Welcome to the world of MicroStation Python! This guide will walk you through the process of placing cells using COM. We'll cover essential techniques like attaching cell libraries, Place cell utilizing COM functions such as CreateCellElement2, CreateCellElement3 and accessing the last placed element.

Place Cell using COM

To get started, refer to the Python Manager wiki for instructions on creating and loading a new Python project. Name your project "PlaceCellFromLib.py" and save it in a convenient location. Once created, open the project in your preferred code editor to begin writing your Python script.

We will leverage win32com python library that allows you to interact with Windows COM (Component Object Model) objects. COM is a Microsoft technology that enables software components to communicate with each other, regardless of the programming language they're written in.

Here is the complete script.

import math 
from MSPyBentley import *
from MSPyBentleyGeom import *
from MSPyECObjects import *
from MSPyDgnPlatform import *
from MSPyDgnView import *
from MSPyMstnPlatform import *
import win32com.client as win32


# Get First, Last graphical element from Active Model
def GetFirstLastElementIdFromModel():
    global ACTIVEMODEL
    global dgn_model

    #Get all graphical elements from the model
    graphicalElements = dgn_model.GetGraphicElements()

    #elmRefs = iter(graphicalElements)
    count = 0

    for elmRef in graphicalElements:
        elementId = elmRef.GetElementId()
        if (count == 0):
            first_element_id = elementId
        else:
            last_element_id = elementId
        count += 1

    if (count > 0):
        print(f"Total graphical elements in model: {count}")

        first_eeh = EditElementHandle(first_element_id, dgn_model)
        print (f"First Element ID: {first_element_id} Element Type: {first_eeh.ElementType}")

        last_eeh = EditElementHandle(last_element_id, dgn_model)
        print (f"Last Element ID: {last_element_id} Element Type: {last_eeh.ElementType}")

    return


# PlaceCell3 - COM
def PlaceCell3(cellName):
    global msApp

    startPt = win32.Record ('Point3d', msApp)
    startPt.X = 10.0
    startPt.Y = 5.0
    startPt.Z = 0.0

    cellElm = msApp.CreateCellElement3 (cellName, startPt, True)
    msApp.ActiveModelReference.AddElement (cellElm[0])


# PlaceCell2- COM
def PlaceCell2(cellName):
    global msApp

    cellOrigin = msApp.Point3dFromXYZ(5, 5, 0)
    cellScale = msApp.Point3dFromXYZ(1, 1, 1)
    cellRotation = msApp.Matrix3dFromAxisAndRotationAngle(2, math.radians(45))

    #cellElm = msApp.CreateCellElement2 (cellName, cellOrigin, cellScale, True, msApp.Matrix3dIdentity())
    cellElm = msApp.CreateCellElement2 (cellName, cellOrigin, cellScale, True, cellRotation)
    msApp.ActiveModelReference.AddElement (cellElm[0])


# Attach Cell Library
def AttachCellLib(cellFile):
    global msApp
    msApp.AttachCellLibrary (cellFile)


# Main function
def main():
    global ACTIVEMODEL
    global dgn_model
    global msApp

    ACTIVEMODEL = ISessionMgr.ActiveDgnModelRef
    dgn_model = ACTIVEMODEL.GetDgnModel()
    msApp = win32.Dispatch('MicrostationDGN.Application')

    cell_library_folder = "C:/Program Files/Bentley/MicroStation 2024/MicroStation/Default/Cell/"
    cell_library_name = "remodel.cel"
    cell_file = cell_library_folder + cell_library_name
    cell_name = "TABLE"

    AttachCellLib(cell_file)
    PlaceCell2(cell_name)
    PlaceCell3(cell_name)
    GetFirstLastElementIdFromModel()


# Main
if __name__ == "__main__":
    print ("***** Place Cell COM *****")
    main()

Run/Execute project

Load the project “PlaceCellFromLib.py” from the Python Manager dialog and Run/Execute the python script.

The Python script above, places two "TABLE" cells. The first cell is placed using the current active settings, while the second cell is placed with scale set to 1 and rotated 45 degrees.

Second part of the scripts scans through the graphical elements of the Active Model and gets the First and Last Element ID. This method can be used to retrieve the last placed element from the model.

Happy coding!

MicroStation Python: Place Cell using COM

Place Cell using COM

Run/Execute project