The Problems
How many times have you found, at a late stage in a CAD project that something was done incorrectly and wouldn’t be accepted until fixed? How many times does a customer just change their mind and insist that something must be changed, even though it wasn’t explicitly stated in the specification? How good are your draftsmen, architects or engineers at leaving working project files set up properly for submittals or final delivery? All of these situations and many others result in time consuming and costly changes needing to be made throughout an entire set of design files.
The Efficient Solution
This is where Global File Changer and Axiom customer service can save you tons of time and money. Global File Changer is much more than a simple batch processor like the one supplied in MicroStation XM. Although Global File Changer can run any MicroStation script containing key-in commands, it has a powerful and constantly growing set of custom features which allow you to do many
tasks that just would not be possible with a simple script file. In addition Global File Changer has a powerful, built in Element Selection Utility which gives its users the capability to easily isolate very precise selections sets, assign them names
and then utilize those named selection sets easily to make sophisticated changes throughout any set of design files to the exact elements you want to change.
Global File
Changer for V8’s main dialog box.
Just tell Global File Changer for V8 which
design files you want to change (*.dgn) and which
commands you want to execute on every file and without
further human intervention, all your design files
will be changed just the way you want.
Global File Changer's
Element Selection utility puts Select By Attributes
to shame MicroStation's Select By Attributes can be useful in making a simple selection set, but it is limited in the types of element attributes it can isolate and the values it can assign in a single selection.
The Element Selection Utility built into Global
File Changer has no such limitations. Virtually
any element attribute or set of attributes
can be used to select elements in just one design
file - or in hundreds.
Global File Changer for V8's
Element Selection dialog box
With Global File Changer's Element Selection
tool, you are able to use just about any element
specific property to create a precise selection
set. For example: with SHAPES you can designate
whether the shape you want to select is a filled
shape or not, and if it is filled, which fill
color you want to select. You can also isolate
shapes by the number of vertices they contain
or their perimeter size as a precise value or
within a range. This type of fine-tuning is not
possible with Select By Attributes. In addition
you can select multiple symbology values or use
ranges of values or both.
As an example you could select only displayed
tags that are placed with colors 0-7, style 0
or by Level and any of the weights 1, 2 or 3.
You can make that one selection set and assign
it a name. With Select By Attributes you would
not be able to isolate tags to begin with, but
even if you could, it would still require 48 separate selection sets
to isolate every combination of color and weight
we just described.
Isolating the exact elements and only the exact
elements you need to change is critical in making
successful bulk changes to important project files.
Global File Changer's Element Selection
utility makes this possible.
Global File Changer's element selection
feature picks up where "Select By Attributes"
leaves off, giving you far more control than ever
before possible.
Powerful custom commands
give you even more control over your design files In addition to executing MicroStation key-in commands,
Global File Changer for V8 has dozens of
its own built-in commands. These commands let
you easily make the following types of changes
to any number of design files with a single command:
Update any or all of a design file's settings.
Update all or selected view attributes in any view.
Attach a new color table or set to the default color table.
Globally modify text attributes on text, tag or dimension elements.
Change text justification while retaining the text elements original position, so a change from left/bottom to center/center can be made with the text displaying in exactly the same position.
Rescale text by a specific factor in height or width. Great for handling font changes that alter the display and plot width of text elements.
Change all text or any selected text to UPPER case.
Do any number of text, search and replace combinations, on any number of files using wildcards or regular expressions.
Do search and replace on tags and dimension text too.
Convert values found in text elements representing length, distance, volume, etc. from English to metric, metric to English or apply a custom conversion formula.
Replace any set of cells with any new set of cells.
Rescale any cell or cells by any factor from their current scale or to a specific scale value.
Copy Design File Settings from a donor file to a whole set of files.
Count all or any cell you want, in each design file or get the total count of each cell for the entire batch of design files processed.
Flatten 3D files to an exact "Z" value. If you use 3D models, but need everything on the same Z coordinate, this feature will save you a lot of time.
Move all elements in a 3D file to a specified "Z" value or by a specified Z offset from their current location.
Report the elements that aren't at a specified "Z" value.
Easily move elements from their current level to any new level you wish. This feature will also process components of cells and shared cells.
Two decades of Programming Solutions One of the huge advantages that Global File
Changer customers enjoy is their access to
our fast response technical support team. Many
times the way to make the changes that customers
want, are not immediately obvious. What key-ins
to use or which custom feature can accomplish
the desired result. Sometimes a simple macro or
visual basic routine in combination with Global
File Changer can save the day. That's where
Axiom's Maintenance Plus and Technical Support
come in. Axiom has decades of experience in solving
customer problems using programming solutions.
Many of the problems you will face have already
been solved and a fast effective solution exists
or can quickly be implemented. You can call Axiom
Technical Support with any problem and they will
work closely with you to solve it quickly.
