Looking under the bonnet...

Lookup tables are a good way to avoid manual data entry and ensure consistency. Item Types now have a lookup tables capability. Combined with storage of Item Types in shared DGNLIBs and the Pick List feature this is very powerful. The outcome of the steps…

For some reason Microsoft decided that hiding file extensions in Windows was a good idea. This is fine if you are just wanting to distinguish between,say, Word or Excel documents. However once you get beyond the obvious icons, as we often do in AEC, not…

When creating drawings the names of the containing DGNs would ideally all be known in advance allowing these to be entered as files are created. Sometime this is not possible or project requirements may change after files have been named. Drawings created…

Bentley View CONNECT Edition was first released on Monday 4 February, Update 12 is now available. This is Bentley's free file viewer for DGN files and ALL the other formats that MicroStation users will be used to accessing: It is a viewing application…

Background While working in practice and as a freelance consultant, one of my first questions in response to a user's problem, typically "why are all my references missing and showing up red", would be which project (now WorkSet) are you in (perhaps more…

The Line Style creation tools have not been updated for many years so the user interface and process and the dialog boxes involved in creation can be quite challenging. However, Line Styles are a powerful tool so worth getting to know as discussed in…

I recently updated an informal V8i training document written during my pre-Bentley consultancy days to CONNECT Edition. The object of these documents is to highlight some of the fundamental operational features of MicroStation and related applications…

AECOsim Building Designer CONNECT Edition Update 4 includes new tools relating to the Solids Working Area (SWA). The importance and use of the SWA has been discussed in detail in previous articles in this series. The new tools highlight the importance…

We have some heat map display styles available for certain attributes through Thematic Mapping. These apply to the situations they were designed for. There are a host of other situations where heat map style symbology can be useful. James Manfield of…

[Updated 14 August 2018] We discourage manual editing of this file as it is written to by CONNECT Edition applications during active sessions, updating the value of _USTN_CONFIGURATION (in the [Set Configuration] section of the file) to correspond to…

Focus is where input from the keyboard will take effect. Unlike an application such as Microsoft Word, where the input focus is essentially either in the document or in a dialog; MicroStation has several points where keyboard input can be applied. While…

This is an updated version of an earlier V8i 101 article. A DGNLIB is a DGN file used for the storage and distribution of shared resources. Its internal structure is identical, only the file extension is different. Files with the .dgnlib extension are treated…

As items drift down a blog's timeline they can be overlooked, so here is an index for this series of pieces:

Updated 12 September 2016 Notepad++ is one of the best text editors around and the one I always use for editing configuration files. However out of the box it understandably does not include the Bentley CFG file language so all text is the default black…

In MicroStation CONNECT Edition Update 10 (and AECOsim Building Designer Update 4) we have introduced the ability to edit the description of an attached GCS. Previous articles in this series utilised individual transformed GCS's to locate individual buildings…

The CONNECT Edition Configuration variables dialog is considerably more user friendly than its V8i predecessor, offering more space, column sorting and other improvements. However, one apparent limitation is that any changes made are saved to the current…

Batch Process Utility Use for straightforward repetitive operations. The MicroStation Batch Process Utility enables you to select groups or folders of files then run a series of key-in commands on them. The commands are stored in a simple text file as…

What is SnakeGrid? SnakeGrid takes a linear alignment and lays it out on a flat plane maintaining low distortion along a strip 1 mile wide each side of the alignment. This allows accurate measurements of distance and angle within this strip. This is not…

AECOsim Building Designer’s DataGroup enables the creation, manipulation and reporting of business data associated with DGN graphic objects of various kinds, generally building elements or components. The DataGroups Scheduling tools can produce sophisticated…

Bentley's CONNECTION Client will, unless told not to by installation options or user preferences, offer to update enabled CONNECT Edition applications. Like most other software update features, the update offered will always be the latest release. This…

We provide the ability within CONNECT Edition applications to create new WorkSpaces:  and WorkSets:   For many users these are useful tools; however in organizations where there are strict procedures about project creation, where projects are often created…

Following the techniques used in Setting Up in the Real World – GeoReferencing Update, a similar approach uses individual facility/building footprints as the guiding geometry. This allows the individual facilities to be moved around independently…

This article is an update of the earlier Setting Up in the Real World – GeoReferencing piece with a slightly simplified workflow to create the transformed GCS and using different example data. Background The accuracy of 3D modelling operations can…

In CONNECT Edition Display Rules have been added as an additional option for Display Styles. Display Rules are a platform feature that are available in MicroStation and all other CONNECT Edition applications based on MicroStation's core. This simplified…

The DGNWS file, full name DGN WorkSet file, is very important. It contains WorkSet properties, custom properties, WorkSet sheet index, and the WorkSet Link Set. Each of these, other than the sheet index, involves some initial data input. As a project proceeds…