Open and Closed Elements

An important concept to understand in MicroStation is the difference

between open and closed shapes. Several commands treat elements
differently depending on this status. Place Line should only be used to
draw open elements while Place Block and Place Shape can be used for
closed elements.
The tool settings boxes for closed elements include a separate section
that allows you to set the Area, Fill type, and Fill Color.

Area Can be a solid or a hole. It is best to leave this

as solid at all times. There are other ways to
make a closed shape into a hole that will work

Fill Type There are three fill types: None does not fill
closed element; Opaque Fills the element with
the active color; and Outlined uses the active
Color to draw the object, but fills it with the Fill
Color.

Fill Color You can choose a fill color different from the
active color if you
Choose the Outlined Fill type.

 The Fill may not always appear in the view window. This is
controlled by the View Attributes for each window

Drawing Precise Blocks and Shapes

Blocks and Shapes are both closed elements. As we saw earlier, the
Place Block command is a rectangle. You pick two opposite corners of
the rectangle to create it. The Place Shape command is closer in
execution to the Place Line command but automatically closes on itself
when you pick the last point.
Place Block

The only way to get a precise block is to key-in the distances or use
AccuDraw which we will learn about in the next section. But, in the
tool settings for Place Block, we see that there are two methods to
create rectangular shapes.

 Orthogonal allows you to pick the first point and the opposite
corner.

 Rotated allows you to pick two base points that define the angle
and lower length of the block, and then the diagonal point of the
block.

Place Shape

The Place Shape tool settings box works like the Place Line command
at the top and the Place Block command at the bottom, with one extra
button. That extra button, Close Element, is what makes the Place
Shape command different. After creating the segments of the shape,
you must close it to finish it off. If you do not close the shape you will
loose all the line segments.