By Mike Arroyo, CAD Guru and Happiness Advocate
Even when you have years of CAD experience drawing in 2D, why does learning 3D seem so impossible? Being bright, motivated and able to understand complex software is an advantage, but never the sole reason why someone masters the 3D design world. It has everything to do with the right training methodology and materials.

Learning 3D with Axiom’s LearningBay courses will have you up and productive in no time. If you’re already familiar with 3D, the searchable courses provide an excellent reference tool.

Years ago, I attended an expensive 3D training event, ready to jump into 3D design. After two long days of disjointed training, discussing how tools work but never when to use them or why, the class spent the last remaining day modeling a sheet metal screw. I still recall the student next to me wondering how he was going to model refinery equipment, thinking that he had to build every nut and bolt.
So, how concepts are presented and what materials are being used does make a difference. The next natural question to ask is “What does good 3D training look like?” While it’s true that people learn in different ways, I’ve found that when a course includes these key items, people are able to use the information and can now start building 3D designs:

• Modular training materials — Lessons must be organized, easy to follow, gradually building concepts while introducing related tools and functions, at the right time. Exposing students to unrelated commands will create confusion and makes 3D modeling more difficult to learn.
• Real-world examples — Every learning module must include real-world examples that illustrate the concepts being discussed. The training should explore what makes these examples great and the materials in the examples should be included with the training.
• Self-paced exercises — There is nothing like a solid, self-paced exercise. Good step-by-step labs explain necessary procedures, while providing all of the related details necessary to build the 3D models or generate 2D designs from 3D models.

The traffic light shown at the beginning of this article is just one of dozens of examples and step-by-step labs waiting for you to master. Learning 3D design doesn’t have to hard, the materials just have to be easy!

LearningBay, Axiom’s training division, set out to create the best possible 3D training, delivered right to your desk with something as simple as a web browser. They successfully built small, modular 3D courses, complete with sample DGNs and step-by-step labs. Today, Axiom has the most extensive 3D browser-based learning for MicroStation V8i SELECTseries 3 available, with over 40 courses.
What makes Axiom’s LearningBay 3D training so good? Schedule a demonstration and you will see within the first minute.

Call now!
For more information on MicroStation training, contact an Axiom MicroStation Consultant today! Call 727-442-7774 extension 3568, e-mail 3568@AxiomInt.com or visit Axiom on the Web at www.AxiomInt.com now!

Rick Sewell, beloved CAD ace, lives to help CAD users get their projects done on time. He really lives for this stuff. Give him a call and put him to the test.

If you want to impress your co-workers and superiors, then provide them with a 3D PDF that really shows your handiwork. (As a note, you will need a PDF viewer that can handle 3D PDFs such as Adobe PDF Viewer or BlueBeam’s Revu.) Here’s how:

1. Start by opening your sheet model and ensure you have your 3D reference attached.



Figure 1. It’s easy to create 3D PDFs from 3D references. This figure shows two 3D reference models that were attached before plotting.

2. Go to File | References to load your “References” dialog box.
3. Highlight the reference that you want plotted in 3D.



Figure 2. Use the “References” dialog box to select the 3D reference or references you want to plot in your 3D PDF file.

4. Click the little “Plot as 3D (PDF)” icon that sits at the bottom, middle of the “References” dialog box.
5. Now go to File | Print…
6. From the “Print” dialog box click on the “Printer” icon.
7. You’ll be prompted to name and save your PDF. Name it what you’d like, set the location you want it saved and then press the {Save} button to begin creation of your PDF.
8. Next, go to the location where the file was saved and double-click to open it.



Figure 3. Hovering your mouse over the image of the reference that was plotted activates a toolbar with icons that have functions that allow you to navigate your 3D file.

9. Use the items on the toolbar to navigate around your 3D file.

Want More MicroStation Know-how? Call Now!
For more information on cool tips and tricks, check out our LearningBay courses by visiting www.AxiomInt.com/microstation-training. You can also schedule a free demonstration about training solutions or talk with one of our MicroStation Consultants by calling 727-442-7774 extension 3530.

