Archive for the ‘IT Tools’ Category

Extra: Revolutionary new MicroStation technology allows proximity searching.

Tuesday, 23 February 2010

Clearwater, ­Florida, USA — Axiom has just announced brand-new technology that allows MicroStation users to instantly find elements in hundreds of design files based on how close geographically the elements are to each other.

For instance, you can now instantly:

  • ­Find all text elements in all design files containing the string “gas fumes” within 8 inches of a cell named “flame”.
  • ­Find all instances of text string “Cliff” (in all design files) that don’t have a nearby “Warning Sign” cell on level “Signage”.
  • ­Find all design files that contain two or more cells named “Border”.

You can restrict the search to elements of a certain color, weight, style, font, level, model name, file name and other characteristics.

You can instantly find matches even if each element of the pair reside in different models or even in different design files (such as when you have multiple design files representing overlapping geographic areas)!

This new technology allows you to catch — instantly and in large quantities — quality control errors that could never before be easily detected.

Unfortunately, this new release came too late for us to put a full article in this issue of MicroStation Today. The amazingness and power of the new technology is difficult to fully describe in just a few words.

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Finding CAD project data is fast and easy with CadExplorer.

Wednesday, 10 June 2009

CadExplorer displays your CAD data in spreadsheet-like views, making it easy to review the data. What can this do for you? Well the answer to that is contained in the article above — “New technology lets you analyze your MicroStation data in ways never before possible!” I recommend you read that article first, as it covers some of the amazing kinds of things this technology can do for you. Then come back to this article for a brief “how-to” on using it.

Figure 1. CadExplorer lets you magically ignore the boundaries between MicroStation files. With it, you can instantly find and display MicroStation models and elements from hundreds of design files in a single spreadsheet-like view!

When you first load CadExplorer, you will see your CAD project data organized by server drives, subdirectory folders, design files, models and individual MicroStation elements.

A huge, multi-row display of all elements from all project files isn’t immediately useful (information overload). No problem — CadExplorer offers several simple tools for zeroing in on the exact data you need.

For instance, let’s say you wanted to find all project design files in which one or more text elements contain a certain substring. CadExplorer easily lets you do this. Simply click on the “Elements” tab to display information about the elements in the various design files in your project. Then, move your mouse cursor over the “Element Type” column. When your mouse cursor hovers over a column heading, a little “filter” symbol displays. When you click on the filter symbol, a drop-down list of filtering options appears. Figure 2 shows how you would select text elements.

Figure 2. CadExplorer prevents information overload by allowing you to filter your results so that you can zero in on your data.

The spreadsheet-like view refreshes to display only text elements. You can then, likewise, filter the “Text” column (or any other column) to isolate the exact elements you are interested in. For example, if you wanted to isolate all instances of the text string “Drew Street”, simply hover your cursor over the “Text” column and use the filter as described above (see Figure 3).

CadExplorer’s flexible filtering lets you perform laser-precise searches, which instantly zero in on any CAD element or elements you need to see. Other columns can be filtered as well. Column filtering works exactly the same way for Elements, Models, Files, Cells, Tags, Folders and Drives — you can filter columns under any tab. Your filters can also be saved and re-used over and over.

Figure 3. After filtering your view, CadExplorer automatically refreshes and shows only the information you want.

You can define, on the fly, a customized view of your CAD data, which includes exactly and only what you need to see. Then create another custom view of your data and save it too.

Tip of the iceberg
CadExplorer provides complete details about your CAD files. Because the variety of information available is so extensive, it is not practical to include examples of everything in one article. We invite you to see a free, on-line demonstration where you can witness the full, unleashed capabilities of CadExplorer.

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Tips & Tricks — How to quickly find any text string (or just about anything else) in all the design files at your entire site

Friday, 15 May 2009

By Rick Sewell

Have you ever had a need to determine which of your massive set of DGN project files contained a specific text string or a particular cell or model or level? How do you handle those situations now? How much time have you lost on projects just trying to locate things? How much money do you lose on time-consuming searches?

