Hello all,I am new to the InRoads world, as well the Be Forum. I'm in the midst of trying to get a grasp on setting up Styles and Preferences for InRoads V8i, and would appreciate the communities' perspective on the subject. I have found some information on various posts as well as figuring out a bit on my own. Here is my newbie understanding. Let me know if I am off base or whether you have any other input.Styles and Preferences are stored in xin files. In general, it is probably best to start out with a pre-existing xin file and then modify it for your needs. Various US Department of Transportation (DOTs) agencies may be good sources for xin preference files (such as the Colorado DOT xin file that I have been looking at). Additions or modifications can be made through various dialog boxes within InRoads and then Saved as a Preference; copied from one xin file to another through the Tools > Applications Add-Ins > Copy Preferences Add-In; carefully modified through a xml code editor such as Notepad++ with the XML Tools plug-in; or possibly by using software from other vendors such as Envisioncad. The Styles and Preferences determine a wide variety of things including text attributes, leader types, line styles, feature levels, symbology, and I am sure many more things. Some InRoads dialog boxes provide for fairly straightforward interactive creation of preferences like the View Geometry Stationing dialog box, while others do not seem to provide enough detail to really set all the attributes that you might want for a given feature. The Tools > Preference Manager can be used to centrally manage preferences.
From what I can tell developing your own Preference File can be quite an undertaking, and potentially very cryptic in nature.
Do folks actually develop xin files from scratch? Are there any other InRoads tools that are applicable to developing preferences?
Your input is appreciated.
Thanks,Gavin
Hi Gavin
One addtion, Inroads stores three things in XIN:
Styles : - the way features can displayed in the CAD (Level, color, text-height, text-styles, a.s.o.)
Features: - the real world or planning objects you want to create and work on with InRoads
Command settings called Preferences : -settings for each Inroads command box that have a "peferences" button.
And have in mind Bentley is on the way to change the civil products to build civil products and civil functions that are using actual Microstation techniques, like dgnlib's and are working more as MS-addins with a more seemless implementation than the Inroads MDL application/Process.
IMHO it isn't worse a try to use exsitiing things, even when working as a DOT client, maybe it is a must. And I would not use XML-Editors to build it up, only for viewing and small changes proposes.
Do you already have "features" and "style" standards for your office stored in other "database" or "office" files? Then this would be my point of view to developa xIN file for InRoads.
What functions of InRoads you like to use? (Road-, Rail-, Survey-, Sewer-, -design??)
Regards
Frank
since 1985: GIS, CAD, Engineering (Civil) Senior Consultant : [Autodesk Civil 3D , Esri ArcGIS, VertiGIS: in previous days : Bentley MS V4 - V8i, GeoGraphics, Bentley Map V8i, InRoads, HHK Geograf, IBr DAVID] : Dev: [C, C++, .NET, Java, SQL, FORTRAN, UML][direct quote by: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmut_Schmidt]: "Wer Kritik übel nimmt, hat etwas zu verbergen"Wer Grammatik- und/oder Rechtschreibfehler findet, der darf sie behalten :-)
There is also the tools, under application add-ins that allow you to bulk load named symbologies into an XIN. These should be experimented with on copies until you know exactly how they work.
It is also important to understand any relationships between the three things Frank mentions. For example, an alignment style name, when also used as a preference name, automatically links the prefference settings to the alignments with that style.
All of these things have names and will appear alphabetically, in lists within the product. Using names that cause related items to display together in groups is useful.
And using brief names can also be helpful as the names can often exceed the width of a dialog box field when verbose names are used.
You will have more Named Symbologies (styles) than Features, since many of them will be drafting standards, but when there is a one to one relationship, I try to use identical names. Often, there will need to be a many to one relationship. When that occurs, I use identical "base" names and usually add suffixes to differentiate the multiple side.
Charles (Chuck) Rheault CADD Manager
MDOT State Highway Administration Maryland DOT - State Highway Administration User Communities Page
Another thing to keep in mind is that the named symbologies defined in an xin tie to the MicroStation environment. If you adopt a DOT standard as your starting point you will also have to adopt their levels, cell libraries, fonts and/or text styles and custom linestyles or make mass edits to these standard resource calls to match your standards.
HTH, Ron
Hey Frank and caddcop, I appreciate your posts.
Yes, I need to work on a clearer understanding of Styles, Features, and Preferences, what they are and how they relate with each other, so thanks for the definitions.
Frank, right now I am working on my own to get up to speed on using InRoads for Roadway Design as that is my primary background, but I also have interests in other areas as well. Not only am I looking at CAD software from a general user perspective, but also from the CAD Management perspective. In other words what happens if I find myself in an office environment where there is a total lack of standards, customization, automation, and an xin file has to be built from the ground up? Sounds like you advocate developing an xin file from using the features that are within the InRoads software (ie dialog boxes with Preferences button). Is there enough granularity to setup all xin file details is this manner?
Caddcop, I actually read your posts under "Importing Survey Feature Codes into Survey" where the Named Symbology Tool was briefly discussed. I have not had a chance to use it, but imagine that it may be useful when importing survey points with different descriptions that I want to place on separate layers with different point symbols or annotation, provided I have setup my xin file properly?
I did experiment with horizontal alignments where you create both View Geometry Stationing and Options Preferences that have the same name as the Style chosen when creating the alignment in the New dialog box, which allowed for dynamic stationing when creating the alignment itself. Very nice! From what you are saying caddcop, this can be carried beyond horizontal and vertical alignment annotation into other areas. Food for thought!
Hi Ron,
Very good points. I have not dug into it to that depth as of yet. I can see that one really has to educate themselves before jumping into this with both feet, as you might just end up spending a lot of time on something that you have to start over again. It definitely helps.
Thanks,
Gavin