Graphic User Interface redistribution

Hi Brian,

Unknown said:

I would like to duplicate a Graphic User Interface (tool bar layout) on all my PC's

The right way is to share dgnlib file with GUI customization. Create your standard GUI customization in dgnlib, share it in your network and set MS_GUIDGNLIBLIST to point to this dgnlib file.

Unknown said:

It would also be nice to make the individual interface for each user available when they move from workstation to workstation.

It's pretty the same as the standardized GUI, only store it in a different file and define the variable in different configuration file.

It can look like:

• MS_GUIDGNLIBLIST > X:\shared\standard_gui.dgnlib, defined in e.g standards.cfg
• MS_GUIDGNLIBLIST > X:\shared\username_gui.dgnlib, defined in a proper user configuration file (.ucf)

The exact solution depends how you workspace is set, your network configuration and also if users use own ucf files or they just login to Windows under different account (or both).

But the general concept is for sure to share dgnlib with GUI customization and a proper MS_GUIDGNLIBLIST (or MS_DGNLIBLIST) definition.

[Edited] There are some other files, that store current GUI configuration (what is docked where), but I am not sure if they can be easily shared without problems.

With regards,

  Jan

Hi Brian,

Unknown said:

I would like to duplicate a Graphic User Interface (tool bar layout) on all my PC's

The right way is to share dgnlib file with GUI customization. Create your standard GUI customization in dgnlib, share it in your network and set MS_GUIDGNLIBLIST to point to this dgnlib file.

Unknown said:

It would also be nice to make the individual interface for each user available when they move from workstation to workstation.

It's pretty the same as the standardized GUI, only store it in a different file and define the variable in different configuration file.

It can look like:

• MS_GUIDGNLIBLIST > X:\shared\standard_gui.dgnlib, defined in e.g standards.cfg
• MS_GUIDGNLIBLIST > X:\shared\username_gui.dgnlib, defined in a proper user configuration file (.ucf)

The exact solution depends how you workspace is set, your network configuration and also if users use own ucf files or they just login to Windows under different account (or both).

But the general concept is for sure to share dgnlib with GUI customization and a proper MS_GUIDGNLIBLIST (or MS_DGNLIBLIST) definition.

[Edited] There are some other files, that store current GUI configuration (what is docked where), but I am not sure if they can be easily shared without problems.

With regards,

  Jan

Unknown said:

[Edited] There are some other files, that store current GUI configuration (what is docked where), but I am not sure if they can be easily shared without problems.

What about the Config-Vars

MS_USERPREF
MS_USERPREF_APPS
MS_USERPREFSEED

for distributing the "GUI-files" (*docking_xml a. o.)  to a local user directory and pointing this variables to that!

Hi Frank,

of course I know the mentioned variable. By sharing without problems I meant these files are, as far as I know, not intentended to be shared by more users in read/write mode, because simultaneous write can cause problems or even a file corruption. I guess there can be also problems with the docking file if it's shared between computers with substantially different display configuration ... but have had no time and change to test it ;-)

But in general, you are right, these variables can be used to extend GUI customization sharing, at least between different computers for the one user.

With regards,

  Jan

I have created the variable in an PCF that all users access through the login. This file resides on the server. So at least that apart is covered. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction

Unknown said:

for distributing the "GUI-files" (*docking_xml a. o.)  to a local user directory and pointing this variables to that!

Is the XML file you refer to the one I can EXPORT from the DGNLIB?

It is possible to move the entire workspace folder to a server and still have the UPF and other files that must stay local, do just that. In fact, it is much harder to migrate those files to a server than it is to move the workspace to a server.

We have the interface and user folders on a server, so if a user sits at a different PC, as long as that PC sees our server based workspace, they can select their user on interface and all of those settings follow them.

What is really nice, is a the support person, I can look at their UCF file and if I see something in there that is not desirable, I can edit them. Or I can start a session with their user and interface to see what they are having issues with.

I also can open a session where I am editing a shared dgnlib that once I add a menu, task or tool, everyone else has access to it when they start their next session.

I use the mslocal.cfg file to get in front of MicroStation, but in it, I test to see if the network location is found and use the local one if it is not. This allows the use of MicroStation even if the user is not connected to the network.

All of these point to folders of my network workspace. Some of these have "companion" variables that add to these paths and since I start with a copy of the local workspace, it finds all of the subfolders too.

_USTN_SITE

_USTN_PROJECT

_USTN_USER

_USTN_USERINTROOT

I also have a no project project, which when selected, is really MicroStation with no local customizations. This lets me test if an issue is workspace related or something else.

Note that the _USTN_HOMEROOT, _USTN_HOMEPREFS and many of the others that use the "Documents and Settings" folders (XP) are left as-is. When we started getting Windows 7 boxes in, I had nothing to change for those to work as well.