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Design Series
2004 Edition
Administrator Guide
DAA011510-1/0006
PlantSpace Design Series Administrator Guide May 19, 2004
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Explains how to convert previous versions of Spec Gen and Spec Maker data, set up
a project specification file, work with component types and criteria, maintain the
specs, and configure the Specification Check utility
Chapter 7: Creating Parametric Equipment Definitions
Explains the process of adding new parametric equipment definitions and an
equipment cell
Chapter 8: Configuring Additional Areas of the User Interface
Explains how to configure areas of the user interface that are not covered in the
previous chapters
Chapter 9: Using the Expert System in Design Series
Explains the expert system, the underlying knowledge built into the Design Series
software
Chapter 10: Configuring the Pipe Stress Interface for Your Project
Explains how to configure the files that control the way that you want users to
create stress analysis neutral files in the Pipe Stress Interface application
Chapter 11: Configuring Report Output for Your Project
Explains how to configure the files that control the way that you want users to
create report output in the Object Reporter application
Appendix A: File Extensions in PlantSpace Design Series
Is a quick reference to explain the different file formats by file extension that you
may find in using PlantSpace Design Series
Appendix B: Software Directory Structure
Is a quick reference showing the current directory structure of Design Series
Read the remaining chapters and appendixes in any order as needed depending on
your business needs.
Use the PlantSpace Design Series Reference Guide for Administrators as a supplement. It
contains lookup information (such as tables, component data, and functions).
Style Conventions
The following conventions explain the style of the text in this Administrator Guide.
Style
Use in Text
Convention
ALL CAPITAL Names of acronyms and terms in object-oriented
LETTERS programming such as classes, properties, and methods
LetterGothic Text that you type in a field, messages displayed online,
and programming code or syntax
Bold Names of commands, menus, buttons, and items that
you select
Italic Variables such as a filename, terms defined in text, and
names of books as references
Important information that the user must know (for
example, to avoid losing data)
Information of note that is useful to know
Related Documentation
The following related publications provide supporting information.
This Guide explains how to extract geometric data from 3D CAD applications such
as MicroStation, set up the data, run interference detection, and review the results.
This online help provides information on using the Class Editor and the technical
details about object classes, properties, methods, relationships, and inference rules.
This Guide provides information on using the Model Control System and its related
programs, the Database Setup Tool, MCS Database Administrator and User Tools,
and the Define Volume Utility. A PDF of this guide is available on the TriForma
Help menu or in the ...\Bentley\Documentation\triForma directory.
This Guide provides the information you need to install and set up any PlantSpace
Design Series product. It includes information on license registration and
environment variables.
This online help provides information for the user on how to use PlantSpace Design
Series, which enables you as an administrator to view the software from the users
perspective
This Guide is the tutorial for PlantSpace Design Series and provides basic
procedures to get you started using the software
Online Documentation
User documentation is provided in online help on the Help menu of the
MicroStation menu bar. Administrator and tutorial (QuickStart Guide)
documentation is provided in PDF (Portable Document Format) files.
PDF Files
PDF files are platform independent. You can browse, search, and print them,
regardless of your operating system, by using the supplied Acrobat Reader utility
from Adobe Systems, Incorporated. PDF files of the documentation are displayed
on the Help menu on the MicroStation menu bar or in the
...\Bentley\Documentation directory created after the software is installed.
For more information on using the Acrobat Reader to browse, search, and print
PDF files, see the Help menu in the Acrobat Reader program.
Customer Support
Please contact your local authorized Bentley Value-Added Reseller (VAR) for
support. To find out the name and contact information for a Bentley VAR near you,
please call Bentley Systems, Incorporated at:
E-mail: family@bentley.com
E-mail: support@bentley.com
For more information about Bentley Systems, Incorporated, please visit our Internet
web site at:
http://www.bentley.com
1. Introduction
3. Configuring Bolts
Procedures for Opening and Closing the Application and Files . . . . . . . 6-8
Opening and Closing the Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-8
Opening and Closing a Project Specification File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-9
Using Auto-Save or Manually Saving a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-12
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-1
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-1
Glossary
Index
Design Series provides you with a consistent interface between design modules that
operates without live links to a database. JSpace, the object-oriented technology, is
the basis on which the PlantSpace family of application software products is built.
Design Series is typically used with other JSpace tools and PlantSpace applications.
Based on your companys business rules, you can modify and adapt these
applications to fit your specific engineering design and data management needs. For
more information about JSpace tools and PlantSpace products, see the JSpace
Concepts and Technical Reference help and the JSpace Class Editor User help.
Data Storage
Design Series uses component-based storage of data from your project database
through the Model Control System (MCS). For details, see the chapter "Setting Up
and Maintaining Your Project Database" in the Model Control System (MCS) Guide on the
TriForma Help menu or in the ...\Bentley\Documentation\TriForma directory.
For example, when you select the Pipe tool, you are prompted to give it certain
values, such as the pipe spec, diameter, and line number. AMS then applies the
appropriate rules that enable you to place the pipe component dynamically in the
design file, as described in the following graphic.
Design Series - 2004 Edition provides the following new features for the
administrator:
Pipes added by a designer are tested for a minimum length using the
MIN_LENGTH property in the PIPE_PIPE_USER class in the
ams_user.lib class library. You can now customize this property to
calculate or look up values as desired. If the pipe is too short, the
following message is displayed, "Violation of Minimum Pipe
Length" and the pipe is not placed.
Documentation Changes
The contents for configuring Equipment Modeler were moved to form a separate
chapter. This chapter also includes the configuration for the new Nozzle Manager.
A new chapter has been added on the configuration of bolts. The sections on adding
bolt catalog data and troubleshooting that were in Chapter 2 have been moved to
the new chapter.
If you are upgrading data created from version 8.0 to 8.1, see chapter 1 of the
PlantSpace Design Series Administrator Guide from release 8.1 at the same web sites.
Also, after you confirm that all components have been checked into the database,
you should create a model snapshot of each product.
If your company uses component-based storage, these guidelines enable you to set
up a typical project environment with multiple users. The process includes the
following:
W You should build your new Design Series project on the network server.
For more information about building a project, see the procedure on
installing the Project setup type on a project network server in the
PlantSpace Design Series Setup Guide.
W This task is necessary only if you changed any of the delivered DAT files
from a previous version, or created your own user or project DAT files.
In your project database, you must compare the old set of columns to
the new set of columns for each table to find any changes and update
them.
The changes to your project database tables refer to the data in the modeling tables
in the chapter Configuration Data for Your Project Database Tables on page 4-1 in the
PlantSpace Design Series Reference Guide for Administrators.
To upgrade your project database tables from version 8.1 to 2004 Edition
These are the specific changes of the table definitions and values within the
tables.
W The following task is necessary only for the European Dataset (EDS)
standard.
No new EDS standards have been added to Design Series - 2004 Edition. The
following corrections have been made to some of the catalog files:
EPREP1 changed from 'BW' to '#' for all piping components (pipe-
eds10220.dat, pipe-eds1127.dat, pipe-eds2448.dat, pipe-
eds2458.dat)
Corrected Pn_PAR for return bends (rbnd-eds2605-1.dat, rbnd-
eds2605-2.dat)
W For all EDS users: In case you have build a new database or run a
product load file, you have to run 'eds_copy.sql' before synchronizing
EDS specs (eds-specs_s71) accordingly. This can be done with the
Database Setup tool. Select 'Run SQL file ' and execute 'eds_copy.sql'.
This operation updates some database tables that are required to retrieve
data from various JSpace expressions build in Long Description Criteria
of your active piping components.
You must run the Label Convert utility on each of the design files:
For details, see Procedure for Converting Component Labels on page 8-29.
To upgrade the typical users machine to the current version of Design Series
1. Uninstall the previous version of Design Series.
2. Select the user installation configurations that you want and install
them accordingly.
For more information about the setup types available, see the
appropriate sections of chapter 2 in the PlantSpace Design Series Setup
Guide.
W Version 8.x cell libraries are backward compatible to version 8.x only,
not to version 7.x. If you have two Design Series applications, versions
7.1.4 and 8.x, running on the same machine and you want to attach a
version 7.1.4 cell library in the version 8.x application, make a copy
before attaching it.
W Be sure that you have first followed the chapters in Part 1, For the
Administrator, in the Model Control System (MCS) Guide to define any
necessary MCS configuration variables, define your ODBC data source,
and set up your project database. The PDF of this book is on the
TriForma Help menu or in the ...\Bentley\Documentation\TriForma
directory.
The process of configuring your project database in the current version of Design
Series involves the following stages. Each stage refers to a chapter in this Guide.
W Model Control System (MCS) resides in the TriForma EC, along with its
related programs (Define Volume Utility and MCS Administrator
Database Tools). Therefore, for any information on configuring your
project database as it relates to the MCS tables and these related
programs, be sure to read the chapters in Part 1 for the Administrator in
the Model Control System (MCS) Guide on the TriForma Help menu or in
the ...\Bentley\Documentation\TriForma directory.
As mentioned in the Model Control System (MCS) Guide, the project database tables
can be classified into two categories:
Sample data from the delivered tutorial PlantSpace database (PltSpace.mdb) is used
to demonstrate the table format. However, when you start a project, rather than use
this data and then have to modify it, you might want to start with an empty database
and add your own data to the tables.
CLASSES table
Defines the hierarchy for all components
Attribute definition tables
Define the attributes for each component
EXPERT_RULES table
Contains parametric rules that are used to model components
Catalog tables
Define the dimensional data for the components
Specification tables
Store the piping specification data
Configuration tables
Contain project-specific configuration information
Description tables
Affect the way that values are displayed to users in the attributes
dialog box
For a detailed explanation of these tables, see the chapter Design Series Modeling
Tables on page 2-1 of the PlantSpace Design Series Reference Guide for
Administrators.
When you use the project installation, a directory tree will be created in the location
selected during the installation (for example, {network drive}\Projects85\new_project).
You should edit the files in this directory tree when you want to make
modifications to your project.
When you edit files, you can keep a revision log at the top of the file containing
notations similar to the following:
You can use this method to track the customization that you do for a project. If you
are the PlantSpace administrator for several projects, you can maintain a clear
separation between project implementations by using this method.
For more information, see the chapter Managing Your Project on page 5-1.
Design Series uses ASCII text files to load the project database. The text files are in
product subdirectories in your ...\{ProjectName}\dbload\data directory. Each
product directory contains all the data and parametric rule files needed for that
product.
To configure the project database, you can edit one or more of these text files and
then load the edited text files into the database with the Database Setup tool.
Typically, you will rarely need to edit the parametric rule files. The primary
reason would be to add a component used in your company that does not
come with the Design Series software. For information about editing the rule
files, see the chapter Using the Expert System in Design Series on page 9-1 in this
Guide.
Maintaining data in text files that can be loaded into the database (instead of editing
the database tables directly) has the following advantages:
You can use the text files to load either an Access database or an
enterprise-size database such as Oracle or SQL Server. If a project
increases in size, a project can easily be transferred from Access to
an enterprise-size database.
You can maintain a modification history in each text file.
The text files can provide a level of redundancy for the data that has
been customized.
The data in some tables, such as the EXPERT_RULES table, is
easier to modify in the text files than in the database.
W You should not maintain data in text files to define piping specifications.
Piping specifications should be defined and loaded into the database
through the Specification Maker program. For more information about
creating piping specifications, see the chapter Creating and Checking
Piping Specifications on page 6-1 in this Guide.
The Database Setup Tool is used to set up and maintain an existing project database.
This tool is also used for a variety of administrator tasks such as updating edited text
files in the project database, and synchronizing ams.lib (the delivered Design Series
class library) with the project database and ams_user.lib (the user-defined class
library). The Database Setup Tool performs these tasks by loading four types of files: script files,
data files, rule files, and product files.
Script files
SQL script files are used primarily to create database tables.
Data files
Classes
An object class, also known as a class, is a classification of objects by type that you
defined. An object created in JSpace must belong to a class, and objects of the same
class must have the same characteristics. Classes are used to define the types of
objects that can be placed into a JSpace object model file. The objects are stored in
JSpace object model files.
The class is created and maintained in the class library file external to the JSpace-
based application itself. Therefore, you can create and manipulate objects of that
class without changing the application software.
Class Definitions
A class definition contains the categories of information that describe each class in a
class library. A class definition serves as a template for creating objects of the same
type. A class definition consists of the following categories:
Children
Parents
Properties
Methods
Relationships
Rules
For complete details, see the JSpace Class Editor User help in the
...\Bentley\Documentation\TriForma directory.
The ams_user.lib class library enables you to edit and modify the component
descriptions without modifying the ams.lib class library directly. As shown in the
Temporary or intermediate properties are properties that have their Include With
Object flag deselected. In the class of PIPE_BASE_USER in ams_user.lib, several
temporary or intermediate properties are defined.
Because PIPE_BASE_USER is the parent class for all the PIPE_*_USER classes,
the temporary properties of the parent class are inherited by all of the child classes.
The temporary properties are also inherited by the PIPE_* classes in the ams.lib
library.
W If you make any changes to the classes in ams_user.lib, you must then
use the Database Setup tool to synchronize the ams.lib library with the
new ams_user.lib. This operation ensures that all changes to the parent
class are inherited by the child classes. For more information, see the
section Synchronizing Ams.lib with the Project Database and Ams_user.lib on
page 2-9.
