Archive for April, 2009

MicroStation Tip Corner — MicroStation V8 XM keyboard shortcuts

Tuesday, 7 April 2009

This month, we will go over how to speed up your V8 design work using keyboard shortcuts.

You will notice that the toolbar icons have characters below them. These are the shortcut keys associated with each tool set.

Preferences dialog (under Workspace menu)

To take advantage of these shortcuts, you must first enable Position Mapping (Workspace | Preferences).

Each tool icon has a shortcut key associated with it.

When Position Mapping is enabled, you can press the shortcut key to bring up the menu associated with that character.

By pressing the shortcut key, <Q> in this case, you can load the associated toolbar menu. After loading the menu, you can press the number key associated with the tool to load that tool.

In addition, if you want to load the tool that is already showing in the toolbar (like the Place SmartLine tool in the example above), you can just press <Shift> and the shortcut key and the tool is activated directly.

By pressing the shortcut key and <Shift>, you can load the tool directly.

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Product Review: Nigel Davies puts Global Workspace Manager through its paces.

Friday, 3 April 2009

There has been an item on the MicroStation Wish List since its inception over three years ago. [Editor's note: The MicroStation Wish List was developed in 2005 by EatYourCAD in conjunction with the worldwide Bentley Community and was announced at BE 2005.] The item, which is currently in the top three, is for MicroStation to have an “External configuration interface” (an interface that would allow you to edit MicroStation configuration variables without having to open MicroStation).

Nigel Davies, Director of Evolve Consultancy, has 20 years of extensive experience within the AEC industry.

There is a need when implementing any corporate application to ensure it is correct on all workstations. With a highly configurable product such as MicroStation, it’s even more important to ensure it remains correct on all workstations. Using MicroStation itself to check each workstation would be a long, slow slog. This is probably the main reason that an “External configuration interface” has enjoyed a top position on the MicroStation Wish List. So, we were very interested to hear from our friends over at Axiom that they had a new product, “Global Workspace Manager“, to fulfil some of those needs.

What does it do?
The features list for Global Workspace Manager (OK, I’m going to just refer to it as GWM for the rest of this review) is fairly comprehensive. I can’t sum it up any better. GWM is designed to:

  • View and modify configurations on any workstation.
  • Copy project configuration files and all project resources to another server or workstation on the network.
  • Produce an inventory of workstations that includes location, users, projects and which versions of MicroStation are installed.
  • Compare working configurations against a non-working configuration.
  • Isolate configuration levels and view changes made at that level.
  • Track a variable to see how it was changed at each configuration level.
  • View the final value of any or all variables.
  • Group, sort and filter the grid to produce valuable documentation.
  • Use categories to view specific user-defined groups of variables. [Editor's note: the "Category" tab shows variables categorized similar to MicroStation's Workspace | Configuration "Category" list. It can be customized to show user-specific "groups" or categories of variables.]
  • View variables in a tree similar to MicroStation’s configuration dialog box.
  • View a description of each MicroStation variable.
  • Build complex configuration definitions using the expression builder.
  • Easily create filters to display variables that “begin with”, “end with”, “contains”, “does not contain”, “is equal to” or “is not equal to” a user-defined string.

Yes, that’s quite a lot of features. But is it any good? Not one to turn down the chance to roll my sleeves up and dive into a few configurations, I set about giving it a thorough going-over.

First of all, why would you need it?
It used to be that it was pretty simple to deploy MicroStation on any workstation. All you needed was an edited “mslocal.cfg” to point to the central configuration files and you were fine. [Editor's note: The "mslocal.cfg" file is the first configuration file that MicroStation opens when started. Key variables in this file direct MicroStation to find files in a specific "central" location (path). Collectively, these files are sometimes referred to as "central configuration files".] While that’s still true for desktop PCs that don’t move around, in this age of a less-localized workforce, more people using laptops and the added complication of managing additional offices, it’s common to need at least some of your server configuration files on each workstation. That’s where GWM steps in. With the installation of a small utility (the client) on each computer, configurations are uploaded to GWM every time MicroStation is started. GWM lets you review those configuration files, make edits and ship them back out again. It’s less vital to install GWM on those PCs that are never detached from your server workspace, but then you can never be too careful if ol’ George likes to mess around with his workspace settings. Another useful application of GWM is to check and maintain workspaces on multiple servers or in multiple offices.

