Levels. Chapter Nine PLAY VIDEO INTRODUCTION LEVEL MANAGER AND LEVEL DISPLAY DIALOGS LEVEL MANAGER DIALOG

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1 Chapter Nine Levels PLAY VIDEO INTRODUCTION A design file consists of any number of levels. A level is a way of separating CAD data much the same way as a clear sheet of acetate is used by an architect on pindrafting. For example, you might put your floor plan drawing on level named floorplan, your dimensions on a level named dimensions and furniture symbols on a level named furniture. If you turn all levels on, you see floor plan, dimensions and furniture. Or, if you turn off levels dimensions and furniture you will only see the floor plan. Using levels allows you to work on only one part of a design at a time without the clutter of other parts. It also facilitates communication. You might turn off the furniture when sending the file to an electrical designer who only needs the floor plan. Also, levels facilitate printing the actual working drawings. From one file you can make a dimensioned drawing for the framer or a drawing with floor plan and furniture for the interior designer, just by turning the display of levels on and off. In this chapter you will learn the details of using levels in MicroStation V8i. One of the nicest feature about MicroStation V8i s level setup is that each of the unlimited number of level display can be turned on or off independently. Another nice feature is that each of the eight design views can be set up to display a different combination of levels. LEVEL MANAGER AND LEVEL DISPLAY DIALOGS LEVEL MANAGER DIALOG The Level Manager Dialog is used to create and delete levels and optionally to set the color, line style and line weight for each level if you are using ByLevel attribute value for your element placement. The Level Manager icon is located in the Primary Tools toolbox docked at the top of the screen (same toolbox where the AccuDraw tool is enabled).to open the Level Manager dialog click on its icon. You can also open this dialog from the main menu (Settings menu > Levels > Manager). Copyright 2009 Bentley Systems, Incorporated Levels 1

2 The Level Manager dialog. You can sort the levels by clicking on any column heading, review what levels are in use, what file the level is located in (active file versus references) and much more. For now, you are going to use it to simply create a new level. TO CREATE A LEVEL From the Level Manager, select Levels menu > New or select its icon in the Level Manager dialog. A new level is added at the top of the level list in the Level Manager dialog and the New Level name is highlighted waiting for you to name it. Give it a name such as Exterior Walls. If, for any reason, you skip this step, don t worry. You can always right-click on the name of the level, select the Rename command then give it the new name you want. Once you have created your level you can change the display attributes associated to the level. For instance, you can change the color, line style, and line weight as well as other attributes. These only take effect if an element s display attribute such as color has been set to ByLevel. A WORD ABOUT DISPLAYED COLUMNS You may have noticed that the columns you see displayed in the illustration above doesn t quite match the one you see in your copy of MicroStation. Many of the dialoges within MicroStation that use columns like this have the option to turn column display on and off. To do this, right-click on the column header. You will see a list of the columns available. In most instances you won t need to see them all but there may be one or two that are of interest to you and others that you don t need to see. Click on the check box next to a column you want to see. Right click again to click on the same column to turn it off. In addition to turning their display on and off, columns can be sorted by data pointing on the header title for the column you want to sort in ascending order. A second data point resorts it in descending order. Copyright 2009 Bentley Systems, Incorporated Levels 2

3 LEVEL DISPLAY DIALOG Although you create and manage your level definitions in the Level Manager dialog, the display of the actual levels in your view is controlled by another dialog, the Level Display. To open it, click on its icon in the Primary tools toolbox or from the main menu, select Settings menu > Levels > Display. The Level Display dialog is used to turn levels on and off in the individual views. When viewing the Level Display dialog, the dark levels indicate that they are visible for the selected view, the light ones are turned off. TO TURN LEVELS ON OR OFF In the Level Display dialog, click on the row for the level you want to turn on or off. This will toggle the level display. You can also press and hold the data point and drag across several rows to turn multiple levels on or off. THE ACTIVE LEVEL Even though there are any number of levels that you can draw on, only one level is considered active at any given time. It is identified in the Level Display dialog by the teal green color highlight. To make a level active double click on it in the Level Display dialog using the data point button or select it in the Attributes toolbox docked at the top of the screen. Any elements that you create will always be placed on the active level. Any element, a line for instance, cannot start on one level and terminate on another level. Also, you cannot turn off the display of the active level. You must select a different level to turn off the display of the previous active level. Note: Changing the active level affects only elements that are created from the current operation on. It does not affect any existing elements. Copyright 2009 Bentley Systems, Incorporated Levels 3

4 MOVING BETWEEN LEVELS It is not unusual during the course of a design to place an errant element on the wrong level. After elements have been added to your drawing, you may need to move an element or a group of elements from the original level on which the elements were entered to a different level. To do this, use the Change Attributes tool (51). Turn on the Level option (See Tool Settings). Next, select the level name from the level option menu. Finally, identify the elements you want to move to the selected level by clicking on them. Using the exercise you finished of the sprinkler protector try changing all of the dimensions to a new level using the change attributes tool and then turning the level on and off to better understand this. EXERCISE: CREATE A NEW LEVEL AND MOVE ELEMENTS 1. Open the SteppedShaft.dgn file you created after you placed the dimensions. 2. Open the Level Manager dialog (Settings menu > Levels > Manager or select its icon). 3. Create a new level and name it Dimensions (Level menu > New). Close the dialog. 4. Select the Change Attributes tool. 5. Check the box for Level and change to the Dimensions level you just created 6. Using this tool select each of the dimensions in the drawing. Copyright 2009 Bentley Systems, Incorporated Levels 4

5 7. Open the Level Display window (Settings menu > Level > Display) and turn the Dimensions level off. The dimensions disappear. 8. In the Level Display window, turn the Dimensions back on again. The dimensions reappear. LEVEL LOCKS You can use the Level Lock feature to restrict element manipulations, so that only elements on the current active level can be affected by certain manipulation tools. Trying to select an element on any other level for manipulation when this lock is on will cause the error message Element Not Found. By default, the level lock is off. You can turn this lock on through the Locks settings dialog. To display this dialog, from the main menu select Settings menu > Locks > Full. Turn on the Level Lock option to enable this lock. The main Locks dialog. Note the Level Lock option in the upper left corner of the dialog. Copyright 2009 Bentley Systems, Incorporated Levels 5

6 You can also enable this lock from the status bar located at the bottom of the screen by clicking on the Locks icon. In the option menu that appears, select Level. < RETURN TO TABLE OF CONTENTS GO TO CHAPTER TEN > Copyright 2009 Bentley Systems, Incorporated Levels 6