Configuration variables

The MS_OPENDESIGNFILEFILTER configuration variable provides users with the ability to specify the initial design file filter to be used in various open design file dialog boxes. If this variable is set, then MicroStation Manager and the Open Design File dialog will use the value as the initial filter. An example value is "*.*".

New Project Configuration files can only be created through a text editor.

See also Archive Information, Online Help, Aspect Ratio, Spell Checker, RunMacro, Tags and Databases.

Display drivers

Note: Bentley does not endorse any hardware peripherals. This includes plotters, printers, display adapters, or input devices.

It is highly recommended to obtain the latest versions of video drivers from your graphics subsystem vendor.

MicroStation/J v7.1 for Windows uses your existing Windows display drivers. Please consult with your graphics card vendor for information that you may need regarding various video configurations.

Under some combinations of video drivers and Advanced Graphic Port (AGP) based video hardware, MicroStation/J v7.1 may be unable to re-open the current design file during certain low-level write operations. This will result in the message "Path lost to design file" appearing in MicroStation/J v7.1's text window.

The current workaround is to change the color depth to 256 colors or change the current Advanced Graphics Settings of the graphics subsystem in use (right click on the "My Computer" icon typically found on Windows' Desktop, then go to "Properties > Performance > Graphics" and move the "Hardware acceleration" slider to either of the left two positions).

Microsoft is aware of and has confirmed this particular issue. Bentley is working closely with video card manufacturers and Microsoft to investigate and resolve this issue. Bentley will post a notification through the customary channels when more information becomes available.

Aspect Ratio

MicroStation/J v7.1 automatically detects the aspect ratio of the display screens on most systems. In some configurations (including some dual screen Windows displays), the video driver returns incorrect display size information, causing elements to appear stretched in either the horizontal or vertical direction.

The configuration variable MS_ASPECTRATIO specifies the correct aspect ratio to use in these situations. This variable should be set to the ratio of the width to the height of the display area.

For example:

System A: Display screen is 200mm wide by 150mm high. The aspect ratio is 200/150 = 1.33, so set MS_ASPECTRATIO=1.33.

System B: A dual screen system where each screen is the size of the System A display and the monitors are arranged side-by-side. The display area width is 400mm and the aspect ratio would be 400/150 = 2.67, so set MS_ASPECTRATIO=2.67.

IMPORTANT NOTES: If your display is not distorted, there is no need to create this configuration variable. It is highly recommended that this variable only be set through the configuration variable dialog box of MicroStation/J v7.1 (Workspace > Configuration > New dialog).

Dualscreen configurations

MicroStation/J v7.1 does not control the primary or secondary video display under Windows. In these environments, the operating system and graphics card drivers handle the video display in single and multi-monitor environments. Please see the "Frequently Asked Questions" for more information.

Digitizer information

Note: Bentley does not endorse any hardware peripherals. This includes plotters, printers, display adapters, or input devices.

Windows users will need to contact their digitizer manufacturer for information regarding WINTAB drivers in order to use specific digitizer tablets or tables in Windows.

If your digitizer manufacturer does not have a WINTAB compatible driver or you are not satisfied with the driver that you are using, you may want to use the Bentley Digitizer Tablet Interface, which is delivered with MicroStation/J v7.1 (enable the Bentley DTI WINTAB option under the Utilities component during product installation). Please see the Release Notes after installing the Bentley DTI WINTAB option for more information.

MicroStation/J v7.1 Under Microsoft Windows

• IntelliPoint mouse driver
• Shelling to DOS

IntelliPoint mouse driver

The "Select a window just by pointing at the title bar" option in the StepSavers tab of the IntelliPoint mouse driver should be disabled when running MicroStation/J v7.1, as it can cause MicroStation/J v7.1 to stop working due to focus conflicts.

Shelling to DOS

Running 100% Pure Java applets

Java applets and applications can be run from a DOS command line using appletviewer.exe (for applets) and java.exe (for applications) respectively. They can also be executed inside a session using the appletviewer <appletURL> and java <applicationURL> keyins from the Key-in Browser. For example, to run the delivered HelloWorld from within MicroStation/J v7.1, use the syntax 'java examples.java.HelloWorld'. More information on JMDL and Java (including examples of both) can be found in the JMDL Documentation that is provided when the MDE programming tools and utilities are installed.