Call now! For more information,
call 727-442-7774 extension 8156 in the U.S. or e-mail
us.
Global File Changer Make unlimited changes
to multiple design files quickly and easily!
Request more information »
The problem with most MicroStation sites is that
they have more than one design file. If each site
had just one design file, making system wide changes
would be easy.
If you only had one design file and you wanted to start using a new cell library, all you would have to do is bring up the (only) design file with MicroStation and enter RC=newlib.cel. Your problem would quickly be solved.
But what if you want to change the cell library for a project that consists of 85 design files?
Bad Solution #1
Theoretically you could do "nothing".
You could just tell your operators to wait until
the next time they got into each design file and
enter RC=newlib.cel at that time. But then for a
period of time some design files would be using
one cell library while other design files were using
another. Sooner or later at least one of your operators
would forget to switch to the new library, he'd
modify and place cells from the old library, and
presto you'd have a time consuming disaster to sort
out.
Bad Solution #2
Another thing you might do, in theory anyway, would
be to spend an afternoon bringing up each design
file, one after the other and typing RC=newlib.cel
for each one. That would (eventually) solve the
problem, but would require $100 to $200 worth of
labor and a considerable amount of patience.
The Modern Solution
Use Global File Changer to solve the whole
problem in less than 5 minutes.
Global File Changer’s
main dialog box.
Just tell Global File Changer which design
files you want to change (*.dgn) and which MicroStation
command you want to execute on each one (RC=newlib.cel).
Without further human intervention, all your design
files will be changed just the way you want.
In practice, the changes you'll make using Global
File Changer will probably be much more complex
than simply repeating a single command over a series
of design files. Whole series of MicroStation commands,
even user commands, MicroStation basic commands
and MDL commands can quickly and easily be executed
on design files all over your system.
Element selection feature
puts the SelectBy command to shame Global File Changer's element selection feature
lets you select elements to process based on element
type, symbology, or any element property using a
user-friendly dialog box.
One of the difficulties encountered when making
changes to lots of design files at once is how to
change just the elements you want and nothing else.
Global File Changer's element selection tools
give you this ability. For example, you could select
only red, unfilled shapes on levels 10-12, which
were drawn with a custom line style, whose perimeter
is less than 10 master units and which has an MSlink
number somewhere between 1 and 100. Now that you
have selected the elements you want, you can make
any change you want to just those elements.
As another example, you could change all selected
elements to a different custom line style, color
or level, or you could change all three at once.
In addition, you can set up and save multiple named
selection sets in a file and use these sets to make
any change you want to all the design files in a
project or your whole system.
Global File Changer's element selection
feature picks up where "SelectBy" leaves
off, giving you far more control than ever before
possible.
Global File Changer has many powerful built-in
commands that give you even more control over your
design files.
In addition to executing MicroStation key-in commands,
Global File Changer has numerous built-in
commands. These commands let you easily make the
following changes to any number of design files
with a single command:
Scale cells.
Replace cells.
Flatten 3D files.
Search and replace tag values.
Modify dimension text attributes
Scale text.
Standardize text height and width.
Set text slant.
Change fonts.
Change text justification.
Adjust underline position.
Adjust textnode line length.
Replace multiple text substrings.
Dozens of other important design file modifications.
Every Global File Changer command can be
executed on dozens of design files at the touch
of a button. Global File Changer lets you
make changes to any group of design files as though
it were one big design file!
Unless your site has only one design file, Global
File Changer will probably pay for itself the
first week you own it.
Examples of how Global File Changer gives
you control over design files all over your system...
Global File Changer can be used to make
thousands of different types of changes. Any command
you can type at the MicroStation command prompt
can be repeated on any number of design files. Any
non-interactive user command or basic macro can
be repeated on any set of design files. The ways
Global File Changer can help you are limited
only by your imagination.
The important thing to remember about Global
File Changer is that it will do almost anything
you want it to, not just the things it comes preprogrammed
to do.
That said, here are some examples of what Global
File Changer can do:
Replace a certain cell in hundreds of design files.
Flatten a whole set of 3D files so all elements have a zero Z axis value
Count and report all or any cell in each design file or in a whole set of files.
Scale a whole series of design files.
Copy level symbology settings from one design file to hundreds of design files.
Change the font of all blue text, tags and dimensions on level 33 to font 41.
Change the master units of a series of design files from feet to meters.
Change the global origin of a series of design files.
Replace the word "Road" with the word "Street" in a series of design files.
Attach a different cell library to a series of design files.
Attach a different color table to a series of design files.
Turn off levels 11-20 in a whole series of design files
Lock all the elements in a set of design files so that they cannot be changed.
Attach a reference file to a whole series of design files.
Move all elements on level 2 to level 4 in a series of design files.
Turn on the display of line weights in a series of design files.
Turn on level symbology in a whole series of design files.
