Hello,
I am fairly new to the Bentley World and want to set it up properly for my users who haven't used it at all. What I would like to do is setup the standards and DNG templates and other items that the end users will need on the server and have Bentley look there for these items.
Dimension Styles, Layers, Wall Configs, tags and callouts.
What I am lacking is what to look for and where in the configuration would I find the paths to point the others to? Is there a book or a white paper somewhere that I can refer to for this?
Thank you for the help
I'll also add little tidbits as I find them, in hopes they may help shed more light on the overall scheme...
"Datasets" and "Project" installation components:
The "Datasets" portion refers to the content installed under workspace\triforma\. This is where we populate cells, parts, DataGroup catalogs, etc, specific to that dataset; i.e., usually corporate or standards level stuff.
The "Project" portion refers to the folders installed under workspace\projects\examples\, which is a predefined directory structure for storing project-specific data. The delivered content is minimal, but does includes the BB_FloorMaster.dgn file as well as MasterProject.dgnlib for Project Explorer.
The arch_roles.cfg file's path is defined by the configuration variable ATFDIR_ARCHROLES, in the architecture.cfg file, located under the program\TriForma\Architecture\config\appl folder. It is by default set to $(TFDIR), or the main dataset folder or workspace\triforma\. However, this variable can also be set at the project level; i.e., in the *.pcf file, in order to change it's location as needed.
Note: If the same part & family name exists at both the "dataset" and "project" level, the part at the project level will override its dataset equivalent. This allows you to define a corporate or standard dataset to be used across the board, while allowing project-specific parts of the same name to take precedence only if and when they exist.
tcfonts:
Having not that long ago been exactly where you appear to be with your BA deployment I feel compelled to pass along what little info I can to help you out. In addition to this forum, which you're obviously discovering as well, there were two other external resources which we have found extremely helpful. At the midwest Microstation User Group's Conference last year there were a couple of sessions I attended which covered the topic of creating and deploying a corporate workspace. The presenter was very knowledgable, made great use of the condensed time frame and his leave behind reference material was/is very targeted and useful. We had been struggling to get the product sensibly deployed for a few months by then and this UserGroup conference experience really helped us get our firm's deployment over the hump and fully funtional. A few months later I attended Bentley's instructor-led " Microstation...for CAD Managers" course for a more elaborate, in-depth exploration of the topics covered in the user group conference's mgmt/admin sessions. Since we're located in a city with no Bentley resources beyond the local user community this meant travel expenses on top of the fee for the course plus my man-hours but in the end it still proved a very sound investment for our firm (and I'm not a Bentley employee nor have I been solicited for this plug either BTW). Both the UserGroup-Presenter and the Bentley-Instructor did a great job and I don't hesitate to recommend either of them but, beware, these learning opportunities still did fall a little short in that they only covered 2-D Microstation without any reference to the Building verticals. We were able to find our way from that point (thanks in part to the users on this forum as well as the Bentley tech support guys) but perhaps the v8i version of the Bentley mgmt/admin class, which I notice from the lms server listings is now being offered, will be different in that respect. I notice that you unfortunately just missed an offering of the multi-day Bentley "...CAD Managers" class but if you navigate to the MCMC user community page at this site you'll notice that their annual conference is coming up in August. If your need is more urgent than that I would be happy to pass along the contact info for the vendor who presented at the conf last year whom I suspect would be open to a private tutoring visit to your facility (and I'm not getting any sort of kickback from him either).
I look forward to Mr. Wagner's posts as well as we'll soon be migrating from our BAXM deployment to a BAv8i one.
Another thing I just thought of... While in the Workspace Configuration dialog, change the sort order from Alphabetical to By Level. This will show you how variables are grouped at the System, Site, Application, Project and User level. And this will more or less show you the "load sequence" of those variables - with User variables being the last to load.
Looking at this aspect could help show how some variables are overwritten or prepended/appended during the load process, which in turn may give you ideas about how to redefine variables for some projects but not others.
OK, we are going to have a lot information in this thread, maybe we can parse it all out at a later date (!). There are several ways to do this.
But, here's my take on the first steps to doing a relatively simple networked set-up.
1. Create a folder location on your server for the networked workspace location, e.g., e:\BIM\Workspace\
2. Copy the delivered workspace from the installed location. So, copy all the folders under c:\...\Workspace\ to the newly created network location (in this example e:\BIM\Workspace\ ).