For each of the ZZ_* properties in the classes in ams_user.lib, a Fixed Expression
determines the value assigned. This expression uses the built-in function
DB_QUERY to query the appropriate database table to obtain the description for a
coded value.
In the following example, the expression uses the current value of the BR_TYPE
property (for example, ITE) to look up the description (for example,
INSTRUMENT TEE) from the BR_TYPE_DESC table and assign it to the
ZZ_BR_TYPE_DESC intermediate property:
ZZ_BR_TYPE_DESC = DB_QUERY("PS_CODES_DB", "SELECT
DESCRIPTION FROM BR_TYPE_DESC WHERE CODE = '"+BR_TYPE+"'");
The double quotation marks (") and the single quotation mark (') in the
previous expression must be used properly to construct a valid SQL Select
clause.
The intermediate properties are then used to build the complete COMP_DESC
string, as in this example for the class PIPE_PBRN_USER:
COMP_DESC = ZZ_BR_TYPE_DESC + ", " + ZZ_CONN1_DESC;
PS_CODES_DB must be defined as the ODBC data source name for your Design
Series database in the Project PCF file.
For more information on the Project PCF file, see the chapter Managing Your
Project on page 5-1 in this Guide.
This variable is used in the DB_QUERY function call to identify and connect to
your Design Series database where the lookup tables reside.
The Database Setup tool enables you to synchronize ams.lib with the corresponding
information in the project database and ams_user.lib (the user-defined class library).
The project database stores class-related information in the ATTRDEFN and
CLASSES tables.
Using the Database Setup tool, you can create new classes or add properties to the
classes by modifying the appropriate data files that are loaded into the database. The
information in the ATTRDEFN and CLASSES tables and the associated rules in
EXPERT_RULES define the behavior for modeling of each design component.
Using JSpace object model (JSM) files with the Object Reporter production tools,
you can post-process the created components.
Synchronization Process
The class definition for each component type in the database (for example,
PIPE_PIPE from the ATTRDEFN and CLASSES tables) is used to create a
corresponding class of the same name (for example, PIPE_PIPE) in ams.lib.
The Database Setup tool re-creates the ams.lib file. Therefore, user-defined
attributes from corresponding classes (for example, PIPE_PIPE_USER) in
ams_user.lib become a part of the class definition in ams.lib.
W Because Model Control System resides in the TriForma EC, the sections
on updating the volume table and building storage tables are in Part 1:
For the Administrator, in the Model Control System (MCS) Guide on the
Within Microstation, the attributes for every Design Series component are stored in
a text string that is commonly referred to as the component label. The component
label consists of the attributes displayed in the attributes dialog box. The contents of
every component label and the position of each attribute within the label are defined
in the ATTRDEFN table of the project database. The ATTRDEFN table is
specification driven and is used as the default means of accessing data for
component placement. The ATTRDEFN table makes the data accessible to users
when they select the Specifications option in the Placement Mode field.
To meet project requirements, you can edit the attribute definition of any Design
Series component and then load the text file.
The process of editing the ATTRDEFN table consists of the following stages:
4. Re-creating the Rimref.dat file (the delivered label position file) and
building the storage tables (the <product>_BUD table and
DEL_<product>_BUD table)
5. Synchronizing the ams.lib file with the project database
6. Placing components in the modeling environment to confirm the
attributes updates
The following table lists the text files that contain the attribute definitions for each
Design Series product.
The following table shows the columns that you see when you open the text file of
an attribute definition table. This table provides an overview of all the attribute
definition tables. The following codes indicate which column data is used and not
used in controlling the attributes:
ATTRC_XXn
ATTRDEFN
ATTRCDEF
ATTR_XXn
(catalog driven)
(catalog driven
Attribute Definition
(spec driven)
(spec driven
Table
Column Name
LEVEL_1 U NO NO NO
LEVEL_2 U NO NO NO
LEVEL_3 U NO NO NO
LEVEL_4 U NO NO NO
LEVEL_5 U NO NO NO
ATTR_NAME U NO NO NO
UNITS U X X X
CASE U X X X
ATTR_TYPE U X X X
LBL_POS U X X X
COL_WIDTH U X X X
LBL_WIDTH I X X X
DEC_PLACES U X X X
DESCRIPTION U U U U
BOX_ORDER U U U U
DEFAULT_VALUE U U U U
INPUT_METHOD U U U U
OVERRIDE_ALLOWED U U U U
VALID_MASK I X X X
GRAPHIC_PAR U X X X
WRITE_PRIVILEGE I X X X
READ_PRIVILEGE I X X X
APP_FLAG U U U U
USER_FLAGS U U U U
W The ATTRDEFN table must contain all attributes. The Layer 1 and
Layer 2 attribute definition tables (explained in the section Using
Different Sets of Attributes for the Same Component on page 2-4 of the
PlantSpace Design Series Reference Guide) cannot define new attributes. They
can only redefine user input data.
In the previous table for example, if the ATTRCDEF table overlays the
ATTRDEFN table, only the columns marked used (U) for the ATTRCDEF table
will take precedence over the columns in the ATTRDEFN table. Therefore, the
ATTRDEFN table can have a different input method from that for the
ATTRCDEF table. The ATTRCDEF input method will be used only when the user
selects information that is catalog driven from within Design Series.
As described earlier in the section CLASSES Table, Design Series components are
hierarchically classified. Each component belongs to a specific class and subclasses
(levels), and each class has some common attributes. The LEVEL_1 through
LEVEL_5 columns are used to define hierarchical relationships.
When collecting the label fields for a particular component, the system performs a
sequence of queries of the ATTRDEFN table starting with the upper level and
going to lower levels. For example, if the component PIPE_PVLG belongs
sequentially to the PIPE class, PVLG subclass, and REDUCING sub-subclass, the
system first collects attributes that are:
This flexible method of classification helps organize the attributes and decreases
redundancy.
W As you edit the fields, keep in mind that component labels of the
attributes cannot overlap. The Label tool can be used to locate free
space in the labels.
1. Using a text editor such as Notepad, open the appropriate text file
from your project directory structure.
The data required for each attribute definition is listed as a
comment near the top of the text file.
2. Use the information from the tables in the following sections.
Pay particular attention to the sections on attributes that should
not be changed, and the required fields.
3. Save and close the text file.
To create a component, the expert system requires most of the default attributes
that are displayed in the dialog box when you place the component. Therefore,
deleting or renaming default attributes can compromise the integrity of your system.
For example, if you delete or rename SIZE_1, the nominal diameter in imperial
units of piping components, the Design Series will not be able to perform certain
functions.
Each required field is listed as follows with an explanation of the field. These fields
correspond to the schema of the Attrdefn table in the project database.
For more information about the Attrdefn table, see the section Design Series
Modeling Tables on page 2-2 explained earlier in this chapter. For more
information about the attribute definition tables, see the chapter Design Series
Modeling Tables on page 2-1 in the Design Series Reference Guide for Administrators.
This section details the use of the INPUT_METHOD column and the Query
source described in the previous table. Lookup tables define values for certain
attributes of a component based on the values assigned to the other attributes.
These tables typically reflect established project specifications for various
components, and provide you with flexible, tailored selection lists.
The INPUT_METHOD query defines the LOOKUP tables to use and the
attributes involved in using the QUERY keyword.
The table on page 2-12 of this Guide lists the attribute definition files for each
Design Series product.
LINENO,,,INTEGER,121,10,,,\
"Line No.",18,"000",\
KEYIN,\
Y,"999",N,,,,USER
3. After USER_FLAGS is set in the delivered attribute definition file,
copy the block of data for that attribute into the user-defined
attribute definition file.
For example: copy the LINENO attribute from Pip_atre.dat to
Pip_atre_user.dat. After the attribute is copied, you can modify any
data associated with that attribute.
The following example shows the description for LINENO
changed from Line No to Line Number:
DATA_BLOCK_BEGIN
PIPE,,,,,\
LINENO,,,INTEGER,121,10,,,\
"Line Number",18,"000",\
KEYIN,\
Y,"999",N,,,,USER
DATA_BLOCK_END
...
PIPE,,,,,\
LINENO,,,INTEGER,121,10,,,\
"Line Number",18,"000",\
KEYIN,\
Y,"999",N,,,,USER
PIPE,,,,,\
INS_CODE,,U,CHAR,300,3,,,\
"Insulation Code",20,"A2",\
...
DATA_BLOCK_END
5. To update the user-modified and new attribute, first load the
delivered attribute definition file into the database and then load the
user-defined attribute definition file into the database.
For example, load Pip_atre.dat into the database and then
Pip_atre_user.dat into the database. For details, see the next section
on updating the attribute definition tables.
After all modifications are complete, you must load the text file into the project
database for the changes to occur in the modeling environment.
Label positions 600 through 1196 in the default database are empty for every
component type to enable you to add new attributes to this section of the label. The
ATTRDEFN table is the only table that uses the label positions.
To help update the label positions, you can use the moveuser.sql file in your
...\{ProjectName}\dbload\data directory to move the attributes when they are in the
database. A suggested strategy is then to export the DAT files from the database.
To check for errors in the ATTRDEFN table against the CLASSES table
If you are starting the Database Setup tool, see the procedure "To start the
Database Setup Tool," steps 2 through 5, in Chapter 2 of the Model Control System
(MCS) Guide.
3. Select a file or enter a file name in the directory where you want to
save the messages, and click Save.
4. If you had errors, resolve the errors and repeat this procedure.
W After any errors are resolved, you must next re-create the Rimref.dat file
and rebuild the storage tables. Continue to the next procedure.
If you are starting the Database Setup tool, see the procedure "To start the
Database Setup Tool," steps 2 through 5, in Chapter 2 of the Model Control System
(MCS) Guide.
The system automatically synchronizes the ams.lib file. However, if you want to
synchronize the file for any reason, you can do so.
The ams.lib file is the class library used by most of the Design Series post-processing
programs.
If you are starting the Database Setup tool, see the procedure "To start the
Database Setup Tool," steps 2 through 5, in Chapter 2 of the Model Control System
(MCS) Guide.
Once the database is successfully updated, you should try to place a component in
the modeling environment.
The stages in the process of adding data to component catalogs are similar to those
for editing text files covered in the previous sections.
For details on adding catalog data specific to bolts, see the chapter, Configuring
Bolts on page 3-1.
The process of adding data to component catalogs consists of the following stages:
1. Editing the text file by adding the rows of data needed to define the
additional components
2. Updating the catalog tables by using the Database Setup tool
3. Placing the components and confirming their dimensions within the
modeling environment
4. If your project requires piping specifications, add the new
components sizes to a guideline by using the Specification Maker.
To include the new component in the piping specifications, you
must synchronize the database within the Specification Maker.
For information about adding a new guideline, modifying an
existing guideline, and synchronizing the database for piping
components, see the chapter Creating and Checking Piping
Specifications on page 6-1 in this Guide.
An example on modifying bolt catalog data follows these stages to show you
how to apply these procedures to a specific set of data.
For piping components, the data required for each type of component is
documented in each of the text files and in the chapter Configuration Data for
Your Project Database Tables on page 4-1 in the PlantSpace Design Series Reference
Guide for Administrators. To add a line of data in the proper format, you can copy
an existing line and change the values as needed. The order of the lines of data
in the text file is arbitrary.
If your project requires piping specifications, add the new components sizes to a
guideline by using the Specification Maker. To include the new component in the
piping specifications, you must synchronize the database within the Specification
Maker. For information about adding a new guideline, modifying an existing
guideline, and synchronizing the database for piping components, see the chapter
Creating and Checking Piping Specifications on page 6-1 in this Guide.
After you add project-specific catalog information or define new components, you
must load the edited data file into the project database to update the catalog tables
so that the changes occur in the modeling environment.
Where Means
<product> The specific product name such as pipe
To determine the name of the appropriate data file, see the chapter Configuration
Data for Your Project Database Tables on page 4-1 in the PlantSpace Design Series Reference
Guide for Administrators.
If you are starting the Database Setup tool, see the procedure "To start the
Database Setup Tool," steps 2 through 5, in Chapter 2 of the Model Control System
(MCS) Guide.
Once the database is successfully updated, you should try to place a component in
the modeling environment to verify that the dimensions are correct.
For more information about rule files, see the EXPERT_RULES Table section
in the chapter Using the Expert System in Design Series on page 9-1 in this
Guide, and the chapter Design Series Modeling Tables on page 2-1 in the
PlantSpace Design Series Reference Guide for Administrators.
Where Means
<product The specific product name such as pipe
>
If you are starting the Database Setup tool, see the procedure "To start the
Database Setup Tool," steps 2 through 5, in Chapter 2 of the Model Control System
(MCS) Guide.
4. Select the rule file that you want to load, and click Open.
The rule name automatically defaults to the base name of the file
selected, but must agree with the entry in the CLASSES database
table.
5. Type the subcodes in the Subcode 1 field and the Subcode 2 field.
These fields are required.
When you load individual rule files, these fields are typically left
blank. However, these fields must be filled in when you load the
following rule files for the CORE product:
6. Click OK.
The amount of time that passes before the process is completed
increases as the size of the file increases
A message is displayed indicating that the file was successfully
loaded.
