Axiom’s Microsoft Office Importer lets users copy data from Excel spreadsheets — even huge ones — into DGN files as real MicroStation line and text elements with the user’s preferred text size, font, color, weight and style. And the data pasted into the DGN file is linked back to the source file so it can be automatically updated in those DGN files in the future, keeping the pasted data continually up to date. It even includes a “column flow” feature, which creates and automatically correctly sizes columns on-the-fly, when importing Word and Excel data.

Microsoft Office Importer is used by MicroStation users — and now PowerDraft users — to paste various types of project information from Excel spreadsheets into DGN files, including various types of summaries, bills of material and quantity sheets. It is also used to paste notes, specifications and other data from Word documents into DGN files.

Eiren Smith, Axiom’s Product Visionary, had this to say about the release: “Microsoft Office Importer has been so successful because it does something which is useful to virtually any MicroStation shop — and we’ve been constantly improving it since the 1990′s, so it really sings. With this release, PowerDraft users can finally paste perfectly formatted, automatically updating data from Excel and Word with Microsoft Office Importer the way so many MicroStation users have for over a decade. I’m excited to be able to offer so much help to the PowerDraft community.”

How to Contact Axiom
For more information on Microsoft Office Importer including a free download or online demonstration, call Axiom at 727-442-7774 extension 3528 or e-mail 3635@AxiomInt.com or visit Axiom on the Web at http://AxiomInt.com/microstation/microsoft-office-importer/ to find out more about Microsoft Office Importer and other Axiom tools that will save you time.

About Axiom
Axiom is one of the world’s most experienced developers of time-saving CAD software solutions and the largest third-party provider of general-purpose add-ons for MicroStation. Axiom focuses on making CAD work easier by creating time-saving and productivity-boosting tools based on real-world problems CAD users encounter. Based in Clearwater, Florida, Axiom has been developing software for over 25 years.

MicroStation is a registered trademark of Bentley Systems, Incorporated. Microsoft Office Importer and Axiom are trademarks of Axiom.

###

For Immediate Release
Press Contact:
Kris Nickerson
Press@AxiomInt.com
727-442-7774

Axiom
1805 Drew Street
Clearwater, Florida 33765

By Mike Arroyo, CAD Guru and Happiness Advocate
Even when you have years of CAD experience drawing in 2D, why does learning 3D seem so impossible? Being bright, motivated and able to understand complex software is an advantage, but never the sole reason why someone masters the 3D design world. It has everything to do with the right training methodology and materials.

Learning 3D with Axiom’s LearningBay courses will have you up and productive in no time. If you’re already familiar with 3D, the searchable courses provide an excellent reference tool.

Years ago, I attended an expensive 3D training event, ready to jump into 3D design. After two long days of disjointed training, discussing how tools work but never when to use them or why, the class spent the last remaining day modeling a sheet metal screw. I still recall the student next to me wondering how he was going to model refinery equipment, thinking that he had to build every nut and bolt.
So, how concepts are presented and what materials are being used does make a difference. The next natural question to ask is “What does good 3D training look like?” While it’s true that people learn in different ways, I’ve found that when a course includes these key items, people are able to use the information and can now start building 3D designs:

• Modular training materials — Lessons must be organized, easy to follow, gradually building concepts while introducing related tools and functions, at the right time. Exposing students to unrelated commands will create confusion and makes 3D modeling more difficult to learn.
• Real-world examples — Every learning module must include real-world examples that illustrate the concepts being discussed. The training should explore what makes these examples great and the materials in the examples should be included with the training.
• Self-paced exercises — There is nothing like a solid, self-paced exercise. Good step-by-step labs explain necessary procedures, while providing all of the related details necessary to build the 3D models or generate 2D designs from 3D models.

The traffic light shown at the beginning of this article is just one of dozens of examples and step-by-step labs waiting for you to master. Learning 3D design doesn’t have to hard, the materials just have to be easy!

LearningBay, Axiom’s training division, set out to create the best possible 3D training, delivered right to your desk with something as simple as a web browser. They successfully built small, modular 3D courses, complete with sample DGNs and step-by-step labs. Today, Axiom has the most extensive 3D browser-based learning for MicroStation V8i SELECTseries 3 available, with over 40 courses.
What makes Axiom’s LearningBay 3D training so good? Schedule a demonstration and you will see within the first minute.