Now you can instantly and easily locate almost any design file component in any DGN file at your entire site — and that’s just the beginning.

I routinely field calls from MicroStation users and CAD managers who are looking for ways to find a specific graphical element which they know is located somewhere in one or more of their hundreds (or thousands) of MicroStation files. Now that CadExplore Browser™ has been released, I can’t wait to tell you what can be accomplished with this powerful new technology.

Example: How to find every instance of a specific text string in all your design files (and how to modify it)
 There are any number of examples I can use, but I’ve chosen this one because it represents a real-world customer request that I believe will be useful for most MicroStation users.

  1. Load CadExplore Browser.
  2. Click on the “Elements” tab.

    Figure 1. In CadExplore Browser, every column has a filter button allowing limitless display possibilities for your CAD data.

  3. Locate the column labeled “Text”.
  4. Hover your mouse over the “Text” column to display the filter icon. Click the filter icon.
  5. Choose “(Filter Editor)”. This will display the “Filter Editor” dialog box.
  6. Click on “Is not blank” and set it to “abc Contains” (shown in Figure 2).
  7. In the “<enter a value>” field, enter the text value that you are looking for. For this example, we will search for the text string “Project X” (Figure 3).
  8. Press <Apply> to activate your filter.
    Each row represents an instance of a given element in a design file. CadExplore Browser’s grid will refresh and display only those rows that match your filter. In this example, each row in Figure 4, represents a single instance of the text string we searched for (“Project X”) along with the name of the DGN file and model where the instance resides.

    Figure 2. With CadExplore Browser, you can choose from many different filtering options to create a filter precise enough to find a needle in a haystack.

    For this simple example, notice that CadExplore Browser found two design files (“Phase1.dgn” and “Phase2.dgn”) that contain instances of the text we searched for. (Six instances were found in “Phase1.dgn” and nine were found in “Phase2.dgn”)
    Next we will use one of my favorite CadExplore Browser features (Grouping) to create a list of the files which contain the text which matches our filter.

    Figure 3. The filter editor lets you instantly find the exact MicroStation elements you are looking for using powerful filters like the “Text Contains” filter shown here.

This results in a list that summarizes which MicroStation files contain the text you are hunting for (in this case, the text string “Project X”). No need to tediously open design files one by one to locate text! You can modify your filter to search for any other text string instantly. You can filter and group any combination of columns — so this is just a taste of the capabilities of CadExplore Browser.

Figure 4. In this example, CadExplore Browser applies the filter you defined (as shown in Figure 3) to display only those text elements which contain “Project X”, along with the name of the file and model in which each text element resides.

Now that you have your list of every design file that contains the text string “Project X”, you can do whatever you want to with it. For example, if you need to modify the selected text string, you could change every instance of it, in batch, simply by exporting the list you just created with CadExplore Browser into Microsoft Excel. By simply saving your Excel spreadsheet as a text file, you can then import it into Global File Changer™. Global File Changer can then make any change you want to every instance of your text string in those files very fast.

Figure 5. The grouping feature allows you to summarize information that is in a particular column such as the “Drive”, “Folder” or “File Name” columns. The example above shows how you would use the grouping feature to summarize the information in the “File Name” column.

There are many other things you can do too, but I’m out of space, so that will have to be the topic of another article.

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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's little-known secret saves massive amounts of time and money.

Monday, 8 December 2008

Greg McKinney shows how to save time and boost productivity in this series of articles on workspaces.

Clearwater, Florida, USA — In this series of articles, I provide power user tips (and some little-known inside data) on using workspaces that will save you time, increase your productivity and help maintain project standards.

Using incorrect resources can cost thousands — even tens of thousands — of dollars in lost production. Using workspaces correctly saves time and also helps ensure that project specifications are maintained.

As the product manager for Axiom’s new Global Workspace Manager, I have talked to many users over the years and am amazed at the number of people who are not aware of the amount of time they could save by correctly setting up workspaces. Some MicroStation users that I’ve spoken with simply use a workspace delivered to them by their client and have no idea why it works or what to do if something goes wrong. So first, let’s go over some basics.