Engineering Links Browser Support

Note: There are some dependencies on certain Windows DLLs to be present on your computer if you wish to take advantage of any or all of the following functionality:

• MicroStation Link (part of Engineering Links)
• Online help
• Image Manager

If you plan to use any of these capabilities, you will need at least Internet Explorer v5 or greater (regardless of whether you use IE or Netscape as your default Web browser).

SELECTservices

The SELECTservices icon (by default in the Standard tool box) and the SELECTservices menu item (by default in the Help menu) both start a static local HTML document that is delivered with the product. If you have direct access to the Internet, you can easily change this to be more direct by creating or updating the configuration variable MS_SELECTSERVICESHOME (either at a site, project, or user level) and point it to the URL http://selectservices.bentley.com/

General Capabilities

This section contains information about the following:

• Spell Checking
• Printing and Plotting
• MicroStation BASIC
• RunMacro
• Archive information
• HTML Author
• DWG/DXF import/export
• VersaCAD 386 import
• MSBATCH
• Enter Data Field information
• Tags
• General Graphics Information
  • Level Names
  • Delete Symbol
  • Dimensioning Tools
  • Dimensioning Settings
  • User Interface
  • Text Line Length
• IGES

Spell Checker

MicroStation/J v7.1 includes a spell-checker, which can be configured to reference one of the following dictionaries:

• AmericanEnglish
• BritishEnglish
• Brazilian
• Danish
• Dutch
• Finnish
• French
• German
• Italian
• Norwegian
• Spanish

Printing and plotting

Note: Bentley does not endorse any hardware peripherals. This includes plotters, printers, display adapters, or input devices. For the latest information on plot drivers, please refer to http://selectservices.bentley.com/. Also refer to the Downloads area of the Bentley Electronic Books site for the MicroStation Printing and Plotting Guide.

Plotter driver configuration files are stored in two directories:

• $(_USTN_WORKSPACEROOT)/System/plotdrv/
• $(_USTN_WORKSPACEROOT)/Standards/plotdrv/

System/plotdrv/ should be reserved for .plt files delivered by MicroStation/J v7.1. Standards/plotdrv/ is provided as a place for you to store customized .plt files. To simplify plotter selection from the Plot dialog, you may also elect to store frequently-used .plt files in Standards/plotdrv/ even if you do not customize them.

To minimize the risk of losing customized changes to .plt files during a product reinstallation, do not edit the files in the System/plotdrv/ directory. Instead, copy the necessary files to Standards/plotdrv/ and edit them there. If the .plt file depends on other files, such as PostScript prolog (*.pro) files, copy those files to the same directory.

If you wish to create PDF files using MicroStation's printing/plotting subsystem, you can accomplish this task by generating a PostScript plotfile in MicroStation and then using a third party software product to convert the PostScript output to PDF. One example of a third party product that can accomplish the second step of this task is Adobe's Distiller. Please refer to Adobe's Web site for more information regarding Distiller. Another option is to use GhostScript. Please refer to the GhostScript Web site for more information on it, particularly the area regarding versions and licensing.

A significant number of key-ins for printing or plotting are incorporated. For information on what is available, load the Plot application (File > Print /Plot or Ctrl+P), then open the Key-in Browser (Help > Key-in Browser), and type in plot.

The Windows Regional Settings are used to format the time and date for plotted output in a locale-sensitive manner. This produces the following results when English (United States) is used, the short date is set to mm/dd/yyyy, and the time is set to hh:mm:ss tt:

• Pen table DATE: 08/23/1999.
• Pen table TIME: 02:36:05.
• Plot border: 08/23/1999 02:36:05.

If you wish to maintain the pre-v7.1 format of the plotted output for time and date, the following three configuration variables:

• MS_PENTABLE_DATE_FORMAT
• MS_PENTABLE_TIME_FORMAT
• MS_PLOTBORDER_TIME_FORMAT

can be individually or collectively assigned the value "v7.0". Note that setting these variables to "v7.0" will result in the month abbreviation for the pen table date being in mixed case (e.g. Jan, Feb, etc.) instead of upper case (e.g. JAN, FEB, etc) as it used to be.

