmark generation
Engineering Links generation
version of the PDF file format
password protection
A special syntax applies to these options. It is not necessary to know the syntax, though: For each setting, or command, the PDF printer driver file contains a line for each of that command's possible values, or qualifiers. Selecting a different qualifier is a simple matter of moving a semi-colon (“;”), which causes the rest of a line to be ignored, from the beginning of one line to the beginning of another and saving the changes. Use a text editor to do this.
To view and print PDF files, including those generated using MicroStation's print driver, use the free application, Adobe Reader.
If you select the FileOptionalContent option in the PDF printer driver before generating a PDF file, the levels and references will be individually viewable in the Layers tab of Adobe Reader. To turn levels and references on and off, use the controls in the Layers tab's hierarchy listing; the technique is analogous to showing and hiding directories in Windows Explorer.
The master DGN file is listed by itself in the top level of the hierarchy listing. Listed on the second level are each directly attached reference, each level in the master file, and each raster image attached to the master file. The third level lists nested references and the levels and raster images for each directly attached reference. For example:
Master DGN Ref_1 Ref_a Refs if any Ref_a Levels Ref_a Rasters ... Ref_1 Levels Ref_1 Rasters Ref_2 Refs if any Ref_2 Levels Ref_2 Rasters ...As you can see above, the number of levels in the hierarchy is determined by the depth to which references are nested. The bottom level lists levels and raster images for the most deeply nested reference(s).
The many printing enhancements in the 2004 Edition aside from PDF support are summarized in the following sections.
 | In many cases configuration variables exist that enable you to customize printing capabilities and even to completely negate the 2004 Edition printing enhancements. To review descriptions of these configuration variables and to set the variables, select the Printing category in the Configuration dialog box (Workspace > Configuration). |
Print layout capabilities are significantly enhanced in the 2004 Edition. The workflow for specifying the area to print is as follows:
From the Area option menu in the Print dialog box (File > Print), choose the type of area to print — view, fence, the entire active model, the entire active model and its attached references, or, if the active model is a sheet model, the area defined by the sheet boundaries.
From the View option menu, choose the View containing the area to print. If the active model is a sheet model, the print is automatically oriented parallel to the view x-axis.
Following are also among the most significant print layout enhancements:
The print is not automatically maximized when you select a new view or fence to print or change the paper size settings.
By default, the print's rotation and orientation are automatically optimized. If the selected printer driver contains a rotate=none record, it has the same effect as rotate=cw.
The configuration variable MS_PLT_SCALE_METHOD can be used to set the default method by which the print scale is specified in the Print Scale and Size section of the Print dialog box and in the Scale Assistant dialog box.
If MS_PLT_SCALE_METHOD is set to 1, the default scaling method is paper-to-design.
If MS_PLT_SCALE_METHOD is set to 2, the default scaling method is design-to-paper.
If you do not set the configuration variable, the default is the Method setting in the Scale Assistant dialog box.
If the configuration variable is set, it overrides the Method setting. In this case you can change that setting, but the change remains in effect only until you choose File > Exit in the Print dialog box. However, if you merely close the dialog box window — without choosing File > Exit — the new Method setting remains in effect.
Many raster printing settings, such as quality, brightness, and contrast, can be accessed directly in MicroStation V8 2004 Edition, thus eliminating the necessity to modify a printer driver to apply settings particular to a single print.
To access these settings, choose Settings > Raster Options in the Print dialog box (File > Print). Doing this opens the Raster Options dialog box.
 | Changing these settings does not affect the selected printer driver file. Changes are valid only for the current print. |
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Pen table-related functionality is enhanced in the 2004 Edition as follows:
You have the option to define pen maps within pen tables. Using pen maps, you can apply color and width resymbolization on a per-stroke basis to your prints. This is the only way to achieve some results, such as screened multi-color associative patterns and custom line styles.
When an AutoCAD CTB plot style table is imported, MicroStation V8 2004 Edition automatically creates a pen map from the CTB plot style table's color-to-width mappings. You can also export a pen map list to an AutoCAD CTB file.
The Text Substitutions dialog box has items in its Edit menu for inserting the sheet name, sheet size, model name, saved date, and short scale factor.
There is a submenu for inserting document set variables published from the Batch Print utility.
The Batch Print utility is enhanced for the 2004 Edition to provide additional flexibility in building job sets. Here are some of the more significant enhancements:
You can derive Print Area specifications from a sheet model definition. This method of specifying a print area is recommended. To set the default Print Area specification to use sheets, open the Print Area Specification Properties dialog box and from the Method options menu, choose Sheet.
For each print, the Batch Print dialog box identifies both the model as well as the file. You can drag-and-drop filenames from Windows Explorer and models from the Models dialog box in MicroStation to create new prints in your job set.
You can also drag-and-drop in the list box in the Batch Print dialog box to change the order of prints in your job set.
When you add a DGN file to the job set, the utility automatically adds one entry per model in the file.
You have the option to set the vector color mode — monochrome, gray-scale, or color — in a display specification.
If the PDF printer driver is selected, the utility enables the printing specification option of printing a document set to a single file. If you select this option, you can specify the name of the file. If you do not specify a filename, the utility assigns the filename of the DGN file in the first print in the job set.
While defining a print specification for a print to a file, you can easily include the model name in the output print file by inserting the string %m in the Print Filename Format dialog box.
There are new options in the 2004 Edition for defining pens in printer drivers.
You can assign screening to pen definitions. This is an alternative to using pen tables to achieve print screening and permits screening on a per stroke basis instead of per element. The PEN record syntax for assigning screening is as follows:
pen(pen_number)=(colors, weights, or levels) /SCREEN=<value
between 0.0 and 100.0>As with pen table screening, 100.0 indicates no screening and 0.0 results in pure white.
In addition, it is now possible to define gray-scale pen definitions without explicitly specifying the RGB color components. The PEN record syntax for doing this is as follows:
pen(pen_number)=(colors, weights, or levels) /GRAYSCALEHardware font mapping is supported for TrueType and SHX fonts with both the Windows system printer driver and the Bentley PostScript printer drivers. The FONT record syntax for specifying hardware font mapping is as follows:
FONT("fontName")=("<font name | ALL TTF | ALL SHX>") [/Kern=<n>]
[/Sizeratio=<m>]TTF denotes TrueType fonts. The quotation marks must be included.
| The order in which ALL TTF, ALL SHX, and font name mappings are specified in a printer driver file is insignificant. Individual font mappings override ALL TTF and ALL SHX mappings. |