What is a workspace?
A “workspace” is a MicroStation environment or configuration. Customizing workspaces on a per-project or per-user basis goes a long way in helping users comply with standards and increase production speed. It can reduce potential errors caused by using incorrect resources and also saves on mouse clicks. A basic workspace consists of a user configuration file, a project configuration file and a user interface.

Configuration files are text files that are processed by MicroStation when MicroStation is loaded and as it opens each design file. The user configuration file stores information specific to the user such as interface name and file-saving options. Interfaces are one of the workspace components selected from the main MicroStation window. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. Selecting pre-defined “User”, “Project” and “Interface” workspace components can save production time and help ensure compliance with project standards.

Once an interface has been selected, MicroStation writes that information to the user configuration file. The interface information will be used for all design files that the user opens, until a different interface is selected from the workspace components. Either an existing interface can be selected or, by selecting “New…” from the Interface drop-down menu, a new interface can be created. If “New…” is selected and a design file opened, the interface can be customized to show specific tool boxes, tool frames, menu items, view borders, view pop-ups, and palettes. (See Figure 2.) The customized interface can then be saved and used in different workspace environments.

Figure 2. From the Workspace menu (“1″ above), the workspace environment can be customized (“2″ above) to display tool boxes, tool frames, menu items and other settings a CAD manager or user wants. The customized interface can then be saved by clicking on the <Save> button so that it can be reused in different workspace environments.

Some companies use customized interfaces for specific disciplines (such as civil, electrical and plumbing), project-specific menus, tool frames or a combination of these. This is done using the Customize dialog box under the Workspace menu as described earlier.
The project configuration file stores information about the location of project-specific resources such as seed files, DGN libraries and reference files. The user interface stores customizations that control the appearance of toolboxes, pull-down menus and other interface settings.

The workspace components are selected from the MicroStation Manager dialog box when opening a MicroStation design file. When configured, these workspace components will make MicroStation dialog boxes open to the proper directory for selecting resources such as cell libraries, DGN libraries and reference files. Other resources like color tables, user preferences and interface settings can be set without requiring user interaction. Resources such as fonts, text styles, line styles, macros, seed files, and dimension styles will be picked from a list of choices that are approved for the project. The three workspace settings shown in Figure 1 are the only workspace interaction that most users will need. Behind the scenes is a whole world of ways to make your interaction with MicroStation a more productive — and pleasant — experience.

Working with configuration variables
Configuration variables contain user-defined information that MicroStation uses to customize your MicroStation working environment. (Examples are given later.) Configuration variables are stored in configuration files. MicroStation recognizes hundreds of configuration variables that affect the behavior of MicroStation. A simple example of a configuration variable is the MS_OPEN variable which controls the behavior of MicroStation V8 when a V7 design file is opened. Setting MS_OPENV7 = 2 will open a V7 design file as “read only” and not display an alert dialog box.
Anything that can be changed with the workspace is defined by a configuration variable. There are four main types of configuration variables:

  • Path variable — This variable specifies the directory or directories that store resources or that are to be searched when MicroStation is looking for specific resources.
  • Filename variable — This variable stores the location of a specific file or list of files.
  • Keyword variable — This variable contains a keyword such as “V7″ or “DGN”.
  • Boolean variable — This variable contains a “0″ (representing “off” or “no”) or a “1″ (for “on” or “yes”). For example, some variables (such as “MS_DESIGN_HISTORY_OWNERSHIP_WARNING” which specifies if the user should be prompted to confirm when opening a file that contains changes made by another user and not yet committed) only have two possible values. Either a user is prompted to confirm (value set to “1″) or not (value set to “0″).

Here’s a look at some real-world examples of using configuration variables. Let’s say that Urban Town Department of Transportation uses a pathname that is generally seven to nine folders deep. The path might look like this:
C:StandardsProjectsCityURBANDOT123456160RoadDesignMappingTopo

Aside from causing an exhausted mouse finger and wasting countless hours looking for project resources, this would drive me insane. If the CAD manager sets a few configuration variables like “MS_DEF” to specify the directory to search for design files and “MS_REF_DEFAULTATTACHDIRECTORY” to specify the directory that contains reference files, it will cut the file opening and referencing tasks down to a couple of clicks. These variables are set in the project configuration file. The project configuration file contains information that MicroStation uses to customize the working environment for a particular project.

