MicroStation / GEOPAK Tips, Tricks

and Frequently Asked Questions

Esther Barwick
CADD Design Support Coordinator
 Selecting a Project

When a project is selected it sets

the variable
_USTN_PROJECTNAME,
which resolves to set the variable
_USTN_PRJECTDATA

This is a system variable

which is used by both
MicroStation and GEOPAK
 Passing Arguments At Start-up of
MicroStation
C:\bentley\program\microstation\ustation.exe –Sfile.txt
n Executes a script file when starting MicroStation. The file can

include macros, mdl programs, key-ins etc.

C:\bentley\program\microstation\ustation.exe –WS(variable)
n Defines a specific variable at startup
C:\bentley\program\microstation\ustation.exe –WRd:\worksp
n Defines the workspace directory
C:\bentley\program\microstation\ustation.exe –debug
n Runs MicroStation in debug mode
C:\bentley\program\microstation\ustation.exe –WUsitefdoteng
n Defines the user interface at startup
 Default User Config File

The dfltuser.cfg file should contain the 2 lines shown below.

The _USTN_USERNAME variable should be set equal to the last
workspace that MicroStation properly exited.
%level 0
_USTN_USERNAME = sitefdoteng
Note: If MicroStation is not opening correctly change the workspace
back to examples.
The MicroStation User Preference File

Note: At times this file

becomes unstable due to
size or corruption & must
be deleted.

A binary file
Stores the Saved Settings of the workspace which
includes the dialog boxes open status, working
directory of last session, previously selected
project in MicroStation Manager, etc.
 Resource Files
The Location Variable for Resource Files is MS_RSRCPATH.
This variable can be set to Create & Locate an
MDL’s Resource File in the current working directory.
The Advantage:(locating the Resource Files in the working directory)
the Settings for each project is remembered.
The Disadvantage: (if the Resource Files must be deleted, for
example, when the program is updated)
the Resource Files must be located in several directories.
At times Resource Files are corrupted and should be
deleted, if its corresponding MDL file consistently
aborts. Also when new versions of an MDL are installed
its corresponding resource file should be deleted.
Note: Never delete the Resource Files in the Bentley directory.
Modifying User Configuration Files

Always leave a carriage return at the

bottom of the file.
 Graphics Accelerator

If the computers’ Graphic Accelerator is

OpenGL, then set the MicroStation
variable to qvisgl (the default).
If the computers’ Graphic Accelerator is
Direct Draw, then set the MicroStation
variable to Quickvis.
Disable Direct Draw from the
Display Adapter for Quantities Manager
Finding Dialog Box Resource Numbers
To find the Resource ID for a dialog box or tool box key-in:

To activate it: dmsg dialogdebug toggle OR dmsg dialogdebug on

To turn it off: dmsg dialogdebug toggle OR dmsg dialogdebug off

Below shows resulting messages when dialogdebug is

ON & the Polygon Tool Box is torn away from the Main
Tool Frame. (Note the tool box ID Number)
Resolving Conflicts Between Dialog Box
Resource Numbers
Inability to load the Dialog box or Application & the error
“Unable to load dialog ID number ????” displays
indicates a conflict between applications.
MDL files store Dialog IDs Statically or Dynamically.
Note: Application ‘A’ assigns dialog ID#9001 Statically.
If Application ‘B’ loads prior to ‘A’ & grabs the
ID#9001 Dynamically, then ‘A’ will not load.
To Resolve: Find the Dialog Box/Aapplication conflicting
& change the order of load.
To Avoid Conflicts(with user customized tool boxes/frames):
Set the variable _USTN_CUSTOMIZEBASEID to a
high number (Ex: 50000 for a starting number)
 Problems Customizing Toolboxes
Deactivate GEOPAK
Create the Tool
Boxes/Frames locally
Create a Tool Frame
(necessary for easy
transfer of Tool Boxes
to other interfaces)
A Tool Box created under
fdoteng & added to the
sitefdoteng interface
may need the
Resource Number
changed using the
MDL uimgr .
 User Interface Manager

Provides a mechanism to copy/modify/delete tool boxes or

frames between different user interface files.
 Pasting Text in a Dialog Box

Many dialog boxes in MicroStation and

GEOPAK do not support the keystroke of
<cntrl>V to copy text. Instead you must
use the key stroke <Shift><Insert>
Increasing MicroStation Undo Buffer
When do I need to
increase the undo buffer?
Example: A user ran a set
of xsections, a few days
later the xsection program
aborted using the same
input & criteria files.
Answer: For some reason
the design files exceeded Note: the Undo Buffer
memory allocation due to should be in increments
Complex Elements. of 1024.
 Reference File Problems
The MDL FDOT Config must find the _meta_info directory
under the Project Number. (run PEDDS when the
Project is initialized to resolve problem)
To prevent full paths being saved for Reference Files:
Set the variable MS_DISALLOWFULLREFPATH.
To remove hard-coded reference file paths:
use the Giffels refutil program (or)
select SiteMenu>Utils>Reference File Utilities>
Remove Reference File Path
Note: GEOPAK clipping strips off all
Reference File logical paths set by
TIMS Attach Reference File dialog.
ECSO is working with GEOPAK to get this resolved.
Making Solid Filled Shapes Transparent
Make shapes transparent by applying a "glass" material to the
shapes and then render the view (Constant, Smooth, or Phong).
The steps are:
n Select Tools > Visualization Tools > Rendering Tools

