Archive for January, 2009

How to save time and increase profits

Wednesday, 7 January 2009

Taking the CAD manager’s power to a whole new level

Clearwater, Florida, USA — “Companies like ours are under enormous pressure and are trying to ‘fast-track’ projects by leveraging and re-using existing design data.

Axiom’s enterprise-level programs such as Global Workspace Manager boost production and save time.

“I was asked to ‘convert’ approximately 200 drawings for re-use in a new project. The project manager unsuccessfully tried to find and replace the new project numbers manually in a trial-run. He was skeptical when I told him I could make all of the changes in one afternoon.

“It took me less than 3 hours to process all 200 drawings. To do this manually would probably have taken us weeks! Instead of being slightly behind schedule, the project is now a few weeks ahead of schedule!

“Axiom products have saved us hundreds of hours in time!”
— C.A., CAD Manager

Since Axiom’s 2008 introduction of MicroStation Acceleration Garage (a cost-efficient package of nearly all of Axiom’s time-saving software products and e-learning courses plus an entirely new line of enterprise-level, productivity-boosting applications), CAD managers have discovered that combining time-saving MicroStation add-ons with effective training leads to huge savings and more company profits.

MicroStation Acceleration Garage includes e-learning!
Axiom’s self-paced MicroStation, GEOPAK and InRoads training courses are also included in MicroStation Acceleration Garage. Users can now learn from MicroStation, GEOPAK and InRoads gurus without wasting valuable production time traveling around the country or sitting in a course room. In fact, any user can learn new skills or brush up on existing knowledge without leaving his or her desk!
“We had an employee who hadn’t touched CAD in 7 years — and she had only used AutoCAD. We got your MicroStation V8 Essentials CD and she started training with it. Within two weeks she was doing billable work. It was very impressive. We are very happy with the training.” — D. L., CAD Manager

V7 and V8 Toolkit applications in a single package for the first time
Axiom’s V7 and V8 Toolkits have never been offered together before — this is a first for the MicroStation Acceleration Garage. MicroStation Acceleration Garage also includes Axiom applications which have never been part of Toolkit before: Title Block Manager, English-to-Metric and RasterDgn are included!

Global Workspace Manager, an enterprise-level application, allows CAD managers to modify any machine’s settings, copy settings from one workstation to another and move standard files and projects between workstations or servers without leaving their desk.

Manage every MicroStation workspace without leaving your desk
MicroStation Acceleration Garage also includes new enterprise-level MicroStation applications, taking the CAD manager’s power to an entirely new level.

Tired of trying to figure out which workstations are running which version of MicroStation? Losing time due to having to personally walk (or drive) to inspect the workspaces of each of your designers? Too much re-work having to be done due to wrong workspace settings on some machines? The first of the new enterprise-level applications can actually manage dozens, hundreds or thousands of MicroStation workspaces, all from one computer. It’s called Global Workspace Manager and is included in Garage.

Global Workspace Manager allows CAD managers to analyze, manage, modify and control every workspace they have. With Global Workspace Manager, CAD managers no longer have to guess who is working on which project, hope that they’re using the correct resources and pray that something doesn’t go wrong with a MicroStation installation or workspace that one of their users is working with. Now, without leaving their desks, CAD managers can monitor who is working on each specific project, verify that the correct project or company standard CAD resources are being used for each project and make changes to the workspaces including all of the configuration files. It also allows CAD managers to copy an entire project along with all its resources (seed files, DGN Libs, fonts, line styles, color tables, etc.) to another network server or to an individual computer. Global Workspace Manager shows which MicroStation versions are installed on each workstation, shows when projects were last worked on, shows who has worked on each project (this helps planning for allocating manpower) and compares several machines to easily pinpoint errors on a specific workstation. Global Workspace Manager lets a CAD manager view and control any MicroStation environment variable in any MicroStation workspace on any computer in his company that MicroStation is installed on without leaving his desk.

