Product:	MicroStation
	Version:	CONNECT
	Environment:	N\A
	Area:	Groups
	Subarea:	General

*** Under Construction ***

For the following exercises, use the file provided.

Named Groups

Rather than using Orphan Cells or Graphic Groups (which are difficult to manage) consider using the feature of MicroStation called Named Groups. As the name implies, these are groups of elements that are named. Let’s explore a model that contains Named Groups:

• Open 219.dgn
• Model = 1 - Named Groups
• From the Drawing task Go to > Home > Groups >Named Groups click on the drop down arrow in lower right corner to open the dialog.
• Highlight each Named Group and pick on Select Elements in Named Group
• Each group of elements will be added to a selection set

To show you how easy it is to create a Named Group, let’s make one for elements that define the graphics for Detail A.

• Select the New Named Group button
• Edit the name to Detail A
• Create a selection set of the elements that make up Detail A
• Pick on the Add Elements button and accept.

Displaysets

Now we're gonna to look at Displaysets. This is where you can "filter" the display of the graphics so that only a selected Named Group is shown on your screen.

• Stay in the current model (1 - Named Groups)
• From the Named Group dialog, highlight Plan View
• Do a Right-Click > Add to Displayset
• Select icon Set Displayset from Selected Named Group
• Do a CTRL+B and turn Displayset OFF.
• Turn Displayset back ON.
• Do a CTRL+B to dismiss the View Attributes dialog.

Taking this one step further, we'll attach the file to itself as a reference, than attach a border and create a Named Group for those elements.

• Go to the Reference dialog.
• Select Attach Reference and select 219.dgn
• From the Reference Attachment Settings dialog, select the model called 3 - Named Group Border
• Set the orientation to Top
• Set the Scale to 10:1
• And position the borders around the Plan View
• Turn off all levels so you are only left with the reference
• In the Named Group dialog, create a new group called Plan View Borders
• Add the elements for the border into a selection set
• Finally, add the selection set to the new group
• Turn all the levels back on
• In the Named Group dialog do a Right-Click > Clear Display Set
• All the graphics should now re-appear.
• Select the Plan View and Plan View Border named groups
• Do a Right-Click > Add to Display Set
• See how easy this is...and how this will help you manage your groups?

QuickSets

Continuing with the same theme, the next thing on the agenda is something called QuickSets. These are also a group of elements except that they are numbered from 0-9 rather than named.

• Go to Model = 2 - QuickSet
• Put some elements into selection set
• Do a CTRL+SHIFT+1
• Clear the selection set
• Make a selection set of different elements
• CTRL+SHIFT+2
• You now have two numbered groups or QuickSets.
• Make a new selection set of different elements
• Do a CTRL+SHIFT+3
• You've just defined a third quickset by using nothing more than the keyboard.
• To recall QuickSet #1,via the keyboard do a CTRL+1
• To recall QuickSet #2 via the keyboard do a CTRL+2
• Finally to really knock your socks off, edit a couple of function keys to toggle Displaysets!!
• Now you can create, recall and display your QuickSets all with a few keystrokes.

NOTE: The CTRL+SHIFT+Number and CTRL+Number only works with the numbers on your keyboard that lie above the letters....not the ones on the number pad. From the  Help docs: "Press <Ctrl-Shift-n> where “n” is the number of the quickset (from 0 to 9, entered from the alphanumeric part of the keyboard)."

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Original Author:

Melissa Hook