Call now!
For more information on MicroStation training, contact an Axiom MicroStation Consultant today! Call 727-442-7774 extension 3568, e-mail 3568@AxiomInt.com or visit Axiom on the Web at www.AxiomInt.com now!

By Rick DeWitt, MicroStation File Repair Expert

Problems that cause MicroStation to crash or prevent design files from opening can lead to late nights and coming in on the weekends. Missing elements or elements that are difficult to select (or move, or copy or delete), plotting problems, Fit View problems and issues that come up after migrating design files from V7 to V8 or V8i can all cause delays that spouses and children hate almost as much as project managers, engineers and drafters do.

The Warning Symptoms
Is there a late night or short weekend in your future? The following is a partial list of the many symptoms that indicate you have design file corruption that can delay your projects and keep you at the office longer than you or your family want.

• The “Micro­Station Problem Notifi­cation” dialog box appears when you’re working on a design file.
• You have design files that behave oddly when you zoom in or zoom out.
• You see the dialog that says MicroStation has experienced a problem and must shut down.
• You do a “fit all” command in a design file and the whole drawing becomes a small dot somewhere on the screen and you can’t figure out why.
• You discover that some elements have mysteriously disappeared.
• You find elements that are difficult to select or delete.
• You have design files that you just cannot open.
• You discover levels that seemed to just vanish from Level Manager.
• Whole models vanish from a V8 design file or cell library.
• You have trouble plotting or translating certain design files in a project.

All these symptoms get in the way of project completion and drain profits. They always add time and cost to your projects. The symptoms occur when the data stored within the design file becomes corrupt. Corruption can occur for many different reasons including hardware faults, network glitches or software oversights and even human errors. However they occur, the result is the same: project delays and overtime.

But There’s Hope
FileFixer advances every year with powerful improvements and new features that are designed to fix every type of corruption or non-optimum condition found in MicroStation design files. FileFixer prevents the “symptoms” from becoming full-blown problems that can keep you away from home and is the tool of choice of CAD managers and CAD users alike to fix these issues and get home on time.

And Some Fun
Want to get a half day off from work? Just send us a note with the details on which Axiom tool you use and how it saved your company time and money and we’ll send you a certificate from Axiom stating that you should be given a half day off. Show it to your boss and tell him that you earned a half-day off and you want it this Friday. Who knows? Maybe it’ll actually work. Just think of the fun you could have with that!

Find Out How You Can Get Home on Time. Call Now!
To get a free trial version or to schedule an online demonstration of FileFixer, contact an Axiom MicroStation Consultant today. Call 727-442-7774 extension 3527, e-mail 3527@AxiomInt.com or visit Axiom on the web at www.AxiomInt.com now!

Rick Sewell, beloved CAD ace, lives to help CAD users get their projects done on time. He really lives for this stuff. Give him a call and put him to the test.

If you want to impress your co-workers and superiors, then provide them with a 3D PDF that really shows your handiwork. (As a note, you will need a PDF viewer that can handle 3D PDFs such as Adobe PDF Viewer or BlueBeam’s Revu.) Here’s how:

1. Start by opening your sheet model and ensure you have your 3D reference attached.



Figure 1. It’s easy to create 3D PDFs from 3D references. This figure shows two 3D reference models that were attached before plotting.

2. Go to File | References to load your “References” dialog box.
3. Highlight the reference that you want plotted in 3D.



Figure 2. Use the “References” dialog box to select the 3D reference or references you want to plot in your 3D PDF file.

4. Click the little “Plot as 3D (PDF)” icon that sits at the bottom, middle of the “References” dialog box.
5. Now go to File | Print…
6. From the “Print” dialog box click on the “Printer” icon.
7. You’ll be prompted to name and save your PDF. Name it what you’d like, set the location you want it saved and then press the {Save} button to begin creation of your PDF.
8. Next, go to the location where the file was saved and double-click to open it.



Figure 3. Hovering your mouse over the image of the reference that was plotted activates a toolbar with icons that have functions that allow you to navigate your 3D file.