Make sure a whole series of design files have the exact same dimensioning parameters in effect.
Remember, the power of Global File Changer is limited only by your imagination. The only question is; "What do you need to change throughout
your project's design files?"
Call now!
For more information, call 727-442-7774 extension 6799 in the U. S. or e-mail
us.
Download
To download
a trial copy of Global File Changer:
Download demo: Click
here for MicroStation V7 (95, SE and J)
demo. Click
here for MicroStation V8 (2004, XM, V8i) demo.
After you download the demo, fill out the form below to obtain the installation password. Not providing accurate contact information will delay the response for your request. Note: If you receive an error while attemption to download the software, it may be due to FTP restrictions enforced at your site. Call us at 727-442-7774 for alternate download instructions or notify your IT department.
Success Stories
"We have been using
Global File Changer for the past 18 months.
Our deployment is very defined and has largely
been designed to suit Global File Changer.
We have even developed our own spread sheet
which creates the find & replace Global
File Changer requires. It operates fairly
smoothly definitely saves us time and money." Michael Conte
Drawing Desk Supervisor
UNITEDKG
"Our
first exposure was when we received a package
of drawings that required updating post construction.
We had to produce an estimate for this work.
Part of the requirement of the work was to replace
the border on a large number of drawings. We
decided to see if we could use the Global
File Changer to do this and therefore reduce
costs on the job. On checking these drawings
it was found that the existing border was not
a cell therefore we could not use the replace
cell facility in the Global File Changer.
However we did find that all the elements
for the border were on one level. This meant
we were able to select the whole level for deletion.
Now came the tricky bit, We played around with
key-in commands for some time trying to insert
the new cell with very little success. We decided
to have a go at recording the insertion of the
cell in a macro in MicroStation and then getting
the Global File Changer to run the macro.
This worked and we estimated saved us considerable
work." Bob Jackson
Day & Zimmermann UK
"I wanted to
thank all of you at Axiom for your assistance
over the last few months. I've thrown a lot
of questions/issues at you and in every instance
I got a quick and accurate response. The Toolkit
has been an incredible time saver. I was able
to correct the level symbology on over 600 MicroStation
files in a matter of three or four days with
Global File Changer. This task would
have taken months!" R.O.
EI DuPont DE Nemours & Company
"We've
used Global File Changer to fix numerous
problems. It's a great tool." Ray Danley
Washington Group International
"Axiom utilities
give me a comfort level when dealing with MicroStation
design files. Global File Changer made
a no-can-do monster into a can-do task." D. S.
Verizon
"Global
File Changer saved me 20 hours of work in
one sitting" J.C.
City of Toronto
"We run Global
File Changer on 40-50 files per day" T.R.
Kvaerner Oil
"A
project leader came to me. He had 250 drawings
and he had to make the same changes to each
one. To do this manually would have taken a
minimum of 20 man-hours. He brought me the files
and I set up Axiom's Global File Changer
to make the changes. It took Global File
Changer about half an hour to make all the
changes! When I called the project leader back
to pick up his files he was amazed — he
had expected it to take days to make all the
changes." S. C.
DuPont
"I'm especially
fond of Global File Changer. It's the
one product that without question has saved
me more times than I can count. When we plot
drawings, it's often hundreds of design files
and sometimes we discover changes need to be
made in every one. However, when changes need
to be made, even small ones, it takes forever
to edit each drawing. With Global File Changer,
all the changes can be made overnight —
it's an extraordinary time-saver!" Greg Mullins
Bechtel
"If
we hadn't used Global File Changer to
modify the MicroStation files in bulk, this
project would have wasted around 500 man-hours
and cost $50,000. Using Global File Changer,
the entire overhaul project actually took
only 82 man-hours and cost $8,200, an 84% decrease
in wasted time and money!" Gary Warren
Montgomery Watson
"Using Global
File Changer has drastically reduced our
drawing delivery time!" Serge Danis
Canatom
"A
while back, a company gave us several hundred
files with incorrect color tables on all of
them. I used Global File Changer on these
files and it automatically replaced their color
table with ours. Doing this job manually would
have taken us a couple of days, if not more;
but with Global File Changer, it only
took ten minutes and I was back to work." Terry Trnavsky
KoSa
"Instead of
going through each design file by hand and replacing
cells manually, we simple rename the cell and
let Global File Changer replace the cell
automatically. It would take a long, long time
to replace cells in 17,000 files. Global
File Changer did it in a couple of hours." Rick Morely
M.J. Harden
"With Global
File Changer I corrected the level symbology
settings on all 600+ seed files in a couple
of days time." Rob Offerman
DuPont
"I do have Global
File Changer, thank God!" Jan Greczynski
"We
had a big text replacement to make which would've
taken up to a month. With Global File Changer
we did it in 5 minutes!" Chris Perez
Parsons