How does it work?
When you install GWM, you are prompted to set up a central database location where all your various workstations (that will have the client utility installed) will write their configuration files. GWM then provides you with a “.bat” file to install the client utility on your workstations. When MicroStation is started on a workstation that is running the client utility, the utility copies the configuration data to the central location that was previously set up. GWM reads this data and displays it in various, customizable formats.

Global Workspace Manager can keep track of MicroStation workspaces and present information about them in an easy-to-read, spreadsheet-like table.

(Note: It is well worth checking out the PDF guides installed with the product. GWM installs a demo database for you to play with and gives some valuable quick-start advice.)

GWM has four tabs at the bottom of the screen, which allow you to view the information, review the configuration process and edit variables.

“Workspaces” is the “home page” that shows one line for each workspace at your site (or in your corporation).

“Variables” is where you can check the values of variables from one or several workstations.

“File order” displays the order in which MicroStation processed the various configuration files — a heck of a lot easier than scrolling through an msdebug.txt file! [Editor's note: "msdebug.txt" is a file that MicroStation creates when run in debug mode. The file contains a whole lot of information about an installation of MicroStation. It lists all of the configuration files that run and shows what MicroStation variables are set in each configuration file. It also displays the configuration files and variables in the order that they are loaded. This data allows a very advanced MicroStation expert to determine exactly what happens when MicroStation loads, what settings are set within MicroStation, how they got to be set that way and much more.]

“Category” presents the variables in a tree view, grouped similarly to MicroStation’s Workspace Editor. Unlike the Workspace Editor, this is fully customizable through a “DebugCategory.txt” text file, which allows you to create your own categories and move variables around to suit your needs.

Dealing with multiple workstations reporting multiple workspace components can get very confusing. That’s where Axiom’s GWM excels. Each page in GWM is easily organized into more manageable groupings, by simply dragging a column heading to the top of the screen. For example, you can group by “Location” and then check which office has which workspace and when it was last updated without having to log in to remote servers or machines. Fantastic!

Global Workspace Manager allows you to group by any column such as the “Project” column. Grouping by “Project” lets you easily see, among other things, when a user last worked on a particular project.

I also gave it a more realistic test. I had a problem workstation where the user was continually complaining that his seedfiles were the wrong ones. Identifying his machine was simple. Next, all I had to do was find the report using the correct project configuration file, highlight it and switch to the “Variables” tab. From there I could group by Variable name and then by File to see each time that the variable MS_SEEDFILES was being set. Sure enough, the project configuration file was wrong.

Even with one just one workstation, finding a configuration variable can be difficult. In MicroStation you have no option but to scan through the “All Alphabetical” list in the Workspace Configuration dialog box if you can’t find it where you think it should be located. For example, did you know that you won’t find MS_RFDIR (the variable that sets the search path for reference files) under the References category? GWM has a search capability for just this purpose. Simply press <Ctrl+F> to find all the variables that contain a particular string.

You can filter any of the columns to show only the item you select, making your views easier to understand. Should you need to, you’ve even got an option to hide all the intermediate values of configuration variables and see only the final value.

Not only was I able to identify the error in the project configuration file, GWM also allowed me to open the project configuration file with a right-click and fix it right then and there. As soon as I saved the project configuration file, GWM asked me if I wanted to save it back to the original workstation. No, I wanted to update the server workspace. That wasn’t a problem either as all I had to do was browse to the correct place. Incidentally, if you make a change that needs to be rolled out to multiple machines, GWM can handle that as well.

Global Workspace Manager allows you to filter data to show a specific variable such as “MS_CELL” and then see each intermediate value as it is defined at each configuration level.

At any point, you can export the data from any GWM grid view to Excel to keep records of your system at key dates. You can refer back to these records if you need to check how things were set up previously. For upgrading or, in my case, maintaining records of any changes made to our clients’ configurations, it’s starting to look invaluable.

