Bentley Advanced Map Finishing allows you to control the order in which elements are printed in two ways.

• File Ordered Printing - MicroStation stores elements in a design file sequentially with the newest or most recently modified elements appended at the end of the file. MicroStation also refreshes elements on screen in the same order with attached reference files displayed in order of attachment after the master design file has been displayed. Bentley Advanced Map Finishing prints elements in this order, thus providing a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) method of ordering. Bentley Advanced Map Finishing provides tools for manipulating the relative position of elements within a design file to adjust the appearance of the design file on screen before printing. See Table Printing Control.

  For large design files, File Ordered Printing can be cumbersome with difficulties seeing the whole design file in enough detail to check appearance before printing. Adjusting the ordering while zoomed into a small area may have consequences off screen that cannot be seen on screen, and thus may only be found after the whole file has been printed.

• Table Ordered Printing - allows you to define a rigid set of rules to order elements when printing. Bentley Advanced Map Finishing V8i introduces the ability to display elements according to the table ordered printing rules. If each design file is organized so like elements are grouped by level, colour, type, etc. then the table rules order and display the elements correctly.

  Bentley Advanced Map Finishing can also reorder the file based on the table. Any changes and additions to the design file do not adversely affect the output as long as each element conforms to the criteria for each group used to order elements. Changes are displayed to the table rules following a screen update.