Optimizing MicroStation workspaces for faster production

Part two in series of articles on how to customize workspaces to make your life easier

Clearwater, Florida, USA — Do you sometimes find yourself groping around trying to locate the resources (such as fonts, text styles, line styles, macros, seed files and dimension styles) needed for a design file? MicroStation workspaces can greatly improve productivity and help ensure that the correct resources are being used for each project. In the last article, we discussed workspace components including the user configuration file, the project configuration file and the user interface. [Editor's note: See MicroStation Today, Volume 15, Issue 12.] We also touched on configuration variables. This article adds to your knowledge of workspaces, which will help you get your projects done faster.

Figure 1. You can easily select which customized workspace to use by selecting various workspace components before opening your design file. This can reduce errors by ensuring that correct resources are used for a particular design session.

Workspace benefits
Anyone working on more than one project will benefit from optimizing workspaces. If there’s more than one person working on the same project, the benefits will be compounded. Improved productivity and quality are two benefits of a well-designed workspace.
When using a correctly configured workspace, MicroStation can automatically make available to you the correct levels, cells, line styles, seed files and fonts as a default choice. You don’t have to remember where resources are stored for a particular project or go digging through a bunch of directories. MicroStation workspaces can be used to pre-configure many of the choices that CAD users are confronted with on a daily basis. The time spent on the front-end to set up workspaces is more than recovered later when using these workspaces.

Getting started with workspaces
[Editor's note: If you are not familiar with configuration files, please see part 1 of this series — MicroStation Today, Volume 15, Issue 12.] Be sure to make a backup of your original files and don’t make changes that will affect other users unless you are authorized by the powers that be.

When MicroStation starts up, it processes configuration files in a predefined sequence. The various files are grouped into “configuration levels”. These levels are then processed one at a time. Configuration files contain the information that MicroStation uses to set up workspaces. The various configuration levels are the system level, the application level, the site level, the user level and the project level. (See Figure 2.) We’ll go through each of these levels in this article.

MicroStation processes the information in a particular order which gives you (or your CAD manager) the exact control needed to set up a workspace that is customized for your needs. In this article, we will explore the configuration levels and see how we can put them to use.

The system level sets the stage.
The first level processed by MicroStation is the system level. Many MicroStation variables are set at this level. For example, the variable “MSDIR” stores the path to the location of the MicroStation application (“ustation.exe”). This variable and many other system variables are used in defining other variables that tell MicroStation in which directory to look for various files. By having a starting point, or root directory, other directories can be located by using a path that is relative to the root directory. Bentley warns against modifying settings at this level. Instead, it recommends that you do your customization in subsequent levels. If you ever have to re-install MicroStation, customizations done in system files would be lost as configuration files on the system level are overwritten by default when reinstalling MicroStation. (Here’s a fun fact: a default installation of MicroStation V8i has 202 unique, system-level MicroStation variables.)

Enhancing MicroStation with applications
The next configuration level processed is the application level. MicroStation processes all “.cfg” files that reside in the “C:Program FilesBentleyMicroStationconfigappl” directory. This is where MicroStation searches for configuration files of applications that work with MicroStation. This would include many of the applications in Axiom’s MicroStation Acceleration Garage such as FileFixer and Title Block Manager. Generally, this level is reserved for applications that enhance MicroStation.

Working with company standards
Site level configuration files are processed next. This is the level where you would customize your configuration to the company or workgroup standards. Any “.cfg” file that resides in the “C:Program FilesBentleyWorkspaceStandards” directory is processed by MicroStation. At this level, you might want to create a file called YourCompany.cfg. In this file, you could customize variables that direct MicroStation to look on a file server for resources that have been standardized. Using a centralized location to store standardized resources helps to ensure that CAD standards are maintained.

