Identifying Elements
Many of the operations that you perform in a design session rely on the ability to identify existing elements, or to pick specific points on those elements. MicroStation provides the tools to perform these tasks. You can quickly and conveniently identify elements, or keypoints on elements, using tentative snap points and data points.
Identifying Elements Manually
Many tools require that you identify one or more elements. You can do this manually by placing the pointer over the element and entering a data point to highlight the element. If you want to preview which element is being selected, you can enter tentative snap points first, until the correct element highlights, and then accept with a data point.
AccuSnap
AccuSnap automates the identification of elements and the placement of tentative snap points, so that you do not have to enter all tentative snap points manually. You can turn on the Enable AccuSnap setting in the General tab of the AccuSnap Settings dialog to automatically locate and snap a tentative point to elements. You simply move the screen pointer to the region of the element that you want to identify and AccuSnap snaps to it automatically.
Automatic Identification of Elements
Separately or in conjunction with AccuSnap, you can enable the capability to automatically identify elements for various tools. This feature is enabled with the Identify Elements Automatically setting in the AccuSnap Settings dialog, General tab.
Like AccuSnap, this setting can greatly reduce the number of button presses required in a design session. Using this setting with the Delete Element tool, for example, you only have to move the screen pointer over the required element in any view and it highlights. A single data point then deletes the highlighted element.