Archive for October, 2005

RefManager avoids time-consuming pitfalls on your path to V8.

Friday, 7 October 2005

CLEARWATER, FLORIDA, USA — Axiom wants to help you migrate your projects to MicroStation V8.

The world’s most experienced developer of time-saving MicroStation software solutions, has devoted the past four years to the resolution of V8 migration barriers for MicroStation sites around the globe — and Axiom wants to share its hard-won corporate experience with its clients and all MicroStation Today readers.

Read on to learn (painlessly) what Axiom and other MicroStation users had to learn from the “school of hard knocks”. In particular, this article reveals some lessons learned about V8 reference files and how you can use RefManager, one of the most popular components of Axiom’s MicroStation Productivity Toolkit, to smoothly migrate your project files to V8.

Where is V8′s “Save Full Path” check box?

MicroStation V8 no longer offers the “Save Full Path” checkbox in its “Attach Reference File” dialog box. By default, a reference file’s full path is always saved by MicroStation V8. To override this default, set the new V8 configuration variable MS_DISALLOWREFFULLPATH = 1, but note that this changes MicroStation V8′s behavior globally and only for future attachments you create. To remove the full path from existing attachments in one or 1,000 master files, your solution is RefManager for V8.

You could become quite attached to RefManager.
RefManager for V8 seamlessly accommodates the underlying differences between reference files in MicroStation/J and MicroStation V8. For example:

  • V7 attachments consist of a link between a master file and a reference file. V8 attachments consist of a link between one model and another model. The referenced model might be in the same file! Of course RefManager for V8 accommodates models attached to models — allowing users to manipulate more than 70 reference file settings in multiple master files, multiple models and multiple attachments.
  • MicroStation/J offers 63 numbered levels. MicroStation V8 offers one or more named levels. RefManager for V8 allows selection and manipulation of attachment levels by name — for example, users can control any aspect of V8 reference file level display and reference file level symbology by level name.
  • Despite these (and numerous other) differences, the V7 and V8 versions of RefManager have consistent user interfaces — those users familiar with the V7 version of RefManager should be able to immediately use RefManager for V8 without retraining (once familiar with MicroStation V8 itself).

The Path of Least Resistance
V8 projects often start with V7 files copied to a new V8 project directory. CAD managers often report that their reference file links are broken after saving their newly upgraded V8 files to a new server drive or directory. MicroStation V8 can’t find a reference file if the saved full path points to an obsolete V7 location.

There are several ways to solve this problem with RefManager for V8 — even after project files have been upgraded to V8. You can use RefManager for V8 to:

  1. Replace an obsolete V7 full path with a new V8-specific full path. For example, replace the reference file path c:projectv7border.dgn with n:projectv8border.dgn. Do this if you want to continue using full paths in V8.
  2. Remove the full path from all reference file attachments. For example, replace the full path c:projectv7border.dgn with border.dgn. Do this if all of your project files reside in the same directory or if the definition of the configuration variable MS_RFDIR includes the directory containing your V8 reference files.
  3. Replace the obsolete full path with a relative path. For example, replace the reference file path c:projectv7border.dgn with v8border.dgn. Relative paths are new in V8 — do this to take advantage of this new capability.
  4. Replace the obsolete full path with a configuration variable. For example, replace the full path c:projectv7border.dgn with MYPROJECT:border.dgn. Do this if you want the flexibility of a user-defined configuration variable to define the location of your reference files.

Regardless of your preferences or project conventions, RefManager can update your reference file paths in any conceivable way and can perform multiple modifications in a single batch processing run — bulk manipulations which are not supported by MicroStation alone. For tips on how to painlessly migrate your projects to MicroStation V8, contact an Axiom MicroStation Consultant today.

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Overview of user interface updates in MicroStation V8 XM Edition

Friday, 7 October 2005

By Mike Arroyo, Axiom Product Manager
How would you redesign MicroStation’s user interface so that it increases the productivity of a designer? That is the challenge facing Bentley as they work on the MicroStation V8 XM Edition.

Exploring the XM interface
Where the old MicroStation Manager used to be, XM now opens with a Windows-compliant MicroStation Manager dialog box, similar to Microsoft Outlook, with icons along the left side, providing quick links to History, Desktop, My Document, My Computer and My Network. This is a familiar dialog box layout for anyone that has used Windows 2000 and later.

New MicroStation Manager dialog box

Additional icons along the top edge replaced traditional pull down menus for creating a new file, selecting specific Bentley tools or accessing directory history. The preview window appears on the far right. With this update, you will be able to work inside this dialog just like any other Windows applications.

Open a design file and you will see how the MicroStation environment has been updated. With Windows-XP-looking (bubbly, with rounded corners and shadows) icons, the new layout promises to be a welcome change. Take a closer look at these updates.

The MicroStation V8 XM Edition beta user interface. Since this is a beta version, the user interface may change by the time XM is released.

