Flip multiple labels

1. Type multiple
2. Type labelflip
3. Select the label you want to flip and then hit enter (or spacebar or right click)
4. Hit escape to get out of the loop, you may have to hit escape more than once.
I have only tried this in 2007 and not 2008. To add it to the cui macro the line would be

^C^Cmultiple labelflip

Create Multiple Alignments from Polylines

Not sure I like this one, but here goes. Lets say you have multiple polylines that you need to change into polylines and you don't want to go through each one at a time. Use the undocumented DebugAlignment. Type it into the command line and then select the polylines you want converted, I think it uses the settings in the toolspace settings commands CreateAlignmentEntities when converting them. Once you do this you need to go back and name the alignments. It is pretty easy if you rename them from the Prospector and selecting the Alignments in the Site and changing them in the adjacent window.

Creating Data Shortcuts With One Button

This is how to create a button to create data shortcuts with a one button push. To do this type cui in the command line, add a new toolbar, create a new command, in the properties of the new command change the name to what you want, add a description and then add the following in the macro spot:

^C^C-CreateSurfaceShortcuts;-CreateAlignmentShortcuts;-CreateProfileShortcuts

Drag the new command to the new toolbar and you should be ready to go. As you can tell from the above there is no command for pipe networks, at least from what I could find.


There are some problems with this routine:

• If profiles have the same name, it will say that it creates all of them, but they are not added to the list, only one instance of the name is created.
• If you have the Panorama window open to data shortcuts you will need to validate the data shortcuts for them to show up.
• If there are data shortcut objects in the file the program will create them, even though it is not allowed. So you will want to delete them before you export the file to not create problems.

This may not be all of the problems, but all of the ones I found. These are undocumented commands and may have problems because of this.

Using AECPolygon to Hide Surface Contours

I've been looking on the many hidden commands that are included in the program, but are undocumented. One of them is AECPolygon. One of the uses I thought of would be to hide surface contours with out having to select each polyline, like you would have to do with the boundary hide command. Learn more after the annoying jump...

You can use existing polylines or create the AECPOLYGON the same way you would draw a regular polyline. In this example I will create the AECPOLYGON's from existing polylines. To start type AECPOLYGON into the command line. Select the Convert option and select the PLines option. Select the polygons that you want converted to mask the surface.
If you want to keep the source polylines then select No, otherwise choose Yes. Now you will want to change the style of the newly created AECPOLYGON to do this press S for Style. A style manager will pop up onto the screen. Right click on AEC Polygon Styles and Choose New.Provide a name for the style, I choose HideContour. Go to the other tab and select Use Background Mask and select OK at the bottom of the screen.

Press enter to get out of the command. When you get out of the command you should notice that the style was not applied to the AECPOLYGON's.

To get them to show the correct style, select the AECPOLYGONs and go to properties and change it to show the style you created.
Now when you will have the surface contours will be hidden by the AECPOLYGON.


Unlike the Surface Boundary Hide, you have to worry about draworder and you can't print them from model space without changing the color of the mask (if you do it will come out as a black box). As long as you want the surface printed first it should be pretty easy to manage; send any surfaces to the back in which you don't want the contours being masked, then send the AECPOLYGONs to the back and then the Surface to be masked to the background.

This may also seem like the same as the wipeout command but there are somethings I like which are better, for instance you can add and remove vertexes throught the right click menu and there is an extra grip between vertexes that allows you to drag the edges and they stay parallel to the original line. Give it a try you may like it or not.

Disclaimer: I haven't actually used this in production, but will probably do so in the future.