7. Click OK again.
This example demonstrates the use of the symb.r rule file, which controls the
behavior of symbology. The symbology (color, line-weight, and level) is set (as
delivered) for most of the piping components based on the SYSTEM (service)
attribute. The system names and values are used from the PIPE_SYMB table (in the
When most of the piping components are created, the symb.r rule file is called,
which searches the database based on SYSTEM using the PIPE_SYMB table.
(Gasket, as delivered, is one of the components where the symb.r rule file is not
called.) If you want a different behavior in symbology such as color by line number
or color by system and diameter, you can implement the changes by editing the
symb.r rule file.
QUERY("SELECT
lvl_num(level),color(color),weight(weight) FROM
PIPE_SYMB where sys_name = '%a'",service)
2. To change color by line number, edit the code as follows.
W As a prerequisite to this step, you must create and fill in a table named
LINENO_SYMB with columns named LINENUM, LVL_NUM,
COLOR, and WEIGHT.
TEXT lineNumber;
QUERY("SELECT
lvl_num(level),color(color),weight(weight) FROM
LINENO_SYMB where linenum = '%a'",lineNumber)
3. To change color by system and diameter, edit the code as follows.
As a prerequisite to this step, you must create and fill in a table
named BOTH_SYMB with columns named SYS_NAME,
SIZE_1, LVL_NUM, COLOR, and WEIGHT.
TEXT service;
REAL nomDiameter;
QUERY("SELECT
lvl_num(level),color(color),weight(weight) FROM
BOTH_SYMB where sys_name = '%a'" AND size_1 =
'%a'",service, nomDiameter)
Where Means
<product> The specific product name such as pipe
<unit> The reference to imperial or SI units
If you are starting the Database Setup tool, see the procedure "To start the
Database Setup Tool," steps 2 through 5, in Chapter 2 of the Model Control System
(MCS) Guide.
4. From the Data subdirectory, select the product file that you want to
load.
An example would be the pipee.dat product file in the ... \dbload
\data\pipe\english subdirectory. Product files specify one or more
data files, rule files, SQL command files, catalog data, and label
attribute information to be loaded into the data source.
5. Click Open.
6. Click OK.
The amount of time that passes before the process is completed
increases as the size of the file increases.
A message is displayed indicating that the file was successfully
loaded.
7. Click OK again.
W You must update the VOLUMES table with your project master volume
definition file before you use the Model Control System (MCS). To do
this, see this topic in Part 1, For the Administrator in the Model Control
System (MCS) Guide on the TriForma Help menu or in the ...\Bentley
\Documentation\TriForma directory.
This feature is useful for adding customized attributes that exist in P&ID.
Placing components from the PlantSpace P&ID application into Design Series is
controlled by the PID_COMPONENT and PID_MAP tables in the project
database.
PID_COMPONENT Table
The PID_COMPONENT table maps the PlantSpace P&ID cell name to the
Design Series Component Placement command. This command is issued so that the
Prompt dialog box is displayed for the selected component. This table has two
columns, OBJNAME and COMMAND. They are used to map the P&ID
component to the component type of the Design Series component and to map the
PID_MAP Table
The PID_MAP table enables you to map PlantSpace P&ID tags to Design Series
pipe attributes. While building the Prompt dialog box, the program searches for
each Design Series attribute in the PID_MAP table:
The default PID_MAP table delivered with Design Series matches the delivered
P&ID configuration and will need to be modified to meet your projects
requirements. The pidattr.dat file creates the PID_MAP table. Pidattr.dat is in your
...\{ProjectName}\dbload\data\pipe directory.
If you need to customize the attributes of P&ID (assuming they are not
mapped yet), use the following procedure.
6. Add the name of this new table in the MAP_TABLE column for
that attribute.
7. Save and close the file.
The process for adding or modifying data to the PID_MAP table consists of the
following stages.
W You must not change the PID_MAP table directly in the database.
'INSUL', 'INSULAT',
DATA_BLOCK_END
If you are starting the Database Setup tool, see the procedure "To start the
Database Setup Tool," steps 2 through 5, in Chapter 2 of the Model Control System
(MCS) Guide.
The delivered software is configured to access data in the form of a sample graphic
through the Windows Paint program. You can configure the software to access data
in a different application such as Microsoft Access or Excel. The
EXE_REPORT_CRITERIA table, EXE_REPORT_TYPES table, and
EXE_REPORT_ARGS table are used to control the functionality of this command.
These tables define the commands to be issued to the operating system, the
components that can be selected for each command, and the arguments defined for
each command.
EXE_REPORT_CRITERIA Table
When the Access External Data utility is run, a list of applications that can be run is
displayed to the user. This list actually contains the values from the EXE_TYPE
column in the EXE_REPORT_CRITERIA table. When the user selects the
application, the user is prompted to select a component. If the selected component
meets the criteria defined in the BUD_TYPE and CRITERIA columns, the value
for REPORT_ID is retrieved. The REPORT_ID value is then used to obtain
information from the EXE_REPORT_TYPES table.
EXE_REPORT_TYPES Table
The EXE_REPORT_TYPES table defines the command string used to start the
external application. This table is defined in the Report_Types.dat file in the {network
drive}\Projects85\dbload\data\pipe directory.
Arguments are appended to the command string based on values queried from the
EXE_REPORT_ARGS table.
EXE_REPORT_ARGS Table
To make this procedure more meaningful, the following example explains how
to set up access to data in Microsoft Excel.
If you are starting the Database Setup tool, see the procedure "To
start the Database Setup Tool," steps 2 through 5, in Chapter 2 of the
Model Control System (MCS) Guide.
6. Click the Data File button.
7. In the Select Data File dialog box, select the pip_cls.dat file.
If no errors are found, a message is displayed indicating successful
completion.
8. Place a component and verify that the component type name is
displayed.
To recall the various ways to customize the Value column, see Description
Tables on page 2-15 in the chapter "Design Series Modeling Tables" in the
PlantSpace Design Series Reference Guide for Administrators.
To use an example, if your company has one or more disciplines such as any of the
TriForma applications (Architecture, Structural, and HVAC) using multiple projects
and your users want to access PlantSpace component information from multiple
reference files, they can do so. By selecting the TriForma Element Information tool
and selecting a PlantSpace component in a design file, a tab called PlantSpace Data
should be present so that the component information can be displayed. Users can
read this information without having to be in an active Design Series session.
If users are not connected to a PlantSpace database, they can still access
component information as long as the rimref.dat file is available. However,
without the database, the display of the descriptive information will not be
available, as shown in the following example.
If the PlantSpace Data tab is not displayed, it means that your project database may
need to be configured. To display the PlantSpace component information, TriForma
requires:
You can enhance the data display to use full (descriptive) attribute names and
values instead of abbreviations.
If you are not using PlantSpace, and your configuration does not
include a projvars.cfg file, define PS_CODES_DB in
MicroStation using the Workspace/Configuration menu item.
3. To display full names in the Values column instead of abbreviations
(for example, "Long" instead of "L"), access the glossary.dat file in
your ...\{ProjectName}\dbload\data directory.
4. Make the necessary changes to codes and descriptions, or add new
codes and descriptions.
5. Save and close the file.
6. Load the file into the project database by using the Database Setup
tool.
W You should also save a copy of the RimRef.dat file in case label changes
are made in future releases.
If you are starting the Database Setup tool, see the procedure "To start the
Database Setup Tool," steps 2 through 5, in Chapter 2 of the Model Control System
(MCS) Guide.
For example, if you have legacy data that needs to be modified for use in your
project database, you can have a SQL command file copy the data in the correct
format for the tables.
If you know how to create SQL command files, you can place your files in the
appropriate data source subdirectory (Access, Oracle, or SQL Server) in your
...\{ProjectName}\dbload directory. The Database Setup Tool can then access the
files to execute the SQL commands against the database.
If you are starting the Database Setup tool, see the procedure "To start the
Database Setup Tool," steps 2 through 5, in Chapter 2 of the Model Control System
(MCS) Guide.
5. Click OK.
If you know how to create script command files, you can place your files in the
appropriate data source subdirectory (Access, Oracle, or SQL Server) in your
...\{ProjectName}\dbload directory. The Database Setup tool can then access the
files to execute the script commands against the database.
If you are starting the Database Setup tool, see the procedure "To start the
Database Setup Tool," steps 2 through 5, in Chapter 2 of the Model Control System
(MCS) Guide.
6. Click OK again.
For Oracle, the supplied scripts create the users for the database.
However, for SQL Server, you need to manually create the users, as
explained in Chapter 1 of the Model Control System (MCS) Guide on
the TriForma Help menu or in the
...\Bentley\Documentation\TriForma directory.
For Oracle, if a project already exists from an earlier version, then it
should be cleaned up by reloading the project.
If you are starting the Database Setup tool, see the procedure "To start the
Database Setup Tool," steps 2 through 5, in Chapter 2 of the Model Control System
(MCS) Guide.
The bolts engine operates on the JSpace Model (JSM) and identifies the bolt
assemblies, which are sets of piping components that are to be bolted together. The
engine then looks up bolt related tables, and through subsequent JSpace evaluations,
determines the bolts required by the assembly.
Details by Topic
This chapter contains the following topics:
In 2004 Edition, almost all the bolt related customizations are in $PS_PROJ/etc/
bolt.lib. This library includes the classes mentioned above.
This release includes the capability to control separate output for bolt length and
bolt diameter through two new configuration variables,
PS_BOLTS_LENGTH_UNITS and PS_BOLTS_DIAMETER_UNITS.
Also provided are better error diagnostics with step-by-step error evaluations. The
ERROR_MESSAGE property in the BOLT_COMPONENT and
BOLT_ASSEMBLY objects contains detailed error messages.
contains all the required bolt properties. These objects can then be read by output
applications such as AutoISOGEN and Object Reporter to report and display the
bolts, display bolt generation errors, and so on.
The bolt engine ensures that no component is part of more than one bolt
assembly.
The trigger component is considered inline if the component has both conditions:
If the trigger component is inline, the bolts engine collects connected components
at both ends of the trigger, and forms a single group of connected components. The
collection stops at non-inline components at either end, or if no more adjacent
components exist.
The trigger component is considered non-inline if both conditions are not present.
A component with only two snap points is non-inline if its INLINE property
is set to FALSE.
The following diagrams show two cases where the wafer-check valve is set with
different INLINE values. In the first case, INLINE is set to TRUE and the result is
a single group of connected components. In the second case, INLINE is set to
FALSE and the result is two separate sets of connected components at each end.
Property Description
DIAMETER Bolt diameter
LENGTH Bolt length
MATERIAL Bolt material
PIECES Number of bolts
TYPE Type of Bolts
Property Description
BOLTED_SNAP_INDEX The index of the snap point on the
component where the bolts are attached
BOLTED_PROPERTY_INDEX The index of the Design Series component
property at the point on the component
where the bolts are attached.
Ex: If BOLTED_PROPERTY_INDEX=2, this
value indicates that the bolted end of the
component has a nominal size of SIZE_2 and an
end prep of ENDPREP2.
Property Description
BOLT_DIAMETER Bolt diameter
BOLT_LENGTH Bolt length
BOLT_MATERIAL Bolt material
BOLT_PIECES Number of bolts
BOLT_TYPE Type of Bolts
type, and material. A BOLT_ORDER object is created for each grouping, and the
object contains aggregate information on the bolt assemblies.
For example, the BOLT_ORDER object will contain a property that will keep count
of the total number of bolt pieces in its group of bolt assemblies.
The following diagram shows the objects and relationships generated by the bolts
engine.
Generation Process
For each of these classes, the following sections summarize the input
properties and relationships available for customization, and the output that is
expected by output applications.
For a more detailed explanation of these customizations, see the bolts.txt file in
the $PS_PROJ/etc directory.
BOLT_ASSEMBLY Class
Double BOLT_DIAMETER
Double BOLT_LENGTH
String BOLT_MATERIAL
Long BOLT_PIECES // Number of bolt pieces
String BOLT_TYPE
BOLT_COMPONENT Class
Double DIAMETER
Double LENGTH
String MATERIAL
BOLT_ORDER Class
Output
This procedure involves modifying ams_user.lib and ams.lib to change the JSM
that is generated through the Microstation Connection dialog box. The library
is in the $PS_PROJ/etc directory.
Property Use
CREATES_BOLTS Marks a component as a trigger for bolt generation.
The value is TRUE or FALSE.
INLINE Includes a component within a bolt assembly, if it is
connected to the trigger component, either directly
or through other inline components. The value is
TRUE or FALSE.
Note: The inline components also need to have only
two snap points.
BOLT_THICK If the component is within a bolt assembly, this value
(in inches or millimeters) indicates the thickness of
the component to be included for bolt length
evaluation.
4. Save the class libraries and close the JSpace Class Editor.
To set up bolts to be filtered with their Design Series components (for output
applications)
JSpace expressions are normally used by output applications to filter piping
components. It is usually necessary that the bolts that belong to these components
also pass through these filters. For this action to happen, the bolt assembly objects
should contain the component properties (and appropriate values) that are used in
the JSpace filter.
For the Object Reporter, you need to define a bolt report. The standard PlantSpace
Design Series installation program creates a sample report called Bolts. This report
creates a DBF file containing information on bolts.
