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    • Supporting Techniques - Microsoft PowerToys

      Marc Thomas
      Marc Thomas
      Microsoft PowerToys brings a bundle of utilities to Windows, some of which are finding their way into Windows 11; the app appears to be a testing ground for new UX ideas. It can be downloaded from the Microsoft Store, updates are automatic and frequent…
      • Thu, Mar 9 2023
    • Using it! - CONNECT and V8i Tips Documents

      Marc Thomas
      Marc Thomas
      I have been updating an informal training document written during my pre-Bentley consultancy days to current CONNECT Edition versions. The object of the document is to highlight some of the fundamental operational features of MicroStation and related applications…
      • Wed, Jan 11 2023
    • Theme Links

      Marc Thomas
      Marc Thomas
      For convenience here are links to search results for several of the themes on this blog: SMB - lists articles particularly relevant to smaller users in the SMB/SME sectors OpenBuildings Designer Setting Up in the Real World Using it! CONNECT Edition -…
      • Sun, Dec 4 2022
    • Configuration Tips - Manage Configuration Utility

      Marc Thomas
      Marc Thomas
      MicroStation Update 17 includes the new Manage Configuration utility. This enables MicroStation to switch between multiple configurations allowing further control and separation of standards for organizations working with serial clients or on major projects…
      • Mon, Nov 21 2022
    • Using It! - Bump Tool Settings

      Marc Thomas
      Marc Thomas
      We provide an AccuDraw shortcut to 'bump' the first tool setting shown in the Tool Setting dialog from its initial value to the next available. For example, in the SmartLine tool you can place lines and arcs: The key varies by region, it is tilde in…
      • Wed, Nov 9 2022
    • CONNECT Edition - Configuration Tips: Use of Windows Environment variables

      Marc Thomas
      Marc Thomas
      It is possible to set Configuration variables as Windows Environment Variables. This can be useful in some cases. They should generally be set at the User level, not System level. Use of this method is usually applicable to administrators, but may also…
      • Tue, Oct 25 2022
    • Site Standards - Site Resource Files and Data Files

      Marc Thomas
      Marc Thomas
      This article was written for V8i several years ago and has now been updated to align with current versions. MicroStation's default data folder is located here: CONNECT Edition: C:\Program Files\Bentley\MicroStation CONNECT Edition\MicroStation\Default…
      • Sun, Sep 11 2022
    • Configuration Tips - Using Command Line Arguments

      Marc Thomas
      Marc Thomas
      For administrators or others working with multiple configurations, or perhaps needed to launch MicroStation from another application, Command Line Arguments can be used to specify a number of starting criteria. These arguments, often referred to as switches…
      • Wed, May 25 2022
    • CONNECT Edition - Configuration Tips : Should I edit ConfigurationSetup.cfg?

      Marc Thomas
      Marc Thomas
      [Updated 31 March 2022] 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 the…
      • Thu, Mar 31 2022
    • Using It! - Admin reports, AKA listing your stuff!

      Marc Thomas
      Marc Thomas
      My colleague Shawn McGaffick wrote these four blogs on some of the useful reports that administrators or project leads can run on their data.  Reporting for CAD Administrators: Cell Count Reports Reporting for CAD Administrators: Working Units, Scales…
      • Thu, Mar 17 2022
    • Supporting Techniques - Listing files and folders

      Marc Thomas
      Marc Thomas
      It is often useful to obtain a list of the files in a folder to do this. The TREE or DIR commands can do this. Shift + Right-click on a folder (to save keying-in the path); pick: This opens PowerShell in that folder, type CMD and paste in the following…
      • Thu, Mar 10 2022
    • Ribbon Customisation - Commands (Custom)

      Marc Thomas
      Marc Thomas
      Have you ever wondered what goes here? Yes, me too! This is a route to creating custom buttons containing key-in sequences that can be used in your ribbon customisation. Any key-in that you can compile and test in the key-in dialog can be added to a…
      • Tue, Mar 1 2022
    • Using It! - Adding Custom Icons to your tools