The only disappointment for me is that you can’t really say it has an “external configuration interface”. However, when you consider its comprehensive configuration builder and its intuitive and uncomplicated interface, to say it “just allows you to view and edit configuration files” is belittling its usefulness. And hey, it’s only the first release. As the product picks up customers, it’s certainly going to improve. Axiom is always open to development suggestions.

I’d originally thought it was more valuable to the larger organization, but I’ve changed my mind. We’re not large and it could prove very helpful to us. In fact, if you have a need to manage configuration files on servers or workstations, if you’ve got any laptops in the office with MicroStation installed, if making sure your standards are correct in all locations is important, then Axiom’s Global Workspace Manager is something you should seriously consider.

Now, where’s the AutoCAD version?

Evolve Consultancy
For more information about services provided by Evolve Consultancy, contact Nigel at Nigel@Evolve-Consultancy.com.

Want more tricks under your belt? Call now!
To schedule a free, online demonstration or for more information on LearningBay’s e-learning courses, contact an Axiom MicroStation Consultant today! Call 727-442-7774 extension 1448.

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New technology lets you analyze your MicroStation data in ways never before possible!

Friday, 3 April 2009

As Axiom’s founder and CEO, I have seen Axiom release a lot of products in the quarter century that we’ve been processing DGN files. But not since 1988′s introduction of FileFixer have I been this excited about a new product.

Instantly find — and zoom in on — any MicroStation element (or elements) in any design file in your current project or at your whole site.

CadExplorer does so much that has never before been possible, that I’ll probably leave you with the wrong idea of what it does if I don’t get you to read the whole article. (As just ONE example, what if you wanted to be able to instantly generate a list of every cell at your site named “High-Voltage Transformer” that doesn’t have a cell named “Warning Sign” within three feet of it?) So please humor me and read the entirety of this article. The most important part of this article (by far) is near the end, where I talk about YOU. It’s only after you read down to there that the uniqueness of CadExplorer will become apparent.

How would you like to be able to interactively find, analyze, explore, report on and take advantage of your MicroStation data in ways never before possible? Just a few of the many things you can do with CadExplorer include:

  • Instantly find, using any combination of common MicroStation element characteristics, any MicroStation element (or elements) in any design file in a project or at an entire site.
    You can instantly find elements using any combination of color, level, weight, text content, cell name, tag data, element size and many other element attributes. (This feature is sometimes called “Google for MicroStation”.) Like Google, you can interactively refine your search and again get instant results. Additionally, at the click of a button, CadExplorer will open the design file containing the found element or elements, zoom in on them and await your further instructions.
  • Instantly and interactively search all the design files in any project or at your entire site for elements that violate CAD standards.
    When you find something that seems non-standard — say a few design files with the wrong working units — you can interactively drill down and perform more detailed analysis on these files to determine what they have in common. Were they all last modified around the same time? Do they all contain a model named “Plumbing”? Do they all contain a level named “Subcontractor X’s Level”? Do they all reside in the same folder? You’ll be able to interactively explore, investigate and drill down into anything you find in your design files that “doesn’t make sense”.
  • Find all kinds of oddball errors.
    For example, you could instantly get a report of every level name at your site that appears in only one design file. (How much do you want to bet that it’s spelled wrong in that one file?) If there is anything else you can imagine that there should never be exactly one of, you can look for that too. Why not ask CadExplorer to show all the cells that appear anywhere in your design files only once? Quickly scan through the list of these used-only-once cells. How many of them are misspelled or non-standard versions of the cell that should have been used instead? Not sure what one of those cells is? Just click a button and CadExplorer will instantly open up the design file or cell library containing the odd cell and zoom right in on it so you can see for yourself exactly what is going on.
  • Find all kinds of oddball duplicates.
    Got a series of maps where all the text on level “Legal” is the legal description of a parcel of land? No two parcels of land can have the same legal description; right? Ask CadExplorer to display all duplicate text strings in all the design files of your project and you’ll instantly see a list of all the parcels where your designer copied a parcel number intending to change the last couple of digits, but then forgot to make the change.
  • See how your reference files are being used. Instantly see a list of all your design files and which reference files they use.
    Or see a list of each reference file followed by a list of all the design files that include it. The data you get is similar to a RefManager report only the data is available instantly and interactively, without having to wait for RefManager to scan all your design files to accumulate the data.
  • Get an instant report of how many times each cell is included in a certain set of design files.
    Interactively filter (and refilter) the data to your heart’s content. For example, you might want to count only the instances of the cells that appear on certain levels, or in certain models.
  • Find out stuff that you can think of and we can’t.
    The above are just a tiny few, not-terribly-creative examples of the ways you can explore, investigate and report on your MicroStation data. You’re the guy on the CAD battlefield fighting the daily fight. You’re the guy who knows what kind of information you need. The questions you want to ask tomorrow are probably totally different than the questions you’ll want to ask today. That’s why we designed CadExplorer to make it easy for you to interactively ask it almost any question you can imagine about your MicroStation elements, models and files. The examples we gave above pale in comparison to the creative, brilliant and urgent tasks you and your staff will useCadExplorer for.

