Need V8 Help regarding "ByLevel" Symbology 1

[DaveVikingPE]

As in "how do I turn this off"?

Change Element Attributes seems to change ALL attributes of an element instead of a single or selected number of element attributes; e.g., an element's color changes even when you have the "change color" box unchecked. This is counter-intuitive and renders the tool pretty much worthless in that using the tool with a fence or on groups of elements cannot be done effciently, i.e., elements must be carefully changed one-by-one and then re-colored and-or re-styled if, for example, all I wanted to do was simply change the element's line weight or level. This is a real productivity-killer and possibly more vexatious than an operation that crashes the program. I wasted an hour trying to turn this off or simply investigate WHY this was happening with no success.

I think, though, that I'm onto something with "ByLevel Symbology." Originally, I thought that the MS_Workmode configuration was "DWG" it's not. Now the program's "Help" has pointed me in the direction of "ByLevel" symbology.

Any thoughts? Hints? Etc.

BTW, I'm recommending to my superiors that we ask for our money back if this and other problems aren't fixed. We should revert to Microstation J and stick with it. This V8 is driving me nuts.

 

[DaveVikingPE]

Please!

If anyone from Bentley reads this, good grief, I can't use the program effectively! I've got to turn this "feature" off!

 

[rKeyTek]

Dude,
Just a shot in the dark ...
But what about dropping everything & then changing attributes?

Just a thought!

 

[DaveVikingPE]

I tried it down to dropping everything and going with individual elements and it still changes everything with a change in level - this doesn't make use of the program impossible, but it does make it really inefficient and error-prone. Ideally, I'd like to do Fence>Clip change attributes like a free man. But no, it will not work.

Let me ask you this, rKeyTek: are you using V8? If so, are you pleased? Building on that, I'm assuming you'r enot experiencing the problems I'm having (I'm not the only one in my office, either).

The installed version of Microstation I/we have is 08.00.04.01 and we run a Windows 2000 (build 2195: Service Pack 2) with 260 MB of physical RAM installed.

If you or anyone out there has a different version of V8, etc. please let me know. I want to get to the bottom of this mess.

 

[CADaver]

Sounds like level symbiology is on

 

[DaveVikingPE]

CADaver, no it does not. That would be simple and it wouldn't force unchecked attributes to change, especially colors.

The V8 level manager has something called "overrides" which, intuitively, one would think, override any symbology or other, um, let's call them "constraints" in the drawing. What I should be able to do, no matter what, is change an element's color, level, line weight, etc. at-will using the change attributes tool. Sometimes I can, sometimes I can't, seems to depend on something I haven't figured out yet.

Anyway, CADaver, are you running V8? Have you experienced any problems that are surprising, etc.?

 

[CADaver]

No, we haven't jumped to V8 yet. We're waiting on you to find all the bugs ;-)

 

[DaveVikingPE]

Good one...

My advice: STICK WITH THE VERSION YOU'RE USING NOW.

 

[flamby]

Dave,
I tried my contacts at Bentley to figure out what the issue is and I was shocked by the reason given. It looks like they have passed on half cooked curry to you and called it V8..
The answer I got was -

Quote-

"Kindly follow the steps below in MicroStation V8 to change an Element's lineweight. In case your problem doesnt get solved, then i suggest you to upgrade your MicroStation V8 to a later version, since this is surely a problem with the version of MicroStation V8 you are using.I personally didnt get any problems and got the results as expected. MicroStation 08.00.04.01 is a pretty early version of MicroStation V8 and it is quite possible to have such a problem in it.
1. Draw a fence around a few elements of your drawing.
2. Go to Change Element Attributes.
Set Method to Change. Set Use Active Attributes to Off, Set Weight Option to On and select the desired weight from the Drop down menu.
Set Use Fence to On. Make sure other options, such as Color, Style etc. are set to Off.
3. Click inside the fence. Weight of elements changes to the desired weight. The color, style etc. stay the same."

-Unquote.

Hope it helps ;-).

 

[DaveVikingPE]

Thanks, flame!

The method Bentley gives is, well, yeah the way it's supposed to work...

Hmmm, the reason is that it's an early version of V8. Gosh.

 

[rKeyTek]

Dave,
Just to answer your question ...
No, we're not using V8.
Too many unknowns with possible problems in AutoCAD.
Many disciplines use AutoCAD with "Add-Ons".
And Bentley hasn't answered that question of editing DWGs without the "ADD-ON" product. It's nice to see you can do normal AutoCAD editing ... but what about if I need the "ADD-ON" product?????

Anyway ...
We're still using MicorStation J.
And like CADaver ... we're waiting for you to resolve all the bugs in "V8".

Best of luck with "FLAMES" solution.

 

[Lorys]

I had similar problems at first however its that your missunderstanding the new way symbology works with the way it used to work in V7/SE/J.
first turn on level symbology from Control B
It is like in Acad now where a by level symbology is where you set up standards where all things drawn on that level will have the colour lineweight and style setup in the symbology.
The override feature is for over riding the presets that you already set.
If no values are preset ( and I hate this) then the default level symbology is always color 0, wt=0, ltype=0.
If you do use ref files then symbology overides are great.
as you can recolour and thicken anything you want in the ref files with out altering the ref file level by level ie roads grey
now here is what I do in all my active file dgns.
I go to the level manager right mouse >select all
now data point on the white square and choose level overides off.
Repeat this for the weight and line style
I now have it set in my seed file to save redoing this everytime.

now back in the active file say i have a line drawn on level 2 and it co=2 and its wt=3
I would go to the modify tool pallet ( the one that looks like artist paint pallet and to change select lv=1, co=1 wt=0 then data point on my line and it will change to my settings thse then are the active settings so i need to change then back to what i want to continue this is anoying..
If you subscribe to control alt delete from Pen & brush
( search in google) and get not the current issue but the previous issue ie 3rd quarter I have written a tutorial on this with pictures and more detail.. It took me a a while to come to grips with it because my brain was still in V7...
Let me know how yo get on and we can help you thru email.
Lorys in Australia.

 

[Lorys]

Her is my 2 cents worth
Don't use by level unless you set it ups as standards for all elements on certain levels must be certain colours.(just like Autocad)
Use only level overrides and actual active settings for colours and other symbology.
always have symbology on
to turn off by level permanantly >>
Edit the workmode.cfg file
to include a (-) infront of CAPAPBILITY_BYLEVEL so it looks like
_USTN_CAPABILITY > -CAPAPBILITY_BYLEVEL
Then it will be have more like it used to.
As to change colours etc symbology its the same as it always was use the change pallet tool to change a selection set or an element..
If this still don't work you have a buggy version or its corrupt.. if your a select subscriber you can get each new revision as soon as its available plus phone help desk.
I hope this has helped you.

 

[DaveVikingPE]

All the problems were traced to a not-well-enough-tested workspace that has since been disabled and the guilty managers flogged.