9. Use the items on the toolbar to navigate around your 3D file.

Want More MicroStation Know-how? Call Now!
For more information on cool tips and tricks, check out our LearningBay courses by visiting www.AxiomInt.com/microstation-training. You can also schedule a free demonstration about training solutions or talk with one of our MicroStation Consultants by calling 727-442-7774 extension 3530.

Send Us Your MicroStation Tips!
Send your favorite MicroStation tip or trick to MsTips@AxiomInt.com. We will give you full credit for the tip and your peers will look at you with reverence.

See how easy it is to import Excel spreadsheet data into MicroStation with perfect formatting using Axiom’s Microsoft Office Importer.

Fast. Powerful. Reliable

• Pasted data comes in as editable MicroStation text and line elements.
• Maintain your CAD standards by using the active file symbology or specific color, weight and line style when pasting data.
• Color and weight of pasted text and borders appear the same as they do in the Excel or Word document.

MicroStation alone can’t do these things, which is one reason you have trouble with your pastings.

For more information, go to Microsoft Office Importer.

By Rick DeWitt
You’re in charge of getting everybody on your company’s latest engineering design project up to speed and productive. The customer has supplied you with the cell library, seed files and standards that have to be followed. You open the V8 cell library and discover that there are over three hundred cells and they all use the old, cryptic, six-character cell names.

Figure 1. CellManager automatically creates a cell library notebook in PDF format — complete with a table of contents — resulting in ease of distribution and increased speed in finding the cells you need on any project.

You realize that the only way to get your drafters to find the correct cells, without wasting valuable production time, is to provide them with an easy-to-access, visual presentation of the cells in this library.

Cell Library to PDF in About Five Minutes
With CellManager, you could have what you need in about five minutes. How?

1. Start up Micro­Station V8 and open the cell library you want to document.
2. Start CellManager by selecting “CellManager for V8″ from the “Axiom” pull-down menu in MicroStation.
3. In CellManager’s main dialog box, make sure the open cell library is shown in the “Files:” field. If not, click the {Select…} button to open the “Choose Files to Process” dialog box and select your cell library.
4. From CellManager’s main dialog box, click Settings | Change Settings… to open CellManager’s “Change Settings” dialog box (Figure 2). Now, adjust the “Page Settings” to 25 models per page. Next, click on “Plot Settings” and select the standard MicroStation “PDF” plot configuration file and “ANSI A” paper size. (“ANSI” stands for “American National Standards Institute”. “ANSI A” is a notation for a paper size of 8.5 by 11 inches.) Click {OK} to close the dialog box.



Figure 2. CellManager makes it easy for you to create a page that will display up to 25 cells (models) per page. You can also choose from a variety of page sizes using the “Change Settings” dialog box.

5. Click the {Draw Pages…} button from CellManager’s main dialog box (Figure 3) to open the “Draw Pages” dialog box.



Figure 3. After selecting which cells to work with, the {Draw Pages…} button opens a “Draw Pages” dialog box that gives you various options for drawing, plotting and displaying your cell notebook pages.

6. Then, click the {Draw Pages} button on the “Draw Pages” dialog box (Figure 4) to have CellManager automatically generate the page graphics you will use for your documentation.
7. With the pages all set for plotting, simply click the {Create Plots} button (Figure 4) on the “Draw Pages” dialog box. CellManager automatically generates each page of the PDF and then combines all the pages into a single PDF file. Once the PDF file is created, an “Information” dialog box pops up giving you the exact name and location of the newly created PDF file. Your new file will have the same name as the cell library, but will have a “.pdf” extension.



Figure 4. The magic begins when you click on {Draw Pages} and the cells are generated on screen. Clicking {Create Plots} saves a PDF file of your cell library. When done, just click on {Display…} to view your freshlyminted PDF file.

8. Click {OK} to close the information dialog box and return to the “Draw Pages” dialog box.
9. Finally, click the {Display…} button on the “Draw Pages” dialog box (Figure 4) to open your newly created cell library documentation!

In about five minutes, you’ve created a beautiful, easy-to-use PDF file documenting all your cells (over 300 in this example) that you can easily distribute to your staff. How’s that for efficiency?

Want Cell Library Documentation Fast? Call Now!
For more information on CellManager or to obtain a free trial version, contact an Axiom MicroStation Consultant today! Call 727-442-7774 extension 2353, www.AxiomInt.com now!