Now let’s look at an example of working with multiple project configuration files. Joe’s a CAD manager who works on several different projects at a time. Throughout the course of a week, he switches back and forth between the various projects many times. If these projects have different standards and requirements (different project resources, for example), valuable time is lost changing configuration variables every time he switches from one project to another. The solution is to set up a project configuration file for each project. Each configuration file redefines the configuration variables so they are correct for each project. Each project configuration file has both a file name and a workspace name so that it can be selected from the Workspace drop-down menu later. Each time you open a design file, MicroStation uses the workspace configuration variables in the configuration file for that project to customize your working environment. Figure 3 shows an example of several projects that have been set up that a user could choose from.

Figure 3. Selecting a project from the MicroStation Manager dialog box with previously configured settings can save time when switching between projects with different standards and requirements.

Joe simply selects the correct project from the workspace pull-down menu and all his settings are pre-configured. No time is lost re-configuring color tables, fonts, DGN libraries, reference file paths and a whole “mess” of other settings when switching between projects.

As another example, one company that I worked with had several projects going at the same time that all used different font resource files. Users would tend to forget which font was supposed to be used for which project. The CAD manager would be called several times a week because someone else working on a machine had changed the settings, which changed the font resources needed for a particular project. The font problems would often go unnoticed for days. Sometimes it would go unnoticed until the project was plotted with the wrong fonts! Not only did correcting these mistakes take time, expensive plot media, like vellum or Mylar, had to be thrown away. This is the kind of problem that is easily solved by the CAD manager simply setting up project configuration files.

Setting up a project configuration file
So, how would a CAD or project manager change a project configuration file? Let’s say Bruce is a project manager who has users that keep compressing design files — which purges empty and unused levels and text styles from the files. (It’s fine to compress the design files, but if done before the design is complete, you will often lose things you would have needed later when designing, such as levels and text styles.) To prevent losing some needed levels and text styles, Bruce will need to set the compress options for “textstyles” and “levels” to “disabled”. He will also need to lock down the options so designers working on that project will not inadvertently change them and thereby compress these resources. Bruce can do this by opening the project configuration file and adding two statements to it. The steps to do this are as follows:

  1. Open the project configuration file, such as “nameofproject.pcf”, using your favorite text editor.
  2. Add a statement to disable the compressing of text styles and levels. The statement to do this is: MS_COMPRESS_OPTIONS = -TEXTSTYLES;-LEVELS # disabled due to wild users.
    The variable name is”MS_COMPRESS_OPTIONS.” This is followed by an equal sign (“=”). Next comes a list of items. In this case, the list is “TEXTSTYLES” and “LEVELS”. Each item in this example is preceded by a minus sign (“-”) indicating that this option will be disabled. A semi-colon (“;”) separates the items in the list. Finally, an optional comment can be added to the line by putting a pound sign (“#”) in front of the comment.
  3. Add another statement to lock the “MS_COMPRESS_OPTIONS” variable to prevent users from changing the compress options. The statement to do this is: %lock MS_COMPRESS_OPTIONS
  4. Save the project configuration file using your text-editing program.
  5. Finally, restart MicroStation.

You’re all set! Users working on this project will still be able to compress design files but doing so will no longer purge text styles and levels from the files. Users will also not be able to accidentally modify (or undo) the compress options you just set.
If you’re working with a number of users, I also highly recommend using Global Workspace Manager, which allows you to set and monitor (among other things) workspace components on any number of workstations — all from one location. [Editors Note: see "Manage every MicroStation setting on every MicroStation workstation without leaving your desk!" in this issue of MicroStation Today.] As a word of caution, before you start changing your configuration files, please be careful to follow the first three rules of customizing MicroStation.

  1. Always backup the original configuration files before you make any changes.
  2. Be sure that you have permission from your CAD manager.
  3. If you are the CAD manager, see rule number 1 above.