Increasing user production with the right interface and tools
The next level that gets processed by MicroStation is the user level. The user configuration file (“.ucf”) that will be processed by MicroStation is selected in the “User” component of the MicroStation Manager dialog box.
Each time a user selects a different “Project” or “Interface” workspace component from the MicroStation Manager dialog box, that information is stored in the user’s configuration file. (The particular user configuration file that will be modified is the one set in the “User” setting in the MicroStation Manager dialog box.) By default, the user’s configuration file is stored in “C:Program FilesBentleyWorkspaceUsers”. Changes made to variables at the user level take precedence over any settings of those same variables on any other level unless the variable was locked in a previous level. A locked variable cannot be changed in subsequent levels. For instance, if a given variable is locked at the application level, then it can’t be changed at the site, user or project levels. (See Figure 2 for a summary of configuration levels.)

Figure 2. Configuration levels (processed in the order above) provide CAD managers and users the exact control they need to optimize their production.

Making sure project resources are used
The project level is the last level processed. The project level is designed to make changes that are specific to a project. This allows project-specific settings or resources to be predefined and available. This level is a big, underused productivity booster. Setting each project’s standards once in a project configuration file and using it over and over saves hours in making corrections to design files (because the wrong resources were used) and browsing around the network looking for project resources. You think that’s an exaggeration? What is the cost of twenty plots sent to the plotter using the wrong plot configuration file? Be sure to add in time and materials to re-plot.

The user gets to have the last word.
In general, a variable defined in a lower level will take precedence over the definition of that same variable in any level above it. For example, the value given to a certain variable at the site level will overwrite whatever value was assigned to that same variable at the system level. The one exception to this general rule is that the project level (which is processed last) cannot modify something set at the user level. In other words, if a given variable is set at both the user level and the project level, MicroStation will use the settings from the user level instead of the settings from the project level. In cases where a given variable is set at the system, application or site level and that same variable is also set at the project level (but not set at all on the user level), then MicroStation will use the setting from the project level for that variable.

Although this sounds odd (for a variable from an earlier level to override a variable from a later level), there is sound logic to this. MicroStation has to process the user level so that it knows which project is being worked on. Once a project has been identified at the user level, then MicroStation can process that particular project configuration file. Therefore, it has to process the user level before it processes the project level. Nonetheless, MicroStation considers that the variables set at the user level take precedence in the event that a given variable is set at both levels. This gives the user the final say on how his or her environment should be set up for optimum performance and efficiency.

How to prevent variables from being changed
If you do not want a subsequent level to modify a setting for a particular variable, then you can lock that variable. Once a variable is locked, later levels cannot unlock or modify it.

Most users do not need to write to or modify CAD standards files or settings, as the CAD manager would set these up. With MicroStation projects configured in a centralized location, all networked workstations will use the master copy of the project resources. Once set, these variables can then be locked by the CAD manager so that everyone uses the files in the centralized location. Anyone using a computer that will be used while not connected to the network will need to copy over the project resources to that computer. Axiom’s Global Workspace Manager can help with this task as it has the ability to copy a project configuration file, the project directory structure and supporting files like cell libraries, fonts and seed files for a particular project to any computer that is set up to work with Global Workspace Manager.

Putting the pieces together
Wow, we went over a lot very quickly. Here’s what we know:

• MicroStation is configured (set up) through the use of configuration files that contain variables.
• The variables can be defined (given a value) and changed at any configuration level.
• You can also lock variables. Once a variable is locked, subsequent levels cannot change or unlock that variable.
• Customizing the information on the various levels can dramatically increase productivity and reduce CAD standards violations.
• MicroStation processes hundred of variables when it starts. Think of that while waiting for MicroStation to initialize.

In the next article in this series, we’ll show you some examples of how to set up specific variables that can greatly increase your production and cut down on wasted time.

1. MicroStation Tip Corner – Configuration Variables for Settings Files
2. Introduction to Level Libraries
3. Select the MicroStation files you want to process faster!
4. New Year’s resolution: Consume less time switching between design files.
5. FileFixer helps you understand and fix file corruption even faster.