Clearwater, Florida, USA — “V8i training? We don’t have the budget for that.” That is a typical response that many CAD users and managers are getting today. There seem to be fewer engineers and drafters around and those that remain are needed to work on the projects at hand. Sending people out for training just doesn’t seem to be an option due to both the direct costs (including travel costs) and lost production time. Doing training in-house, while saving the travel costs, still isn’t cheap either and often consumes more valuable billable hours than management is comfortable with giving up. Yet, you’re still left with the nightmare of training users — as well as yourself — on the upgrade to V8i with all its attendant interface changes and new features. On top of that, you must integrate this new version of MicroStation seamlessly into projects and workflow without any flubs or hiccups. How do you get users quickly trained on V8i without losing valuable production time?

Have you ever had a similar “Catch 22″? LearningBay is an effective, affordable training solution that is available to your users 24/7 allowing them to get trained without heavy losses to your production schedule.

Only the Billable Survive
Delivering billable hours while producing high-quality designs is critical for both you and your organization. Fortunately, Axiom has a solution that will allow you to get the V8i training you need to keep both the quality of work and billable hours high. LearningBay from Axiom is an affordable, online, e-learning training solution that effectively trains your personnel on the specific areas of MicroStation that they need to learn or brush up on. They don’t need to waste time going over topics that they already know. And, they can do all the training without having to leave their desks!

What’s special about these courses?
They include “Learning Videos” where students watch the instructor demonstrate what is presented in the lesson pages.

Short on time? The course lessons are arranged in 30-minute segments to make it easier to get through a course on a daily schedule that won’t interrupt production hours.

Videos are included where the instructor expresses insights or tips relating to the lesson pages and entices viewers to move on to subsequent lessons.

With sample files and illustrated step-by-step exercises, students are able to strengthen their learned skills at their own pace, as well as explore freely without fear of compromising or damaging live project files.

Need a “paper trail” for all that MicroStation training you’ve done? LearningBay makes that easy because all the courses are in a Professional Development Hours format and include a course syllabus, course description, student worksheets, course objectives, a list of topics and a course completion plan.

Need an edge in getting that promotion? Upgrade your skills in V8i with structured on-line training that documents your every course completion to the satisfaction of most HR requirements.

Figure 1. To get this tip, click on “v” (video instructions), which opens a narrated video by MicroStation evangelist Mike Arroyo. Here he gives an animated instruction showing how the “Copy Manipulation” task is executed so you don’t make unnecessary copies. Multimedia features like these make LearningBay’s training courses in V8i very clear and easy to pick up.

The videos provide easy-to-follow instructions. For example, Axiom’s own MicroStation evangelist, Mike Arroyo, goes over the “Double-Click Icon” in Lesson 1 of “Manipulate Basics”. While using a manipulation command like “Copy”, Mike lets you in on the following tip: “Just double-click on an icon (works with most icons) and you’ll get a grayed-out icon [Figure 1]. Then, when you select an object to copy it, and once the object is placed, MicroStation automatically terminates the command so you don’t keep placing the same object over and over.”

LearningBay courses are designed such that beginner, intermediate and advanced materials are grouped into libraries. Each library contains related courses that cover that subject. For example, some courses included in the V8i Essentials FastStart Library are:

The MicroStation Environment — This course covers MicroStation interface basics such as the differences between dialog and settings boxes, how to dock tools and some dialog boxes along the edges of the screen, as well as the topic of when and why one would “pin” tools or boxes to the edge. These are just a few lessons in this course designed to make you even more indispensable to your peers, executives and your organization.

Interface Basics — There is more to the MicroStation interface than icons and dialog boxes. This course begins with the two types of MicroStation interfaces, dialog and toolbox, and quickly goes into task navigation. Learn how to efficiently move between drawing tasks, as well as master the Tool Settings box.

Drawing Tasks Part 1, 2 and 3 — Here are three courses written for those who need to quickly know how to draw inside V8i without the information overload. Each course explores key drawing tasks like how to insert drawing objects into the design, how to work with related tool options and how to measure distances, place cells or symbols and add dimensions to drawings.