In the next article in this series, I’ll show you more ways to save time and increase productivity by modifying workspace configuration files.

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Manage all your MicroStation workspaces without leaving your desk!

Sunday, 7 December 2008

Axiom’s first enterprise-level MicroStation application brings massive time savings for CAD managers.

Clearwater, Florida, USA —Axiom, the world’s most experienced developer of time-saving MicroStation solutions, announces Global Workspace Manager, the first in a series of ground-breaking, enterprise solutions that save MicroStation CAD managers time.

Using Global Workspace Manager, a CAD manager can set up and manage all the workspaces on all the computers associated with a given project. For example, a CAD manager can view which cell libraries are being used by each workstation. All workspace configuration variables can be monitored and modified from this interface. The CAD manager can monitor and control workstations anywhere in the world without leaving his desk.

Global Workspace Manager allows CAD managers to set up, monitor and change MicroStation workspaces and workspace configuration settings on multiple workstations from a single location. Until now, managing MicroStation configuration variables has been a nightmare. CAD managers have had no easy way to ensure that MicroStation workspace configurations were properly set up and maintained. They either had to rely on each user to correctly set up and maintain his or her own workstation or walk around to each user’s workstation and manually set up and maintain its configuration. Even if CAD managers use a protected, central network workspace, they still don’t know who’s working on which project, when a project was last worked on or even which version of MicroStation is installed on which workstation. With this new add-on, all that is about to change.

With Global Workspace Manager, CAD managers are now able to not only analyze and control MicroStation workspaces, but they can also see who’s working on which project and which version of MicroStation they’re using. CAD managers can analyze, monitor and control a few workstations — or a few thousand workstations — all from a single location.

“A major problem that we hear from CAD managers is that users change their workspace configurations. This has resulted in them not using the fonts, line styles, cell libraries, reference files or other resources that the CAD manager needs used for a given project,” said Greg McKinney, Axiom Project Manager. “Global Workspace Manager gives CAD managers control over system, application, site, project and user workspace configuration files on all MicroStation workstations at their site or in the company, even configuration files that reside on a networked server. CAD Managers can set up, monitor, debug and change these configuration files on a single workstation, a group of workstations or thousands of workstations — without leaving their desks.”

Global Workspace Manager consists of two separate applications: a manager’s console (for the CAD manager to use) and a client (which resides on each MicroStation workstation). The manager’s console receives MicroStation workspace configuration data about each workstation that is running the client. The manager’s console has the ability to view, sort, filter, group, analyze and modify all the workspace configuration variables on the workstations. These capabilities allow CAD managers to view all configuration variables or specific configuration variables by workstation, location, project or any combination of these. The manager’s console has the ability to view configuration variables on one workstation, all workstations or any number of selected workstations. CAD managers can also ensure that all workstations are using the most up-to-date resources such as cells, fonts, dgnlibs, and linestyles. The manager’s console also provides powerful analysis tools to help the CAD manager pinpoint exactly why one workstation or workspace is behaving oddly or different from the others.

In addition to the analysis tools, Global Workspace Manager gives CAD managers many other useful tools. Using the manager’s console, CAD managers have the ability to copy an entire project along with all its resources (such as seed files, dgnlibs, linestyles, fonts, and color tables) to another network server or to an individual workstation, show which MicroStation versions are installed on each workstation, see when projects were last worked on, see who worked on each project (this helps planning for allocating manpower) and compare several machines to easily pinpoint errors on a specific workstation or just verify that workspaces are correct.

Global Workspace Manager can monitor the workspace settings on every MicroStation workstation at your site or even in your whole company. Every change to a MicroStation workstation’s User, Project or Interface setting is tracked in a central database. You will be able to see — and even change — every single MicroStation configuration variable, in every single workspace, on every single MicroStation workstation at your site or even your whole company, without leaving your desk!

The Global Workspace Manager client runs on each workstation that will be monitored by the manager’s console. The client sits quietly in the background, until the user makes a change to a workspace component. For example, when a user selects a different user, project or interface, the client notifies the manager’s console of the change.

