Introduction

The MicroStationAPI provides an API 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.

TextTables

MicroStation CONNECT introduced the Text Table, represented in code by the TextTableElement. A TextTableElement is a DGN graphic element.

You work on the content of a TextTableElement using the TextTable class.

Working with TextTables

The TextTable provides methods to set its size — the rows and columns of a table — and its symbology. The rows and columns determine a grid of TextTableCells. You can create text content in a TextTableCell.

The MicroStation SDK provides the ReportsExample project. That project includes a command to place a Text Table interactively, and to do that it first builds a table using the TextTable API.

Text Table Seeds

When a MicroStation user creates a Text Table she may choose a Seed in the Place Table dialog …

A Text Table seed is a DGN model that contains a single TextTableElement and no other elements.

You will often create Text Table seeds in a DGNLib. The seeds are available to users of a workspace where that DGNLib is included. If you're familiar with MicroStation cell libraries, then the ideas behind Text Table seeds will also be familiar.

Finding Table Seeds

As a developer, you will want to find Text Table seeds in DGNLibs. The mechanism is straightforward: find the available DGNLibs, and enumerate the models in each one.

Programmatically speaking …

• Enumerate the DGNLibs visible to your application
  • What you find is determined by the current workspace and workset configuration variables
• For each DGNLib
  • Enumerate its models
  • For each model
    • Determine if the model meets the definition of a Text Table seed
    • The name of the seed is the name of the model

Here's an article that shows how to find Text Table seeds programmatically.

Using a Table Seed

Once you have found a list of Text Table seeds, you presumably want to use one of them to make your own Text Table.

Programmatically speaking …

• Enumerate the DGNLibs visible to your application
  • Choose the desired Text Table seed
  • Clone that seed to extract an in-memory TextTable

The secret of using a Text Table seed is revealed in this article.

Questions

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