If Google and MicroStation had a baby, what would you get?
Shhhhh. Don’t tell anyone about this one just yet. It’s still a secret. Here’s an inside scoop on another of those new enterprise-level applications that is about to hit the MicroStation universe (and AutoCAD too, for that matter). How would you like to have instant access to just about anything you can imagine regarding your design files? How would you like this access not just in your local CAD shop, but anywhere in your company? How would you like to find, for example, all instances of “Main Street” in all project files — instantly? And once you found them all, how would you like MicroStation to zoom in on any instance of one and show it to you — instantly? How about getting an instant count of every instance of cell “Transformer 211″ in every design file at your site?

How about being able to instantly find every instance of a cell named “Oil Well” close to a piece text containing “Dallas” everywhere in your whole corporation? Proximity searching is just one of the many features of this new product.

What should we call it? Global EdG one customer suggested, but we’re still debating. We welcome your suggestions.

Coming to a MicroStation Acceleration Garage near you in 2009.

Want to save time and look like a genius at the same time?
If you’re a CAD manager or MicroStation user who is interested in saving time and increasing productivity in the coming year, you should attend a free, on-line demonstration of the suite of products included with MicroStation Acceleration Garage.

Optimizing MicroStation workspaces for faster production

Wednesday, 7 January 2009

Part two in series of articles on how to customize workspaces to make your life easier

Clearwater, Florida, USA — Do you sometimes find yourself groping around trying to locate the resources (such as fonts, text styles, line styles, macros, seed files and dimension styles) needed for a design file? MicroStation workspaces can greatly improve productivity and help ensure that the correct resources are being used for each project. In the last article, we discussed workspace components including the user configuration file, the project configuration file and the user interface. [Editor's note: See MicroStation Today, Volume 15, Issue 12.] We also touched on configuration variables. This article adds to your knowledge of workspaces, which will help you get your projects done faster.

Figure 1. You can easily select which customized workspace to use by selecting various workspace components before opening your design file. This can reduce errors by ensuring that correct resources are used for a particular design session.

Workspace benefits
Anyone working on more than one project will benefit from optimizing workspaces. If there’s more than one person working on the same project, the benefits will be compounded. Improved productivity and quality are two benefits of a well-designed workspace.
When using a correctly configured workspace, MicroStation can automatically make available to you the correct levels, cells, line styles, seed files and fonts as a default choice. You don’t have to remember where resources are stored for a particular project or go digging through a bunch of directories. MicroStation workspaces can be used to pre-configure many of the choices that CAD users are confronted with on a daily basis. The time spent on the front-end to set up workspaces is more than recovered later when using these workspaces.

Getting started with workspaces
[Editor's note: If you are not familiar with configuration files, please see part 1 of this series — MicroStation Today, Volume 15, Issue 12.] Be sure to make a backup of your original files and don’t make changes that will affect other users unless you are authorized by the powers that be.

When MicroStation starts up, it processes configuration files in a predefined sequence. The various files are grouped into “configuration levels”. These levels are then processed one at a time. Configuration files contain the information that MicroStation uses to set up workspaces. The various configuration levels are the system level, the application level, the site level, the user level and the project level. (See Figure 2.) We’ll go through each of these levels in this article.

MicroStation processes the information in a particular order which gives you (or your CAD manager) the exact control needed to set up a workspace that is customized for your needs. In this article, we will explore the configuration levels and see how we can put them to use.

The system level sets the stage.
The first level processed by MicroStation is the system level. Many MicroStation variables are set at this level. For example, the variable “MSDIR” stores the path to the location of the MicroStation application (“ustation.exe”). This variable and many other system variables are used in defining other variables that tell MicroStation in which directory to look for various files. By having a starting point, or root directory, other directories can be located by using a path that is relative to the root directory. Bentley warns against modifying settings at this level. Instead, it recommends that you do your customization in subsequent levels. If you ever have to re-install MicroStation, customizations done in system files would be lost as configuration files on the system level are overwritten by default when reinstalling MicroStation. (Here’s a fun fact: a default installation of MicroStation V8i has 202 unique, system-level MicroStation variables.)

Enhancing MicroStation with applications
The next configuration level processed is the application level. MicroStation processes all “.cfg” files that reside in the “C:Program FilesBentleyMicroStationconfigappl” directory. This is where MicroStation searches for configuration files of applications that work with MicroStation. This would include many of the applications in Axiom’s MicroStation Acceleration Garage such as FileFixer and Title Block Manager. Generally, this level is reserved for applications that enhance MicroStation.

