I'm interested in hearing what would be the best approach to parring back the UK dataset somewhat?
The out-of-the-box Dataset_UK is very buildings & architecture focussed, whereas my clients' organisation is a multidisciplinary site construction company. I find the dataset content is too detailed for our needs in areas, and then virtually non-existant in other areas.
Every piece of help or guidance I've found, as well as every consultant I've spoken to has told me that AECOsim is great for *ADDING* content, and has shown me how to do that. And they've told me that the datasets are intended to be tailored to suit particular needs. However, I haven't actually seen anyone successfully *REMOVING* dataset content, at least without errors & instability ensuing, I think simply because the various tools & procedures AECOsim relies on are so interdependent.
Lets, for instance, say that I want to remove all datagroup content where the uniclass code is 3-digits or longer (i.e. retaining everything under the G0 & G00 level tables, for instance). How would I approach this? Is there a particular order I should tackle the Level Library, Family / Part libraries and Datagroup catalogue definitions? Are those the only things that would need changing, or have I overlooked something? Which config or PCF files would maybe need amending?
The end goal I guess, is that I want to vastly simplify the AECOsim user experience for our staff, who are mostly very new to AECOsim. It presents them with too many options, most of which are irrelevant to their needs as designers and engineers. If we could par back the level libraries, define our own set of useful families/parts, and ensure that our datagroup catalogues contain only the most basic & most-used items for our firm, then we would be able to slowly build & develop content from there.
I'm told, "oh you just need to make a Dataset_Company" for your own standards. But this doesn't stop all the Dataset_UK content seeping through into things from people's local C-drives.
Any help / advice / pointers would be much appreciated, as not being able to *subtract* out-the-box content seems like a fundamental flaw in AECOsim's supposed capability & flexibility (which is why my client invested in Bentley in the first place).
Thanks in advance.
Hi Thomas,
In the scenario you describe it could be appropriate to have a self-contained dataset in each workspace. The intention behind the Organization > WorkSpace > WorkSet structure is to enable that kind of granularity.
Here's an example:
Say you have this WorkSpace:
<server>\CONFIGURATIONS\CE\WorkSpaces\NR\
In NR create/copy the dataset folder Dataset_NR:
<server>\CONFIGURATIONS\CE\WorkSpaces\NR\Dataset_NR\
In the CFG file <server>\CONFIGURATIONS\CE\WorkSpaces\NR.cfg define:
TF_DATASETS = $(_USTN_WORKSPACEROOT)
Then in the WorkSets within that WorkSpace in each WorkSet CFG define
TF_DATASETNAME = Dataset_NR
Alternatively Dataset_NR (or other datasets, e.g. Dataset_UK) could be located at the Custom Configuration level:
<server>\CONFIGURATIONS\CE\Datasets\Dataset_NR
In which case NR.cfg would define the dataset location as:
TF_DATASETS = $(_USTN_CONFIGURATION)
However...
In the case of NR they are still using V8i applications and datasets, so their dataset content would need to be migrated to CONNECT Edition. Given that you only want to use some of the NR content the scale of that task may be reduced.
Marc
Hi Marc,
Of relevance to us from the UK Dataset:
a. Structural - virtually all this.
b. Architectural - Spaces, walls, doors, windows, roofs, stairs, ladders, handrails. The internal building furniture & fittings aren't much use to us at all.
c. Mechanical - piping, tanks / vessels, HVAC, fixed equipment (as basic as parametric cubes with o/a height, length, width would suffice for the majority of pieces of mechanical kit we work with). The Mech catalogue is vast, relative to our needs. E.g. Most of the time all we need to do is place a basic volume to represent a "Plant Item", rather than say, a "horizontal stacked-plate heat-exchanger".
d. Electrical - virtually all of this.
We are delivering models yes. Most of the content NR have provided has been non-AECOsim (2D cells, level libs, text & dim styles, and seed files). Most of what we've modelled to date has been via the solid modelling tools, rather than via catalogue items.
On a side note, what's the status of Bentley Configuration Explorer with regard to CONNECT? I'm finding it doesn't work with the CONNECT shortcut, and can't track down whether a CONNECT update has been done.
Glad you asked, exactly the same question arose for me as I was looking into this question.
Anyone needing the latest version should ask via a Service Request, we will then be able to send a download link.