The following database catalog tables are used to determine the bolt information:
BOLTS
The BOLTS table contains diameter, length, number, material, and
unit of measure information for bolts that are specific for a
particular combination of standard, rating, face, component size
data, component standard, component code, bolt standard, bolt
code, and bolt type.
BOLT_MATERIAL
The BOLT_MATERIAL table contains bolt material definitions.
Providing this information in a separate table adds more flexibility
when you are specifying multiple material descriptions.
The primary location for the storage of bolt information within Design Series is the
BOLTS table. This table contains the following fields:
Design Series accesses one of the rows from the PIPE_STD_BOLTS table to
create the implied bolt components for a particular Design Series component.
Several DAT data files in the ...\dbload\data\pipe subdirectory contain the data for
the BOLTS table. To find these data files, perform a Find operation in Windows
Explorer using *.dat and containing the text BOLTS. (Consult your Windows
Explorer documentation or Help for details on how to perform this type of
advanced search.) These files require data for all columns in the BOLTS table.
Configuration Variables
The following table summarizes the available configuration variables used by the
bolts engine.
Default
Configuration Variable and Purpose Possible Values
Value
PS_BOLTS_DEFAULT_TYPE String [example, MACH
MACH and
If the system is unable to determine the bolt type, the STUD]
bolt type defaults to this value.
PS_BOLTS_DIAMETER_UNITS String [IN or IN or MM
MM] depending
Specifies the output units of the bolt diameter. on the
project units
PS_BOLTS_LENGTH_UNITS String [IN or IN or MM
MM] depending
Specifies the output units of the bolt length. on the
project units
PS_BOLTS_ROUND_LENGTH_TO Decimal (no default
(also PS_BOLTS_LENGTH_ROUNDING) value)
Troubleshooting Bolts
If bolt data is not properly reported after processing in a program such as Object
Reporter or PlantSpace AutoISOGEN, you can troubleshoot the problem by
running bolts_util_v85.exe on the JSM produced. This delivered file resides in the
...\Bentley\Program\DesignSeries\mdlapps directory. It is easier to determine what
is happening with the bolt objects in the JSM because sometimes the class library
contains a syntax error that is not noticeable.
3. At the Source JSM field, select the same JSM that was used with
Object Reporter or PlantSpace ISOGEN.
In the Destination JSM field, the new JSM will be generated with
bolts_ added to the beginning of the name, as shown.
Design Series will have to be associated with the file after the file is put into
ProjectWise. This can be done within ProjectWise Explorer by highlighting a
document and going to Document (located in main menu bar of ProjectWise
Explorer)>properties, which will open the properties window for that file. The user
will then select Design Series within the application section (save and close the
window). This will then allow Design Series to be launched when the document is
opened within ProjectWise. The other alternative to associate many documents with
Design Series from ProjectWise is to highlight all the documents that need to be
associated with Design Series and go to Document (located in main menu bar of
ProjectWise Explorer)>advanced>modify, which will open the modify documents
window. The user will then select Design Series from the application section and
click OK. This will associate the documents to Design Series and again when these
documents are opened within ProjectWise, they will launch with Design Series.
It is assumed that when using ProjectWise with Design Series, users will begin using
this integration environment from the start of a new project. Presently, no import
utility will be provided in this phase to import existing Design Series files into
ProjectWise.
It is assumed that all access to supported Design Series files will occur only through
the Design Series/ProjectWise Integration environment. The integration
environment will not be able to handle check in or check out of supported Design
Series files if there were created or deleted outside of this environment.
Limitation
Scope of Integration
The scope of work of this Design Series integration effort with ProjectWise will
currently be limited to model files (*.dgn), history files (*.hst) [obsolete in v8], BRep
files (*.tfb), drawing document files (v7 - *.bxs, *.d, *.f, *.r, *.m, *.s, *.e, v8 - *.bxs,
*.d, *.all), and group files (*.g*). No data (components, database tables, settings,
text) will be integrated in this phase.
When a user chooses Save As from the File menu, only the dgn file will be copied
and imported into ProjectWise. Any associated drawing definition, history or brep
files, will not be copied. Additionally, any associated drawing files will not be copied.
All associated files with the original file will be checked back in.
When a group file is created, the user should name the document name, the file
name, and the description should all be named the same and should follow the rules
of group files naming. The user should also not change the folder in which is
currently located, otherwise Design Series will not be able to find the file.
-wc"C:Program Files\Bentley\Program\DesignSeries
\mdlapps\config\mslocal.cfg"
9. Edit C:\PWExplorer\bin\mcm.cfg by uncommenting the line:
MS_INITAPPS < pwwrkspc.ma
10. Save and close the file.
None of the versions of Design Series are certified to run with ProjectWise
3.2, but Design Series can be configured to run with version 3.8.0.1.
The scope of this enhancement does not include the folder structure
configuration of ProjectWise and is limited to the "file based" mode of
operation.
W Model Control System (MCS) resides in the TriForma EC, along with its
related programs (Define Volume Utility and MCS Administrator
Database Tools). Therefore, for any information on configuring your
project database as it relates to the MCS tables and these related
programs, be sure to read the chapters in Part 1 for the Administrator in
the Model Control System (MCS) Guide on the TriForma Help menu or in
the ...\Bentley\Documentation\TriForma directory.
Project configuration for the Design Series requires a unique set of:
To eliminate the need to put variables in the registry and define them twice, all
aspects of Design Series now use MicroStation configuration files.
To support multiple projects, the configuration uses files that are application level
(*.cfg) and project level (*.pcf), instead of user level (*.ucf). The user level is used
only to launch the application within MicroStation.
Digital signatures are a mechanism for indicating one's approval of designs to other
users and communicating approval in a verifiable manner. You can digitally sign a
model or a DGN file. MicroStation graphically indicates model-specific signatures.
Multiple signatures can be affixed to a single file or model. Hierarchical signing is
also supported, where one signature pre-requisites and depends on prior signatures.
A signature can cover the content of a model or file and, optionally, attached
references.
Among other key features, signers can use cells to represent signatures with arbitrary
graphics by defining an API to allow applications to customize where signatures can
be placed and how a signers identity is authenticated. You can detect valid
signatures in several ways to prevent spoofing.
For details, see Procedures for Setting Up Digital Rights and Digital Signatures on
page 5-21.
The pscfg.dll file lists all available projects for the user. However, to limit the user to
only one project, you can use the following MicroStation variable or command line
switch:
All applications display the name of the project configuration file (*.pcf) in the
title bar in square brackets [ ].
Mslocal.cfg
Each new category contains a logical grouping of Design Series project and/or
system configuration variables. These variables are read only and cannot be added,
deleted, or edited in this dialog box. Descriptions for all configuration variables have
been added and are otherwise displayed in the Description section of the dialog box.
New category groupings have been added. The following groupings are examples.
Project and system configuration variables are also listed for each group.
Wafer tolerance
Bolt units
Bolt Default type
Bolt dll location
Diagnostics
Replace Non-valid pound sign
Save Conversion JSM
Old Definition File
Default Conversion Library
Object Engine
Equipment
Cell Libraries
Data Files
Application path
Documentation
Install folder
Group Library
Reports Output
Reports JSM
Reports Definitions
Reports Group
Reports Filter
Reports configuration
Database Version
SpecMaker Output
SpecMaker
MCS diagnostics
Object Append
Create Object Model
Volume file location
Project Volume File
MCS Failed Folder
MCS Archive folder
Reference files
Saved Query files
Editor
Label Convert
DSNF Export
Save as v7 (Design Series-specific command)
MCS (checks for full digital rights before check-in or append
operations)
All MA files that can create or edit PlantSpace data
All RSC files
JSMs
Database load files (attribute definitions, catalogs, rule files)
Project settings files
Specification definition files
JSpace class libraries
Report definitions and filters
User files for the Access External Data operation
ISOGEN interface output (PCF) files
Design Series neutral files (for export)
Imperial/imperial
SI (metric)/SI (metric)
SI (metric)/imperial
Imperial/SI (metric)
The installation program automatically configures your project for either imperial or
SI (metric) units of measurement. Some projects may require users to work in
imperial/SI (metric) mode.
In the attributes dialog box, the Display Nominal as button toggles between
Imperial and SI (metric) so that users can view nominal values in either imperial or
SI units in any database. For example, by clicking Imperial, a user can view imperial
pipe diameters.
The following parameters are set differently for each system of units:
PROP_VAL PROP_VAL
PROPERTY for Imperial for SI Description
System System
B3D_SYSTEM_UNITS INCH MM Units of
measurement
B3D_UORS_PER_SYSTEM_UNIT 25400 1000 Units of resolution
per unit of
measurement
The Projdefe.rul file or Projdefm.rul file must be synchronized with the information
in the PROJECT_CONFIG table. This file duplicates some of the information
provided in the PROJECT_CONFIG table. The subdirectory contains one file for
each system of units. Depending on the system of units that you select at the time of
installation, the correct file version is in Projdefe.rul or Projdefm.rul.
The data files representing the PROJECT_CONFIG table are located in your
...\{ProjectName}\dbload\data\core directory. When you modify the following files,
the Database Setup automatically loads the correct version of the data file:
The following table shows the default working units for each system:
W You must be consistent in choosing the files to copy or load. For each of
the five steps, you must select all files from either the imperial or SI
system of units.
3. Using the PlantSpace Database Setup tool, click the Data File
button in the Load group to load the appropriate file in your
...\{ProjectName}\dbload\data\core directory:
3. Select the JSM file to append to your project database and click OK.
The system reads the data into the database.
You can append JSM files to your project database in two ways:
If you are not familiar with the RUNMCS command, you can view examples of
its usage by right-clicking runmcs.bat and selecting Send to>Notepad from the
popup menu displayed.
Where Means
-wc The flag for the path to your configuration file
Note: No space should be between the parameter and
the path.
-wp The flag for your project name. The delivered default
project name is psdstut.
Note: No space should be between the parameter and
the project name.
file The flag indicated by -i, followed by a capital letter,
specification which the system reads to include the files immediately
flags following the capital letter. Valid flags are explained in
step 2.
Flag Description
-iL log-file L to define the name of the log file containing messages.
The file will be created in the directory specified by
{PS_TEMP}.
-iI jsm-file I to define the name of the JSM file to import to your
project database through the MCS Append operation.
The file will be created in the directory specified by
{PS_OUT}.
The following command imports (appends) multiple JSM model files into the
database.
runmcs "-wcC:\Program
Files\Bentley\Home\psdstut\config\dstutor.cfg"
-wppsdstut -iImodel.jsm model2.jsm model3.jsm model4.jsm
The Design Series Label Display utility enables you to display the entire label (all the
attributes) for a selected component. You can then select a specific attribute to be
displayed, along with its position in the label.
This utility differs from the Label>Read option on the Design Series menu in
that the Label>Read option does not display all the attributes.
The Label Display utility is especially useful when you are trying to run the Label
Convert utility and something is not working. You can look at the label based on the
values and format in your RIMREF.DAT file.
The Label Tool dialog box is displayed with the path to the
Rimref.dat file where the label data is stored.
5. To display the label from a position other than the default start
position 1, type a new number in the edit box and press <Enter>.
The label information for that position is displayed. The Position
field at the bottom of the dialog box displays the position number.
The Label Tool utility can also be used to create a mapping of the label attributes for
all components in a selected data file. This feature helps you determine where you
have space in a label, for example, to add new attributes. A mapping is provided for
each individual component, followed by a summary for each commodity, and a total
summary. A summary of common attributes only is also provided. This mapping
can be written to a selected output file in two different formats:
The summary lists all the used and unused label positions in the RIMREF.DAT file.
Digital Rights
With MicroStation, you can restrict the ability of your users to edit, export the
contents, or print a DGN File. This feature is generally intended to be used when
users make a copy of your DGN files to send to other users or organizations. The
rights to perform these actions are controlled by a new set of properties in DGN
files called Digital Rights. You grant digital rights to users by using either passwords
or digital certificates. These rights are contained in and are inseparable from the
DGN file and are always enforced by MicroStation. The rights are permanent and
secure and therefore travel with the DGN file regardless of the mode of
transmission.
The author controls who can access the files contents as well as grants or denies
rights to users to publish or modify data. MicroStation disables all commands for
which the corresponding right is not granted.
Type of
Description
Access
View See contents displayed on the screen
Print Plot contents of the file to paper
Edit Modify contents of the file
Export Edit > Copy to copy (or cut) elements to the clipboard
File > Export/SaveAs to save the contents of the file to a
different format
File > Save As to save the contents of the file to a different
name without encryption or restrictions
Fence File
Generate an e-plot
Because view right is the default right, it is not explicitly granted by the author. Any
user authorized to access the file has the right to view it. The remaining rights
control how or if the user can capture the contents.
Unlimited Rights
File Protection also defines the unlimited right. Unlimited implies all basic rights,
plus the right to grant rights and authorize users. Anyone with unlimited rights fills
the role of the author who can assign unlimited rights to other users.
Label Convert
DSNF Export
Save As V7 (on the Utilities menu)
In addition, all *.ma, *.rsc, and *.dll files are digital rights-compliant.
Digital Signatures
At certain points in MicroStation workflows, it is often useful to "stamp" the current
state of project information to indicate review, approval, or ownership of the
information by a specific individual or function. The objective of the stamp is to
provide a mechanism that an "author" can use to notify a recipient of the
information (anyone who might access the information in the future) that the
information:
MicroStation provides tools for signing the content of DGN files and for
recognizing and verifying that a Digital Signature is valid.