Working with company standards
Site level configuration files are processed next. This is the level where you would customize your configuration to the company or workgroup standards. Any “.cfg” file that resides in the “C:Program FilesBentleyWorkspaceStandards” directory is processed by MicroStation. At this level, you might want to create a file called YourCompany.cfg. In this file, you could customize variables that direct MicroStation to look on a file server for resources that have been standardized. Using a centralized location to store standardized resources helps to ensure that CAD standards are maintained.

Increasing user production with the right interface and tools
The next level that gets processed by MicroStation is the user level. The user configuration file (“.ucf”) that will be processed by MicroStation is selected in the “User” component of the MicroStation Manager dialog box.
Each time a user selects a different “Project” or “Interface” workspace component from the MicroStation Manager dialog box, that information is stored in the user’s configuration file. (The particular user configuration file that will be modified is the one set in the “User” setting in the MicroStation Manager dialog box.) By default, the user’s configuration file is stored in “C:Program FilesBentleyWorkspaceUsers”. Changes made to variables at the user level take precedence over any settings of those same variables on any other level unless the variable was locked in a previous level. A locked variable cannot be changed in subsequent levels. For instance, if a given variable is locked at the application level, then it can’t be changed at the site, user or project levels. (See Figure 2 for a summary of configuration levels.)

Figure 2. Configuration levels (processed in the order above) provide CAD managers and users the exact control they need to optimize their production.

Making sure project resources are used
The project level is the last level processed. The project level is designed to make changes that are specific to a project. This allows project-specific settings or resources to be predefined and available. This level is a big, underused productivity booster. Setting each project’s standards once in a project configuration file and using it over and over saves hours in making corrections to design files (because the wrong resources were used) and browsing around the network looking for project resources. You think that’s an exaggeration? What is the cost of twenty plots sent to the plotter using the wrong plot configuration file? Be sure to add in time and materials to re-plot.

The user gets to have the last word.
In general, a variable defined in a lower level will take precedence over the definition of that same variable in any level above it. For example, the value given to a certain variable at the site level will overwrite whatever value was assigned to that same variable at the system level. The one exception to this general rule is that the project level (which is processed last) cannot modify something set at the user level. In other words, if a given variable is set at both the user level and the project level, MicroStation will use the settings from the user level instead of the settings from the project level. In cases where a given variable is set at the system, application or site level and that same variable is also set at the project level (but not set at all on the user level), then MicroStation will use the setting from the project level for that variable.

Although this sounds odd (for a variable from an earlier level to override a variable from a later level), there is sound logic to this. MicroStation has to process the user level so that it knows which project is being worked on. Once a project has been identified at the user level, then MicroStation can process that particular project configuration file. Therefore, it has to process the user level before it processes the project level. Nonetheless, MicroStation considers that the variables set at the user level take precedence in the event that a given variable is set at both levels. This gives the user the final say on how his or her environment should be set up for optimum performance and efficiency.

How to prevent variables from being changed
If you do not want a subsequent level to modify a setting for a particular variable, then you can lock that variable. Once a variable is locked, later levels cannot unlock or modify it.

Most users do not need to write to or modify CAD standards files or settings, as the CAD manager would set these up. With MicroStation projects configured in a centralized location, all networked workstations will use the master copy of the project resources. Once set, these variables can then be locked by the CAD manager so that everyone uses the files in the centralized location. Anyone using a computer that will be used while not connected to the network will need to copy over the project resources to that computer. Axiom’s Global Workspace Manager can help with this task as it has the ability to copy a project configuration file, the project directory structure and supporting files like cell libraries, fonts and seed files for a particular project to any computer that is set up to work with Global Workspace Manager.

Putting the pieces together
Wow, we went over a lot very quickly. Here’s what we know:

  • MicroStation is configured (set up) through the use of configuration files that contain variables.
  • The variables can be defined (given a value) and changed at any configuration level.
  • You can also lock variables. Once a variable is locked, subsequent levels cannot change or unlock that variable.
  • Customizing the information on the various levels can dramatically increase productivity and reduce CAD standards violations.
  • MicroStation processes hundred of variables when it starts. Think of that while waiting for MicroStation to initialize.