All of the above are things you can do with CadExplorer right out of the box (but wait, I still haven’t come to the good part).

How is it possible to do all these things instantly and interactively?
CadExplorer has a lot in common with Google. Just as Google constantly scans the Internet, building a database of every webpage it finds, CadExplorer constantly scans all of your design files to maintain a database of all your MicroStation elements and models. CadExplorer’sdatabase is a live, up-to-date mirror (cache) of your actual MicroStation data (which still resides in your design files, exactly where you left it). Your actual MicroStation files are not moved or modified in any way. CadExplorer constantly gathers all the data it needs invisibly. Once you’ve set it up, it does its job totally automatically.

Okay, here comes the good part I’ve been promising you. Once CadExplorer has made all of your MicroStation data instantly accessible, there is practically no limit to what you can do with this data. Axiom can quickly and inexpensively create custom applets to do almost anything your specific site wants to do with this brand-new, never-before-available tool. For example, we could create web applets that let your users instantly query anything you can imagine about your MicroStation data, analyze and massage the results any way you want and display it in a web browser formatted any way you want.

What if your procurement manager wants to receive an automated e-mail the minute your architectural project requires more than 144 “Anti-glare XYZ” windows?

What if, for whatever reason, you wanted every model in your project to have a unique model name? Designer Joe creates a model with a model name that already exists in your project. Joe closes the design file with the illegal model name. A custom CadExplorer application written for you by Axiom automatically sends a text message to your cellphone. And the next thing Joe knows, you’re tapping him on the back.

What if you want your users to be able to click on a custom MicroStation tool button that instantly shows them a list of all the cells in any cell library anywhere at your site, which contains a piece of text containing the substring “Door Detail” on level “Annotation”?

What if you wanted to be able to instantly generate a list of every cell at your site named “High-Voltage Transformer” that doesn’t have a cell named “Warning Sign” within three feet of it?

These may be awful, unrealistic examples. If they are, the reason is simply this: We are not YOU! You are the ultimate world authority on what your site needs. There is no one on Earth more qualified than you to figure out how to create ways of taking advantage of this brand-new technology. The only thing we are trying to accomplish with these admittedly oversimplified examples is to provide a little food for your creative imagination. You tell us what you want — and we’ll create the custom application that does it.

The most exciting product since FileFixer
In the nearly quarter of a century that Axiom has been serving the MicroStation community, no product has ever excited me as much as CadExplorer. Even FileFixer, the best-selling MicroStation add-on since 1988, pales in comparison to the spectacular, time-saving, productivity-boosting benefits I expect CadExplorer to bring to the MicroStation community.

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MicroStation Today — April 2009(Volume 16, Issue 4)

Wednesday, 1 April 2009

Click here for back issues.

MicroStation Today — August 2009 (Volume 16, Issue 4)

Download a PDF version of this issue.

To read the pages above, download Adobe®‘s free Acrobat Reader®, if not already installed in your computer.

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