PlantSpace Design Series supports Digital Signatures on design files only (inherent
from MicroStation).
JSMs
Load files operation (attribute definitions, catalogs, rule files) in the
Database Setup tool
Project settings files
Spec Maker replaces the Specification Generator (Spec Gen) utility in previous
versions of Design Series.
Spec Maker communicates directly with your Design Series database. In your Design
Series model, when you select the Specifications option (in Placement Mode field of
the Place Component dialog box), you can place only components that are
synchronized to the various specification tables in your database.
The following lists the various default file extensions that Spec Maker uses:
Default File
Description
Extension
.s71 Spec Maker specification files compatible with the Design
Series version 7.1 enhanced database
.spe Spec Maker specification files compatible with the Design
.spt Series version 2.0 database
.spc Spec Gen specification files that Spec Maker can convert
.a
Project (first-level)
Specifications and component types (second-level)
Associated specifications and component types (third-level)
Guidelines (fourth-level)
A specification file can have only one project object. Several specification and
component type objects can be under the project object. Creating a relationship
between a specification object and a component type object creates an associated
specification or component type object. Therefore, several of these associated
objects can be under specification and component type objects. Guideline objects
are related to a particular specification and component type pair. Finally, criteria
objects store the constraint values for a specific guideline.
PSDesign.s71
A complete, sample project file with specs specifically made for use
with the PlantSpace Design Series QuickStart Guide
CompDefn.s71
A project file containing only component definitions designed to
work with the default PlantSpace database
Eds-specs.s71
A sample project file with specs for the European Data Set (EDS)
standard
Eds-compdefn.s71
A sample project file containing component definitions for use with
the European Data Set (EDS) standard
The following graphic shows the data structure of a Spec Maker project
specification file. Spec Maker provides two major views, namely spec view and
component view. The section Procedures for Viewing the Project Specification File on
page 6-30 describes in detail these two views.
Specifications
simply spec) is arranged in a tree structure, as shown on the left side of the following
graphic.
Component Types
Also on the left of the previous graphic, you can see at a glance all the component
types associated with a spec. When you select a component type associated with a
spec, its guidelines are displayed. In the example, component type "Adapters" for
the spec CS150 consists of three guidelines labeled GL1, GL2, and GL3.
Guidelines
Criteria
The specification criteria (displayed only in the list pane) are the data (dimensions or
values) required for a particular guideline. For example in the previous graphic,
guideline GL1 is set up so that the larger end of the adapter must have a diameter
within 0.75 to 2 inches.
Project Windows
When you open a project specification file, the contents of the file are displayed in a
project window.
Project
Windows
You can open multiple project spec files at the same time and copy data from one
file to another. In the example, two project files are displayed, PSDesign.s71 and
CompDefn.s71. All project windows can be displayed as four panes, as shown in
PSDesign.s71:
An upper tree pane and list pane to view the project from one
perspective, such as guidelines in the example
A lower tree pane and list pane to view the project from another
perspective, such as guideline criteria in the example
You can specify the information displayed in these panes by selecting a view option
in either the View menu or the View tool bar.
Tool Bars
The following tool bars provide quick access to the same commands on the menu
bar.
View as Project
Specifications View Component
Definition
Synchronize Unsynchronize
If you have the Auto-Save feature enabled, you do not need to save a file
before closing the application. Like database applications, Spec Maker saves
the data as you make changes or add data to a file. If Auto-Save is disabled, you
must manually save the file before closing it. See the section Using Auto-Save or
Manually Saving a File on page 6-12 for a detailed description of the Auto-Save
feature.
2. In the Files of type field, select one of the following file types:
Spec Maker Documents (*.s71) (for 7.x and 8.x documents)
Spec Maker 2.0 Documents (*.spe)
Spec Maker 2.0 Templates (*.spt)
3. Access the directory where your Spec Maker files reside.
The default project directory is {PS_PROJ}\SpecMaker.
4. Select a file and click the Open button.
If the following message is displayed, you should click Yes to update the
data in your Spec Maker file.
If the following message is displayed, you cannot open your Spec Maker
file without an updated class library file. After you click OK, you should
The project is displayed at the root level with all the specs at the
second level in the tree structure, as shown in the example.
If you have the Auto-Save feature enabled, you do not need to save a file
before closing it. If Auto-Save is disabled, you must manually save the file
before closing it.
The Auto Save menu item switches between enabling and disabling this feature.
Selecting AutoSave places a check mark beside this menu item, which means it is
enabled. Selecting AutoSave again, removes the check mark, thereby disabling it. If
you choose to disable AutoSave, you will have to manually save your files.
To use a Spec Gen file in Spec Maker, you must convert the data. The conversion
process in Spec Maker converts the SPC files (used in Spec Gen) to SPE, SPT, or
s71 files used in Spec Maker. Before you convert a file, you can customize the
conversion files.
The INI files (spc2spe.ini and spc271.ini) are modified versions of the Spec Gen 2.0
INI file, PSpecGen.ini. The SCR files (spc2spe.scr and spc2s71.scr) are script files
containing scripting commands for finalizing the conversion process from Spec Gen
format to Spec Maker format.
You should customize your INI file before you convert the Spec Gen data.
The delivered files, spc2spe.ini and spc2s71.ini, will convert your Spec Gen 2.0 data
into Spec Maker format without any further need for modification provided that
you did not modify the PSpecGen.ini file delivered with Design Series 2.0.
You can safely skip this procedure if and only if you have not modified your
PSpecGen.ini file.
Where Means
name The component
name
SPE_SpecificationTable=specTable
Where Means
specTable The name of the database table where specifications for
the specific component are stored.
Note: If no entry exists for SPE_SpecificationTable,
Spec Maker uses the CatalogTable entry and appends
_SPEC to form the name of the default specification
table.
SPE_DatabaseTable##=dbTable
Where Means
dbTable The name of the database table acting as the source for
the values of the criteria represented by
ColumnName##.
Note: If no entry exists for SPE_DatabaseTable##,
Spec Maker uses the CatalogTable entry as the default
database table. For example, in the [STANDARD
ELBOWS] section, ColumnName12 has the value
MAT_STD. The database table source for
ColumnName12 is MATERIAL_DATA and not the
default, PIPE_PELB. As such, SPE_DatabaseTable12
is given this value.
SPE_TableField##=tableField
Where Means
tableField The name of the table field acting as the source for the
values of the criteria represented by ColumnName##.
Note: If no entry exists for SPE_TableField##, Spec
Maker uses the ColumnName## entry as the default
table field.
SPE_DescriptionTable##=descriptionTable
Where Means
descriptionTable The name of the database table mapping catalog
field codes to natural language text (for example,
BW to BUTT WELD) for the values of the
criteria represented by ColumnName##
SPE_ModifiableOperator##=modifiable
Where Means
modifiable The operator can or cannot be modified, as
follows:
1= modifiable (the default setting)
0= unmodifiable
SPE_CriteriaOperator##=operator
Where Means
operator The default relationship for the criteria represented by
ColumnName##
Note: If no entry exists for SPE_CriteriaOperator##,
Spec Maker uses the equal to (=) operator to mean the
default relationship. The operators used in the
relationships are:
Operator Relationship
= equal to
!= not equal to
@ element of
!@ not element of
< less than
<= less than or equal to
> more than
>= more than or equal to
() range: low exclusive, high
exclusive
(] range: low exclusive, high
inclusive
[) range: low inclusive, high
exclusive
[] range: low inclusive, high
inclusive
SPE_TextDefault##=text
Where Means
text The default text for the criteria represented by
ColumnName##
SPE_Expression##=expression
Where Means
expression The JSpace Expression for the criteria represented
by ColumnName##
For example, you can use an expression to
concatenate properties in a long description.
4. Save and close the file.
The delivered files, spc2spe.scr and spc2s71.scr, will convert your Spec Gen 2.0
data into Spec Maker format without any further need for modification
provided that you did not add any new catalog data to your PlantSpace 2.0
database.
W You can safely skip this procedure only if you have not added any new
catalog data to your PlantSpace 2.0 database.
script commands necessary to convert Spec Gen 2.0 data into Spec
Maker format.
3. For each section, add the scripting commands necessary to convert
the Spec Gen 2.0 data into Spec Maker format.
The following lists all the valid scripting commands that Spec Maker
can process.
modify catalog_table <table>
Where Means
<catalog_check> One of {true false} indicating whether to perform
catalog value checks
<default_operator> One of { = ! @ ! @ < < = > > = ( ) ( ] [ ) [ ] }
indicating the default
operator
<default_value> A string indicating the default text for text-type criteria
<desc_table> A string indicating a description table in the database
<expression> A string containing a valid JSpace expression
<expr1> A string containing a valid JSpace expression
<expr2> A string containing a valid JSpace expression
<field> A string indicating a field in the catalog table
<group> A number indicating the rule group
<link_fields...> A sequential list of strings indicating fields in the
catalog table
<map_count> A number indicating the count of lookup source and
link fields
<modifiable> One of {true false} indicating whether users can
modify the default operator
<old_name> A string indicating the old criterion name
<name> A string indicating a criterion name
<name1> A string indicating a criterion name
<name2> A string indicating a criterion name
<new_name> A string indicating the new criterion name
<oper1> One of { } indicating the type of test to perform
<output_field> A string indicating a field in the lookup table
containing the data
<priority> A number indicating the position of the criterion
Where Means
<source_fields...> A sequential list of strings indicating fields in the
lookup table
<spec_field> A string indicating a field in the specification table
<table> A string indicating a table in the database
<use_default_operator> One of {true false} indicating whether to use the
default operator for the criterion
<visibility> One of {true false} indicating whether to display the
criterion in guideline view
W Be sure that you have made all necessary changes to the INI and SCR
files before you convert the Spec Gen data.
The default directory where Design Series 2.0 placed SPC files is
...\PltSpace\psdesign\specgen.
The Convert Data dialog box is redisplayed with the old file name
and the new proposed output file name.
You can change the proposed output file name if you want by
clicking the Browse button beside the Output File field and
selecting a different file.
Spec Maker 7.1 can work with Spec Maker 2.0 spec files without converting them
provided that you will be using a Design Series 2.0 database with the 2.0 spec files. If
you need to use a Spec Maker 2.0 spec file with a Design Series 7.1 database format,
then you need to convert the 2.0 spec file into a 7.1 spec file.
2. In the Files of type drop-down list box, select either Spec Maker
2.0 Documents (*.spe) or Spec Maker 2.0 Templates (*.spt).
3. Select an SPE or SPT file on your hard drive and click Open.
The default directory where Spec Maker 2.0 placed SPE and SPT
files is ...\PltSpace\psdesign\SpecMakr.
If this is the first time that you are opening a Spec Maker 2.0 file,
then the following dialog box is displayed:
The delivered file, spe2s71.scr, will convert your Spec Maker 2.0 data into Spec
Maker 7.1 format without any further need for modification provided that you
did not add any new catalog data to your PlantSpace 2.0 database.
W You can safely skip this procedure only if you have not added any new
catalog data to your PlantSpace 2.0 database.
Where Means
<catalog_check> One of {true false} indicating whether to
perform
catalog value checks
<default_operator> One of { = ! @ ! @ < < = > > = ( ) ( ] [ ) [ ] }
indicating the default operator
<default_value> A string indicating the default text for text-type
criteria
<desc_table> A string indicating a description table in the
database
<expression> A string containing a valid JSpace expression
<expr1> A string containing a valid JSpace expression
<expr2> A string containing a valid JSpace expression
<field> A string indicating a field in the catalog table
<group> A number indicating the rule group
<link_fields...> A sequential list of strings indicating fields in the
catalog table
<map_count> A number indicating the count of lookup source
and link fields
<modifiable> One of {true false} indicating whether users can
modify the default operator
<old_name> A string indicating the old criterion name
<name> A string indicating a criterion name
<name1> A string indicating a criterion name
<name2> A string indicating a criterion name
<new_name> A string indicating the new criterion name
<oper1> One of { } indicating the type of test to perform
<output_field> A string indicating a field in the lookup table
containing the data
<priority> A number indicating the position of the
criterion
<source_fields...> A sequential list of strings indicating fields in the
lookup table
Where Means
<spec_field> A string indicating a field in the specification
table
<table> A string indicating a table in the database
<use_default_operator> One of {true false} indicating whether to use
the default operator for the criterion
<visibility> One of {true false} indicating whether to
display the criterion in guideline view
3. In the Select Data File to Convert dialog box, select Spec Maker
2.0 Files (*.spe, *.spt) in the Files of type drop-down list box.
4. Select an SPE or SPT file on your hard drive and click Open.
The default directory where Design Series 2.0 placed SPE and SPT
files is ...\PltSpace\psdesign\SpecMakr.
The Convert Data dialog box is redisplayed with the old file name
and the new proposed output file name.
You can change the proposed output file name if you want by
clicking the Browse button beside the Output File field and
selecting a different file.
You can view various aspects of the file in the following ways by:
Selecting View Options on the Tool Bar, Menu Bar, Popup Menu, and
Keyboard
The same view options are available on the View tool bar, the View menu on the
menu bar, and the popup menu displayed when you right-click an item in a tree
pane. You can also use a combination of keys on the keyboard.
