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Theme Links
Marc Thomas
For convenience here are links to search results for several of the themes on this blog:
OpenBuildings Designer
Setting Up in the Real World
Using it!
CONNECT Edition - Custom Configuration
CONNECT Edition - Configuration Tips
Site Standards
Supporting…
Mon, Feb 1 2021
Site Standards - Colour Tables
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
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
CONNECT Edition - Which version is offered by automatic update?
Marc Thomas
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…
Fri, Oct 30 2020
CONNECT Edition - Configuration Tips: ProjectWise Integration
Marc Thomas
Once the ProjectWise Explorer client application is installed on a PC, integration between it and most other Bentley applications will be enabled by default. Obviously in many situations ProjectWise is used all of the time and integration is essential…
Mon, Oct 5 2020
Using It! - Rounding Dimensions
Marc Thomas
Originally published 4 Feb 2015 We have had a few questions about rounding dimensions to the nearest 5mm. This is not currently available via the Dimension Styles dialog but there are now methods available for both CONNECT Edition and V8i. CONNECT Edition…
Thu, Aug 20 2020
Using It! - CONNECTION Client Tips
Marc Thomas
Here are a few points on using the CONNECTION Client. As this utility is updated more frequently than our primary desktop products always go to the
CONNECTION Client wiki
for the latest and more extensive information. Right-click on the Tray Icon in your…
Mon, Jul 27 2020
GC - Working with existing models
Marc Thomas
While much of the discussion about GenerativeComponents (GC) has focused on model generation, GC has always been capable of working with elements from other DGN files. In current versions the most appropriate way to make existing DGN data available to…
Tue, Jun 30 2020
OpenBuildings - Live Hyperlinks in Catalog Properties
Marc Thomas
From Update 4 of CONNECT Edition we added new functionality to the existing Catalog URL Property. Previously this was only capable of presenting the text of a hyperlink. We now offer live links, subsequently enhanced in OpenBuildings Designer to export…
Fri, Jun 26 2020
CONNECT Edition - Configuration Tips: What does _USTN_USER_CONFIGURATION do?
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…
Sun, May 31 2020
CONNECT Edition - Configuration Tips : User Preferences in OneDrive or Other Locations
Marc Thomas
Background For decades canny administrators have been locating MicroStation's user preferences on a server share for ease of management and, most importantly, to enable user profiles to roam with each user in situations where IT does not roam user profiles…
Fri, May 22 2020
CONNECT Edition - Configuration Tips : Switch to local configuration (for home working)
Marc Thomas
Previous
articles
have described how to use ConfigurationSetup.cfg to redirect your applications to a networked configuration. Another common question asks how to use our applications when out of the office or working at home (obviously pertinent to the…
Thu, Mar 19 2020
Setting Up in the Real World – Generating real-world setting out coordinates
Marc Thomas
We have been asked how setting out coordinates for building components can be provided using real world coordinates, when we recommend modelling close to the Design File Origin. Recent enhancements to our Reports feature combined with knowledge from our…
Thu, Feb 13 2020
Setting Up in the Real World – GeoReferencing : Large Sites
Marc Thomas
Series Index - Setting Up in the Real World
In the case of linear infrastructure it is fairly obvious that each major facility along a route will have its own GCS. Other cases may be less clear cut. Take an airport. This diagrammatic example (the runways…
Fri, Nov 29 2019
Series Index - Setting Up in the Real World
Marc Thomas
As items drift down a blog's timeline they can be overlooked, so here is an index for this series of pieces:
Fri, Nov 29 2019
Setting Up in the Real World or "Where do we model?"
Marc Thomas
Series Index - Setting Up in the Real World
’ve been picking away at the whole issue of where to model in 3D space for a long time. One of the sources of confusion is the use of ambiguous names or descriptions for some of the key concepts. The following…
Thu, Nov 28 2019
Setting Up in the Real World – GeoReferencing by Footprint
Marc Thomas
Series Index - Setting Up in the Real World
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…
Thu, Nov 28 2019
Windows - Renaming multiple items
Marc Thomas
This is a handy tip for configuration management in Windows 10. If you select dissimilar items in Windows File Explorer, in this example, a WorkSpace folder and it's CFG file, copying them obviously results in <file/foldername> - Copy.xxx, etc. However…
Fri, Oct 4 2019
Item Types - Populating Items using Lookup Tables
Marc Thomas
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…
Fri, Aug 2 2019
Windows - Make sure File Extensions Are Visible!
Marc Thomas
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…
Fri, Jun 28 2019
Setting Up in the Real World - SnakeGrid
Marc Thomas
Series Index - Setting Up in the Real World
What is SnakeGrid? [updated with Jim Turner's comments; thank you Jim!]
SnakeGrid
takes a linear alignment and lays it out on a flat plane maintaining low distortion along a strip approximately 20km wide each…
Mon, Jun 24 2019
Renaming Sheet Files prior to sharing externally
Marc Thomas
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…
Tue, May 14 2019
Bentley View CONNECT Edition
Marc Thomas
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…
Sun, Apr 14 2019
Adding information to the MicroStation Title Bar
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…
Fri, Apr 5 2019
MicroStation - Creating Custom Line Styles
Marc Thomas
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…
Mon, Mar 11 2019
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