Model Start — An introduction to modeling that shows how to create design files, how models are stored inside a single DGN, the two different types of models, as well as how to create, modify and import existing models.

Figure 2. Where do you find lesson terms and what the heck do those icons mean? Just going to the “i” icon (information page) takes you to the page which gives you all the terms used in an easy-to-understand layout so you can effectively apply your V8i tools.

By training at their own desk, on a schedule and pace that fits CAD managers and users alike, LearningBay makes the task of training far more convenient and with less expense than sending staff out for training. The training is always available to fit whatever level of expertise is needed and can be delivered whenever most convenient. This “always on” training means it can be accessed as often as users like, for review or refresher training, whenever it’s needed. “With no travel costs, no instructor costs, no waiting and no scheduling to worry about, this training makes V8i users billable faster and at a reduced cost,” says Mike Arroyo, Axiom’s world-renowned MicroStation evangelist and Vice President for Learning.

Figure 3. Clicking on the “n” icon (instructor notes) provides notes from the instructor in video format. The notes include tips and insights on the upcoming task. It is these little features that give LearningBay students an incentive to continue on to the next lesson and finish the course — to say nothing of Mike’s cool beret.

Call now!
For more information on browser based or on-site training, contact an Axiom MicroStation Consultant today! Call 727-442-7774 extension 2291, e-mail 2291@AxiomInt.com or visit Axiom on the Web at www.AxiomInt.com now!

By Rick DeWitt, Axiom Senior Product Manager

One source of upset between clients and contractors is the apparent failure of the contractor to follow an established CAD standard. Many times this occurs because some of the base files provided by the client were created using an old or non-existent CAD standard. Often, contractors add to these older files and include them as part of a submittal. The problem is: How do you verify that only the new work, added by the contractor in the current project, meets the CAD standard when all the older data, which they didn’t add and which doesn’t necessarily follow the current CAD standard, exists in the same file?

Now you can easily verify that any element created after a specific date meets your CAD standards using SpecChecker’s newest feature.

To solve this dilemma for MicroStation V8 and V8i design files, a new feature was added to SpecChecker, Axiom’s CAD standards verification software. The new feature allows users to accept or reject elements based on the modification date stored in every element in a design file.

For example, let’s say you received base files for a new project on 10 July 2012 and added or modified elements as part of your contract over the following three months. With SpecChecker’s new feature, you can create a rule that automatically accepts all elements that have a modification date prior to 10 July 2012, when verifying the design files for CAD standard compliance. In this way, only elements you added or modified in the design files will be tested when verifying CAD standard compliance.

When verifying that design files meet the client’s CAD standards, SpecChecker can automatically ignore any elements that were added or modified prior to a specific date.

When verifying that design files meet the client’s CAD standards, SpecChecker can be set to automatically ignore any elements that were added or modified prior to a specific date.

On the flip side, if you are the client, you can easily verify that the work done by the contractor meets your CAD standards.

SpecChecker is known for its ability to perform CAD standard checks on design files based on “rules” that define a specific CAD standard. With SpecChecker, you can check large quantities of project design files in a batch process — or interactively — to locate any element that is not per the standard. Because SpecChecker can rapidly verify that your design files comply with a CAD standard prior to submittal, it will quickly pay for itself. SpecChecker has the ability to run in a batch process on many files at a time or can be run interactively to view and fix each violation encountered.

CAD Standards Verification Made Easy
To schedule a free, online demonstration or for more information on SpecChecker and other quality assurance software for MicroStation, contact an Axiom MicroStation Consultant today. Call 727-442-7774 extension 3428, e-mail 3428@AxiomInt.com or visit Axiom on the web at www.AxiomInt.com now!

By Eiren Smith, Axiom Product Manager

It’s easy to grow accustomed to managing reference attachment settings completely manually, one attachment at a time. But when you need to make a single change (or multiple changes) to a lot of reference attachments in one or more sheet or master files, manually tweaking design files is inefficient, time-consuming and tedious.

From removing unneeded reference attachments to changing reference file paths and more, RefManger let’s you make the changes you need in batch.

One major source of reference attachment work is client demands. One client wants references set up this way; another client wants references set up that way, but you need the references set up yet another way to do the work you’ve been hired to do.