The process of the client updating the manager’s console when changes occur ensures that the Global Workspace Manager manager’s console always has the most current workspace information from each workstation. This lets the CAD manager 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 needed changes to the workspaces without ever having to leave his desk.

“CAD managers often spend too much time walking from one floor to another or traveling to remote offices to troubleshoot or modify workspaces. Global Workspace Manager eliminates wasted time by bringing the monitoring and management of workspaces on all workstations into one location,” said Oscar Albornoz, Axiom’s Vice President for Technology.

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How to get a project done that no one else can do

Sunday, 7 December 2008

By Eiren Smith
Clearwater, Florida, USA — It all started with a phone call. A client, we’ll call him “Lazarus”, was talking to his Axiom MicroStation Consultant, we’ll call him “Ruben” (because that’s his name). Although the call was regarding Lazarus’ Axiom products, the conversation eventually turned to Lazarus’ other needs, of which he had plenty. Turns out he had at least five different software development projects and no qualified programmers to execute them. This was software that Lazarus’ company was already selling for V7 but which he badly needed to migrate to V8 — which is no small task — to satisfy clients that had already migrated over and were just keeping V7 around to use Lazarus’ company’s tools. It was really becoming a problem. Lazarus asked Ruben to recommend an MDL (MicroStation Development Language) developer.

Axiom’s programming team has been producing stellar commercial products for over 20 years and maintains an extensive library of features and tools. This allows the rapid building of stable, feature-rich, custom applications that meet your exact specifications.

“Well,” Ruben told him, “I’m glad you mentioned that. Didn’t you know we also provide custom programming?” Without thinking, Lazarus showed his surprise by blurting out, “Why would you share your programmers and tricks with anyone? Well, you know what I mean: why not focus it only on your own products?”
Ruben understood his surprise and went on to explain that a significant part of what Axiom does is custom programming and that there’s no reason not to share Axiom’s tremendous body of MicroStation development experience with others by providing this service.
As it turns out, Lazarus was in a hurry — a big one. He needed the first of his projects completed in about six weeks, which was a tight squeeze due to the scope of the project. Axiom put some of its best talent on the job to ensure that the project got done on time and on budget.

The secret to success is…
The secret to successful custom programming is prediction. Axiom’s custom programming team knows what to expect at every step of the project because they’ve been doing this for over 20 years. As is usually the case, the right guys for the job were already busy working on a number of Axiom’s software utilities (they’re constantly adding new features to Axiom’s existing line of products) and new releases. But in this case, the client really needed help, so they found a way to wrap up or turn over each of the projects they were already working on so they could focus on getting Lazarus what he needed. The next step was easier than usual — the specification. It was easier than usual because in this case, Lazarus actually had someone at his company with experience writing software specifications for them and he did a good job. So the programming team only needed to ensure the specifications didn’t omit any requirements, didn’t contain anything illogical and that it was doable in the time available.
Once everyone agreed on the specifications, Lazarus was given a price quote. Lazarus saw that it was a great price for the scope of work and quickly accepted it. Shortly thereafter, the contract was signed and work began.
The first project was delivered on time and within budget and Lazarus has since contracted with Axiom for more custom programming projects.
Just like Axiom’s commercial software utilities, their custom programming service has a very high level of repeat customers. Customers who need custom programming keep coming back for more because they know they’re getting the best MDL, C++, database and .NET development around. [Editor's note: "C++" is a multi-purpose programming language used for a wide variety of software applications and ".NET" is Microsoft's application development platform that enables developers to create Windows applications, web applications and web services using a number of different programming languages.] They also know that they are getting a professional organization that is the top in their field and, inexplicably, the best price at the same time.
After the second project, Lazarus asked Ruben how Axiom could have such competitive bids when Axiom’s quality is higher than anyone Lazarus had used before. Ruben’s answer was simple: Organization. It’s not just a single player; it’s the whole team, from Axiom’s management to its product managers, programmers, testers and quality staff. Axiom’s team has learned how to make great software every time. Axiom knows what it takes to make a project a winner. If a project doesn’t have all the elements needed for success, they do whatever it takes to turn the project into a winner before accepting it. It doesn’t do the client any good if they get what they asked for but not what they need. Axiom knows how to find out what a customer really needs and they know how to get it done.