In the next article in this series, we’ll show you some examples of how to set up specific variables that can greatly increase your production and cut down on wasted time.

Five reasons why LearningBay training could be dangerous

Wednesday, 7 January 2009

Before you consider any LearningBay MicroStation, GEOPAK or InRoads training, read the following

By David McDaniel
Clearwater, Florida, USA — Let’s get right to the point. This whole election season has been about “change”, and with the presidential inauguration just around the corner, there are still plenty of you out there concerned about what that might mean. Change is a pain. In order to “change” you’ve got to learn new things. Or get better at the things you’re already doing. Change can be dangerous. With that in mind, and because of the potential dangers involved with the growing use of LearningBay, I felt it was important to make a public service announcement:

CAD managers and users alike are susceptible to the dangers of training.

Be prepared before you buy LearningBay online training.
To help clarify, I’ve summarized five key effects that show why you should take care before purchasing LearningBay.

1. LearningBay revives the overworked and overloaded CAD manager.
Seventy-nine percent of CAD managers are responsible for providing internal training, while tasked to keep production levels high and projects on schedule. Fifty-three percent of CAD managers rely on the user to request training or seek technical support, which means that training occurs at the last possible minute. (Source: Evolve Consultancy CAD Manager’s Survey 2007.) Ninety-five percent of CAD Managers perform the actual training. (Source: Cutting Edge CAD Management 2008.) This training is almost always done in addition to their regular workload.

LearningBay online training provides CAD managers with over 100 browser-based courses on MicroStation, GEOPAK, InRoads and Microsoft Office. These courses consist of more than ten thousand pages, videos, hands-on exercises and technical illustrations, all in one easy-to-find location. And to make it even easier, nothing has to be installed on the employees’ computers. Imagine designers having access to any training they need whenever they need it, without ever having to leave their desks and without overworking the CAD manager.

Okay. That all sounds great. But think about it. Can you imagine a bunch of “revived” CAD managers running around and all the trouble this would cause management in having to find something for them to do to keep them busy because all their projects are completed ahead of schedule? Just thought you should know.

2. LearningBay becomes your own in-house CAD expert and is just one mouse-click away.
Here’s the scoop: A MicroStation expert authors each LearningBay course on MicroStation. The same goes for each of the GEOPAK, InRoads and other courses offered by LearningBay. The full power of that experience is applied to all aspects of the technical information in the courses. A professional interface walks the user, step-by-step, through the materials with descriptions, videos and “hands on” exercises. Areas of interest can also be accessed directly, allowing users to easily learn or brush up on specific topics.

Now, if you’re up for that, great. But the danger here is that your users will become more enabled and therefore less reliant on you or others for help. Keep that in mind when considering LearningBay.

3. LearningBay improves production levels.
Clearly this is dangerous. If you’re doing more in less time… well, you don’t need me to add it up for you. No boss likes free time. People should be grinding away from the time they clock in to the time they clock out. You’d have to find something to do with all that extra time you now have available. This is definitely a scary prospect.

With projects done ahead of schedule, you’ll need to find something for your users to do before they start getting bored.


4. LearningBay can get you an extra CAD designer — for free.
You see, LearningBay provides courses for new and advanced users, designed to improve performance. Training increases proficiency in using CAD tools which raises both production and quality levels.

For example, assuming 250 workdays in a year (50 weeks x 5 Days [2-week vacation]), if an employee improves his or her speed and efficiency by just 5%, that’s equivalent to getting 12.5 additional days’ worth of work out of that designer for the year. For a company of 20 CAD users (all training on LearningBay), this increases production level by an additional 250 workdays (20 x 12.5 = 250). Or, to put it another way, for every 20 CAD users training with LearningBay, you essentially get a 21st user for free.

I don’t think I need to point out the danger in that — somebody might get a pay raise or even a promotion. Yikes!

5. LearningBay extends the workweek.
Possibly the most dangerous result of owning LearningBay is that users would have more time during the week to work on projects. Since many students often don’t have the time or resources to attend instructor-led training, online training provides access to training materials anytime, allowing users to train at their own pace and refer back to the materials as needed. Rather than spending hours going back and forth to another location for training, employees can now spend more time on their projects, thus extending the workweek without actually having to put in more time.

