I am hoping that this post will grow to address some of thecomponents of Ustn / BA that are in need of minor tweaks to adjust theirfunctionality in a way that they become more efficient operationally. I am suremany users have such ideas relating to similar sorts of viewpoints and grievanceson tools and ways that they can be improved.
One of these is the Grid System.
In Microstation, I have always found this utterly uselessand can count the number of times I have actually used it, the reason being itslack of flexibility in adjustment of individual grid spacing and manipulationof overall layout. It seems to have been incorporated with good intention butlike a lot of tools in Ustn/BA I think it was left behind somewhere along theline. Basically It does not allow you to create your own layout and likeAutoCAD AEC (back in the day always) assumes that your design is a rectangular cuboid.
Moving on to BA. There is a lot of improvement in that theGrid system actually relates to how you would go about setting out a drawing.It is quite useful in setting out the structural concept of the design from anearly stage, I think this is a very useful tool, as simple things such assetting out grid lines can be quite a nuisance. You get actual grid lines, Gridbubbles, and adjustable spacing but it still lacks the flexibility to adapt toother building forms other than a cuboids. More development in this areaperhaps !!!
There is still however a major drawback in practical terms.It is a real *** to make adjustments to any of the grid reference spacing’s.I am not talking about a grid spacing of
(H) 5 ; 5 ; 5 ; 5
& (V) 10 ; 10 ; 10 ;10
where you want to increase the 2nd horizontal spacing by 1so that it becomes
(H) 5 ; 6 ; 4 ; 5
& (V) 10 ;10 ;10 ;10
This as you can see is very easy to calculate. By makingsuch an adjustment all the other successive grid line remain in place by MANUALadjustment to reflect the change. The input method does not allow for automatedadjustment of successive gridlines in relation to the change in grid referencespacing.
What I am talking about is in the real world and grid spacings that get continuously jugled and where you have decimal figuressay for instance:
(H) 6.3 ; 6.75 ; 5.85 ; 4.325 ; 4.5 : 4.5 : 4;5 6.445 ; 5.235 ; 4.55
& (V) 6.15 ; 5.5 ; 4.5 ; 6.55 ; 6.55 ; 2.45 ; 2.45 ; 4.325 ; 4.325,
and it is required to increase the third horizontal spacingby 1.217 and reduce the 2nd vertical spacing by 0.885 while all other spacing’sare frozen. Bring out your calculator and start your Stop watch!!!
Having gone through the process of programming complex algorithmsto make up the program, I would have thought it would be very easy to add anunderlying mathematical macro that recalculates the offsets where rather thanbeing separated by " ; " each grid reference is entered into aseparate input box so that when you adjust one figure the other figures eithermove in relation to the new spacing OR, stay in the same position andrecalculate their relative offset.
To get round this problem I had to explode the Grid and usethe offset by distance tool, then use the measure distance tool to recalculateoffsets , then finally set up a new grid when I was certain I had finalized thegrid.
The other thing is, because the grid is not view independentin the Horizontal plane and doesn’t' move with each successive change in floorlevel (like the Microstation type grid does ) being able to visually isolateeach floor level with the grid still showing is not possible. This implies thatyou have to keep moving the grid reference file up and down vertically.
To get round this I had to take the following steps :
Any other recomendations?
Just one of those things!!!
I had a similar post on the old Bentley Newsgroup, and was told that I should maybe use GC instead of the tool that was created 20 years ago...
I dont imagine this post will progress this tool any more than my post did 5 years ago.
How difficult is it just to draw the lines in a dgn?
If you want complicated relationships there are DDD or GC.
But have a look at how Molotov Project's 3d-axes handles the indexes.
regards / Thomas Voghera
Thomas,
to draw a line is simple, but since we are talking about BIM, the grid shall be something that is created at first and whole model is based on it. it defines basic position of bearing constructions (walls, columns, ... ), there should be also the relationship between grid / grid intersections and building elements. Grid shall be visible always in any view (section and elevation not only in plans). In fact, horizontal grid should be defined in sections and elevations to define various working planes ...
BIM without flexible grid system is nonsense
just my 0.02€
p.
/pt
This gizmo is cool...
Ahh yes 3d axes... I remember suggesting Bentley develop this into BA. Must be very easy to develop a better way to set out the grids.
3d-axes.ma let you create axes that are not parrallel and curved. A fantastic app.
Unfortunately I used to have problems with that app as It was developed for V7 but it kept crashing the graphics on V8i.