Main toolbox

XM’s Main Toolbox

The Main toolbox (labeled 1 in figure 1) has been slimmed down to a single column (or row, as it can be moved) of icons. Observe how numbers and letters appear in the lower left corner of most icons. These are keyboard shortcuts that, when pressed, up pops the associated menu at the tip of the cursor. Hold the cursor down on the icon inside the Main toolbox and the toolbox cascades open.

After a few minutes of getting acquainted with the new Main toolbox, you’ll be less tempted to dock toolboxes. Not only will you recover screen space, but also the keyboard navigation allows for increased productivity, as the user becomes more familiar with XM.

View controls

XM’s View Controls

Notice the new view controls (labeled 2 in figure 1). View control icons now appear along the top of the view. With a right click, you can configure which tool to display just like any toolbox. Don’t worry. These tools may be set to display along the bottom edge of the view as well (for those of you that don’t like change!).

Task List

XM’s Task List

A new concept in XM is the “Task List” (labeled 3 in figure 1) icon and a docked toolbox along the right side of the interface. The Task List consists of a hierarchical list of grouped toolboxes. To expand the list, double-click on a selection and the associated tools appear below the Task List icon.

Spend a few minutes going through the Task List and you’ll find many of the toolboxes that were previously located inside the main toolbox. The Task List gives users the ability to easily customize their workspace to only display the tools needed to accomplish a task that is at hand. For example, you will notice that the Dimensioning tools are not in the main toolbox, but in the Task List on the right side of the screen. When you select Dimensioning from the Task List, the toolbox on the right side of the screen is replaced by the Dimensioning toolbox. This is part of the new design workflow of XM. When you are ready to change to another function or process simply choose a new task. This activates a new set of tools below the Task List icon. What a fantastic way of swapping out toolboxes without requiring additional screen space!

Moving across models

XM’s “All Models Visited” icon

Left of the View Groups box, just above the Status Area are three icons (labeled 4 in figure 1). The “All Models Visited” icon (sundial) allows you to view previously opened models from a recently-viewed list. Or use the left or right arrows next to the sundial to move between those same models, whether they reside in the same design file or in different ones. No longer will you need to use “File | Open” to access previously-opened models, making it faster to move in and out of project files. That’s hot!

More useful icons

XM’s Status bar icons

The Status Area on the lower right corner displays several icons (labeled 5 in figure 1). These include:

  • The active fence icon (clickable icon with the following options: inside, overlap, clip, void, void-overlap, void-clip),
  • The current workmode icon (display-only icon that is empty when working in DGN workmode and shows the blue DWG icon when in DWG workmode),
  • The save file icon (display-only icon that shows if the design file has been saved since its was last modified.),
  • The design history status icon (clickable icon that allows users to initialize or delete the file’s design history),
  • The active focus icon (display-only icon that shows whether the following commonly-used dialogs are active — has the focus: the Tool Settings window, the Key-in window or the AccuDraw window).
  • And a digital rights icon (clickable icon that allows you to see if the design file has a digital signature).

Conclusion
Since XM — at the time of the writing of this article — is still in the beta testing stages, these interface changes may become more refined, based on tester feedback. At first glance, these changes may appear superficial. In practice, the XM interface makes it easier to focus on design tasks (making users more productive), which is the very reason we use CAD in the first place! My hat’s off to Bentley!

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Select the MicroStation files you want to process faster!

Friday, 7 October 2005

New FileFixer has new, easy-to-use file-selection interface that dramatically speeds up file selection for batch processing.

CLEARWATER, FLORIDA, USA — Axiom announces the release of two new versions of their popular MicroStation utility, FileFixer. FileFixer automatically repairs corrupt and faulty MicroStation files (including cell libraries). Versions 7.8k (for V7) and 8.6a (for V8) uphold FileFixer’s long tradition of design file corruption repair with multiple interface upgrades and increased speed of processing.

Axiom File List Processor
FileFixer now boasts an improved file-selection interface, which provides greater ease of use and even allows users to drag and drop files from Windows Explorer. Also, the file selection process has been dramatically sped up. The “Axiom File List Processor”, or AxiFLP, is an integral part of all of Axiom’s utilities with batch-processing capabilities. The revamping of AxiFLP provides Axiom software users more efficient ways to manage the way they select files to be processed.

FileFixer is the first Axiom utility to be released with the new AxiFLP, with more in the pipeline.
“The new interface and sorting capabilities of the new AxiFLP give users more control over the file selection process, enabling them to get to fixing files faster,” stated Ivan Pena, Axiom’s Vice President for Marketing. “These enhancements increase the usability of our tools and make them even more efficient for our customers and future customers. We are really excited!”

“Geekier” enhancements
Long-time FileFixer users will be glad to know that FileFixer can now check itself — the DLLs and files that make up FileFixer — before it starts fixing design files. A DLL (Dynamic Link Library) is a collection of small programs, any of which can be loaded into memory and run as needed to support another running program.