For those who want a custom date or time format, you can assign an ANSI C function strftime-compatible format string to any of these variables. Some of the more common substitution codes are:

There are also other less common strftime() formatting codes, too. Using these formatting strings, you can make the date or time look almost any way you want it to. For example, you could set:

and the resulting output on your plot will be:

MicroStation BASIC

The Create Macro... utility is designed to generate a macro prototype that most likely will need to be edited in order to be most useful. The macro utilities are not designed to be a general purpose record and playback facility.

RunMacro

You can run a list of MicroStation BASIC macros at MicroStation/J v7.1 startup and/or each time a design file is opened by doing the following:

Set these configuration variables in a configuration file or through MicroStation/J v7.1's configuration variables dialog box (Workspace > Configuration).

1. If you want MicroStation BASIC macros run at MicroStation/J v7.1 startup, then set:

MS_INITAPPS > runmacro	# Load RunMacro in MS_INITAPPS
MS_INITMACROS = macro1.ba	# Macros to be run after MicroStation/J v7.1 is started and before a design file is opened

2. If you want to run a macro each time a design file is opened, then set:

MS_DGNAPPS > runmacro	# Load RunMacro as a MS_DGNAPPS
MS_DGNMACROS = macro1.ba	# Macros to be run after a design file is
MS_DGNMACROS > macro2.bas	# opened

Notes:

• The configuration variable MS_MACRO is used to define the folders that contain the macros.
• If RunMacro is defined in MS_INITAPPS, MicroStation/J v7.1 will ignore any command line parameters and the MicroStation Manager dialog box will be opened after all macros have been completed.
• RunMacro can be run as both an INITAPP and a DGNAPP
• Any number of macros may be included in either the MS_INITMACROS or MS_DGNMACROS configuration variables. Simply separate the macro names with a semi-colon when using MicroStation/J v7.1's Configuration Variables dialog box, or use the ">" sign as shown above.
• MicroStation BASIC macro names may be specified in the configuration variables with no extension, ".BA" extension, or ".BAS" extension.
• MS_INITMACROS run before a design file is opened. Therefore, the macro must not access any design file objects or attempt to do anything which requires an open design file.
• Source code for RunMacro is provided with MDE. RunMacro starts MicroStation/J v7.1's graphics environment using mdlSystem_enterGraphics. However, this MDL application may be modified to not start the graphics environment. In this case, the application must not perform any MicroStation BASIC function which requires graphics (like opening a dialog box, for example).

Archive information

Long filenames are truncated to the first eight characters when transferred to an operating system that does not support long filenames (DOS). For the Use Path Filter option to have any effect, the Save Directories option must also be selected.

MS_ARCHIVE is used to select the directories to include in the search path for Archive (.mar) files.

MS_ARCHIVECLASS is used to select the directories to include in the search path for Archive class (.mac) files.

Dragging and dropping a directory icon from the Windows File Manager will not Archive any files contained in that directory. You must select each file to be archived, and then drag them to the Archive dialog box.

HTML Author

HTML Author can generate thumbnail images in several Internet-aware formats, including JPEG (the default), WMF, CGM, TIFF, PNG, and SVF when creating an HTML file from a Cell Library, Design File Saved Views, and Design File Snapshots.

Note that in order to successfully generate thumbnail images in any of the formats mentioned above, you must have access to the respective JPEG, WMF, CGM, TIFF, PNG, and SVF drivers and PLT files, since the plotting subsystem is what is used to generate the thumbnails.

DWG/DXF import/export

When attaching a cell library to a master design file (for the purpose of importing AutoCAD blocks), you must make sure that the cell library file has the same dimensions (2D or 3D) as the master design file.