The delivered workspace will probably be on your hard drive in this location: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Bentley\MicroStation\WorkSpace\ Note that 'Appliction Data' is a hidden folder so in Windows Explorer you need to have "Show hidden files and folders" set in Tools->Folder Options->View->Hidden files and folders->Show hidden files and folders
The delivered workspace will probably be on your hard drive in this location: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Bentley\MicroStation\WorkSpace\
Note that 'Appliction Data' is a hidden folder so in Windows Explorer you need to have "Show hidden files and folders" set in Tools->Folder Options->View->Hidden files and folders->Show hidden files and folders
3. Once that is copied over you should have a folder structure like this (note that I have structural and mechancial apps installed so I have extra folders) :
This is the start. Next post will go from here.
<Paul Wagner> wrote in message news:62730@communities.bentley.com... OK, we are going to have a lot information in this thread, maybe we can parse it all out at a later date (!). There are several ways to do this. But, here's my take on the first steps to doing a relatively simple networked set-up. 1. Create a folder location on your server for the networked workspace location, e.g., e:\BIM\Workspace\ 2. Copy the delivered workspace from the installed location. So, copy all the folders under c:\...\Workspace\ to the newly created network location (in this example e:\BIM\Workspace\ ). The delivered workspace will probably be on your hard drive in this location: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Bentley\MicroStation\WorkSpace\ Note that 'Appliction Data' is a hidden folder so in Windows Explorer you need to have "Show hidden files and folders" set in Tools->Folder Options->View->Hidden files and folders->Show hidden files and folders 3. Once that is copied over you should have a folder structure like this (note that I have structural and mechancial apps installed so I have extra folders) : This is the start. Next post will go from here. http://communities.bentley.com/Products/Building/Building_Analysis___Design/f/5917/t/26367.aspx#62730
regards / Thomas Voghera
<tcfonts> wrote in message news:62703@communities.bentley.com...I'm just having a hard time believing it's this complicated - I feel dumber and dumber each passing day. http://communities.bentley.com/Products/Building/Building_Analysis___Design/f/5917/t/26367.aspx#62703
Thomas Voghera: Paul can't use the wiki for this? -- regards / Thomas V Good idea, once done, I will compile the steps from the posts here and create a wiki for it.
It's really not that complicated.
One of the hallmarks of Bentley technology is that it's very open, so you can do WHATEVER you want to do to match your workflow. You're not bound.
By having so many different ways to do things, you're bound to get many different answers or versions of answers from many different voices.
As Brian Yeo mentioned, we had sessions last year at the Kansas City Conference (MCMC User Group) and I will see about posting some of the relevant sessions here on the Communities Website. I also have many sessions I have done in the past on configurations, which I will be happy to share.
If you or anyone reading this is interested in learning more about this or other topics, I would suggest you register for this year's MCMC 2009 Summer Conference. Building a Workspace is one of the many valuable sessions taking place at this great conference. Check our community out (search on MCMC) or go to http://communities.bentley.com/UserGroups/GroupDetail.aspx?GroupID=35
(BTW, just because we are based in KC doesn't mean we don't want all comers...we have folks coming in from all over the world this year, and you are most welcome!)
Meantime, i would suggest the following (above whatever anyone else is posting):
1) Understand the importance of _USTN_WORKSPACE. It drives the whole system and can point you anywhere you want to go...and if used properly, you can basically "cascade" your entire system by changing one variable....that is, if everything is based on a relationship between variables, then changing one at the top can change a user from looking at the workstation to the server in one swoop.
2) Understand the important of _TF_WORKSPACE for the BIM Tools.
3) Spend a little time undestanding what the Dataset is (a subset of "TriForma/Bentley BIM resources within the Workspace), and what the Workspace is (a superset of all resources, including MicroStation AND Application resources)
4) Check your Help file for a little tool called -DEBUG. This will allow you to generate a text file of all the variables being loaded without actually launching the program, and you can backtrack the variables that way.
5) Don't get frustrated! You do have a lot of help, you're not dumb, and these tools really aren't too hard to pick up...they are just so darn open, you can honestly do whatever you want to do, you may just need to map it out first.
Thanks,
Shawn
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