Send Us Your MicroStation Tips!
Send your favorite MicroStation tip or trick to MsTips@AxiomInt.com. We will give you full credit for the tip and your peers will look at you with reverence.

Ed Mendoza, veteran CAD Professional and Axiom Learning Expert, provides tips from his storehouse of experience.

What if every time you had to work with MicroStation reference attachments you had a few tricks up your sleeve that made your work easier and could save you minutes or even hours of time? I’ve created ten free video tips that will show you time-saving tricks such as how to:

• Gray out your reference attachments to make your active file stand out.
• Apply 3D display styles to 2D reference views.
• Use selection handles to adjust your clip boundary and relocate your reference attachments.
• Correctly display both visible and hidden edges in 3D reference views.
• And much more.

Want to learn how to save time when working with reference attachments? Come join me and let me share some of my hottest reference attachments tricks with you in these short video tutorials. Just go to Tips.AxiomInt. com and click on the “MicroStation Reference Attachments Tricks” image to watch and follow along as I go over these ten tricks that can save you time when working with reference attachments.

Rick Sewell, beloved CAD ace, lives to help CAD users get their projects done on time. He really lives for this stuff. Give him a call and put him to the test.

Busy MicroStation users are always on the lookout for faster ways to get work done. Covered here is a simple way to speed things up using your Function keys.

Have you ever noticed that the row of keys at the top of your keyboard that start with “F” never seem to get much use? Well, it just so happens you can make use of those F-keys (Function keys) to invoke dialog boxes or commands in MicroStation.

It’s really simple to assign commands to the Function keys. You can use Function keys by themselves or in combination with other keys. In this example, I’ll show you how to load AccuDraw using the key sequence {Shift+F12}.

1. Go to Workspace | Function Keys…



Figure 1. “Function Keys” is the dialog box that allows you to assign commands to your F-Keys.

2. Toggle on the “Shift” key by checking it in the upper segment of the box.
3. Select “F12″ from the pull-down list.
4. In the “Action:” window, enter the MicroStation keyin command “AccuDraw Activate”. (See Figure 2.)



Figure 2. In addition to using the function key, you can also use any combination of {Ctrl}, {Alt} and {Shift} for a total of 96 different combinations.

5. Press {OK} to close the “Function Keys:” dialog box.
6. Now, try out your new trick by holding down the shift key and pressing “F12″.

Remember, you can enter any valid MicroStation keyin command you want. In case you’re wondering, MicroStation does publish their key-ins in “Help”. Go to Help | Contents.

Figure 3. Assigning function keys to the MicroStation key-ins that you use on a regular basis can save you time when working on a project. You can find a full list of MicroStation’s key-in commands by going to Help | Help Topics while in MicroStation.

MicroStation is the powerful CAD system that it is, because it can be made to work for you. Use this tip and get your projects done faster.

Want More MicroStation Know-how? Call Now!
For more information on cool tips and tricks, check out our LearningBay courses by visiting www.AxiomInt.com/microstation-training. You can also schedule a free demonstration about training solutions or talk with one of our MicroStation Consultants by calling 727-442-7774 extension 3418.

Send Us Your MicroStation Tips!
Send your favorite MicroStation tip or trick to MsTips@AxiomInt.com. We will give you full credit for the tip and your peers will look at you with reverence.

By default, MicroStation loads with the title bar at the top, a row of pull-down menus below that, then rows of docked menus (or at least one row) and finally your MicroStation View window. Did you ever notice that the row of pull-down menus usually spans across half or less than half of the MicroStation interface? You’ve got half a row of blank space after that! Seems like a bit of wasted real estate to me.

The typical user has at least one custom pull-down menu and a whole lot of space-eating menus and palettes.