When a procedure says to display the spec view, refer to this procedure.
When a procedure says to display the component view, refer to this procedure.
Viewing Specs
The active component types in that spec are displayed in the list
pane. You can view the active component types associated with
other specs by selecting another spec in the tree pane.
The spec definition is displayed in the list pane. You can view the
definitions for other specs by selecting another spec in the tree
pane.
The active specs associated with the component type are displayed
in the list pane. You can view the active specs associated with other
component types by selecting another component type in the tree
pane.
The criteria are displayed in the list pane. You can view the criteria
for other component types by selecting another component type in
the tree pane.
The database table fields are displayed in the list pane. You can view
these fields for other component types by selecting another
component type in the tree pane.
The component definition is displayed in the list pane. You can view
the definitions for other component types by selecting another
component type in the tree pane.
Viewing Guidelines
The criteria values for the selected guideline are displayed in the list
pane.
Spec View
Component View
The check mark beside a guideline means that the guideline was
synchronized in your project database. Synchronization of
guidelines is explained in Synchronizing and Unsynchronizing
Guidelines in Working with Piping Specifications in the PlantSpace Design
Series User help.
2. To view other guidelines in the list pane, select another component
type associated with a spec.
You can hide them, move them to a different location, and enlarge their icons.
By default setting, the tool bars are check marked to display them.
3. To hide a tool bar, select it to remove the check mark.
4. To redisplay the tool bar, select it again.
The check mark is displayed.
You can move the tool bars anywhere in the Spec Maker window and dock
them to all fours sides of the window.
1. Drag the border of a tool bar to a blank area in the Spec Maker
window.
2. To dock the tool bars to any side of the Spec Maker window,
position the tool bar to the side of the Spec Maker window where
you want it.
They automatically lock into place under the menu bar or along the
left, right, or bottom borders.
First, you as the administrator must add SI lookup entries so that the system reads
the dimensions from the appropriate database tables. Once you add an SI lookup
entry, you can also copy, edit, or delete it.
3. In the Property Name field, type the exact name of the dimension
criterion that needs to be displayed in both imperial and SI units
(for example, Length).
Field Description
Conversion Table Database table containing conversion information
Imperial Unit Field Database table field name for imperial units
SI (metric) Unit Field Database table field name for SI units
The following fields show sample selections:
5. Click OK.
The property names are listed in the list box of the SI (metric)
Lookup tab.
The dimensional unit settings must first be entered in the system, as explained
in the previous procedures.
1. Display a guideline.
2. Choose the View menu from the menu bar.
3. To display dimensions in SI (metric) units, select Display SI
(metric) Units.
The SI (metric) units are displayed, as shown in the example.
The Database Lists tab is used to work with rule files that affect component
types. This topic is covered in the section Customizing the Rules in Database
Lists on page 6-56.
Typically, each team or department of your engineering company will set up all the
specs in one project. Spec Maker sets up one project specification (s71, SPE, or
SPT) file for each project. Spec Maker also provides a mechanism for using an
existing specification file as a basis for creating other specification files. The process
of setting up a project specification file involves the following stages:
If you set up an empty file (one not based on an existing specification file), you
will then need to add the specs, component types, guidelines, and criteria. Refer
to the appropriate sections for the procedures.
Typically, you as the administrator set up a single seed file for use with several new
project specification files. For example, if your company is tasked to develop
multiple plants or sections of a plant for different customers, you would want to use
the same specifications. If an existing specification file contains all the specs you
want, you can save it as a seed file for safekeeping. You can then create new
specification files based on your archived seed file.
Spec Maker supplies the following two files that can be used as seed files:
PSDesign.s71
A complete, sample project file with specs specifically made for use
with the PlantSpace Design Series QuickStart Guide
CompDefn.s71
A project file containing only component definitions designed to
work with the default PlantSpace database
Every Spec Maker file draws its data from a data source, as
explained in the following procedures.
Recommendation: Different project spec files should use different
databases as their data source.
Avoid making a copy of a project spec file through Windows
Explorer because the link to the data source that you set up in the
original project spec file will be retained in the copy.
Instead, if you want to re-use the contents of a project spec file to
work on another project, create a new (empty) project spec file.
Then specify the data source, and copy and paste the contents from
the original file into the new one. Alternatively, you can use seed
files, as described in the following procedures.
2. Type the name in the New File Name field, or use the upper
Browse button to specify the drive and directory where you want
the new file to reside.
You can use a long file name. The system will add the s71
extension.
3. Optionally, in the Based on Existing Spec Maker File field, use the
lower Browse button to select the name of the existing file used as a
basis for the new file.
4. To select which database source that you want for the new
specification file, click the Select button.
5. Click the appropriate data source tab and select the appropriate data
source for your new specification file.
6. Click OK in the Select Data Source dialog box.
7. Click OK in the New dialog box.
The project window is displayed with the new specification file
name in the title bar
If you selected an existing Spec Maker file as the basis for your
new specification file, the new file will have a copy of the
specifications, component types, guidelines, and criteria stored in
the seed file.
Once the file is set up, you can assign a password and add the specs,
component types, guidelines, and criteria.
Administrator
Operation User Level
Level
Change passwords Not Allowed Allowed
Create new specifications Allowed Allowed
Change specification approval status Allowed Allowed
Delete specifications Allowed Allowed
Create new component types Allowed Allowed
Delete component types Not Allowed Allowed
Create new criteria Not Allowed Allowed
Change criteria definitions Not Allowed Allowed
Delete criteria definitions Not Allowed Allowed
Create new guidelines Allowed Allowed
Change guideline values Allowed Allowed
Delete guidelines Allowed Allowed
Synchronize/unsynchronize Allowed Allowed
Clear spec tables Not Allowed Allowed
Change ODBC data source Not Allowed Allowed
If you have administrator privileges, you can change the password whenever
necessary.
If you forget your password, you can clear the password protection by opening
your specification file in the JSpace Class Editor and clearing out the values in
the ZZ_JSPACE_SYSTEM_ID property of the Project object.
To assign a password
Passwords are optional. However, if you decide to use them, they then become
required to perform certain operations.
Entering a Password
If a password dialog box is displayed when you try to perform an operation such as
deleting a guideline, it means that you have assigned passwords on the specification
file (as explained in the previous section). You must then enter a password before
you can continue.
To enter a password
1. If the Password dialog box is displayed, type a password.
2. Click OK.
Spec Maker only requires the password the first time you perform a
password-protected operation. Once you have entered a correct
password, the next time that you perform a password-protected
operation, you do not have to re-enter the password.
Spec Maker now acts as if the password has not yet been checked. Therefore, if a
user then performs an operation requiring a password, Spec Maker will request that
the user enter the project password. This feature enables administrators to
temporarily have unrestricted access on a users workstation that should not have
unrestricted access.
Catalog tables
Database tables
Description tables
Specification tables
The catalog and specification tables are used in creating component types. All four
tables are used in creating criteria. You can add, edit, copy, paste, reorder, and delete
the rules.
3. In the List Type field, select one of the following tables from the
drop-down list box:
Catalog tables
Database tables
Description tables
Specification tables
4. Click the Add button.
The Add Rule dialog box is displayed for the appropriate table.
To reorder rules
1. In the Options dialog box, select a database list.
2. Select a rule in the list box.
3. Click the up and down arrows as appropriate.
Spec Maker processes rules in a top-to-bottom order.
W Make sure that the component type is not related to an approved spec.
Spec Maker does not allow changes to be made to approved specs.
3. Transfer items to and from the active and inactive lists to associate
or disassociate them from the selected component type.
4. Click OK.
W Deleting a component type also deletes all of its criteria and any
associated specifications and their guidelines. Make sure that the
component type is not related to an approved spec. Spec Maker does
not allow changes to be made to approved specs.
Similar to Windows Explorer, Spec Maker does not remove a "cut" object until a
successful "paste" operation is performed. Spec Maker maintains its own internal
clipboard for storing copied Spec Maker objects. Spec Maker checks the type of
objects stored in its internal clipboard and enables or disables the Paste command
accordingly.
Component types can be pasted only when the project object is highlighted in
the tree pane.
Pasting a component type also includes the criteria associated with the copied
component type.
Press <Ctrl+V>.
The component type is displayed with "Copy of" in front of the
name if it is the same name as another component type within the
target project. As in Windows Explorer, this feature helps you tell
the copy apart from the original.
5. To move component types, select the component types and
perform one of the following operations to first cut the component
types:
Click the Cut tool on the Main tool bar.
Choose Edit>Cut from the menu bar.
Press <Ctrl+X>.
6. Select the Project where you want the component types moved and
paste them.
7. To use drag-and-drop to copy component types, select the
component types and drag them to the Project object.
The cursor changes to an arrow with a small plus sign (+) indicating
that the paste operation is valid.
If a paste operation is not valid, the cursor changes to a circle with a
slash across it.
W Make sure that the component type is not related to an approved spec.
Spec Maker does not allow changes to be made to approved specs.
W Make sure that the component type is not related to an approved spec.
Spec Maker does not allow changes to be made to approved specs.
Press <Ctrl+6>.
4. Perform one of the following operations:
Click the Create New Criterion tool in the Element tool bar.
Right-click the mouse button on the selected component type, or
anywhere in a list pane, and select Create New Criterion from the
popup menu.
Choose Element>Create New Criterion from the menu bar.
Press <Ctrl+Alt+R>.
The Create New Criterion dialog box is displayed for the selected
component type.
A catalog table field criterion enables you to create guidelines based on the values
stored in the catalog table for a particular component type. For example, the
database table PIPE_PELB stores catalog data for standard elbows. One of the
fields in the PIPE_PELB table is EPREP1. This field stores the end preparation
data for a standard elbow. For the EPREP1 field, a catalog table field criterion type
is applicable.
A database table field criterion enables you to create guidelines based on values
stored in any table in the project database. For example, Material Standard is a
database table field criterion that applies to most component types. The database
table containing this information is the MATERIAL_DATA table. The field in this
table containing the required information is MAT_STD.
A database table lookup criterion enables you to create guidelines based on the
lookup value stored in any table in the project database relevant to a catalog table
field. For example, a common database table lookup operation pertains to
converting imperial units to SI units. For example, the lookup input field in the
catalog table that you may want to convert is SIZE_1. The database table containing
this conversion information is the PIPE_DIAMETER table. The lookup link field
in the PIPE_DIAMETER table containing similar values to the SIZE_1 field is
CRITERIA_VALUE (criteria_name)
where criteria_name is a string enclosed in quotation marks. This
function takes the specified value of the guideline criteria that have
the same name as criteria_name.
The variable criteria_name is case sensitive. It must be identical in
upper and lower case letters to the criteria name you created.
DB_ROW_VALUE (criteria_name)
where criteria_name is a string enclosed in quotation marks. This
function takes the database field value of the specification table row
that has the same name as criteria_name.
The variable criteria_name is case sensitive. It must be identical in
upper and lower case letters to the criteria name you created.
A text input criterion enables you to create guidelines based on text input gathered
from the user. You can optionally specify a default value for this criterion.
4. Click OK.
Reordering Criteria
Criteria depend on one another in a linear fashion. The higher-level criteria in the
criteria order constrain the values for their lower-level criteria.
W Make sure that the component type is not related to an approved spec.
Spec Maker does not allow changes to be made to approved specs.
To reorder criteria
1. Display the component view in a tree pane.
Displaying the component view was explained in the procedure
To view all component types in a project on page 6-32.
2. Select a component type in the tree pane.
3. Perform one of the following operations:
Click the View Component Criteria tool in the View tool bar.
Right-click the mouse button on the selected component type and select
View Component Criteria from the popup menu.
Choose View>Component Criteria from the menu bar.
Press <Ctrl+6>.
4. Perform one of the following operations:
Click the Reorder Criteria tool on the Element tool bar.
Right-click the mouse button on the selected component type, or
anywhere in the tree pane, and select Reorder Criteria from the popup
menu.
Choose Element>Reorder Criteria from the menu bar.
5. Move the various criteria by selecting a criterion in the list box and
clicking the up or down buttons.
6. Click OK.
These properties control the behavior of the criteria for a specific guideline.
W Make sure that the criterion is not related to an approved spec. Spec
Maker does not allow changes to be made to approved specs.
Operator Relationship
Is Equal To
Is Not Equal To
Is An Element Of A List
Is Not An Element Of A List
Is Less Than
Is More Than
Is More Than Or Equal To
X is in range, Low Exclusive, High
Exclusive
X is in range, Low Exclusive, High
Inclusive
X is in range, Low Inclusive, High
Exclusive
X is in range, Low Inclusive, High Inclusive
8. Click the operator that you want to apply to one or more selected
criteria.
9. Click OK.
Deleting Criteria
The Delete operation follows the standard Windows operations. You can delete a
criterion in a variety of ways.
W Deleting a criterion also deletes any guideline constraints that use that
criterion. Make sure that the criterion is not related to an approved spec.
Spec Maker does not allow changes to be made to approved specs.
To delete a criterion
1. Display the component view in a tree pane.
Displaying the component view was explained in the procedure
To view all component types in a project on page 6-32.
2. Select a component type in the tree pane.
3. Perform one of the following operations:
Click the Component Criteria tool in the View tool bar.
