CE453 Lab #5Page 1 of 12

MicroStation V8Lab Instructions

MicroStation provides over 400 drawing and analysis tools. The application packages, such as GeoPak, add significantly more tools to aid the designer. This document summarizes several key points for a quick background in MicroStation so the first-time user can begin basic drawings and use GeoPak applications for the CE 453 design class. The summary presents many basic tools, but assumes the user is familiar with basic Windows system file structure, keyboard and mouse operations, special keys such as the CTRL and Shift keys that may change the effect of commands, and more. In addition, this summary assumes that users have familiarity with other graphics packages, such as AutoCAD, and are familiar with terms such as models, layers, grids, snaps, and more. The drawing tools can typically be accessed either by graphically finding the tool from a screen icon, or by typing in a direct command. This tutorial will identify some alternative means of accessing the tools using the different strategies, so new users can begin to learn the power of the graphic and analysis programs.

MicroStation is the current CADD package used by the Iowa Department of Transportation as well as a number of consulting firms and other agencies. It differs somewhat from the AutoCAD that many of you may have used in the past. One of the most important differences, from the point of view of the project manager, is that your changes to a drawing are stored immediately. This means that you shouldn’t lose much of your work if the power goes off or if your computer locks up. Another difference is in the term used to refer to elements of the drawing. Where AutoCAD uses “Layers” MicroStation uses the term “Levels.” There is no limitation on the number of levels that can be used in MicroStation, although one should not go overboard. MicroStation allows the use of up to 8 views of a model (your design). These can be from different directions such as above, below, isometric, or front (for 3-d models), at different scales (2-d or 3-d models), or of different parts of the model (2-d or 3-d).

Getting started

A tutorial has been prepared to assist you. Start here:

Creating your first blank document

1) Create a folder (e.g. MS_training) to store the tutorial files. If you are working in the CCEE labs or classroom sites the folder must be in the c:\User (My documents) directory or on your own file storage unit (it’s best to work from the C drive and save it to your personal storage unit).

2) Go to the class web site (lab folder) and download the following files to your directory.

  • Blank drawing.dgn
  • TrainExRef.dgn
  • Ref int.dgn

3) Open MicroStation.

Locate MicroStation in the Program Files section of Windows. The MicroStation Manager will open so you may select the desired directory and file. See Figure 1 for partial view (throughout this document a portion of views are “clipped out” to show only critical areas in order to reduce file size and printer supplies). In Figure 1 the directory in which the stored files are located has already been identified (C:\MS_training).

Figure 1 MicroStation Manager view

4)Choose the file “blank drawing.dgn” by navigating to the directory of your files

Navigating through the menus

After selecting the drawing you will see a window similar to the one below, which shows some of the familiar Windows icons and additional drawing controls. One major difference in the look of the screen in the tutorial and your computer screen isthe background color. This user preference can be set in the Workspace setting on the menu bar.

Figure 2 Main Tools

In this tutorial, screen views will not always be provided, but multiple clicks may be needed to get to the desired command. A system to assist tracking the steps will be used. To “inverse” the background between black and white you can find the appropriate toggle switch by clicking on the following sequence as the screen changes:

WorkspacePreferencesView Options.

The screen should look similar to the one below (Figure 3). (Variations occur because different toolbars or tools may be selected at any time during your work session). At this point you can check on or off the “Black Screen to white” check box.

Figure 3 Workspace Preferences

Basic page tool frames, tool boxes, and tools

MicroStation uses the terms drawing tool frames, tool boxes and tools to distinguish among these elements, but the Help file,which you should use frequently, is not always consistent in its naming. The following is a general description of the elements.

Tool frame (or tool bar)

Four major tool frames are identified in the TOOLS section of the menu line. The tool frames are

a) Standard - contains the Windows operations such as file open, print, and spell check

b) Attributes - settings for line styles and width, and color

c) Primary - this tool frame provides quick access to major drawing features such as levels, model and reference cells, element information, and the accudraw drawing system

d) Main 2d or Main 3d - for 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional drawing tools, dependent on your drawing type

These tool frames are usually turned on (from Tools on the menu line in the above screen display, Figure 2). The first three are docked on the top of the page, but the Main tool frame may be docked on any sideor left floating on the screen as the user chooses. Movement around the screen is accomplished with the familiar click and drag operation of Windows.

