This probably belongs in the "Everything Else" forum, but I know most people don't look at that. It also should probably be an "Idea" but I'd like to see if anyone else is interested before bothering with that.
I would love a discussion forum here where people who are more familiar with AutoCAD could get more targeted responses by the "bilingual" folks who can "speak" AutoCAD to better help them understand their issues AND those of us who are primarily MicroStation users might be able to get some advice on which AutoCAD functions will do what we can easily do in MicroStation.
I have to work in both softwares, and it is incredibly frustrating to figure out how to do certain things in AutoCAD. I have posted before on the AutoDesk forums, but nobody there "speaks" MicroStation. It is very hard to explain what I am asking. I always love the answer "What are you talking about? Why would you want to do that?" (Because I do it every day).
I would love to find some place where I could explain in MicroStation terms what I want and have someone answer in AutoCAD. Or even if I can speak AutoCAD, I'm honestly more comfortable with you folks over here :-)
Or would it be against the MicroStation forum policies to ask the occasional "In MicroStation I can...How do I in AutoCAD?Thank you.
MaryB said: I have posted before on the AutoDesk forums, but nobody there "speaks" MicroStation. It is very hard to explain what I am asking. I always love the answer "What are you talking about? Why would you want to do that?" (Because I do it every day).
Reminds me of when I did similar on the AUGI forums. It gets complicated when there is shared terminology that mean different things e.g. Fence.
I ended up having to provide screen captures to show them what I was talking about and pretty much everything was met with "yeah.... AutoCAD can't do that"
The very notion of drawing without ByLevel/ByLayer colour/style/weight made me seem like some kind of anti-christ to some of them
Barry Lothian said:drawing without ByLevel/ByLayer colour/style/weight
I get a lot of dwgs where principally all should be ByLayer. But then it isnt... My take is that the good old microStation Level Overrides is the better way (to be able to switch display from element to Level Override)
With SaveAs DWG [Options] there is a switch to send DGN-Overrides as DWG-ByLevel. I am only missing this the other way around (?) You always will need to build a remapping, wich is not easy when you have to "suck" out that information from files that you get from rather daily changing "creative"(chaotic) sources.
My experience lines up with Barry that there is a barrier between the realms that reminds me of different countries cultures and languages.
Mary is right. We would need cultural ambassadors. Where to get them? The software providers see no benefit.
Can we reach out? I guess the AU community has a lesser problem here?
Eventually we often have to deliver DWG.
mlm said:We would need cultural ambassadors. Where to get them? The software providers see no benefit.
I can't help but think the ship has already sailed on that opportunity. 'Traditional' 2D drafting/3D Modelling that MicroStation and AutoCAD can be used for has likely had its 'hey-day' and its popularity I would think is on a downward spiral with the evolution into intelligent building data i.e. BIM etc... as many peoples focus. I've no doubt that there will always be a need for 2D CAD, I just think that there will be less new users coming to both applications than say 10-15 years ago.
Would any AutoDesk users want to contribute to what Mary suggests? I've no idea but I suspect my previous interactions with that community would lean towards, 'probably not'. They tend to get quite protective over their favoured application and even actual users I've worked with simply refuse to be shown that MicroStation simply does pretty much everything better. Having used both, there really isn't much I would truthfully say AutoCAD does better; yes there are a few tools and also the quality of on-screen element graphics appears to be much sharper than we have in MicroStation; video's I've seen on YouTube of AutoCAD LT (the AD bargain-basement of CAD) appears to show a superior quality of digital linework that V8i with max graphics settings doesn't come close to providing (has CONNECT improved upon that?). Text and Line anti-aliasing only seems to kick-in at certain zoom-depths, but the closer in you go it stops and I see those nasty jagged edges all over.
I certainly don't mind offering assistance to AutoCAD users trying to work in MicroStation, so if something was to be created I'd probably add it as a place to visit.
People here are far more familiar with AutoCAD than the AutoCAD people are with MicroStation. There are enough people here with at least passing familiarity to be able to figure out the parallels. Over there, I have not run into many at all who have even heard of MicroStation.
It is very much reminiscent of language/cultural barriers - that's why I use that terminology.
MaryB
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There use to be a file format forum which is now archived.
I would suggest posting on our Communities Feedback forum regarding adding a dedicated DWG forum:
https://communities.bentley.com/help/f/communities-feedback-forum