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General Concepts
INTRODUCTION
If you are new to CAD, this section will be helpful to understand the concepts used in
MicroStation. If you are experienced in CAD, however, you can skip directly to the User
Interface.

CONCEPTS
SYSTEM OVERVIEW
MicroStation V8i can be operated as a 2D general-purpose drafting program or as a 3D
modeling program.

POSITIONING THE CURSOR

MicroStation V8i receives its graphic input from the mouse or digitizer. This manual refers to
the graphic input device as a mouse, i.e. the object you use to move the graphic cursor on
the screen.

MENUS
Many of MicroStation V8i commands reside in menus. A menu is a list of options available to
you. Each menu has a specific purpose. For example, the File menu allows you to enter a
command to open or retrieve a drawing you have previously saved. Note that a file is a
place in the computer where a drawing is stored. This manual will interchangeably use File
or Drawings. If you are familiar with products like Microsoft Office then the menus will be
very familiar in behavior.

Some menu selections open a dialog. A dialog provides further options for the active
command.

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TOOLBOXES
Some menus can be opened as a toolbox. A toolbox consists of tools identified by
representative images called icons. You can click on an icon to command MicroStation V8i.
For example, click on the little circle icon to command MicroStation V8i to draw a circle.

TASK BAR
The task bar that appears on the left side is how MicroStation V8i presents its toolboxes.
Tools are grouped into categories. Click on the category name such as “Drawing” and it
opens up to show tools (this task is usually open by default.) If a tool has a small arrow on
the lower right corner of the icon, click and hold to see the popout list of tools. Having both
name and icon helps in learning. When you want, you can open each group as a toolbox by
right mouse clicking on the section of the tool bar and clicking “Open <toolboxname>as a
toolbox.

ELEMENTS
MicroStation V8i allows you to create a drawing using basic building blocks called
elements. Other CAD software programs often refer to these building blocks as objects,
entities, or primitives. Elements include lines, circles, arcs, French curves (Bezier curves),
points, text and more.

Cells (referred to as symbols or blocks in other software) are created from elements and
stored in libraries for later use.

A series of elements can be connected such as lines, arcs and curves into “complex chains”.
The complex chain can then be treated as an element. Some software call these connected
elements a “polyline”. MicroStation V8i also uses the term “SmartLine” for connected
elements.

LEVELS
MicroStation V8i allows you to manipulate an unlimited number of different layers or levels.
A level can be thought of as one sheet of clear plastic. All elements with the same level
number or name are on the same sheet. Turning on a single level is like viewing only one of
the “plastic” sheets. Turning on a second level is like placing a second sheet on top of the
first.

REFERENCES
Information can also be organized by the use of References. When making a new drawing,
any existing drawings can be viewed simultaneously with the new drawing. When a
drawing is viewed as such, it is called a “reference” since it is being used as a reference for
the new drawing. An example would be to view a floor plan as a reference when making a
new drawing of the electrical wiring for a house. A new drawing can reference any number
of other drawings. The major difference between levels and references is the fact that you
cannot make changes to references, only display them.

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VIEWS
MicroStation V8i can display from 1 to 8 different views of the same file (2D drawing or 3D
model). Each view is independent of the other views, but all views show the same active
drawing’s content.

VIEW CONTROL
You can move each the contents of each view around (called panning), and thus look at
different portions of your drawing. In addition, you can shrink the window so that you are
looking at a tiny detail of the drawing (magnifying or zooming in to fill the view on your
display screen). Or, you can take a “bird’s eye” view by “zooming out” to look at your
entire design from a distance. The view control tools are located in the upper left corner of
each view as well as available from the Settings menu.

ATTRIBUTES
Each element you create is automatically assigned certain display attributes. For example,
a line will have a ‘linestyle’, i.e. solid, dashed, dotted, etc. Other attributes include color,
level, line weight, priority (order of drawing) and transparency. The attributes of an
element can be changed at any time.