The settings for import/export are now stored in DWG MicroStation BASIC source files. Since they are ASCII text files, all supported settings are visible to the users. The settings files (.sfi and .sfo) do not function to store settings anymore. These files only serve the purpose of translation history tracking in the GUI environment and as a temporary file storage/retrieval mechanism for GUI variables. The file names are now fixed as dwgin.guiResource and dwgout.guiResource. Because the DWG settings files are completely replaced by the DWG MicroStation BASIC file, these resource files can now be deleted at any time without affecting settings.

For users who have used previous editions of MicroStation products and would like to retain settings previously stored in the .sfi/.sfo binary resource settings files, an automatic transfer is done by the import/export applications when the internal settings file version number matches 5.5.0.0. A way to ensure that .sfi/.sfo settings are converted is to copy your old .sfi/.sfo files into the directory pointed to by the configuration variable MS_DWGDATA and rename them to .guiResource. The first time that the DWG applications are invoked, all settings in the resource file will be moved into the DWG MicroStation BASIC file and the .guiResource files will be stamped with a new version number so that no further settings translations will take place in any subsequent import/export activities.

The main DWG MicroStation BASIC file $(MS_DWGDATA)dwgcontrol.bas controls both import and export. It should always reside in a local directory. It is composed of three sequential sections: a normal editing section, an auto-edit section, and a user override section. All settings changeable from the import and export dialog boxes are stored in the auto-edit section. It is not recommended that this section be altered unless you know precisely what implications are involved. Any setting appearing in the first two sections can be overridden by the same setting in the later section or in the standards DWG MicroStation BASIC file $(MS_DWGTABLES)dwgstandard.bas.

dwgstandard.bas is a "sub" DWG MicroStation BASIC file that should be used for standardization and possibly shared on a network drive. Note that if it is shared over a network, its properties should be set to read-only. This file can be used to override any local settings in dwgcontrol.bas to achieve project- or site-specific standardization for data import and/or export. By default, this file is installed in $(_USTN_SITE)tables/dwg/ and is inactive. It can be activated by editing dwgcontrol.bas and uncommenting the statement that refers to it. Multiple DWG MicroStation BASIC files may be placed in different directories, since $(MS_DWGTABLES) may contain multiple directory entries, but the order of directories listed in $(MS_DWGTABLES) is important since the last occurrence of any setting will override any setting of the same name that was set previously.

VersaCAD 386 import

The VCADin import utility that is provided in MicroStation/J v7.1 supports v7 VCAD 386 data files. While the utility will attempt to import earlier versions, in order to maximize data conversion, any data files created with a version of VersaCAD previous to v7 should be converted to a current version format using utilities that can be obtained from the makers of VersaCAD.

MSBATCH

When using MSBATCH with the import/export applications, some users may experience limits to the number of files that are operated on with one batch process. This limit is related to the exhaustion of available system resources and can vary from system to system. Typically, more physical memory and/or available swap space will increase the number of files that can be operated on in a single batch process.

Enter data field information

EDIT SINGLE and AUTO EDIT are sensitive to the text preference for text editor style. These commands should always take input from the keyin field for compatibility with Version 5 user commands, scripts, Settings Groups and command menus. EDIT SINGLE and AUTO EDIT work the same way PLACE TEXT does.

Tags

The use of Tags in Cells is possible, but not encouraged. Please refer to MicroStation/J v7.1's documentation for further information on Tag functionality.

Tags can be manipulated in the following ways by setting the respective MicroStation/J v7.1 configuration variables:

MS_TAGCOPYTOMASTER = 1 allows tags to be copied from a reference file to the master file along with the base objects they are associated to.

MS_TAGTRANSFORMWITHBASEELEMENT = 1 allows tags to be manipulated/transformed with the base objects they are associated to. For instance, with this configuration variable enabled, rotating the base element by 45 degrees will also rotate any Tag Data by 45 degrees.

General graphics information

Level Names

After creating new or attaching existing Level Names to your design, you must issue a File > Save Settings in order to see any Level Name additions or modifications the next time you open the design file in another design session (this includes accessing Level Names in Reference Files).

If you wish to remove Level Names from your design, after you have deleted the Level Names (either via File > Remove in the Level Names dialog, the 'DELETE 66ELEMENTS LEVELNAME' command, or through some other means), you must not issue a Save Settings (either through File > Save Settings or Workspace > Preferences > Operation > Save Settings On Exit) in order for the Level Names to not appear again the next time you open the design file in another design session.

