Is it likely that gINT will release a version update to allow imports of dwg's instead of dxf R12?
The file sizes for dxf's for the projects i'm running are making gINT unusable with my computer crashing frequently at the point of dxf import.
It seems that R12 dxf's are very antiquated file format and the use of dwg's or similar would be more a user-friendly solution.
I must agree. I'm running a dual Xeon (16 cores), 16GB Ram workstation, and even with that amount of processing power I can only import DXFs of about 100 - 150 MB before gINT either freezes or dies. It doesn't take a hugely complicated CAD file to generate a 150 MB DXF file :-( Not too sure if DWG would be the format that gINT would choose as they are owned by Bentley, who make Microstation (DGN format) :-)
I can't understand why the software is still limited to dxf V12. I would have thought that it would have been a priority to enhance the drawing capabilities to bring it into line with other Bentley products. Is there a time frame for this to be implemented? For that matter is there a timeframe/roadmap for any enhancements? Also how do we propose new features. Should we use a thread on this forum and use the "Like" facility to vote for them?
Hello,
I posed this question to our product manager. Here is his reply:
“It is indeed one of Bentley’s primary focuses is to enhance the gINT’s drawing capabilities to bring it into line with other Bentley products, and this is why we are focusing primarily on DGN. Format DXF is a format introduced by Autodesk (see Autodesk’s website or Wikipedia entry for it: en.wikipedia.org/.../AutoCAD_DXF). This format is introduced 30+ years ago and, as industry is getting focused on exchanging engineering objects via LandXML or other means (e.g. alignments, surfaces, etc.) rather than 2D CAD entities (e.g. lines, arcs, etc.), is becoming obsolete. Extract from Wikipedia entry: ‘As [CAD] has become more powerful, supporting more complex object types, DXF has become less useful’. By enhancing gINT’s drawing capabilities to export reports and other data to DGN we are enabling users to open it in MicroStation and MicroStation-based products and then, if need be, save them in any Save-As format available in MicroStation – any DFX format, DWG and others.”
With respect, the response doesn't answer the question. It talks about export of data, not import of drawings.
Bentley is currently focused on enhancing gINT drawing capabilities, primarily DGN, that would include both import and export. In this regard our consideration is that a user would be able open or attach a DGN file, rather than importing it, and Save or Save As file in DGN rather then exporting it. If gINT is migrated onto native Bentley's CAD engine it could be possible that all above is applicable to DWG files as well, for both open/attach and Save/As (rather than import/export). In essence gINT would in that scenario be directly editing CAD files in their native format. As a bonus, this could address DXF files although this is not our immediate concern.
From Bentley's perspective it would help us greatly if you would give us your opinion and input on how beneficial this would be for you - having gINT on Bentley's CAD engine, directly handling DGN and all other formats available in MicroStation.
For us, the problem at the moment is Sitemap. Sitemaps are typically created by importing a DXF, which has been created by converting, say, a topographic survey file (originally in DGN or DWG). Adding the sitemap with a large number of entities can create prohibitively large project files and in some cases a large amount of processing of the DWG/DGN needs to be undertaken to try and strip out less critical details from the plan (to reduce the number of entities) before it is converted and imported. Any workflow that interacts with a sitemap that has a large number of entities (such as selecting points from the sitemap in Output) becomes painfully slow.
With your above comment, will the Sitemap actually become an external .dgn file that is referenced by the gINT project? Will that speed up the time it takes to display and navigate the sitemap on screen?
I would just like to emphasize first that from Bentley side we are talking about what is under consideration, which means, it is not about what will certainly happen but about what could happen. As always user's input is often critical for turning Could Happen into Will Happen.
Site Map and Fence Diagram (also known as a Profile in civil world) are most common things users would like to see in native CAD environment. If gINT is migrated onto Bentley's CAD engine than users would get benefit from it by having standard CAD features available from within gINT. These features should include, in that case, that .dgn file (and possible .dwg file) could be referenced by gINT project, rather than imported. Site Map in civil engineering project is commonly a very generic plan that all stakeholders have something to add. In a complex project many disciplines would be contributing to the Site Map such as geotech, environmental, rail/road designers, land developers, utility folks, landscape architects and so on. Therefore being able to attach Site Map to gINT project (but edit it as well directly in gINT) could have benefit of seeing updates in gINT Site Map as they are being applied by any or all stakeholders, rather than constantly importing DXF file for a Site Map which is very iterative in nature and constantly requires re-importing of the newly updated Site Map. Of course in the scenario of gINT sitting on CAD engine, navigating the Site Map in terms of smoothness, speed and tools available would match those of CAD engine. We would be also talking about native layer/level management and some other standard CAD features. Anyway that is the idea behind consideration of migrating gINT onto Bentley's CAD engine, and users feedback is always more than welcome on the subject.
This would be hugely beneficial to us for certain. As I said in my earlier post, I have on many occasions had to spend ages stripping out unwanted stuff from the original CAD file so the resultant DXF has few enough objects / entities to enable import. I've had a 6 MB DWG mushroom to 145MB DXF, and this usually crashes gINT on import.
Don't get me wrong, there's nothing particularly wrong with gINTs CAD engine as it stands (apart from the lack of zooming with the mouse wheel whilst having entities selected) It's mainly the handling of large DXFs which lets it down.
I would say that without DWG format support, things won't be much better. Every company that we deal / exchange drawings with (bar one) uses Autocad (sorry to swear on a Bentley forum) So without DWG support for any improved CAD engine, you're going to be excluding probably about 3/4 of the CAD producing world..... Not helpful!
Another thing to consider would be that gINT will run on the lowest spec PCs and Laptops. If the new CAD engine is going to be too resource hungry, this will no longer be the case, forcing users to upgrade hardware. Probably not too much of a problem for a large company / group, but could put a lot of smaller companies off. we'd have to upgrade 8 PCs / Laptops, all in one go, thats approx £5000... a lot of money. (It's actually not a problem for us because I do all the CAD / Sitemap work in gINT and I have a PC more than capable of the work.
Taking the above into consideration, a new CAD engine would be most welcome. If you really wanted to do something worthwhile, and get on my christmas card list for life, add a new CAD engine and port gINT to 64bit in one fell swoop. Now that would be nice..... :-)
Miles
Strah, thanks for the feedback.
The bottom line is that any "real" CAD offering, even one that only accepts dxf 12 will be better than the current Sitemap functionality, which is past it's sell-by date. However there is some extremely useful stuff in sitemaps that helps plan and visualise the data. What I would not like to see is Sitemap replaced with vanilla CAD. It should include items such as being able to plot data markers from the data, create/copy multiple points with auto-increment, goto point ID, create zones, be able to explore the data from the data markers etc.
I wonder if a GIS (like) environment rather than CAD would make more sense to replace Sitemap? That would allow visualisation of other layers such as geology, mining hazards, environmental info etc. A lot of this data is becoming available as free web services, so it would be a shame (silly) not to leverage it.
I think it would be useful to draw up a list of requirements for what the interface should do? I'd be happy to provide input.
One of the main criteria is that it shouldn't be necessary to buy a another product!
Any time frame for delivery?
Thank Tony,
All user feedback are very important for us.
Marc-Andre