Problem is, “everyone knows” that students can’t learn unless they’ve got someone standing over them, breathing down their neck. Who cares if LearningBay lets you check up on them and review their progress? It isn’t the same. And “at their own pace”? Come on. Students need to learn as one, all together like cattle. It really is the only way.

In summary, there’s no substitute for knowing how to use your CAD tools in the most efficient and effective manner possible. Now that you’re aware of the likely results of owning LearningBay, you can proceed with appropriate caution.

Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Will AutoCAD lose market share? — Bob Moeller points to untapped market.

Wednesday, 7 January 2009

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA — With MicroStation’s new release of Athens, the battle of MicroStation versus AutoCAD is heating up. Bob Moeller, suggests a plan that could give MicroStation a strategic victory in the marketplace.

With over 30 years in the drafting and design industry, Moeller knows what it takes to capture a market sector.

MicroStation Today: As a veteran in this industry, I’m sure that you’ve run into your fair share of problems. What has been your biggest frustration?
Moeller:It’s been frustrating that there’s not more support for machine design from MicroStation. This especially impacts a whole industry of smaller manufacturing plants. MicroStation is a great CAD system and they could be taking away market share from AutoCAD if they focused on this area more.

For an example, Bentley used to supply a “NUTS.CEL” cell library with each MicroStation software package. However, the last couple of upgrades did not include it. I’ve learned to keep my old cell files when upgrading or purchasing another seat of MicroStation. Providing some basic, standard parts in a cell library like nuts, bolts and fasteners would be a good sign that Bentley was interested in this area.

I have been using MicroStation for machine design since 1987 and it’s a great software package. But Bentley doesn’t seem to know that there is a whole industry of small businesses that use MicroStation to design a variety of products such as assembly machines, drill fixtures and welding fixtures. If you go to Bentley’s site, there’s little if anything to support this market segment.

MST: What are some of the most interesting projects you’ve worked on over your 20 years of working with MicroStation?
Moeller:There have been two that really stand out. On one, I was given $100,000 to design and build a plastic-lined, pipe-flanging machine. [Editor's note: A "flange" is a "rib" or "rim" used for strength, guiding, or attachment to another object.] It tightened a flange on a pipe to proper torque, left the proper amount of liner protruding out the end and aligned the flange holes up with the flange holes on the other end of the pipe. Prior to building this machine, all that was done by hand, using a pipe wrench.

The second was a washing machine that washed window glass. We had looked for a glass washing machine on the market but couldn’t find one that would clean the glass to our customer’s specifications. So, I was given the job of designing one. One of the problems that we needed to address was to prevent water from spilling on the floor as that creates a wet, slippery and dangerous environment. The glass needed to be able to enter a wall of liquid, stay submerged while being washed then leave the washing machine tank without spilling any liquid on the floor. The other problem was that the glass had to enter, move through the washing machine and come out the other end all on a horizontal plane. This was quite a trick to do.

MST: How did you first hear about Axiom products and how have they helped you?
Moeller: I found Axiom years ago when I was looking for a program to prevent the MicroStation manager window from coming up in the gutter. That’s when I found Dual-Screen Window Manager. [Editor's note: When using two monitors, the "gutter" is the space between the monitors. Dual-screen Window Manager not only handles the top level "parent" application window, but also adjusts the "child" windows used by an application — such as multiple documents opened by a word processor or multiple views displayed by MicroStation. The program works with MicroStation and most Windows-based programs.] I then saw that Axiom had a lot more to offer. For instance, I now use FileFixer when I import pesky AutoCAD files. It is amazing how many errors there are that FileFixer is able to completely clean up after importing or attaching these files.

MST: Over the last 30 years, I’m sure you’ve seen quite a few companies come and go. What would be your advice to companies that want to get ahead?
Moeller:A company’s life-blood is the cash-flow generated through customers. No customers means no cash-flow! So, treating customers right is paramount and that includes vendors and supplies. I know of one company who always paid their invoices the day after receiving them. If there’s ever a shortage of material, their supplier always makes sure that they receive their shipments on time. When I asked the supplier about this, I was told, “They always pay their invoices. We never have to ask for payment.” Because they pay their invoices promptly, this company had favor with the supplier and always had finished product to ship even when the competition didn’t.