n Select the Apply Material tool

Making Solid Filled Shapes Transparent
…continued
n Set the Method to Attach Attribute,
and Mode to Apply Material. The
name of the material file appears
in the Table field.
n Click on the Open button to open
the Glass palette and navigate to
the ..\Workspace\system\materials\
folder
n Select the Palette called "Glass".
n Select the desired material from the pick list - Glass - Element.
The color of the 'glass' will pick up the element's color.
In other words, yellow element = yellow glass and so forth.
It will prompt you to identify the element.
n Select & Accept each shape needing to be transparent, or pre-select
elements with the Element Selection tool & accept the Selection Set.
n To view the effects of the glass material:
render the view in either Constant, Ssmooth or Phong.
 Raster Manager & Cal files

Install any updated versions of Raster Manager

Change the Foreground and Background color
Use a Plot Driver specifically set up for Raster
Manager
Note: In MSJ, Raster plot files plotted with Raster Manger are much
larger than Raster files plotted with Image Manger.
 Plotting Settings for Raster Manager
The following options control Raster Plotting of images by Raster
Manager:
MDLCOMMAND = implot ; For Image Manager
ISV_RASTER =1 ; Plots the raster image, 1=On 0=Off Default=1
PIXEL_RESOLUTION = 300 ; Resolution of pixels on output (dpi) Default=80
;Raster Manager uses PIXEL_RESOLUTION to
override HARDWARE_RASTER/RESOLUTION
CONTRAST = 50 ; Contrast in percent, between 0-100 Default=50
BRIGHTNESS = 50 ; Brightness in percent, between 0-100
RASTER_FENCE = 0 ; Clip the raster to fence, 1=On 0=Off Default=0
NO_DGNRASTER = 0 ; MS plot of 87/88, 1=Don't plot 0=Plot Default=0
NO_RASTERREF = 0 ; MS plot of 90's,1=Don't plot 0=Plot Default=0
GRAYSCALE = 0 ; Plot in gray scale, 1=On 0=Off Default=0
Monochrome Raster background color is specified by the following
parameter in Raster Manager, but is ignored by Image Manager.
BACKGROUND =2 ; 0=white,1=black,2=color Default=0
For BACKGROUND = 0 or 1 (white or black), the raster foreground
is inverted if identical to the Monochrome Raster background.
For BACKGROUND = 2 (color), no change is made to the
background.
 Plotting Grayscale to a Laser Printer
To Plot Grayscale to a laser printer, the printer must have PostScript
capability.
Add the following PEN lines after the “change_pen=“ statement to the
PLT file to control the Grayscaling.
Make sure that the "change_pen=“ statement is set to "color" or "both“
PEN(n)=(a-b)/RGB=(x,y,z)
Where (n) is the pen number, (a-b) is a single or a range of element
color(s), (x,y,z) are the Red Green Blue values.
To control the Degree of Grayscale, set the "RGB=" statement inside
the parentheses as shown:

10% screen - (233,233,233) 60% screen - (102,102,102)

20% screen - (204,204,204) 70% screen - (77,77,77)
30% screen - (178,178,178) 80% screen - (26,26,26)
40% screen - (153,153,153) BLACK - (0,0,0)
50% screen - (127,127,127)
 Plotting Grayscale to a Laser Printer
…continued

Example: Pen Statement that will set color 0 to a 30% screen:

PEN(1)=(0)/RGB=(178,178,178)

Example: Pen Statements that will map colors 0 - 8 to black &

colors 9 - 16 to a 40% screen:

PEN(1)=(0-8)/RGB=(0,0,0)
PEN(2)=(9-16)/RGB=(153,153,153)

Note: The PEN(number) should not be set less than 1.