Right-click the mouse button on the selected component type and select
View Component Criteria from the popup menu.
Choose View>Component Criteria from the menu bar.
Press <Ctrl+6>.
4. Select one criterion, or multiple criteria by using the Windows
standard:
By holding down the Shift key to select multiple criteria that are together
By holding down the Ctrl key to select multiple criteria that are apart
5. Perform one of the following operations:
Click the Delete tool on the Main tool bar.
Right-click the mouse button on the selected criterion and select Delete
Criteria from the popup menu.
Choose Edit>Delete from the menu bar.
Press <Del>.
Similar to Windows Explorer, Spec Maker does not remove a "cut" object until a
successful "paste" operation is performed. Spec Maker maintains its own internal
clipboard for storing copied Spec Maker objects. Spec Maker checks the type of
objects stored in its internal clipboard and enables or disables the Paste command
accordingly.
Criteria can only be pasted when a component type is highlighted in the tree
pane.
Renaming Criteria
W Make sure that the criterion is not related to an approved spec. Spec
Maker does not allow changes to be made to approved specs.
To rename a criterion
1. Display the component view in a tree pane.
Displaying the component view was explained in the procedure
To view all component types in a project on page 6-32.
2. Select a component type in the tree pane.
3. Perform one of the following operations:
Click the Component Criteria tool in the View tool bar.
Right-click the mouse button on the selected component type and select
View Component Criteria from the popup menu.
Choose View>Component Criteria from the menu bar.
Press <Ctrl+6>.
4. In the Criteria column of the list pane, double-click the row of the
criterion that you want to rename.
5. Type the new name and press <Enter>.
Spec Maker does not support the use of wild cards such as the
asterisk (*) and question mark (?).
4. In the Options group, select any of the following check boxes:
Match Whole Line
Searches for only the entire line of text
Match Case
Searches only for text as typed in upper or lower case letters
5. In the Find where group, select one of the following radio buttons:
Current Branch Only
Entire Tree
Within Original Branch (the branch where you started the search)
6. To find text without replacing it, click the Find Next button and
continue to click the button until all searches are finished.
7. To find and replace text:
a. Select the Replace with check box, and type the text to globally
replace the text in the original name.
b. Click the Replace button to replace each searched text
individually, or click the Replace All button to replace all the text
that applies.
8. When you are finished, click the Close button or the Windows
close (X) icon.
The following is an example of the problem that can occur if you are not careful.
Assume that a spec file has three guidelines: GL1, GL2, and GL3. GL1 and GL2 are
synchronized to data source DB1, but GL3 is unsynchronized with DB1. You then
decide to change the data source to DB2. The three guidelines can retain their
synchronization flags. While still connected to DB2, you unsynchronize GL2 and
synchronize GL3. The guideline flags are now as follows:
These guideline flags can be retained when you change the ODBC data source back
to DB1. This action now results in invalid synchronization flags for the spec file
pertaining to DB1. The spec file indicates that GL1 and GL 3 are synchronized
whereas the data in the spec tables of DB1 is actually for GL1 and GL2 being
synchronized.
If you selected Yes, the Select Data Source dialog box is displayed.
4. Click the appropriate data source tab and select the new data source
for the spec file.
5. Click OK in the Select Data Source dialog box.
Spec Maker displays the following message.
6. Either:
Click Yes to mark all guidelines as unsynchronized and to clear all spec
tables tin the new database source.
7. Either:
Click Yes to proceed with clearing all the spec tables for the new
database.
Click No to leave the spec tables unchanged.
The detailed discussion of class libraries was covered in the section Design
Series Class Libraries, Ams.lib and Ams_user.lib on page 2-5.
For the procedures, see Procedures for Creating a Parametric Equipment Definition
on page 7-4.
Equipment class definitions follow the standard JSpace class definition concepts,
along with some special conventions, which are described in this section.
The following information applies only to classes for the Place Equipment
command. For more information on creating a class definition in general, refer
to the Built-In Functions section of the JSpace Concepts and Technical Reference.
The PDF of this book is in the ...\Bentley\Documentation\TriForma
\InterferenceMgr directory created during the installation of PlantSpace
Design Series.
The class name currently is prefixed with the type of the equipment. For example, all
pump classes start with PUMP. The current list of prefixes is:
Tanks TANK
Pumps PUMP
Heat Exchangers HEX
Desuperheaters DESUP
Deaerators DEAER
Prompt Property
The Place Equipment command enables the user to set the values of properties that
have a source of type Prompt (Prompt properties). Those properties must also have
a fixed source.
If you want the dimension of the Prompt property highlighted in the diagram cell,
then place a unique (for this class) string in parentheses ( ) in the Prompt string. For
example, "Enter diameter of shell (P2):" The diagram cell would have text P2 and
whatever graphics to show the dimension.
The $CELLNAME property defines the name of the equipment cell placed. Create
a Fixed property with one source, that is the name of the cell. This will be a name
that PlantSpace understands, or you can use it to separate your equipment types. If
this property is not defined, the system uses the default name.
Other Properties
The $BUDTYPE property defines the bud type of the equipment cell.
The $DIAGRAM property defines the cell library and the cell name of the diagram
cell.
The $DEFUNITS property defines the units of the default values. Define this
property so that the place equipment command can automatically convert the
default values in the class library to the master units of the design file. This property
is optional considering most class definitions are given default values in the same
units as the design file.
Unit Names
You should create connect points (placement points) with sub-objects of $CLASS
"POINT". At placement, the user can switch the connect point to any zero-length
line in the cell.
W You should not add to the class libraries or cell libraries delivered with
the product. You should define your own libraries, such as mypumps.lib
and mypumps.cel. The cell library and class library do not have to have
the same name.
Nozzle Manager
The Nozzle Manager enables you to add, remove, and edit nozzles on parametric
and non-parametric equipment. The Nozzle Manager is the first tool in the Nozzle
Tools tool box. The advantages of using Nozzle Manager over traditional tools from
earlier releases are:
As the administrator, you can configure Nozzle Manager by creating new nozzle
placement types.
For the procedures, see Procedures for Configuring Nozzle Manager on page 7-17.
This example is for a tank that consists of a vertical cylinder with a hemispherical
cap on a square slab, as shown.
3. Choose File>New from the menu bar and create a new class
library called Demo.lib.
4. Click the Add button in the Demo.lib dialog box.
5. In the Add Class dialog box, type TANK_FB_ON_SLAB in the text
field and click OK.
6. In the DEMO.LIB dialog box, double-click the line
TANK_FB_ON_SLAB.
7. Change the option at the top from Properties to Parents, and click
the Add button.
8. In the Add Parents dialog box, select the placeequ.lib class library
from the drop-down list box.
9. In the Classes list box, select BASE and click the Apply button.
BASE is displayed in the TANK_FB_ON SLAB dialog box.
5. Click the Input Property List button, which adds the DIAMETER
property to the list box, and click OK.
6. In the Property Editor dialog box, click the Add a Prompt Source
button.
The Prompt Source Editor dialog box is displayed.
12. Click the Add button and repeat the same steps to add the
following Prompt properties:
Default
Name Prompt
Value
HEIGHT Enter height of shell 10
(P2):
HEAD Enter height of head 1
(P1):
SLAB_HT Enter height of slab (P4): 0.5
SLAB_LE Enter length of slab (P5): 8
N
"CAP"
"SLAB"
"SNAP"
9. Click OK and Apply.
10. Click the Close button.
11. Click the Save button in the Demo.lib dialog box.
The diagram cell can be 2D or 3D. However, the cell will be displayed only from the
top view.
The only rules for creating the cell are for the dimensions in the cell, as follows:
In the example that follows, the heavy lines, and the text Origin and its leader are
the non-dimension elements. They were placed on level 1. The text P2 was placed,
followed by the dash-dot lines, then text P1, followed by the dashed lines, then text
P4 followed by the dashed lines, then text P3 followed by the solid lines, and then
text P5 followed by the solid lines.
A line was placed for both P2 and P1 where they meet, and for both P2 and P4
where they meet. Because the graphics can be "associated to" (by following)
only one text element.
If a user has a problem placing parametric equipment, it could be due to any of the
following error messages that the application may display.
Problem: Any of these four error messages can occur when JSpace cannot create the
item (instance the class) from the class definition.
Resolution: In this case, you must define the $BUDTYPE property in the class
definition.
If a user has a problem placing the building block, it could be due to any of the
following error messages that the application may display.
Problem: Any of these four error messages can occur when JSpace cannot create the
item (instance the class) from the class definition.
Resolution: In this case, you must define the $BUDTYPE property in the class
definition.
Database tables
MicroStation cell libraries
JSpace class libraries
These configurations largely involve customizing the nozzle types that are available
for your users to select.
Origin point
Z axis
Y axis
Identifying name
You can pre-specify this datum for your users by adding it to the parametric
equipment so that it will be available when the users place that equipment. Or,
you can allow your users to configure their own datums by using Datum
Manager, a program that enables users to specify the datum by simply placing a
few data points in the design file. For more details on datums and Data
Manager, see the PlantSpace Design Series user help on the Help menu of the
MicroStation menu bar.
$CSYS_DATUM_ORIGIN
a. If you adding this property to a class, set the data type to
Dpoint.
b. Add to the property source, the origin point for this datum as
an expression evaluating to a Dpoint.
$CSYS_DATUM_Z_AXIS
a. Set the data type to Dvector.
Note: You can also use Dpoint instead to specify a particular
point that determines this axis.
b. Add the Z axis, either as an absolute direction relative to the
local coordinate system (using the DV function), or as a point
on this equipment (for example, a point on the centerline of
the tank).
This step means to select a point on the vessel body that will
determine the reference axis perpendicular to the nozzle (if
there is no skew).
$CSYS_DATUM_Y_AXIS
a. Set the data type to Dvector.
You can also use Dpoint instead to specify a particular point
that determines this axis.
b. Add the Y axis, either as an absolute direction relative to the
local coordinate system (using the DV function), or as a point
on this equipment (for example, a point on the base circle of
the tank).
This step means to select a point on the vessel body that will
determine the reference axis for the radial angle of placement
around the equipment.
4. Use this example to update other parametric equipment classes.
5. Save the changes to your class library and close JSpace Class Editor.
The NOZZLE_TYPES table represents the set of nozzle placement types that your
users can choose from. Each row is one nozzle type. This table is in the
nozzleTypes.dat file. The following diagram is a database table view of this DAT file.
3. Load the table into your project database by using the Database
Setup tool.
(The procedures for using the Database Setup tool are in the
chapter, Configuring MCS Related Programs, in the Model Control System
(MCS) Guide delivered with the product documentation.)
Each nozzle type needs a diagram to represent the parameters that will be used to
place a nozzle of a particular type. The diagram will be a model in a MicroStation
cell library. A sample set of diagrams is provided called Nozzles.cel in your
...\{ProjectName}\equip directory. You can edit this file, or use the file that you
specified in the DIAGRAM_CELL_LIBRARY column of the NOZZLE_TYPES
table. This will likely be a 2-D diagram consisting of MicroStation primitives and
dimensions with annotation text. The content of the diagram can be anything that
conveys to the user what each parameter refers to. The sample uses a top view and
side view for each nozzle placement type.
Nozzle Manager uses JSpace classes to convert the parameter values from the grid
in the Nozzle Manager dialog box into placement points on the equipment. A
sample file is provided called nozzletypes.lib in your ...\{ProjectName}\equip
directory. You can edit this file, or use the file that you specified in the
CLASS_LIBRARY column of the NOZZLE_TYPES table. The sample uses
certain advantages of the JSpace technology, such as class inheritance, to provide a
customization layer for the calculations that are needed. Each nozzle type has a class
that will be used in this conversion calculation specified by the CLASS_NAME
column in the NOZZLE_TYPES table.
You can have both the JSpace Class Editor and Design Series open while
editing a nozzle type class.
$POINTS[1] is the end point of the nozzle that would connect to a pipe.
If you are configuring the placement of an elbow nozzle:
$POINTS is an array of the Dpoints that are the end points and middle
point of the nozzle.
$POINTS[0] is the end point of the nozzle that is on the equipment
side.
$POINTS[1] is the middle point of the elbow.
$POINTS[2] is the end point of the nozzle that would connect to a pipe.
Nozzle Manager passes the parameter values entered by the user to
the class as part of the Input Property List, and uses the calculated
$POINTS property as local points on that equipment. These local
points will be converted to global coordinates in the design file.
4. To calculate the placement points of the nozzle, use the diagram
created for this nozzle type (from the section Configuring Nozzle
Type Diagrams on page 7-23).
You can use the existing inheritance structure, or create your own.
AXIAL_ELBOW is a child class of ELBOW_NOZZLE, which is
itself a child class of NOZZLE. Certain properties are localized at
each level of the inheritance.
The three properties beginning with $DATUM_ contain the datum
information that was used when Nozzle Manager instanced this
class for a particular nozzle. The sample puts these three properties
into one property as a Dpoint called DATUM. You can use this
information to help you calculate the $POINTS property by relying
on information that is contained in the datum. (For example, if you
know that the datum's Z axis was determined with a point that is on
the surface of a rectangular box, you do not need a parameter that
specifies the corresponding dimension.)
5. Save the changes to the class library, close the JSpace Class Editor,
and then close and restart Nozzle Manager to reflect the updates.
