Instruments and Supports

This page lets you define the label settings for Instrument and Supports.

Accessed by selecting the Annotations > Instruments and Supports node in the Settings interface.

All instruments that have defined labels in the drawing are labeled. All the labels of the instruments shall be placed as near as possible without interfering with other labels especially other instrument labels. Also, the leader line shall not interfere with the enclosure symbol of other labels.

Define the properties per the fields described below and Save the changes.

The Close icon closes the Project Settings interface, so make sure your changes are saved. You will be prompted to save them it you haven't already.

The Load Defaults icon in the main Settings interface will return the settings of the options page to their original values.

Instrument and Annotation Options

Setting	Description
Label Enclosure	There are 8 types of label enclosures for instruments. Select one of the following from the drop down list. Circle Diamond Rectangle Ellipse Hexagon1/Hexagon2 Octagon1/Octagon2 Only leader Once you make a selection from the list, the enclosure type will display in the bitmap image below the field. For each enclosure, there are three different types of label formats. (See below). Take some time view the different enclosure types before making the final selection. The bitmap image is updated dynamically as you move through the enclosure list.
Label Format	There are three types of label formats for a label in an enclosure format. To select a format, click the arrow in the bitmap image below the Enclosure type. A list of bitmap images will display the different types of formats similar to the following: Click the desired bitmap to set it as the default. Note: The image which displays in the window is the active default.
Show Center Line	When enabled, it will display a line through the center of the double line enclosure as shown below:
Label	Properties in this section define the display properties of the Instrument label. Color: Click the icon and select a color from Color Table for the label text. Text Type: Select a text type for the label from the drop down list. You can click the "..." option at the bottom of the list to display the Microstation Text Styles dialog allowing you to modify the text styles if desired. Text Height: Enter a text height dimension into the field provided.
Delimiter	If the instrument label has a delimiter such as "-" in the name text, and if you want to make the label as the format of 2 or 3 lines, you need to define the delimiter. You can edit it in the Delimiter field. For example, if the instrument label is PG-100-A, and you want it to display in a 3 line format, then you will need to select the 3 line format and enter a delimiter "-" in the Delimiter field.
Arrow Type	Select the arrow type to use for the leader line from the list of options. The User Defined option displays the Select User Defined Arrow dialog letting you select an arrow symbol from a cell library.
Leader	Properties in this section define the display properties of the Leader line. Color: Click the icon and select a color from Color Table for the label text. Dimensions: Use the bitmap image to define the A dimension in inches/mm. If using a Diamond, Rectangular or Ellipse enclosure, an added B dimension must also be defined.

Support Annotation Options

Setting

Description

Label Enclosure

There are 6 types of label enclosures for instruments. Select one of the following from the drop down list.

No Box
Rectangle
Elliptic End
Triangular End
Round End
Line End

Click on the arrow next to the bitmap image and select an enclosure from the drop down.

Ortho Style Leader

There are many orthogonal lines in the piping drawing. So it is useful to use the Non-orthogonal style leader line for distinguishing it from other orthogonal lines, which may be the pipes.

The Ortho Style Leader option toggles whether a Orthogonal or Non Orthogonal leader is used.

Orthogonal

Non-Orthogonal

When the Orthogonal Style Leader option is checked, the leader displays similar to shown below:

When the Orthogonal Style Leader option is unchecked, the leader can be displayed similar to shown below:

Label

Properties in this section define the display properties of the Support label.

Color: Click the icon and select a color from Color Table for the label text.
Text Type: Select a text type for the label from the drop down list. You can click the "..." option at the bottom of the list to display the Microstation Text Styles dialog allowing you to modify the text styles if desired.
Text Height: Enter a text height dimension into the field provided.

Show Elevation Tag

Toggles the display of the elevation tag of the pipe support. When enabled, the elevation tag will be displayed.

If you checked this option, the support tag elevation will be added to the end of the support name.

For Example:

SP-101 EL. 459

Show Symbol Mark

Toggles the display of the symbol mark of the pipe support. When enabled, the symbol mark will be displayed.

When enabled, an X mark will be created at the tagging position:

Leader

Properties in this section define the display properties of the Leader line.

Color: Click the icon and select a color from Color Table for the label text.
A and B Dimensions: For the A and B dimension, refer to bitmap image next to the fields when defining the distance.

Arrow Type

Select the arrow type to use for the leader line from the list of options.

The User Defined option displays the Select User Defined Arrow dialog letting you select an arrow symbol from a cell library.

Mode of Express

This option determines how Support annotation is displayed:

Normal: Default mode displays the tag information for the support.
Grouping: If more than one support tag is defined for the same position, they will be grouped together.
Chart: Supports are annotated with a number which corresponds is matched to information stored in the Support Chart which will be placed in the drawing.

Input CSV File

Click the Browse icon next to the field to load an existing CSV file which provides details on support tags and information.

The Clear icon will delete the current path.

Orthographics Manager provides a sample CSV file for each sample project located in the following directory:

...\Sample_Imperial\Settings\Support_Imperial.csv
...\Sample_Metric\Settings\Support_Metric.csv