Delete Symbol

This tool provides the ability to delete symbols from a line style resource file. The syntax is 'DELETE SYMBOL <symbolName>' To use it, a line style library must be active while in a design session. If the line style editor is open, the library that is currently being accessed by the editor is used. Otherwise, the most recently opened library in the session is used. This is the same as 'CREATE SYMBOL <symbolName>'.

A symbol that is currently referenced by any Point component cannot be deleted. In this case, the message "Symbol <symbolName> cannot be deleted because it is in use" is displayed in the error field. If the symbol is deleted successfully, the message, "Symbol <symbolName> deleted from library" is displayed in the status field.

Dimensioning Tools

The Dimension tool box that can be torn off the Main tool frame has been streamlined with some of the more common dimensioning tools. To efficiently access all Dimension tools, a Dimensioning tool frame can be opened from the Tools menu. This tool frame contains four tool boxes and is where a number of dimensioning enhancements that have been included with MicroStation/J (but were not originally incorporated into the GUI) now exist.

Dimensioning Settings

In addition to a space unit separation for metric dimensions (i.e.: 4 000.000 instead of 4000.00), a comma unit dimension separator option is available by using the following series of steps:

• Enable the Element > Dimensions > Unit Format > Metric Format > Unit Separation toggle
• Under Element > Dimensions > Units, Format should be set to Mechanical and Primary Units should be Metric (or Show Secondary Units should be enabled if Primary Units are Feet).
• Enter 'mdl keyin calculat calc tcb->ad5.flags.thousandSep=1' in the Key-in Browser

To return the unit separation to a space, use 'mdl keyin calculat calc tcb->ad5.flags.thousandSep=0'.

Note that when unit separation is enabled, a dimension that is placed as 4,000.00 in v07.01.xx or later of MicroStation/J v7.1 will display as 4000.00 in any version of MicroStation/J v7.1 previous to v07.01.xx. Also, since this is part of TCB, when you perform a Save Settings in MicroStation/J v7.1, this variable is set so that you do not have to perform the same operation each subsequent time you open the design file. You can enable this setting in seed files (with an appropriate Save Settings) so that any file created from that seed file has this setting enabled.

User Interface

Creating a new user interface from the MicroStation Manager dialog will result in a user interface that looks the same as the "highest level" user interface available in MicroStation/J v7.1. Once created, the new user interface can then be customized to specific needs using the Workspace > Customize utility.

If you made or used any user interface modifications in previous versions of MicroStation/J v7.1, new user interface items introduced in subsequent versions may not appear automatically. If this is the case, they can be easily inserted into your existing UI modifications using the Workspace > Customize utility.

Text Line Length

MicroStation/J v7.1 has been documented to automatically convert a single-line text string to a text node once it has exceeded 254 characters. It is necessary however to <ENTER> once 254 characters have been entered in the Text Editor Window to allow it to become a text node. If more than 254 characters are entered in the Text Editor Window, the message: "Maximum Text Length" will appear in the status area and the text string will be truncated at that point.

Image Manager

Note: There are some dependencies on certain Windows DLLs to be present on your computer if you wish to take advantage of any or all of the following functionality:

• MicroStation Link (part of Engineering Links)
• Online help
• Image Manager

If you plan to use any of these capabilities, you will need at least Internet Explorer v5 or greater (regardless of whether you use IE or Netscape as your default Web browser).

This section contains the following:

• Exact Color Settings
• Support of TFW World Files

Exact Color Settings

Support of TFW World Files

Image Manager supports the TFW World georeferenced file format used in association with TIFF files. This file format includes georeference data such as the image origin coordinates, X and Yaxis rotation values, and X and Yaxis pixel sizes. Note that the rotation value is not supported in this version.

The default coordinate unit of the TFW file is meters (m), but it can be changed to other supported units, either in the imgmngr.ini file (see the WorldFileUnit line in the Definitions section) or by using the following keyins:

• IMG WORLDFILEUNIT SET [unit] or
• IMG WORLDFILEUNIT GET [unit]

Units can be any supported units specified in the MeasurementUnits table of the imgmngr.ini file.

