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[Archived] AskInga Wiki MicroStation J enhanced workspace functionality
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    MicroStation J enhanced workspace functionality

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    Original Article Date: Dec 1, 1998

    A quick little article that explains MicroStation /J's configuration variable directives and how to use them to construct new variables.
    1998-12-01 Originally published in The Client Server.
    2006-03-02 Aquired and posted on AskInga.

    MicroStation’s workspace capabilities allow you to easily customize your working environment to suit individual, project, site, organization or discipline-specific needs and specifications. Significant, powerful new functionality is included in MicroStation/J to make this process even easier. New configuration variable directives enable you to be very resourceful in the definition of your workspaces. By using these directives, you can now define your variables so they more readily rely on the definitions of other variables, including using bits and pieces of other variables to construct, or build ( ), a new configuration variable. This lets you to reduce the number of variables you need to define (or “hard-code”). With this new methodology, you can more efficiently redefine a multitude of variables in minor or major ways—simply by changing one variable.

    If a configuration variable is set as follows:

    MS_EXAMPLE = D:\Bentley\Workspace\MyProject\3dcells.cel

    This directive:

    Returns this information: Using the above example: Will result in:
    Dev( ) Device Test = ${dev {MS_EXAMPLE}} Test=d:
    Dir( ) Directory Test = ${dir {MS_EXAMPLE}} Test=\bentley\workspace\myproject\
    Devdir( ) Device and directory Test = ${devdir {MS_EXAMPLE}} Test=d:\bentley\workspace\myproject\
    Parentdir( ) Parent directory Test = ${parentdir {MS_EXAMPLE}} Test=\bentley\workspace\
    Parentdevdir( ) Device and parent directory Test = ${parentdevdir {MS_EXAMPLE}} Test=d:\bentley\workspace\
    Basename( )  Filename Test = ${basename {MS_EXAMPLE}} Test=3dcells
    Filename( ) Filename with extension Test = ${filename {MS_EXAMPLE}} Test=3dcells.cel
    Ext( ) File extension Test = ${ext {MS_EXAMPLES}} Test=.cel
    Noext( ) Complete file specification minus extension Test = ${noext {MS_EXAMPLES}} Test=d:\bentley\workspace\myproject\3dcells

    If a configuration variable is set as follows:

    MS_CELL = d:\cell\mycells\;c:\cell\;g:\mycells\

    First( )

    First path from a list of paths Test=$(first (MS_CELL)) Test=d:\cell\mycells\
    Concat( ) ♦ Concatenated string Test=$(concat (“my”, ”cell”)) Test=mycell
    build( ) ♦♦ Constructs a definition from pieces of variables etc...  Test=$(build (“c:”,parentdir(MS_EXAMPLE),”yourcells”, ext (first(MS_EXAMPLE)))) Test=c:\Bentley\Workspace\yourcells.cel

    ♦ The concat( ) directive allows you to stitch text together to populate your variable.

    ♦ ♦ The build( ) directive extends the abilities of concat( ) by providing the ability to stitch together text, as well as operate with the other variable directives as shown above in the examples. It will also try to resolve any missing directory separators:


    test=$(build (“d:”, “mycells”) will give test=d:\mycells.

    AskInga Article #287

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    • WorkSpacesConfiguration
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    • Danielle Schutz Created by Bentley Colleague Danielle Schutz
    • When: Thu, May 22 2008 11:59 AM
    • Inga Morozoff Last revision by Bentley Colleague Inga Morozoff
    • When: Tue, Jun 8 2010 3:40 PM
    • Revisions: 7
    • Comments: 0
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