Of the 200 engineers in our firm, some choose to leave their computers running at night and over the weekends for no apparent reason. Some leave Microstation running as well. This habit affects backup schedules and causes other software and hardware related issues because of extended computer up-time. To remedy the situation I added the following macro to one of our MVBA files. It allows us to manage the MS_IDLETIMEOUT variable and set it as desired. The chosen MVBA should be auto-loaded by Microstation:
Sub OnProjectLoad() Dim sysTime ' get system time sysTime = Time ' set idle timeout If (sysTime > TimeValue("07:00:00") And sysTime < TimeValue("17:00:00")) Then ActiveWorkspace.AddConfigurationVariable "MS_IDLETIMEOUT", "180" Else ActiveWorkspace.AddConfigurationVariable "MS_IDLETIMEOUT", "60" End If End Sub
Another method is to run one or more of the following commands in a batch file:
taskkill /IM ustation.exe taskkill /IM microstation.exe taskkill /IM openroadsdesigner.exe
Each command line simultaneously sends a WM_CLOSE message to all running instances of the relevant product. The running instance will save its settings and perform a standard application quit sequence. This procedure can be automated using Windows group policy.