FileFixer now reports when it finds more than one copy of the required DLL files — or if it doesn’t find the correct DLLs — to run FileFixer. Why is this important? Previous installations of FileFixer or the moving of FileFixer from a local (single) to a network (site) installation sometimes causes duplicates of these DLL files to be created. Having needless DLL files could disable the ability to load FileFixer from the Axiom menu in MicroStation. The new FileFixer can detect any needless duplicates that may be located throughout a user’s system and alerts the user when loading FileFixer. The user can then delete the duplicate DLLs.

These DLL-handling enhancements will make it easier for users to install FileFixer upgrades.

Other features
Among the other features of the latest versions of FileFixer are:

  • The ability to automatically detect and repair line string vertices that are off the edge of the design plane.
  • The ability to specify whether to keep the original file’s modification date for a backup file created by FileFixer or change the modification date to when the backup was created.
  • A consolidated Report File Settings dialog box that makes it easier for users to manage report settings, such as whether to output a text report or an HTML report, or whether to put everything in one report file when processing a batch of design files or to create a report for each design file processed.

This new version — like all Axiom product upgrades — is available at no additional charge to current maintenance holders.

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Bentley Award winner conquers three weeks of work overnight with RefManager.

Friday, 7 October 2005

LONDON, ENGLAND — Famous for — among many other things — the BBC, Big Ben and the River Thames, London is where we caught up with this month’s showcased MicroStation user — Steve Wright, an Associate at environmentally-minded United Kingdom engineering firm whitbybird. Steve kindly took time to share with MicroStation Today his love of football (soccer) and how he kept on schedule for one of his biggest projects.

Steve Wright, Associate at United Kingdom engineering firm Whitbybird

MicroStation Today: Please give a short background of your CAD history.
Steve: I joined whitbybird in 1988 as a draftsman and started using CAD in 1989 using a program called CADBuild (an early CAD software package). Whitbybird migrated to MicroStation in 1994 after we had success using Bentley’s 3D steelwork modeling packages. We started using Triforma in 1999 and later we included Bentley Structural (Bentley’s design and documentation solution for structural systems, like steel, timber and concrete) in our collection of CAD programs. We are now one of the leading engineering practices that uses 3D technology to produce 2D drawings. I have been fortunate to help develop the whitbybird CAD systems from its inception to our current 3D-modeling environment. In 2003, one of my Triforma models won the Bentley Award at the BE Conference held in Baltimore, Maryland.

MST: What is your title? What are your daily duties
Steve: I was promoted to Associate last year. My main responsibilities are the day-to-day running of CAD resources company-wide. This includes recruitment, workload management and telephone support for technical problems. I am also responsible for the continuing development and maintenance of the CAD systems and whitbybird CAD Standard. I am still involved in working on live projects and producing 3D models for 2D drawing extractions.

MST: What have been some of your biggest jobs
Steve: The major project I have been involved with over the last five years has been the redevelopment of the BBC Broadcasting House in London. This is a part refurbishment and part new build project worth approximately £350 million [Editor's note: that's over $600 million US]. This is a very interesting project because due to the proximity of the London Underground tube lines (London’s subway system) and the sensitivity of recording equipment, the entire building has to be acoustically isolated. In order to achieve this, all the columns are “broken” at the underside of the first floor level and an isolating spring is placed at the “breakpoint” to act as a damper. The project was also a challenge to model due to the complexity of the structure. It is currently the biggest Triforma model in the office.

MST: How has RefManager helped you get work done
Steve: We purchased Axiom’s RefManager in 2002. This was for a specific project, which was one of the largest projects in the office at the time. The project was two years old and the drawing and model file naming protocols had to be revised to suit a new project-based CAD standard. We had over 175 design files plus all the relevant reference/model files — a total of over 600 separate design files to rename and, more importantly, keep the reference file paths intact. To do this manually would be a very laborious task for someone to carry out. In addition, we had to be sure that the final results were going to be perfect, as the project schedule was still moving ahead.

MST: How much time and money would you say RefManager saved whitbybird
Steve: We estimated that the renaming of 600 design files would take us three man-weeks to complete, which would have been a major problem for the overall project schedule. This is why we looked at and finally purchased RefManager. We ran RefManager overnight and the results were perfect. All the files were renamed and the reference file paths were intact. This couldn’t have been done without RefManager.

Graph showing Steve Wright’s time savings on one project using RefManager.

MST: What’s your favorite TV show
Steve: I do not have a favorite TV show as such as I tend to watch a lot of sports on TV. My favorite sports to watch are cricket, golf and any football game involving Arsenal [Editor's note: Arsenal is a London-based soccer team that was first formed by a group of factory workers in 1886].

MST: If you could have a conversation with anyone, living or deceased, who would it be
Steve: My choice would be Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the Victorian engineer. His work was so diversified — railways, buildings, tunnels, bridges and ships. He pushed Victorian engineering knowledge to the limit. I feel it would be very interesting to hear the man talk about out where he got his drive, ideas and inspiration from.

MST: What would be the first thing you would do if you won £10 million in the lottery
Steve: Buy a hospitality box at the new Arsenal Stadium.

MST: Thank you very much for talking with us, Steve.

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