When doing an Image Save As or a Batch Convert, the World File can be selected as the Georeference file when the output format is TIFF (See the Options button).

3D

This section contains information about the following:

• 3D Tools
• Rendering Acceleration
• QuickVisionGL
• Piranesi Support
• Panoramic Rendering

Rendering Acceleration

MicroStation/J v7.1 can be optionally configured to make use of advanced graphics acceleration interfaces to improve performance of rendered images. Support for acceleration is through an MDL extension, which may be supplied by Bentley or a third-party vendor and may be dependent on the platform being used (Bentley's QuickVisionGL is supported on various operating systems that natively support OpenGL).

The primary reason for using a graphics acceleration interface is to improve rendering performance, but there can be a tradeoff between increased performance and visual quality for rendered views. A toggle button labeled "Graphics Acceleration" is provided in the Settings > Rendering > View Attributes dialog. It marks the view as eligible to be drawn using a graphics-acceleration interface, if one is available to MicroStation/J v7.1. If toggled on, the view will be accelerated on all platforms that have an accelerator extension installed. If off, the view is drawn without acceleration.

QuickVisionGL

Both QuickVision and MicroStation's OpenGL display accelerators have been superseded by QuickVisionGL, which is an OpenGL-based facet caching system designed to support the interactive manipulation of design file graphics in shaded mode. Shaded updates in QuickVisionGL are several times faster than non-accelerated views, and even faster with OpenGL-accelerated hardware. Dynamic view manipulations are considerably faster. QuickVisionGL provides users with the ability to dynamically display hidden lines as well as supporting texture mapping and transparency (if the product and platform it is running on supports this functionality).

Although Bentley does not recommend any specific hardware peripherals, if you choose to purchase OpenGL-accelerated hardware, QuickVisionGL will take significant advantage of graphics subsystems that have the following specifications:

• mandatory z-buffer of at least 24-bits,
• mandatory image depth of at least 16-bits (an informational message dialog will appear if the Windows display subsystem is configured for less than 16-bit color depth),
• though not mandatory, enough video memory to support double buffering

If you try to use QuickVisionGL on Windows and a message appears stating that opengl32.dll is obsolete, this typically indicates that an older version of OpenGL that is not compatible with QuickVisionGL was detected. You need to obtain an updated version of OpenGL (like that from Microsoft when installing Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 3 or higher).

Microsoft has provided OpenGL capabilities as part of Windows NT and Windows 98. As such, QuickVisionGL is supported on those operating systems (please note that the prerequisite for QuickVisionGL on Windows NT is Service Pack 3 for Windows NT 4). Because Microsoft does not provide sufficient OpenGL functionality with Windows 95, Bentley will not support QuickVisionGL on that particular operating system.

To disable the QuickVisionGL warning dialog that appears when running MicroStation/J v7.1 on Windows 95, you can either

• go to Workspace > Configuration... > Operation > Graphics Accelerator and remove the reference to qvisgl, or
• remove or delete the file qvisgl.cfg that is in the \Bentley\Program\<product>\config\appl\ folder, or
• change the .cfg extension of the file qvisgl.cfg that is in the \Bentley\Program\<product>\config\appl\ folder to something other than .cfg

When using QuickVisionGL, the geometry that is displayed in the view that is being accelerated is cached on the first update, and subsequent displays are generated from this cache. Therefore, the first time an accelerated view is rendered, it may actually be slower than an unaccelerated view while the cache is being built. If more than one view is accelerated (with the same settings), each accelerated view will share the cache and require no caching update and no more cache memory than a single view.

You can rebuild QuickVisionGL's cache by using the following syntax (while QuickVisionGL is loaded and at least one view is accelerated):

mdl command QVGL_reloadCache

This key-in can be easily assigned to a function key, a tool box icon, or a menu item using the Customization tools provided with the product (Workspace > Customize).

Piranesi Support

MicroStation/J includes the ability to export design data to Piranesi's Epix format via QuickVisionGL. The syntax to do this is:

mdl command QVGL_exportPiranesi

or

mdl command QVGL_exportPiranesi [width]

where [width] is the number of pixels in x of the output image.