REAL WORLD COORDINATES

Each drawing is created using the appropriate “real world” measuring units. Whether the
drawing consists of a 100 millimeter machine part or a 1000 foot facilities layout, you can
create and position each element in its true dimensions. All scaling for the sake of putting
your design on paper is done at the time you send your design to the printer.

SNAP
Snapping pulls (or snaps) the cursor to a precise X, Y location. Several types of snap can be
selected from the Snaps menu. Keypoint is, by far, the most commonly used snap.
Keypoints are the characteristic points on an element such as end-points and center of a line,
center and quarter-points of a circle or arc to name a few. You can also snap to the
intersection of two lines, tangent or perpendicular, and more. When active, MicroStation’s
Accusnap feature automatically finds the nearest snap point.

DESIGN PLANE
MicroStation V8i uses the concept of a design plane. A MicroStation V8i design plane is
essentially infinite in all directions. More precisely, coordinates are stored in 64 bit IEEE
floating point which provides a huge range of coordinates that for all practical purposes is
infinite.

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GLOBAL ORIGIN
Since the design plane is really a coordinate system that you draw on, somewhere in the
design plane there has to be a point with the coordinates 0,0 or 0,0,0 in 3D. This point is
referred to as the global origin. This coordinate system is set up for master units. For
instance, the coordinate “1,0” lies one master unit to the right of the global origin, and the
coordinate “1.5,0” lies one and one half master units to the right of the global origin. Master
units will be described in more detail throughout this course.

HANDLE POINT
A handle point is the point on an element by which you control placement or modification.
These are usually only visible when you select individual elements using the Select Element
tool.

COMMAND PROMPTS
When adding elements to your drawing, you are guided by text prompts in MicroStation’s
status bar located at the bottom of the screen. For example: Place first point of line, place
center of circle, etc.

When modifying elements, such as moving a rectangle (called a block in MicroStation) you
will control its movement with the point at which you select it.

MANUAL COORDINATE ENTRY

There are several ways to enter the X and Y coordinates for placement of an element. When
a prompt calls for the location of a point, you can move the cursor to the desired coordinates
and press the left mouse button. This is called a “Data Point”.

You can also directly enter coordinate values via the Key-in window (Utilities menu > Key-in)
For an absolute location coordinate in your drawing, you type “XY=a,b <enter>” to supply
the coordinates a and b from the keyboard.
For relative location coordinates type “DL=c,d <enter>” to supply c (the change in X from
the previous location) and d (the change in Y) from the previous location. For polar location
coordinates type “DI=e,f <enter>” to supply the radius “e” and angle “f” offset from the
previous location.

ACCUDRAW COORDINATE ENTRY

The preferred and dominant method of entering coordinate values is AccuDraw. AccuDraw
uses a combination of your last data point and your hand motion to determine whether you
want to enter positive or negative, x or y coordinates and then you simply type the number
representing the distance. AccuDraw greatly reduces the number of keystrokes required to
enter precise coordinates as well as provide immediate feedback in the form of the
AccuDraw “compass.”

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EXECUTING COMMANDS
MicroStation V8i offers several ways to execute commands:

1. Click-click, example: click on the menu name at the top of the screen. Then click on
the menu in the pull-down.

2. Click/drag/let go, example: hold button down over menu and keep it down while
moving to menu item in pull-down. Then let go of button.

3. Powerkey, press “Alt” and underlined letter on main menu. Press only the
underlined letter in sub menus.

4. Type-in the complete command name after opening the key-in dialog (Utilities
menu>Key-In). Example: typing “Place Line” invokes the Place Line tool.

5. Shortcut keystrokes, As an alternative to using the mouse for tool selection, you can
use keystroke navigation where you press single keystrokes to execute commands.
This method provides more efficiency as you use one hand for commands and the
other for graphics. For example, press Q followed by 2 activates the Place Line tool.
The task bar provides the first letter to the left of the tools and the number appears
next to the individual tool name in the pop-up menu. In the main tool bar at the top
of the Tasks bar, note the single letters at lower left of each icon. These are also the
first character of the shortcut keystrokes.