      Marc Thomas
      Marc Thomas
      When you create custom tool buttons to add to the Ribbon or Quick Access Toolbar existing icons from the application may be appropriate or you may wish to create your own. Sometimes there may be an existing icon whose pattern is appropriate to follow…
      • Tue, Sep 14 2021
    • VBA - A general purpose autorun macro

      Marc Thomas
      Marc Thomas
      In Adding information to the MicroStation Title Bar an autorun macro adds useful information to the application window title bar on file open or model close. This macro can also be used to run any other actions appropriate to file open or model close eve…
      • Wed, Sep 8 2021
    • Adding information to the MicroStation Title Bar

      Marc Thomas
      Marc Thomas
      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…
      • Wed, Jul 28 2021
    • Item Types - Using Item Types and Text Fields in Title Blocks - Part 1

      Marc Thomas
      Marc Thomas
      The following example shows how these two features can be used to provide some degree of automation without resorting to programming. Text Fields have been a feature of MicroStation for many years, they can dynamically display a wide variety of data…
      • Thu, Jul 15 2021
    • Supporting Techniques - Making Configuration Files Legible in Notepad++

      Marc Thomas
      Marc Thomas
      Updated June 2021 Revised XML files are linked below that contain current keyword lists for MicroStation and OpenBuildings Designer. Notepad++ is one of the best text editors around and the one I always use for editing configuration files. However out…
      • Wed, Jun 30 2021
    • Using It! - Add Frequent Tools or Places to the Quick Access Toolbar

      Marc Thomas
      Marc Thomas
      Like most Ribbon UI applications the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) can be customized, before stating to explore this consider where any customizations will be stored. The default is in personal.dgnlib and will only be available to the person who adds the…
      • Wed, May 5 2021
    • Item Types - Pick Lists and Lookups

      Marc Thomas
      Marc Thomas
      I've never liked the idea of duplicate data sources and the inevitability of them becoming out of sync, never mind the tedium of double entry. Excel functions can be used to link between worksheets to allow one list of values to used in different places…
      • Fri, Apr 30 2021
    • Item Types - Pick List Template

      Marc Thomas
      Marc Thomas
      Pick Lists are useful when working with Items Types, they save repetitive input and aid data consistency. When creating pick lists of any length or when you have existing lists in some text format, it is far quicker to use Excel to create sources from…
      • Thu, Apr 29 2021
    • Using It! - Show Command Prompts at the Cursor

      Marc Thomas
      Marc Thomas
      We frequently suggest that people watch the command prompts in the status bar when learning new MicroStation based applications or techniques: You can see these prompts at your cursor during any graphic operation by adding the following configuration…
      • Wed, Apr 21 2021
    • CONNECT Edition - Configuration Tips: What does _USTN_USER_CONFIGURATION do?

      Marc Thomas
      Marc Thomas
      Updated version of this article, which was originally posted on 18 Aug 2017 In CONNECT Edition - Custom Configuration - Part 1 : Initial Creation Steps I described how the installer can be used to specify the location of your Custom Configuration by setting…
      • Wed, Mar 31 2021
    • CONNECT Edition - DGNLIBs

      Marc Thomas
      Marc Thomas
      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…
      • Fri, Mar 19 2021
    • Site Standards - Colour Tables

      Marc Thomas
      Marc Thomas
      Many users have over the years set the variable MS_DEFCTBL = Company_ColourTable.tbl and then wondered why any other colour table ever shows up. The assumption being that once you set a variable for a default colour table that is what you will get. However…
      • Tue, Jan 12 2021
    • Using it! - Drawing Scale Toolbox

      Marc Thomas
      Marc Thomas
      Drawing Scale is a tool box I have permanently docked. In any MicroStation based application press Ctrl + T to open the Toolboxes dialog. To open Drawing Scale scroll down and tick the box, click OK: I turn off Sub Unit and ACS Scale as I rarely use…
      • Mon, Nov 30 2020
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