If you’re like me when you need to do the same set of actions over and over again you start looking for a faster and better way to accomplish it. While macros can be created for just about anything they are usually not as easy and fast to create as a simple function key. When you want to string together some key-in commands but one or more of them require a data point along the way you can use “%d” as a separate key-in. In other words when you use %d in your set of key-ins MicroStation will wait for you to enter a data point and then continue to the next command in the series.

As an example lets say you always seem to need to copy the contents of a fence from one place to the other and you want to be sure it is set to inside. Set up the following key-in commands and assign them to a function key:

lock fence inside;place fence;%d;%d;fence copy

Each separate command is separated with a semicolon. The two %d commands cause MicroStation to wait for two consecutive data points from the user, when it receives the second data point the last command activates the fence copy command. The function key commands are done and MicroStation is waiting for the user to define his start point for the fence copy.

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