MST: If you could trade places with anyone for a day, who would it be?
Moeller:If such a position existed, I’d trade places with the person who had the authority to fire all those in Washington that stand in the way of drilling our own oil so the USA would no longer be dependent on the middle east. That would bring down the price of gas at the pump.

MST: What do you think MicroStation (or AutoCAD) should do to win the hearts of engineers and CAD designers?
Moeller:Well, a big step has already been taken when they both agreed to read and write each other’s formats. The next step would be to have one CAD software package that would have an on-screen button that would switch from MicroStation to AutoCAD look and feel and then back again. This would minimize or eliminate the training required to learn the other CAD program when new employees come on board. Think of the training dollars that would be saved by engineering departments. Companies would also have the advantage of having a larger pool of candidates to choose from.

MST: Thanks, Bob.

Tips & Tricks — How to use a configuration variable to customize the Axiom menu

Wednesday, 7 January 2009

By Rick Sewell
Often, it is beneficial to change what products are displayed on your Axiom pull-down menu for individual users or different classes of users working in different disciplines. It removes the potential confusion of what products are available to be used and restricts user access for any products that the Administrator does not want the user to use. The aximenu.cfg file lists what programs a particular user can choose from the Axiom menu.

While it’s beneficial for users to have the Axiom menu customized with just the products they will be using, Administrators need to have access to the full array of Axiom products. With that the case, you may find it advantageous to set up an aximenu.cfg file for the Administrator and one for each of the different types of users. This is not a difficult task and is described in detail below. Once you’ve modified the file, simply save it somewhere logical for you. If there are multiple users or Administrators that will use this menu, save it to a shared location. If it is only for a single user or Administrator, it may be best to save it to their local machine.

Making changes to your workspace configuration can significantly enhance your design environment.

How to use a configuration variable to load the Axiom menu
What displays on your Axiom pull-down menu is determined by the contents of a simple text file called “aximenu.cfg”. This file can be modified in various ways to customize the Axiom pull-down menu.

The aximenu.cfg file is located in the aximenu folder that is directly underneath your Axiom base directory (the location where you installed your Axiom products). The default location for the Axiom base directory for V7 is “C:Program FilesAxiomV7″ and for V8 the location is “C:Program FilesAxiomV8″. To modify the file, simply open it up with your favorite text editor and remove lines that you don’t want to appear in the menu. You can also change the order in which the menu items appear. When you’re done, simply save the file either to a shared location (if more than one person will be using this file) or to the local machine of the person who will be using it.
In order to load your modified aximenu.cfg file, you will need to set a configuration variable, “AXIMENU_CONFIG”, in MicroStation and enter the location of the modified file. By providing a path to the modified aximenu.cfg file, MicroStation will open the modified aximenu.cfg file instead of the aximenu.cfg file located in the default directory mentioned above. The steps on how to do this are shown below.

How to set the MicroStation configuration variable
Let’s say that your default aximenu.cfg file is located in “C:Program FilesAxiomV8″ and you have a modified file located in C:Bentley. If you want to be able to use the modified file, you would do the following steps:

  1. Load MicroStation and open a design file.
  2. Select Workspace|Configuration… and MicroStation’s Configuration Dialog box will open.
  3. Press the button labeled <New…> and the “New Configuration Variable” dialog box will come up.
  4. In the field labeled “Variable:” enter the variable name: AXIMENU_CONFIG
  5. In the field labeled “New Value:” enter the name and location for the aximenu.cfg file you want to use. In this case, we want to use the modified file in C:bentley, so enter the following:
    C:Bentleyaximenu.cfg as the new value.
  6. Press <OK> to exit this dialog box and then <OK> on the Configuration dialog box. You will be prompted with an Alert dialog box to “Save changes to your configuration file.” Press <Yes> to accept the changes.
  7. Restart MicroStation.

Select the Axiom pull-down menu and you’ll now see the menu as defined by the newly specified aximenu.cfg file.

MicroStation Today — January 2009(Volume 16, Issue 1)

Thursday, 1 January 2009

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