The new Configuration Dialog is a huge improvement over the V8i equivalent. If you use it frequently, add it to the Quick Access Toolbar above the Ribbon: Translated German Wiki article:CONNECT Edition - Konfigurationstipps: Hinzufügen des Konfigurationsdialogs…

Current 3Dconnexion drivers use a totally different xml configuration structure to pre v10 drivers.

(For pre v10 drivers see my earlier article: Mice in Space!)

The 3d Input Toolbox is still useful with SpaceMouse operations in MicroStation, see the end…

Here are a couple of golden oldies. While AccuDraw has the RE shortcut to temporarily rotate the compass to an element, in some cases you might want to set the Active angle to a specific angle from an element, perhaps on a on a survey drawing or other…

Series Index - Setting Up in the Real World [Update 2020: These coordinate systems are now available as standard in our current applications, the steps below are only relevant to pre 2020 releases] UK users creating new data should always use the OSGB…

This article explains how to add a menu with links to useful locations or files in V8i applications and how to migrate the menu to CONNECT applications. The general processes for creating custom tools in V8i are covered in the help documents and Customizing…

In AECOsim Building Designer SS6 we added two really useful features to help with design change and data management. These features also apply to CONNECT Edition. In-Place Editing in the DataGroup Explorer allows you to double-click on a Catalog Item…

This piece covers a couple of techniques for working with brick dimensions. The first method relies upon the ability of the wall tool in AECOsim Building Designer (ABD) to place walls by offset, the second uses MicroStation's units settings file to add…

We often need to place notes involving special characters, areas, volumes, angles, etc. Any special character present in the fonts available to MicroStation and applications based on it can be access via the Text Editor dialog. Take the example of  'm…

So why in the world of BIM would I want to create non-parametric doors?

1. So users can place a range of pre-sized standard objects

2. Non-parametric cells are lighter but carry the same data

3. Creating non-parametric Compound Cells is fairly quick.

…

Out of the box MicroStation V8i and the other applications bases upon it will generate separate user, docking and panel display preferences for each different project and interface used. In most situations this leads to unnecessary variations as a user…

Update 1 for MicroStation CONNECT Edition was released a few days ago. This marks the real introduction of Bentley Updates services. Previously tested with updates to the Bentley CONNECTION Client, the Update Service will now update MicroStation itself…

Following on from the introduction to Named Groups in MicroStation - Grouping Part 1 this post looks at the Named Groups dialog.

Creating and manipulating Named Groups

To create a Named Group just:

• Click the 'New Named Group' button
• Edit the…

In MicroStation - Grouping Part 1 I mentioned ‘Orphan Cells’, and strongly discouraged their use. To recap, the simplest grouping method in MicroStation is selecting a set of elements then pressing Ctrl + G. Groups created this way are unnamed or ‘Orphan…

The GC Floor Node can be used to create and update AECOsim Building Designer floors.

[Updated 29 April 2016 for ABD/GC SS6 Update 1]

The simplest workflow to achieve this is to start with a project floor master file that contains the Site but no Buildings…

In the commercial world CAD/IT Managers and consultants are widely available to set up software applications to suit the requirements of companies and their projects. This kind of support is generally not available to student groups or academic insti…

Here are the introductory slides and the AECOsim Building Designer SS6 Update 1 presentation, this includes the updates to ABD and an outline of the CONNECT features that this update can enable ABD to link to:

Please note that some of these variables have been changed in CONNECT Edition. Three mechanisms are available to provide consistent settings for DWG Import/Export. Exporting settings to a .DWS file for reuse is a good method to apply differing but consistent…

In a recent forum post Tom Waltz, lead designer for the ABD UI, highlighted a conceptual thing about ABD's placement tools, i.e. the difference between graphics and data.

The slab tool that places a slab shaped graphic, with top, bottom and edges,…

Series Index - Setting Up in the Real World Another use for Cells containing text fields (mentioned in Setting Up in the Real World - Labelling Coordinates) is labelling spot heights. As shown in that article, cells can contain text fields that display…

Compound Cells can be a powerful tool to manage change during the design process. In this piece I'm going to look at an example involving cladding panels. To keep things simple for demonstration purposes I'm using a single panel size 1500 x 4000mm. There…

A couple of years ago I looked into the behaviour of the Compress Options, I've recently revisited the topic in response to some recent Service Requests. My list of Communities content on the Compress feature has got a little longer, some updates have…

Younger readers can Google Letratone, the rest of you may remember fiddly scalpel work and just how hard it was to pattern a drawing! Here is a link to a cell library containing percentage dot screens that could be useful for giving a different 'old school…

I have no doubt that a serious VBA programmer would laugh at some of the code chunks that follow below, however my objective here is to show that some seriously useful automation can be done effectively by non-programmers using the Excel macro recorder…

Here are some useful wiki posts relating to IFC Export of multiple files: IFC - Batch Export to IFC using the Batch Processor IFC - Export - Setting the Author Properties for Your Organisation

Update: This article only applies to V8i products. Many customised configurations use the _USTN_WORKSPACEROOT variable to redirect the application to a networked workspace. This is a brute force approach that requires everything in the C:\ProgramData…