Tool Boxes

The second layer of Tools is the Tool boxes that contain many individual drawing tools. Figure 4 below is a screen display obtained from

ToolsMain >

In the “blank drawing.dgn” file of the tutorial, the Main tool bar is already available to the user on the screen because it was docked earlier. In the figure within the tutorial the Main toolbar appears as the vertical, floating bar with icons on the left. The Tool boxes within the Main tool bar are displayed on the right side. What is the image on your computer screen?

To see the screen when the Main tool bar has not already been opened, click on the Main check box.

Reset the previous view by going to Tools, place the cursor over MAIN to bring up the right side list, and slide the cursor over to click on Main.

Main tool frame

Since the Main tool frame is the most used for drawing activities, the elements will be identified here before proceeding. In Figure 4, starting on the upper left and proceeding down, the tool boxes are:

  • Element selection tools, used to select elements to be worked upon.
  • Point tools, used for placing points in the drawing.

Figure 4 Screen view with tool frames, tool boxes and Main drawing tools

  • Hatching tools.
  • Arc tools, used to place various types of arcs in the drawing.
  • Tag tools, for tagging elements in a drawing.
  • Group modifying tools, used to group or ungroup elements.
  • Measuring tools, used to measure distances, angles, areas, and volumes.
  • Attribute tools, for modifying the attributes of elements.
  • The Delete element button.

Beginning at the top right we have the following:

  • Fence tools, for fencing elements and modifying fence contents. Fences are used to select multiple drawing elements as subjects for one or more common operations.
  • Line tools, for placing lines of various types within the drawing.
  • Shape tools, for placing various 2-d shapes in the drawing.
  • Circle tools, for placing circles and ellipses in the drawing.
  • Text tools, for placing and modifying text.
  • Cell tools, for placing cells in the drawing.
  • Dimensioning tools
  • Element modification tools, for copying, moving, and rotating elements.
  • Line modification tools, for doing the same to lines.

What happens if you click on one of the Tool boxes under Main? Try the “Measure” button. Within the “Measure” tool box, separate tools are available to measure distances, angles, areas, and volumes. Now click on the button and move the cursor to the right while holding down the left mouse button. If you go far enough to the right you will detach the tool box and leave it opened on your screen. Close it by clicking on the red “X”.

Figure 5 Measuring Tools

This tutorial only shows a small fraction of the tools available. As you use MicroStation, the Help section can be your friend. Even if the terminology is not always consistent, the assistance is valuable.

Key-in dialog box

A dialog “key-in” box is also shown at the top of the screen, just below the box that has the word “Default” in it. The dialog key-in is used for entering commands. If you need to add it to your drawing use:

Utilities>Key-in

Figure 6 Key-in Box

Dock the resulting bar where you want it.

View control

At the bottom of the screen is the view control tool bar. From left to right the tools are:

  • Update (refresh) view
  • Zoom in
  • Zoom out
  • Zoom window
  • Fit view
  • Rotate view
  • Pan
  • Previous view
  • Next view

The Fit View icon will zoom out (or in) to maximize the display of your entire drawing. This can be useful if you have panned to away from your drawing or have zoomed way into a drawing. If your drawing includes a point that is a long way from the main part of your drawing, when you Fit View you may have what looks like a blank screen. The main part of your drawing may be quite small and hard to find. Once you find the main part you can use the fence tool to fence off everything outside your main drawing and delete it. This will remove the extraneous points and enable you to see the whole drawing when you Fit View.

Snaps Buttons

Below the main tool bar you can place the snap tool bar, which facilitates connecting to elements. To activate Snaps use

Setting>Snaps>Button Bar

You can change which buttons in the tool bar are available by right-clicking in the snap button bar and selecting the snaps you expect to use. The button bar can also be docked on an edge or floated as a vertical or horizontal bar.

If the Snap Bar isn’t open on the screen you can quickly access it from the snap icon in the Status Bar at the bottom of the screen..

Right (or left) click, identify the snap mode you want, press Shift while using the left button to select the desired snap mode.