Panoramic Rendering

MicroStation includes the ability to render panoramic images from a view point within an environment. The panoramic images have a unique format (.ivr) and require a special viewer that allows users to display and navigate the rendered environment. This "Live Picture Viewer" is obtainable free of charge from Live Picture Inc. and can be found in the Download section of their web site at http://www.livepicture.com/

Non-graphic Databases

This section contains information about the following:

• General database enhancements
• Oracle
• ODBC
• Sybase

For information regarding specific database version support, please refer to the Bentley Web site at http://selectservices.bentley.com/technotes/

General database enhancements

- Visual Query Builder

When using the DISTINCT keyword, some of the items on the form will be disabled. Forms created with a GROUP BY clause cannot be edited. When editing forms using Builder, save the form .rsc file by dismissing the edited dialog. Avoid using Dialog/Save To New and Dialog/Save To Existing menu options in Builder to save edited forms.

It is recommended that table and column names be defined as lowercase when using Sybase.

- FI= statement where the MSLINK value is null:

If the where clause on an FI= statement is such that it specifies only a single row, and the MSLINK column is null or zero, (i.e. unpopulated) and the linkage mode is duplicate, the MSLINK column for that row will automatically get assigned the next highest one, and will be used as the AE. If, in the case of the above scenario, there is more than one row that satisfies the where clause, that will cause an error. You will see the message - Unable to assign MSLINK. Version 4.0 functionality has been restored. FI= works where the MSLINK value is null in both New and Duplicate linkage mode.

- Now allows decoding of a DB linkage without having server.ma running or being connected to a database. mdlDB_decodeLink will set link->tablename to an empty string if not connected to a database.

- The following describes the add row without locking functions:

If MS_DBNOLOCKING is (value does not matter) then MicroStation will not lock the table to add a new row. The server will get the largest mslink in the table, add one to it, and try to insert the new row. If the insert fails, the MSLINK is incremented and another insert is attempted. This process continues until the row has been successfully inserted or MS_DBMAXATTEMPTS is reached. The maximum number of attempted inserts defaults to 10 when MS_DBMAXATTEMPTS is undefined.

- Configuration Variable "MS_DBMSFORMS" MicroStation has the new capability of using temporary (randomly generated) table names for the "msforms" data. This is to better accommodate multi-user situations, so different users don't use the same msforms table. Those database systems that use external forms managers need to know the name of this msforms table. That is not possible if a new name is generated for each database connection. The variable "MS_DBMSFORMS" solves this by allowing the user to specify the name of the msforms table. So, each workstation using the database would have a different name, and the forms trigger would refer to the msforms name assigned for that workstation.

If the variable is set to something, its value will be used as the msforms table name. If it is not set, then the name of the msforms table will be "msforms".

Oracle

- MicroStation adds support for Oracle Forms 4.5 on Intel. If Settings > Database > Dialog > Text Forms is selected, MicroStation will invoke the Oracle Forms 4.5 runform program (f45run.exe) displaying database information in a user defined form when elements are reviewed for database information (review attributes).

The configuration variables that effect Oracle forms execution is MS_FORMSMANAGER. This specifies the forms manager executable that MicroStation will use to display Oracle forms. When undefined MicroStation uses 'f45run.exe' as the Oracle Forms runtime executable. Use this variable to specify a different forms executable.

MS_FORMSARGS - This specifies arguments to invoke the forms manager. Normally, MicroStation does not use any arguments when it invokes the forms manager. Use this variable if you want to invoke the Oracle Forms Manager with arguments.

The default Oracle Server files delivered with MicroStation/J are for use with Oracle 8.04. If you are using Oracle 7.3, you must do the following to successfully connect to your database:

1. Exit all sessions of MicroStation/J that happen to be running.
2. Go to the \Bentley\Program\MicroStation\mdlsys\asneeded folder and rename, copy, or archive the files orservrd.dll, oralddlm.ma, and orserver.rsc (it is not recommended that the files be deleted, as if you should need to connect to Oracle 8.0x in the future, you will have to reinstall the database portion of MicroStation/J).
3. UnZIP the Oracle7.zip file that is located in the \Bentley\Program\MicroStation\database\oracle\redistv7 folder and extract the contents (e.g. orservrd.dll, oralddlm.ma, and orserver.rsc) to the \Bentley\Program\MicroStation\mdlsys\asneeded folder.