MICROSTATION SETTINGS
The first thing to do with any new design file is to set-up its working units.

MicroStation has a flexible dimensional unit system for which there are two parts:
• MU –short for– master units (for example feet, or meters)
• SU –short for– sub units (for example inches, or millimeters)

A practical set up would be to set up your design with:

• MU =feet or meters
• SU =inches or millimeters

EXERCISES
WORKING WITH MENUS
To experiment with menus first select File menu > New, Give the file your name, click Save
and then set up working units before adding any geometry to the new file. Try Getting to
Working Units 2 different ways, first:

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1. On the Main menu, click on Settings

2. Click on Design File

3. Click on the Working Units category

4. Click on Cancel

Also, try:

1. While pressing on “Alt” then type “S”

2. Type “D”, then “W”

3. Change Master Units to Feet

4. Use tab key to the label field and key-in the mark ’ for feet

5. Use tab key to go to sub units

Sub units were automatically changed to inches.

6. Tab to the Label field and change to ” to represent inches on drawings.

7. To select “OK” from the dialog, note that you can tab until OK is identified, then press
enter, or:
a. Type “alt-O” key since O is underlined
b. Move cursor to OK and press button

Your drawing file is now set up for a drawing of feet and inches. To set up a mechanical
drawing, use inches or millimeters for master units. Of course, your master units could be
set to meters with subunits set to centimeters or millimeters.

SETTING UP GRIDS
When using MicroStation you have the option of using a grid. A grid is a visual reference for
measurement and alignment consisting of evenly spaced points and lines. For example you
can place a grid line every 12 inches giving you a visual representation of how far you are
drawing. You may want to have a grid of light colored lines to help with your design. To set
up a grid in your new file, assuming the feet and inches example:

1. Click Settings menu > Design File.

2. Click on Grid category.

3. Change “Grid Reference” to 12

4. Change “Master grid” to 0:1 (i.e. 1”)

5. Turn the Grid lock “on” by clicking the box next to “Grid Lock” label

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6. Click OK to save your changes and close the Design File Settings.

If you don’t see your grid, Click on Settings > View Attributes and click on Grid (second
column towards the top of the list.)

You now have a typical US architectural drawing set up. Changes to these settings affect
only the current design session unless you save them. To save these settings for the next
time you open this drawing, select File menu >Save Settings.

COORDINATE READOUT
MicroStation will show you coordinates in the format: mu:su (observe the use of the colon
character). For example entering the value: 5:4.125.defines the following coordinate: 5
master units and 4.125 subunits. This format is useful when working with master units in feet
and sub units in inches, such as US architectural drawings. The example 5:4.125 would
represent 5’-4.125”. For this format, choose Settings menu>Design File. Select the Working
Units category again and set Format to MU:SU from its option menu. Set Accuracy to
something reasonable, for example 1/16, then above example would show as 5’-4 1/8”
(Note: Accuracy means the precision by which coordinates and dimensions will be
displayed. Coordinates are stored in the computer to a much greater precision).

However, when working with units in inches and decimal inches or millimeters and decimal
mm as is common for mechanical drawings, the coordinate readout is better understood as
5.4125 rather than 5:4.125. Therefore, when working with mechanical drawings, civil
drawings or any drawing that is expressed in units and decimal units, on the Working Units
category of the Design File Setting dialog, change Format to MU (master units). Change the
Accuracy to something appropriate to your requirements, for example 0.1234 to represent 4
decimal digits of precision.

While your new file is open, place some drawing elements. Just click on the icons on the left
side of the screen until you recognize one, like a circle or line. Then, look at the bottom left
corner of the screen to see the name of the tool you chose, and how MicroStation is
prompting you for the next step. Don’t spend too much time; just sketch a few things to get a
bit of a feel for MicroStation.

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