MicroStationAPI: Element Mensuration

MicroStationAPI

Introduction

The MicroStation Development Library (MDL) and MicroStationAPI provide APIs for developers wanting to create custom applications for MicroStation^® from Bentley Systems. We create a MicroStation application as a DLL, written using C++ and built with the Microsoft C++ compiler and linker provided with Visual Studio.

When editing your source code, you can choose whether to use Microsoft Visual Studio, Microsoft Visual Studio Code, or one of your favourite text editors.

When building your app, you can use Visual Studio or the Bentley Systems make (bmake) tools.

How do I Measure Element Properties?

This article is for C++ developers who want to write an application for MicroStation CONNECT. It describes DGN element mensuration — a way to extract metrics such as length, area and volume.

Element Mensuration

This article clarifies the process of finding element metrics — length, area or volume — using the c++ MicroStationAPI. The MicroStationAPI is huge, and delivered in multiple header (*.h, *.fdf) files and library (*.lib) files. It's documented in several help files …

MicroStationAPI
ECObjectsAPI

The help files are not cross-referenced. Sometimes it's tricky to discover the connection between one part of the API and another. to a task that would otherwise be simple.

Mensuration Using .NET

If you're writing a .NET AddIn for MicroStation, using the DgnPlatformNET API, then look at this article.

Element Abstraction

The MicroStationAPI abstracts element mensuration to the unpublished MeasureGeomCollector class. Bentley Systems senior staffer Brien Bastings commented: mdlMeasure_volumeProperties, mdlMeasure_areaProperties, and mdlMeasure_linearProperties do exactly what you want and are just thin wrappers around MeasureGeomCollector.

Formatting

At some time, you probably want to show the results of mensuration to the MicroStation user. Bentley Systems provide several formatters documented in MicroStationAPI help. These formatters provide precise customisation possibilities of floating-point numbers and understand 1D, 2D and 3D quantities …

DistanceFormatter class
AreaFormatter class
VolumeFormatter class

They each inherit from DoubleFormatterBase.

Those formatters are simple to use: set your display preferences (e.g. decimal separator, thousands separator, precision, units etc.), then call the ToString (double numberToFormat) method …

#include <DgnPlatform/ValueFormat.h>
double numberToFormat = 1234.456;
DistanceFormatter formatter; // Initialised using active DGN model coordinate system
... modify formatter settings
WString formattedResult = formatter.ToString (numberToFormat);

Questions

Post questions about C++ and the MicroStationAPI to the MicroStation Programming Forum.