Axiom has been producing stellar products for over 20 years and knows where the pitfalls are. They’ve organized to ensure they never make the same mistake twice. And after about twenty years of that, you’ve got a software development juggernaut. Fortunately for MicroStation CAD managers everywhere, this juggernaut is for hire.

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Will true interoperability change the CAD industry? Melcher Mack, CAD Manager for Bergmann Associates, talks about 3D design, multiple disciplines and the future of CAD.

Friday, 7 November 2008

Rochester, New York, USA — Bergmann Associates CAD Manager, Melcher Mack, has been in the CAD industry for over ten years. He gave us some insights on changes he’s seen in the industry as well as his prediction on where it is going.

Melcher Mack — on a crusade for true BIM

MicroStation Today: What is your background?
Melcher: In high school, I took an architectural elective course where I worked on designing my dream house. Later, I went to college for Marketing Management but found I was more interested in designing things than selling them. So, I went back for Mechanical Technology.

MST: I’m sure Bergmann Associates was happy about that. What type of work does your firm do?
Melcher: Bergmann Associates has been around since 1980. We offer an extensive range of engineering, architecture, planning and design services for commercial, institutional, retail, education and industrial leaders as well as agencies at all levels of government.

MST: What have been some highlights for you personally in this industry?
Melcher: After I started working at Bergmann Associates, we began looking at 3D design packages. This is when I really “got it.” Once I could see more of what we were drafting instead of 2D lines and arcs, I really got into CAD. Helping the company transition from primarily designing in 2D with just a few design packages to using 3D in our design process and using multiple design packages tailored to specific disciplines has definitely been a highlight for me.

MST: What are some of the most challenging aspects of your job?
Melcher: Bergmann Associates is engaged in a number of both small and large projects. For instance, we’re one of four firms working on the Renaissance Square project here in Rochester, New York. For me, the most challenging part is maintaining all of the software packages that we use on our different projects. Keeping multiple design packages working efficiently in multiple disciplines across multiple offices can be very challenging, to say the least.

MST: As a CAD Manager, what kinds of problems do you encounter?
Melcher: Anything from “how do I get this icon on my screen” to “I just lost three hours worth of work”. It’s frustrating losing work or trying to get software to do something that it should do but doesn’t. Axiom’s tools help with that. Although I first heard about Axiom through mailings, it was at the BE Conference where I really saw what software options Axiom developed. [Editors note: The "BE Conference" is an annual conference sponsored by Bentley Systems.] Axiom tools have increased our productivity with software like Microsoft Office Importer. ™ We have been very impressed with what that tool can do.

MST: What do you use Microsoft Office Importer for?
Melcher: We have several people who use Microsoft Office Importer on every project they do. They use it with Microsoft Word for general notes and with Microsoft Excel for extensive tables like schedules or bill of materials. One of my colleagues recently told me the product was great, worked well and really saved hours of time on each of their projects.

MST: What would you like to be doing in ten years?
Melcher: As long as I’m involved with design technology in some fashion, and not just pushing paper, I’m sure I’ll be content.

MST: What book do you wish you’d written?
Melcher: The types of books I have read are not the types of books that I would want to write. For an example Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. In order to write it, I’d have to experience it and that’s one I’d rather not.

MST: If you could trade places with anyone for a day, who would it be?
Melcher: If it’s during the workweek, my Father — he’s retired!

MST: What do you predict will be the “next big thing” in CAD?
Melcher: The big issue in CAD today is true interoperability. If we can accomplish that, we will see technology really take off in this industry. The buzz in the industry right now is BIM. [Editor’s note: Building Information Modeling (BIM) is the process of generating and managing building data such as geometry, spatial relationships, geographic information, quantities and properties of building components (like manufacturing information).] We all say we are “BIMing” or attempting to do BIM, but until true interoperability exists, I don’t believe you can accomplish it. The major CAD companies are acquiring a lot of software packages to cover each phase of a project to accomplish BIM. I think their intentions are to have software in each phase of BIM that’s interoperable. The problem is, we all use a different lineup of software to accomplish our goals on a project. Most likely, it will always be that way. This industry will accomplish more once there is a certain level of true interoperability between multiple software companies. I believe International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI) has the most potential to make interoperability happen.