You may get files from clients or contractors with references that are not set up the way you need them to be set up. Sometimes you can tell the contractor to get their act together and submit the drawings exactly the way you need them. But what if you are that contractor? Also, even if it isn’t your job to fix this, how long can you afford to wait for someone else to get it right? RefManager makes changing reference attachment settings — across one, hundreds or thousands of sheet files — quick and easy.

Today I’m going to go over a frequently overlooked area of wasted reference management time: Detaching undisplayed reference attachments prior to a submittal. While working on a project, users often turn off the display of reference attachments when they don’t need them for the work they’re doing that moment, but they leave them attached because they may need them attached later in the project. When the project is complete though, many users need to detach the non-displayed reference attachments. Doing this manually can be a hassle and time-consuming unless you have RefManager, which can detach these specific reference attachments totally automatically! Here’s how:

1. Start RefManager from your Axiom menu in MicroStation. For “Action”, choose “Detach Reference Files”.



Figure 1. RefManager solves just about any reference file problem. For example, RefManager can detach multiple reference attachments in multiple sheets or master files, in one batch process — and you can control which reference attachments get detached.

2. Now push the {Attachments…} button. We’re going to tell RefManager to only detach references that are set to not display.
3. Pick “Advanced” in the Category list. (See Figure 2.)



Figure 2. The reference attachment filter allows you to very specifically define which reference attachments will be reported on or modified. This kind of pinpoint accuracy is part of what makes RefManager so powerful.

4. Set “Reference File Display:” to “Off”, which tells RefManager to only process non-displayed (Display = Off) reference attachments, ignoring all displayed reference attachments.
5. Push {Close} to close the “Filter Reference File Attachments…” box and return to RefManager’s main dialog box.
6. Next to the “Master Files:” field, push {Select…}. The “Choose Files to Process” box will appear. This is where you will make a list of all the sheets and master files you want to process. Your active file will already be in the list. If you don’t want to process that file, push {Remove All Files} on the button bar above the list.
7. Next, simply create a list of files. There are several ways to create a list of files. One of the easiest — and possibly the most popular — is to just drag files into the list from Windows Explorer. To do this, open Windows Explorer, navigate to your project directory and choose some of your DGN sheet or master files. Just drag them right into the list area of the “Choose Files to Process” box. You’ll notice all the files are immediately added to your list.
8. Once you’re done making your list of sheet or master files, push {OK} to close the “Choose Files to Process” box. Notice that the “Master Files:” field in the main RefManager box now says “” where “n” is the number of files you have in your list.



Figure 3. RefManager has an intuitive, easy-to-use dialog box for selecting which sheets or master files to process.

9. Now you’re ready to have RefManager run your “Detach Reference Files” job on your chosen DGN files. Simply push {Start} in RefManager’s main dialog box. Choose {OK} when the warning appears explaining that your job will cause some references to be detached and then RefManager will go through your list of selected files. When RefManager has completed its task, it will display a message telling you the process is finished. Push {OK} to close that message box.

When processing is complete, open one of your processed files and go to File | References in MicroStation. You’ll see that any previously non-displayed reference attachments will no longer be in the list, as RefManager has detached them. That’s all there is to it!

Call Now for a Better Way to Manage Reference Attachments!
For more information on RefManager, contact an Axiom MicroStation Consultant today! Call 727-442-7774 extension 3424, e-mail 3424@AxiomInt.com or visit Axiom on the Web at www.AxiomInt.com now!

DAYTON, OHIO, USA — How do you increase efficiency when working on diverse MicroStation projects that rarely have things in common with each other? How do you speed projects up without compromising quality? Does designing in 3D really help or is it a hindrance? We asked Aaron Powell from Barge, Waggoner, Sumner and Cannon (BWSC) to give us his insight into these questions.

Being more efficient at work helps Aaron Powell take time to do some of the important things in his life like help coach his son’s soccer team.

MicroStation Today: Increasing efficiency is something virtually all companies are looking to do. How do you do that in your company without compromising quality?

Aaron Powell: Our projects include designing hangers, army-reserve centers, dining facilities and even child day-care facilities. Because we don’t do the same types of things over and over, we have to look at how to improve our processes.

