Importing DWG's to gINT...

 

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.

Parents
  • 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?

  • 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

  • There are multiple good points raised in the posts above and I will try to address them all.

    Let me first introduce a Bentley-specific notion called PowerPlatform, often mentioned in discussions with Bentley users.

    >>PowerPlatform is a build system that produces the set of files common across MicroStation, its derivatives (Bentley View, MicroStation PowerDraft and ProjectWise Navigator), and a number of Bentley Practioner products. All products built using the PowerPlatform are collectively called as the "PowerPlatform based Products"<<.

    In simpler words PowerPlatform could be viewed as Bentley’s CAD engine that many Bentley’s products are built on top of, and taking advantage of its powerful CAD features. PowerPlatform based products can expose variety of CAD features from very few to great many in a product that is built on the top of it. One of PowerPlatform derivatives is MicroStation PowerDraft which, I believe, is sort of equivalent to AutoCAD LT, which further I believe is what was referred to as vanilla CAD in one of the posts above. See these links for more on PowerDraft:

    http://www.bentley.com/en-US/Products/MicroStation+PowerDraft/ 

    http://www.bentley.com/en-US/Products/MicroStation+PowerDraft/Comprehensive+Breadth+and+Depth.htm   

    And this is indeed what could be considered – a gINT built on the top of PowerPlatform taking advantage of its “real” CAD (as stated in the post above) and reducing CAD features to the one of “vanilla” CAD so it does not overwhelm gINT users, but rather enhance their CAD experience.

    Related to it, and worth noting is that on July 8, 2008 Bentley and Autodesk announced an agreement to expand interoperability between their portfolios of architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) software.  Autodesk and Bentley will exchange software libraries, including Autodesk RealDWG, to improve the ability to read and write the companies’ respective DWG and DGN formats in mixed environments with greater fidelity. In plain English that means that PowerPlatform products can read/write and edit directly DWG files (and vice versa – AutoCAD can handle DGN). That would take care of the DWG format support mentioned in one of the posts above. This announcement was posted both on

    Bentley site: http://www.bentley.com/en-US/Corporate/News/Interoperability+Agreement/ 

    as well as on

    Autodesk site: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=11680608&linkID=14271589 

    And as it was brought up in one of the posts above, GIS functionality in Site Map would add a great value to it. Good news is that PowerPlatform could take care of it too. PowerPlatform aggregates CAD and GIS functionality. See exciting GIS functionality offered in MicroStation PowerDraft (a PowerPlatform derivative), some of which are geospatial referencing, simultaneous coordinate systems, Geospatial PDFs, Google Earth, OGC Web Map Server support, and Real-time GPS devices:

    http://www.bentley.com/en-US/Products/MicroStation+PowerDraft/Comprehensive+Breadth+and+Depth.htm 

    Related to one of the posts above, I would not know of the top of my head how much resources PowerPlatform based gINT would consume, but I think that a reasonable estimate is that the lowest specs for PCs and Laptops (tablets too?) would be those required for vanilla CAD type machine. As a rule of thumb check MicroStation PowerDraft (or AutoCAD LT) specs. However if an option of PowerPlatform based gINT running in the cloud existed then specs of any tablet would be sufficient.

    Also, addressing one of the posts above, a time frame for delivery would not be a date, but rather a process. I hope most of us understand that this would be a fairly large mission, but I hope most of us also see it as one that would be worth undertaking and not impossible. So in such case we would be talking about transition, and one of the approaches being considered could be first complementing current gINT with PowerPlatform based gINT and then maybe eventually replacing it. This would take multiple releases to achieve it. It would start simple, and each release of PowerPlatform based gINT would be growing in functionality until being capable to replace current gINT.

    If we started now, we could have a first PowerPlatform based gINT released perhaps Q1 or Q2 of 2015. So if we decided to go that route and if you are interested in providing a list of requirements for what the interface should do, or being early adopter or beta tester, please contact me directly.

  • Strah,

    Thanks for the information. It's really helpful to have visibility of future developments.

  • I hope the new CAD interface is tablet / touch screen friendly, so users can pan and zoom using finger motions.

    Phil Wade
    Datgel
    Bentley Channel Partner and Developer Partner
    E: phil.wade@datgel.com | T: +61 2 8202 8600 & +65 6631 9780

    Get the most out of gINT with Datgel Tools.

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