1. Here is a great tip to get that space into use and to free up a bit more real estate for your view window.
2. From the main MicroStation menu, choose Workspace|Configuration. This opens the Configuration dialog box.
3. Along the left side, set the “Category” to “All (Alphabetical)”.
4. Scroll down the list of configuration variables until you find “MS_MAINMENUDOCKINGBESIDE”.
5. Double-click on the variable or select the name with a single data point and press the <Edit…> button. This opens the “Edit Configuration Variable” dialog box.

Use the “Edit Configuration Variable” dialog box to change the value for the MS_MAINMENUDOCKINGBESIDE variable. Changing the value to “1” (as shown here) will allow you to dock toolboxes right next to the Main Menu.

1. Type in the number “1” as the value.
2. Press the <OK> button to close the Edit Configuration Variable dialog box.



Using the secret “no mouse required” method, you can easily select all files with a “.dgn” or other extension in a folder and, optionally, all its subfolders and then add them to a list of files in one fell swoop. The list is now ready to process by many of Axiom’s software tools such as FileFixer.

3. Press the <OK> button to close the Configuration dialog box. You will be prompted to save the changes made. Press <Yes> to accept the changes.
4. Finally, close and restart MicroStation for the change to take place.Once MicroStation has been restarted, toolboxes can be docked right next to the Main Menu.

Want More MicroStation Know-how? Call Now!
For more information on cool tips and tricks, check out our LearningBay courses by filling out the form on the right. You can also schedule a free demonstration about training solutions or talk with one of our Consultants by calling 727-442-7774.

Rick DeWitt, Axiom’s senior product manager, has spent countless hours translating tens of thousands of files and recently released ten of his top secrets on how to reduce the mess when translating between MicroStation and AutoCAD.

Sure, both MicroStation and AutoCAD have the ability to read and write each others’ files. And they work great if you just have simple files or don’t care about the resulting mess that can occur.

The list of problems that come from translations is so long it almost defies belief. Just some of the common problems that people run into are that the translated files:

• Have incorrect working units.
• Don’t meet the required CAD standards because the resolution isn’t right.
• Have the wrong dimension (3D when it should be 2D or vice versa).
• Have elements that are the wrong size.
• Have elements that are not at the right coordinate locations.

And the list goes on. Want to learn exactly how to prevent or handle these?

Better Translations Between MicroStation and AutoCAD Can Be Yours
I carved out some time and put together a series of videos that will help you uncover the secrets you need to know in order to improve your translations between MicroStation and AutoCAD (in both directions). Just go to Tips.AxiomInt.com and click on the “MicroStation–AutoCAD Translation Secrets” image to find ten secrets that should help improve the ease and accuracy of your translations.

Rick Sewell, beloved CAD ace, lives to help CAD users get their projects done on time. He really lives for this stuff. Give him a call and put him to the test.

By Rick Sewell, Axiom Director of Customer Services
Here in Axiom Support Land, people regularly ask us if we have a tool that will perform some specific task in MicroStation. Usually, the answer is “Yes” and we show them the tool and how it works to save them time. But sometimes we give a different answer. One question that comes up quite often is “Does Axiom have a tool that will allow you to print multiple MicroStation files to a single PDF file?” My answer, “Nope, no need. You can already do that in MicroStation V8i.”

The fact is, not everyone realizes that this feature already exists. It’s available through the MicroStation “Print Organizer”. I think the reason that not everyone realizes that the feature exists is because the Print Organizer can look a little scary if you’re not familiar with it. And why bother getting into the “Print Organizer” when you can just keep printing from the old standard “Print” dialog box, which MicroStation retained from previous versions?

Anyway, we didn’t feel it was necessary to create a tool to do something that MicroStation already does and does well. It’s surprisingly easy to do, too! Here’s how…

1. Go to File | Print Organizer.
2. Click the {Add Files to Set} button (Figure 1). This will load the dialog box “Create Print Definitions”.