ODBC

If you are using ODBC to connect to Oracle and wish to utilize 4-digit year format for date fields in MicroStation/J, both the ODBC and Oracle date formats (NLS_DATE_FORMAT for the latter) must be configured appropriately to produce correct results. Although the actual date formats are not identical, their results need to be made to look identical. MicroStation/J's ODBC database driver is set to a default display of dd/mm/yyyy (MS_DBODBCDATEFORMAT is defined by default to be %m/%d/%y, which is the equivalent of mm/dd/yyyy). You must make sure that Oracle is configured appropriately for consistent operation. A 4-digit year field can be set for an Oracle session by issuing the SQL key-in "alter session set NLS_DATE_FORMAT = 'mm/dd/yyyy'". You can also permanently set NLS_DATE_FORMAT as a Windows environment variable.

MicroStation will support ODBC Access forms. MicroStation supports other forms managers under Windows.

Due to the inability of current Access ODBC drivers to lock a table, a configuration variable needs to be set when using an Access database in a multi-user environment. Setting the configuration variable MS_DBNOLOCKING to 1 instructs MicroStation's ODBC server to refrain from attempting to lock the Access database table instead. If this variable is set, MicroStation's database server will repeatedly try to insert a unique MSLINK value into the table. The number of times it will repeat the attempt to insert is 10 by default. That can be changed by setting the configuration variable MS_DBMAXATTEMPTS to number of attempts you desire. If a successful insert is not accomplished before the number of retries specified, an error will be returned.

Access ODBC driver does not support columns with "view" in the name (such as SQLVIEW). Therefore the create MSCATALOG function will not execute successfully. As a workaround, you can create the MSCATALOG in Access or import an existing one into Access.

If an MDL application uses an SQL query to update a row in a table connected via ODBC (e.g. with mdlDB_processSQL) while a DB cursor into this table is opened, the DB cursor is lost. A workaround to this situation is to turn auto-commit OFF and do commits manually. Another way around this is to only open one cursor at a time.

The ODBC Database server has been re-written to utilize Microsoft's ODBC 3.0 SDK. The following ODBC drivers have been tested:

The specific version of the ODBC Driver Manager being used is 3.50.36.9.

If the Intersolv SQLServer driver is being used and a row is reviewed, another SQL operation may not work. If this happens, you need to select the Stop button, and the SQL operation will then work.

This version of the ODBC database server also has enhanced error processing. When an error occurs, ODBC returns an indeterminate amount of data. If Session Debug is set on, the ODBC database server will open an error window and display the message, otherwise it will be displayed the same as before.

The delivered dbconmgr MDL application has been modified. If you enter a NULL string or * for the ODBC database source, the ODBC Driver Manager will display and allow the user to select a data source.

The date functionality of the ODBC driver has been enhanced. You may enter a date format string in MS_DBODBCDATEFORMAT. The values allowed in this string are all of the values supported by the ANSI function strftime. They are as follows:

As in the printf function, the # flag may prefix any formatting code. In that case, the meaning of the format code is changed as follows.

Sybase

The Sybase Relational DBMS, by Sybase, Inc. is supported by MicroStation. If accessing a Sybase database locally, the only Sybase product that is needed is Sybase System X or System XI. If access to a remote Sybase database server is required, then Sybase Open Client must be installed on the client machine. There is no need for a Sybase forms product to be installed for use with MicroStation, since it uses the Xbaselike forms interface when working with Sybase. This means forms are defined in .FMT files, using "get" and "say" statements.

Year 2000 Compliance

To obtain up-to-date information on Year 2000 Compliance of Bentley products, point your Web browser to http://selectservices.bentley.com/technotes/technotes/7108.htm

U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,815,415 & 5,784,068

Last updated August 14, 2000