MST: Thanks, Melcher

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FileFixer dispels myth.

Friday, 7 November 2008

Automatic design file repair was once thought to be impossible.

Clearwater, Florida, USA — Before Copernicus, mankind believed the Sun orbited the Earth. Before FileFixer, mankind believed design file corruption could not be repaired automatically.

If you remember this ad, then we would like to congratulate you on your upcoming retirement!

We now take for granted that the Earth orbits the Sun, but there were some who didn’t think that a software program could ever, all by itself, repair design-file corruption automatically. To illustrate the historical significance of FileFixer, here’s a quote from a previously confidential document, recently de-classified and released from Axiom’s archive: “We believe that design file repair is far too subjective to be automated with a satisfactory degree of success,” wrote an Intergraph executive on 8 November 1989.

David Greenbaum, Axiom founder and creator of FileFixer, disagreed with this. His fluency with design file format, intimate familiarity with customer requirements and unrivaled ingenuity made him uniquely qualified to not only prove that idea false by implementing FileFixer automatic design file repair features, but to also make FileFixer easy to use.

The 1989 release of FileFixer is a distinguished milestone in the history of CAD: Design file repair can be automated successfully. After the release, Greenbaum did not stop there. Before the New Year’s confetti floated to the ground in 1990, fewer than 75 days after the quoted statement above, Greenbaum single-handedly adapted FileFixer for Unix workstations and Intergraph VAX mainframes.

The positive impact on the MicroStation (and Intergraph) communities is reflected by this typical customer anecdote from that era: “To put it bluntly, FileFixer is crucial to our CAD technicians’ production. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve run FileFixer and cleaned up problems which otherwise would have burned up days and days to repair. This is important because when file corruption problems arise, they not only waste our time and delay project completion, but they end up costing the public incredible amounts of money,” wrote E.S., System Administrator, DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit).

Some MicroStation users, boasting even 20 years of experience, hadn’t yet started their MicroStation careers when FileFixer first offered automatic design file repair. How many software applications can you think of that have been best sellers in their field for almost 20 years? FileFixer’s longevity as a perennial favorite is a testament to the brilliance of its concept and execution.

Early on, Axiom promoted FileFixer with campaigns such as the one above:
Note the tape reel symbolism. (Yes, early versions of FileFixer were delivered on reels of tape!)

And then there was MicroStation V8.
By the time MicroStation V8 was first released commercially, back in October 2001, Axiom’s FileFixer development team had already been working on FileFixer for V8 for more than a year.

V8 introduced the first design file format change ever for MicroStation — really a file format overhaul — and with it came an entirely new universe of design file corruption.

MicroStation users had not previously encountered structured storage corruption (when a V8 file’s internal directory is destroyed), disappearing level definitions, duplicate level definitions or elements existing beyond the edge of the design plane. These forms of corruption are unique to MicroStation V8, necessitating Axiom’s invention of entirely new design file analysis and repair techniques. Although FileFixer for V8 retained the outward appearance of FileFixer, there was an entirely new engine under the hood.

Even though it was rebuilt from the ground up, our customers continue to praise its results: “I like the tools in MicroStation Productivity Toolkit, particularly FileFixer. I use it a lot. FileFixer has saved me many hours of lost work. With FileFixer, I don’t have to go into the archive or rebuild an entire drawing from scratch. FileFixer alone makes MicroStation Productivity Toolkit worth it,” stated R. Saldivar, Pacific Gas & Electric.

If you’re a CAD manager or MicroStation user, you should attend a free, on-line demonstration of this legendary application to learn about common forms of XM file corruption and FileFixer’s automatic search and repair capabilities.

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