By Chris Borales, Product Manager
CLEARWATER, FLORIDA, USA — As a software designer I am often confronted with questions. Questions that range from “How does this work?” to “Why is that there?” and especially “Can it do this?” It’s my job to find answers to each of them. In particular, a question posed to me by Title Block Manager users was, “How can I use Title Block Manager to process files that each contain more than one title block?”
Before, the answer was tough for me to deliver and even tougher for some users to swallow — “Sorry, the feature hasn’t been developed yet.” Now the answer is simple — “Use the latest release of Title Block Manager!”
Title Block Manager allows users to automatically extract title block data from a group of design files into an editable database. Once the data is extracted, users make changes to the data in the database and automatically update all of the appropriate title blocks. This is all done at the click of a button.
Above is a design with multiple detail sheets prepared for plotting. This is a prime example of a desing file with multiple title blocks. The new Title Block Manager comes in handy in these cases.
Title Block Manager consists of two separate applications: Title Block Administrator and Title Block Client. Title Block Administrator is used for performing administrative tasks such as exporting and updating title block data, as well as, creating new title blocks. Title Block Client is used for placing and modifying title blocks.
Now, Axiom’s premier title block management software allows users to manage multiple title blocks in each design file! A feature implemented due to heavy customer demand, this will be especially useful for GEOPAK users that automatically generate their title block sheets. A typical cross-section sheet may have 20 title blocks in a single design file!
The “Increment cell names during placement.” option allows users to place cells with incrementing cell names such as TitleBlock1, TitleBlock2, TitleBlock3…
Uniform title blocks are attained through Title Block Manager’s two-part program: Title Block Administrator manages the data contained in title blocks.
Title Block Client is used for placing and modifying title blocks.
Each sheet in the design has a separate title block that has information that must be managed. Without Title Block Manager these changes would all have to be made manually. With Title Block Manager these changes can be made at the click of a button.
How it works
The key to Title Block Manager’s new functionality is Title Block Client. This tool now has a new feature to “Increment cell names during placement”.
This feature will automatically increment the names of title block cells placed in each design file — automatically differentiating the cells from one another. For example, each cell placed could have the name “TitleBlock1″, “TitleBlock2″, “TitleBlock3″ and so on. Since each cell has a different name, Title Block Administrator can differentiate between the title blocks, extract the data from each title block separately and place it into the database. Once in the database, the data can be modified and used to automatically update the title blocks in the design.
By placing cells with different cell names, Title Block Client gives the user the ability to place and bulk edit multiple cells in design files. Title Block Manager users are no longer confined to having only one cell per design file.
Call me if you need me!
So, use Title Block Manager version 4.1a or 8.5b to have the ability to manage multiple title block cells in a single design file. Also, if you need to call me for any reason, please feel free. Note: Version 8.5b is for MicroStation V8. Version 4.1a is for all MicroStation versions prior to V8.