Some printers/plotters have a PEN(0), but MicroStation does not
recognized it & will reject the plot configuration file.
One useful grayscale is 0%(white). When placing an opaque shape
with CO=200 between text elements & an aerial photo,
this setting, pen(200)=(200)/RGB=(254,254,254),
whitewashes the text background making it more readable.
Creating an Image in MicroStation for
PowerPoint or Word

Create an EMF image file using these settings in

a PLT file:
num_pens = 255 ; defines pens used
model = sysprnmetafile
default_extension = 'emf‘ ; default extension
Insert the image file into Power Point or Word
 Adding Hotboxes to SiteMenu
# Automatically load GuidSign and AutoTurn

MS_MDL > C:/AutoTURN 4/

MS_MDL > C:/GuidSign/
MS_MDLAPPS > C:/AutoTURN 4/
MS_MDLAPPS > C:/GuidSign/
SM_HOTBOX3 = 1
SM_HOTBOX3_TOOLS = 9001@gsv7
SM_HOTBOX3_COLOR = GREEN
SM_HOTBOX3_POSITION = 890,6,12,12
SM_HOTBOX4 = 1
SM_HOTBOX4_TOOLS = 40@atv7
SM_HOTBOX4_COLOR = YELLOW
SM_HOTBOX4_POSITION = 858,6,12,12
Disabling Fly-Over Activation of HotBoxes

Modify the HotBox Flyover configuration

variable to be set equal to zero.
Example:
n Sm_hotbox1_flyover=0
The user will then have to click on the box
to activate it.
 D&C Manager Tips & Work-Arounds
D&C problem with Construction Mgr & MR1
n “MR1 for GEOPAK 2001 Updates” for the D&C Manager
creates a problem when importing data into the
Construction Manager. (A patch is now available)
n To Retain the use of Construction Manager:
Replace 2 files (acbook.ma & cmp.ma) in the
GEOPAK/bin directory installed by the MR1 with the
previous version.
n To Replace Files:
Once MR1 is installed, rename the NEW files
(acbook.ma & cmp.ma) to (acbook.new & cmp.new).
Copy the OLD files (acbook.ma & cmp.ma) into the bin
directory. This allows the older version of D&C Manager
to remain with all of the updates in the MR.
 Setting the Scale when Placing
Custom Linestyles from D&C Manager
The Scale Factor for Linestyles is set globally.
From D&C select Settings > Design
All FDOT Custom Linestyles are created at
True Size or placed at the file’s Plot Scale.
 Checking D&C Attributes

GEOPAK provides an
Attribute Viewer & an
Adhoc Attribute Manager
This allows the user to
easily see if the correct
Pay Item or Adhoc
Information is attached.
 Criteria
GEOPAK 98 criteria files ran in GEOPAK 2000 or
GEOPAK 2001 gave the following syntax error:
%XS-E-INVIEI. Invalid sequence of ‘IF/ELSE IF’
statements. ‘IF’ statement must precede an ‘ELSE
IF’ statement for a sequence of ‘IF/ELSE IF’
statements.
The Reason:
GEOPAK 98 would allow a bracket out of place or
perhaps an incorrect ‘IF/ELSE’ statement.
GEOPAK 2000 & GEOPAK 2001
tightened up the syntax checking so these type
errors are now caught.
 Coordinate Geometry
GPK files become corrupt, sometimes,
for no apparent reason. Using the
Key-in “Rebuild Database” is the only
correction.
 Coordinate Geometry …continued

Used when there is a “shift” or offset

in the Alignment
STORE CHAIN RAMPD CUR AC31 S1
SHIFT S2 CUR AC32 A51 STA 0+00
 Coordinate Geometry …continued

NEXT Available
Allows a Multiple User Environment
Each user has individual
Next Available Element Preferences
Next Available Element Settings are
maintained between MicroStation
sessions
 Coordinate Geometry …continued

NEXT Available
SHOW NEXT ELEMENT
 Coordinate Geometry …continued

Store NEXT Available &

SET NEXT Element
Via Key-in:
n STORE POINT ? 10000 20000

n LOCATE ? P76 245 S 45 23 34.56 E

n STORE CHAIN ? P101 CUR 4021 CUR 107

n SET NEXT POINT S1

n SET NEXT CHAIN CHAIN1

 Coordinate Geometry …continued

Make Input File to Create

Required ASCII Data
The GEOPAK Make Input File command
produces a GEOPAK Format Input File
containing Coordinate Geometry Commands for
previously stored Coordinate Geometry Elements.
Key-in COGO:
MAKE INPUT FILE EX901.IUS CHAIN EX90
 Coordinate Geometry …continued

Merging 2 GPK Files

n Open 1st job number (ex: job001)

n Make Input File ALL <filename>

Where <filename> includes job number

to be merged into (ex: merge002.iop)
n Open 2nd job number (ex: job 002)

n Load and Read Input File

Caution: Open Input File before reading &

adjusting the point numbers. If both
Databases have the same point numbers &
Redefine is on, they will be overwritten.
 Coordinate Geometry …continued

Navigator:
n ID Element works only with
COGO Visualized Elements,
not with D&C Manager drawn Elements
n Selector can create a Selection Set.

n $SEL can be used to substitute

the Selection Set in any COGO command

 Conclusion

Questions?
Contact Information
n Esther Barwick

n (850) 245-1600

n esther.barwick@dot.state.fl.us