Over the years, we’ve moved from designing systems in 2D to doing virtually everything — from the start — in 3D. When you start in 3D, you have to really visualize what’s actually there. You catch things like a support beam being out of place or a conduit not lining up correctly that you might miss in 2D. It’s often more difficult to work in 3D but the potential time savings can be great.

We also use the right tools for the right job. For instance, most of our projects require some sort of schedules. Without Microsoft Office Importer, we’d end up spending hours making these look good and keeping them up to date on every project we work on. Microsoft Office Importer a real time-saver. We also have other tools from Axiom that we use. Global File Changer comes to mind. While we don’t use this on every project, it’s nice to know that we have a tool like that available. For instance, we had to turn a bunch of levels off across hundreds of files. Global File Changer can do that quickly without having to go into each file and turn off the levels manually.

Ultimately, you have to provide what the client wants. Having the right tools mdash; and using them mdash; can really speed up a project, get it done faster and ensure that the end result is what the client wants.

MST: What kinds of projects do you work on?

Powell: We serve a wide variety of industries across a several markets including industrial buildings, energy, environmental, aviation, water services, private development, surface transportation, civil site design and federal government initiatives.

BWSC is a multidisciplinary architectural and engineering firm with nine different offices in Alabama, Ohio and Tennessee. We’re consistently ranked in the top 500 engineering firms in the United States.

My office in Ohio focuses on military-type work including work for the Department of Defense. So, our projects include designing hangers, armyreserve centers, dining facilities and even child day-care facilities. It’s a pretty wide assortment of projects.

MST: Sounds like it would be hard to get bored with so many different projects to work on.

Powell: Exactly. Also, even though our office specializes in government-type work, we’ll also help out with work that any of our branch offices have as well. For instance, right now I’m working with one of our offices to help design a steel mill and an assortment of 15 other types of industrial buildings.

We never really work on the same stuff twice. It’s a challenge and it keeps us on our toes.

MST: What’s your function at BWSC?

Powell: I’m the Senior Mechanical Engineer. I lead the design for HVAC and plumbing systems. In addition to overseeing the drafting, I do a lot of the designing and drafting myself, including laying out the ductwork and piping. Much of that work is done in 3D, which, while challenging, I enjoy doing.

MST: You mentioned that you use Axiom’s tools. What’s the biggest advantage you get from these?

Powell: They’ve increased our efficiency of being able to perform tasks whenever MicroStation is involved. When we need to make a change in a design file, we can make the changes to multiple design files at the same time. Axiom tools giveus a streamlined method of making the changes. For example, we use Microsoft Office Importer on every project we work on. It’s a really good way to fit our schedules into the drawings and be able to make updates to the schedules without having to open every version of the schedule separately. Global File Changer is another product we use. That one’s very handy to have whenever you need it. We don’t always use it on every project, but it’s the kind of tool you want in your tool belt. If you have to make the same type of changes in a lot of files such as changing text or turning on or off levels, it’s so much faster doing it with Global File Changer than it would be to open up each file individually to make the changes.

MST: What advice do you give your soccer team?

Powell: The “advice” that we give the kids is pretty much limited to “go out there and have a good time”, “kick the ball” and “you’re going the wrong way!” I’ll work on having advice with a little more substance as they get older.

MST: Where do you see the future of CAD going?

Powell: We’re leading the way with the government with a lot of the 3D projects we’re working on. They’re kind of looking at us to guide them in how projects are designed. Some of the things that we’re seeing is a potential interaction between the different 3D CAD systems, making it easier to convert between projects done in something like Revit and projects done using Bentley products.

More and more people are drawing in 3D. It’s more of a “ooh and ahh” to present to the building owner. I see it in the future as kind of being a tool that the owners can utilize. Say, if they’re looking to change a filter on their air-handling unit, they can just go to the model and find out what size filter they need for a particular piece of equipment. Information associated with that piece of equipment would be in the model. I think that’s going to be an increasing focus for building managers, especially for building managers who have maintenance in mind.

MST: Who’s your favorite fictional character and why?

Powell: I always liked watching MacGyver when I was growing up. The guy would be faced with a variety of situations and he would always come up with a way to diffuse a bomb or something using a toothpick. That’s engineering at its greatest and that’s always intrigued me. I loved watching that show when I was young.

MST: Thanks, Aaron MST