All of the snaps can be useful, depending on what you need to do. The tentative snap is very useful. It allows you to tentatively pick an object or line to connect to or to begin at; if you don’t like the tentative object then just click tentative again and it will offer the next closest object. Continue until you have the one you want. The default tentative snap is activated by simultaneously clicking the left and right mouse buttons. You may find it more convenient to use the center roller button as the tentative key; if so, click on Workspace>Button Assignments

Select “Tentative” and move the cursor to the Button Definition Area. Click the wheel button and then click “Ok”. The key actions should now be:

Left button:select and set points (called the DATA button),

Center buttonselect tentative point or element,

Right button reset, or escape from current action

The wheel button, when rolled, canzoom in and out in a drawing.

Exercise: Basic drawing/editing

This is the fun time. Use the various tools, making sure to use or at least try all of them. Be sure to:

  • Place lines, circles, arcs, and so on.
  • Try selecting different levels, line styles, and weights.
  • Use both the Place Smart Line tool and the Place Line tool. Note that if you delete a smart line you delete all of the elements, while if you delete an ordinary line it just deletes the line, not all of the connecting lines.
  • Use the tentative snap to select the end of an element, even when you are not at the end. Change the snap mode to the midpoint (of a line) and snap to it. Change the snap mode to center snap and draw a line from the center of a circle.
  • Now click on the upper left (element selector) of the main toolbar and move to the right to get the Power Selector. Select the block mode and use it to select a number of your elements. Then click on the delete button to delete everything within the block. You can click on the Undo button at the top of the screen to restore the elements you deleted. When you have selected a block of elements for an operation be sure to unselect them when you are finished. Do this by clicking on the Modify Shape button at the bottom right of the main tool bar.
  • Click on the drop element button (left side, fifth down) and check the line strings box, then click on one of the line strings you placed using the Smart Line tool. Note that the entire string is highlighted. When you drop elements on it you now have just a bunch of lines, so you can modify one element without impacting the others.

When you have a drawing set the way you want it as far as active elements, levels, colors, etc., you should save the settings so it will look the same the next time you open it. Do this by “Control + F”.

Reference files

A very powerful tool in MicroStation is the reference file. This allows you to attach another drawing to your drawing which may be used as a background or template. An attached reference is visible on the screen and you can snap to its elements; you just can’t modify it. Try it with the Reference file for this tutorial (TrainEx Ref.dgn). (Be sure you are in a blank drawing).

Go to File > Referenceto get the reference window.

Click on Tools > Attach to bring up the window for selecting the reference file.

Select TrainEx Ref.dgnand accept the defaults.

You should see the following figure. If you don’t see it, click on the Fit View button at the bottom left of the screen.

Figure 7 TrainEx Ref.dgn

You can try to modify it but you will find that you can’t. Now draw a line between two points inside of the figure. Try using the perpendicular snap to draw lines from the inside vertices to lines in the figure. Now go back to File > Reference and see the line with the reference file in the dialog part of the window. Click off the check mark under “show” and close the window (or minimize it). You should just see the lines you added in the drawing, without the background figure. An example of how this feature would be used is in the design of modifications to an intersection, where you would have the existing layout as a reference file that you could see and connect to but could not modify.

Homework Assignment

Work with the MicroStation tools to develop the design of some intersection improvements. This assignment is to be done individually.

The Procedure

  1. Import the file “ref int.dgn” as a reference file into a new blank drawing that you set up. This project is for a mid-size city in Iowa.
  2. Refer to the Statewide Urban Design Standards ( for various criteria (go to section 5C-2 of the Design Manual). As always, document the specifics of your design criteria.
  3. Assume a design speed of 35 mph and minimum lengths for turn bays, etc. The existing streets are 2 lanes wide and are both minor arterials.
  4. Your task is to modify the curb radii to 30 feet, widen the east-west street to 4 lanes, and provide a right-turn lane meeting the minimum SUDAS criteria for the westbound to northbound traffic. Be sure to note these and any other assumptions you make.
  5. Do all of your work in a new drawing that you set up in the English system.
  6. Label all of the new dimensions using the dimensioning tools. You can set the style of the dimensions by going to the Element>dimension styles and set them as you like. Print your drawing on 11 X 17 paper; attach a summary of your assumptions and a listing of your criteria to the drawing. Include a north arrow,a graphical scale, and your name.

A tip that will make printing a lot easier is to go to Settings > Color Table. Double click on the “B” at the bottom right corner of the table. Select “white” from the named color list, then click “Ok” and finally click “Attach.” Save your settings (Ctrl + F). This will let you print black lines on a white background. To print your drawing first put a fence around it, then go to File>print and change settings as appropriate.