   

   Figure 1. The MicroStation V8i Print Organizer is where you’ll get way more control over your printing than just the standard “Print” dialog box can give you.

3. Press the {Add} button, then navigate to and select all the files that you would like to print to your PDF and press {Done}.

   

   Figure 2. The “Create Print Definitions” dialog box is poised for selecting files and allows you to apply pre-defined print settings to your job or manually apply print settings on the fly!

4. Press {OK} in the “Create Print Definitions” dialog box to return to the “Print Organizer” dialog box.
5. Press the “Print” icon (Figure 3) and the Print dialog box will open. On the Print dialog box, Press the {Printer Setup…} button to open the Printer Setup dialog box.

   

   Figure 3. The Print Organizer dialog box makes it totally clear which files are going to be printed in this job.

6. The field labeled “File Name:” will be empty. Press the “Browse” icon. (See Figure 4.) This should open to default to the location where all of your installed plot configuration files are stored. (If not, just navigate to: “C:\{Your MicroStation base directory}\Workspace\System\pltcfg\”.) Select the file named “pdf.pltcfg” and press {Open}. Then press {OK} to return to the “Print” dialog box.

   

   Figure 4. All of the MicroStation plot configuration files are usually stored in the same place for easy access.

7. Find the field labeled “Submit as:” and set the value to “Single print job”. (See Figure 5.)

   

   Figure 5. The “Print” dialog box has a few simple but important and powerful options.

8. There’s one final setting that isn’t required but that I like to use. Toggle on the option labeled “Open print file after creation”. This will cause the PDF to open after the plot is complete so that you can see your completed product.
9. Press {OK} and your print job will start processing all of your files.

When the job is complete, your Adobe reader will automatically load and open your newly created multi-page PDF!

Figure 6. Your beautiful, multi-page PDF!

Want More MicroStation Know-how? Call Now!
For more information on cool tips and tricks, check out our LearningBay courses by visiting www.AxiomInt.com/microstation-training. You can also schedule a free demonstration about training solutions or talk with one of our MicroStation Consultants by calling 727-442-7774 extension 3222.

Send Us Your MicroStation Tips!
Send your favorite MicroStation tip or trick to MsTips@AxiomInt.com. We will give you full credit for the tip and your peers will look at you with reverence.

This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to easily to extend a roof over a new wing addition to a house. The tutorial is just one of the videos found in our AutoCAD 2013 AutoCAD 2013 Upgrade Library.

Flexible. Searchable. Affordable
Find out you how you can produce more … faster … by having the exact video tutorials you need, when you need it for the project you’re working on now. Simply fill out the form on the right for more information.

See how the Hatch tool has been enhanced in 2013 in this video tutorial. The tutorial is just one of the videos found in our AutoCAD 2013 AutoCAD 2013 Upgrade Library.

Flexible. Searchable. Affordable
Find out you how you can produce more … faster … by having the exact video tutorials you need, when you need it for the project you’re working on now. Simply fill out the form on the right for more information.

MicroStation has what, a gazillion commands? I’d place bets that no one actually knows all of them. I’d also place bets that no one really needs to know them either. (Might make for a good reality TV show of engineers, if the rest of the population were smart enough to understand the humor.) So there’s a lot of commands and you don’t need to know them all. But are there some that you were never told about (or have forgotten over the years) that would come in really handy on the project you’re working on now?

Mike Arroyo, Axiom’s Vice President of Learning and MicroStation Evangelist, has been helping CAD users for over 20 years.

Come and Get ‘Em!
Axiom’s MicroStation gurus were tasked with putting together the top ten forgotten (or never taught) commands that users should know and use but typically don’t. Whether you’ve forgotten about these tips, were never taught them in a classroom (Remember those?) or the local CAD manager (or Joe in the cubicle next to yours) never went over them, they’re available now — for free.

The commands are covered in a series of ten short, two-minute videos, one per video. Just go to Tips.AxiomInt.com and see how many you’re using (or missing).