The detailed discussion of class libraries was covered in the section Design
Series Class Libraries, Ams.lib and Ams_user.lib on page 2-5.
Custom Keypoints
In the Design Series - 2004 Edition, Design Series connect points have been
enhanced to be recognized by MicroStation AccuSnap. In the past, AccuSnap
recognized all the keypoints on a component without distinguishing the Design
Series connect points. The custom keypoints feature is automatically enabled when
Design Series is installed.
With custom keypoints enabled, AccuSnap will snap only to Design Series connect
points so that your users can quickly and easily locate Design Series connect points
when they place a component to be attached to another component. They can
visually recognize that the custom keypoints feature is enabled when they see the
following symbol displayed near the AccuSnap X symbol when AccuSnap snaps to a
Design Series connect point.
Your users can temporarily disable custom keypoints by typing the keyin,
dskeypts disable, and re-enable the feature in the same MicroStation session by
typing the keyin, dskeypts enable. They can also type the keyin, dskeypts toggle,
to toggle between enabling and disabling the custom keypoints.
They can see which component attributes are incompatible. They must then cancel
the placement of the incompatible component. You, as the administrator, can
configure the system to allow users to place an incompatible component if it meets
your business needs.
When users try to place an incompatible component, they will see the following
message and will be able to place it by clicking the Allow Placement button.
Annotation Utility
The Annotation utility enables you to interactively add notations on components in
a design file. To annotate a component, users choose Design Series > Annotation
from the MicroStation menu bar to open the Annotation dialog box.
You, as the administrator, can configure the text styles available to users, the content
of the notation (the amount and type of information displayed), and the leader lines
and terminators. Your changes will be reflected in this dialog box.
For details on the TriForma Drawing Extraction Manager, see the TriForma
documentation.
The Annotation utility is delivered with several sample definitions, but other
definitions can be added. Annotation definitions are defined in an annotation class
library specified by the DS_ANNOTATION_DEFINITIONS configuration
variable in projvars.cfg. The default location of the annotation class library is:
The attribute values from the Input Property List. So .SPEC means
the value of the attribute named SPEC.
JSpace expressions and functions, including the values of other
properties and database queries
The flexibility allowed by the class name prefix and property name allow
different ways of organizing multiple definitions for one component.
The library that the Annotation utility is using is shown in the Class Library field.
When you are using Annotation, the JSpace class library for annotation can be
updated or changed while the autotext.ma is loaded. The changes will be
reflected when you click the Annotate button.
Where Means
.SYSTEM the value of the SYSTEM attribute "AD"
PADTEXT The parameter that forces the value to be a certain width, in
this case, left justified, 3 wide with leading 0's, changing the
LINENO attribute value of 2 to "002"
SPEC The value of the SPEC attribute "CS150"
SIZE_1 The value of the SIZE_1 attribute 4
Using this specification on a tray in the imperial tutorial file ps_elec.ref would result
in the displayed content from two properties:
T12 - 12 x 4 GALV. STL LADDER TRAY
After you configure properties in the class library, you would next update the
ANNOTATION_TYPES table. This table specifies the values that match the
property values in the annotation class library. The table is described as follows:
ANNOTATION_TYPES Table
DESCRIPTION Text displayed in the drop-down list box for the
annotation type
PREFIX Class name prefix that is prepended to the BUD_TYPE
to define the class
PROPERTY Name of the property to evaluate to obtain the
annotation text
You can change the text styles in your seed file. Your seed file is specified by the
MS_DESIGN_SEED configuration variable. (Sample files, ds_seede.dgn for
imperial and ds_seedm.dgn for SI or metric, are delivered in the ...\psdstut\project
directory.) In this way, all design files will use a particular set of text styles for
consistency.
This procedure explains the basics. For complete details on the Text Styles
utility, see the MicroStation online Help.
The Annotation utility uses the MicroStation Cell Library dialog box for a choice of
terminators. The delivered sample cell library, symbol.cel, provides four styles as
shown.
You can configure these terminators or add a new terminator cell library.
For complete details on using this dialog box, see the MicroStation online
Help.
New rules are provided to ensure that certain combinations of label attributes are
adhered to during an IL population or single component placement. When an IL is
populated, or a single component is placed, whether in Specification mode or
Catalog mode, certain label values are evaluated and tested based on user-defined
rules.
Configurable Options
Specification Option
The Specification option (in the topic Checking the Design File in the PlantSpace Design
Series User help) enables the user designer or engineer to select one or many piping
components to check against any existing specification. The user can verify that the
selected component is in compliance with a given specification or with the
specification that it was placed with.
In the Check Design dialog box at the Specification option when either {specification
name} or From Component is selected from the drop-down list box, the system
checks for the following;
You as the engineer with administrator responsibilities can customize the actual
specification attributes checked. You can customize this utility in two ways by:
Standard definitions are delivered with the Design Series for each component
BUD_TYPE. Using the JSpace Class Editor to modify the class definition of the
BUD_TYPE in the ams_user.lib, you can control how the system determines if a
component passes or fails the specification check.
Several classes or files in the ams_user.lib are required for the Specification Check
utility including:
SPECCHK_BASE
BUD_TYPE classes
SPEC_NAMES
ATT_DEF
SpecChk.ini file
SPECCK_BASE
Three properties in the BUD_TYPE class affect the specification checking process
including:
SPECCHK
SPECCHK is a DB_QUERY rule function that attempts to obtain
a row of data from the specification table. If it succeeds in obtaining
a row, the component meets the specification.
WHERE_CLAUSE
BUD_TYPE classes
BUD_TYPE classes are child classes of the SPECCHK_BASE class and inherit its
properties. Each BUD_TYPE class must have a property called
NOSPEC_CLAUSE to be checked under Specification checking.
SPEC_NAMES
SPEC_NAMES classes are used to access your Design Series database and return a
list of available specification names from the PIPE_PIPE_SPEC table.
SpecChk.ini file
The SpecChk.ini file enables you to control which BUD_TYPEs are checked against
a specification. The file contains the list of BUD_TYPES that are checked.
BUD_TYPES not found in the list satisfy the specification check by default.
You can modify the WHERE SPEC statement and NOSPEC_CLAUSE statement
of the BUD_TYPE class that you want to use.
The WHERE SPEC statement determines which component attributes are checked
against the Specification table. A sample WHERE SPEC statement for a
PIPE_PELB component is:
" WHERE SPEC = " + "'" + SPEC + "'" + " AND " + NOSPEC_CLAUSE
Similarly for checking catalog components in the Catalog table, the system gets the
NOSPEC_CLAUSE from the library and executes a query. If the SQL statement
finds exactly one matching row, then it reports that the component is a valid
component.
Catalog checking is done only when From Component is selected and the
component was placed in Catalog mode.
You should test the Specification option in the Check Design utility on several
components that are known to be in spec and out of spec to ensure that the
system is working properly.
In Batch mode (with Specification selected) in the Check Design dialog box, you can
preset the specification that the utility uses to check the components. In this mode, a
report is generated that can be viewed through a text editor.
Compatibility Option
When you select the Compatibility check box, select Interactive at the Mode field,
and click the Process button, the Placement Settings dialog box is displayed.
This is the same dialog box displayed when you choose Design Series>Settings
from the MicroStation menu bar.
Duplicate ID Option
The database table COMP_TAG_IDS is used to configure the component types to
be checked and their checking rules. The checking rules can include single or
multiple attributes.
3. To add a second attribute for the same component type, repeat the
component type name on a new line and add the second attribute.
4. In the same manner, add more attributes if needed to make the
entire ID unique.
5. Save and close the file.
6. Start the Database Setup tool and load compID.dat.
This enhancement enables you as the administrator or project lead to control the
"strictness" of the editing operation in the Label Edit tool. This enhancement also
provides an automated and interactive checking mechanism in editing PlantSpace
Design Series components.
If you create a selection set to query the failed group, the Label Edit command
treats the selection set as an MLE request. To remove the N value from the
failed components, you must perform a Single Label Edit operation on each
individual component that has been flagged. MLE will not recognize any
component that has a flagged attribute value of N from a previous Label Edit
operation.
Thus, class LBLCVT could be used for all components, or LBLCVT_PIPE could
be used for all piping component-types.
LBLCVT
The Label Convert utility, LBLCVT, supplied in Design Series does the following:
Writes the new components into a copy of the design file, which is
placed in the .../new directory compared to the original file. The
"bad" file is also created in this directory with the extension *.bad.
Creates the lblcvt.log in the PS_TEMP directory to record the
results of each model conversion. The log file shows the label and
the error message for any problem that occurs in the conversion of
a label.
Enables you to select multiple design files to update with one click
of a button.
Defaults to the label-position export file defined by the
configuration variable LBLCVT_OLD_DEFINITION_FILE
Defaults to the JSpace class library defined by the configuration
variable LBLCVT_LIB
Extracts the existing attribute values from the components by using
a label-position export file (also known as a rimref.dat file)
Applies an optional mapping of both names and values using a
JSpace class library
Uses the attribute definition table of the new database to place the
resulting values into a new label
Places the resulting values into a new label by using the attribute
definition table of the new database
Uses the LBLCVT_REPLACE_NONVALID_POUND_SIGN
configuration variable to replace the "#" sign values with the first
matching value
Uses the LBLCVT_SAVE_CONVERSION_TO_JSM
configuration variable to save the objects created during the
conversion
The Label Convert utility processes each component in the following order:
Use the following guidelines to determine what setup you need to do beforehand to
get the results that you want after running LBLCVT:
You can run LBLCVT from a graphical user interface (GUI). You must specify
a project, which in turn specifies the data source name, user ID, and password.
You can create the design files by using MCS > Model Snapshot if you store
your components in the Model Control System.
When you are using Label Convert utility, the JSpace class library for label
conversion can be updated or changed while the labelConvert.ma is loaded.
The changes will be reflected when you click the Process Files button.
4. Select one or more design files by using the Shift or Ctrl key, and
click the Add button to add each file to the Design Files to Convert
list box.
You can also double-click a file to add it to the Design Files to
Convert list box.
You can use the Remove button to edit the list.
5. Click the Done button.
The Label Convert dialog box is redisplayed with the selected files
in the list box.
6. In the Label Definition group, use the old rimref.dat file displayed,
or click the Browse button to select a different file that specifies the
existing label definition for the labels.
7. Select a JSpace conversion rule library, which defaults to a library of
known conversions for version upgrades.
For example, lblcvt_81to85.lib should be used to convert design
files from Design Series version 8.1 or 2004 Edition.
8. To force non-valid components into the ''bad'' file, deselect the
Ignore new input method if any current value check box.
9. In the Log File group, leave the default path displayed where the
lblcvt.log file will reside, or click the Browse button to specify a
different location.
10. To have the program write all attribute values of non-valid values to
the log file before and after conversion, leave the Display all
attributes on non-valid value check box selected.
The output results are in the log file, as shown in the example.
Converted elements are copied to a file with the same base name with a
*.new extension.
Elements that are not valid are copied to a file with the same base name
with a *.bad extension.
Both files are placed in the ...\new directory.
12. Close the Label Convert Utility window by clicking the Exit button.
13. Append the converted files to your database.
Named levels and symbology are applied by placement or re-applied by the Update
Symbology command using values from the class library specified by the
configuration variable DS_SYMBOLOGY_LIBRARY. After the component is
created, an object is created using the component's attribute values. The level name
and symbology are determined by these optional properties of the created object:
SURFACE_COLOR
SURFACE_STYLE
SURFACE_WEIGHT
When your users are using the Update Symbology by Attributes command,
setsymb.lib can be updated or changed while the b3dboot.ma file is loaded.
The changes will be reflected when they select the command again.
However, if you want to retain the level scheme from your version 7.x files, you need
to edit the source for the LEVEL properties.
W Note that the level values are of the form "Level 11", not "11".
3. Save and close the file.
When you use the Create IL tool to create an Intelligent Line String, you can
configure the system to retain or delete the MicroStation SmartLine after IL
creation.
In the Slope text box, the typical value is in inches per foot (imperial) or millimeters
per meter (SI or metric). However, if your users want to use a percent (%) value for
the slope in placing an IL, you can configure this field to do so.
DS_SLOPE_UNIT_MULTIPLIER = 0.01
Join IL Tool
When users click the Join IL tool in the Intelligent Line String tool box, the Join ILs
dialog box is displayed.
The Join IL tool is delivered with the Preferences field grayed out. To enable it, you
must configure the preferences that you want users to be able to select from the
drop-down list box. Preferences in the Join ILs operation specify which types of
joining component types should be initially considered as possible choices for
placement. The preferences are defined in the iljoin.txt file in your ...\{ProjectName}
directory.
Iljoin.txt File
The IL Join preference file is a series of one-line records. Each record is used to
define the branch types that are allowed for a particular range angles. ILs can be
joined in one of three fashions: a tee, an elbow or a cross, as follows:
Each record in the file defines the joining type, a range of valid joining angles
(minimum and maximum angle range specified in degrees), a list of valid branch
types and the number of connect points for each branch type. The three join types
are defined by the keywords:
GROUP_TEE
GROUP_ELBOW
GROUP_CROSS
Branch types should match the BR_TYPE value from the PIPE_PBRN catalog
table or PIPE_PBRN_SPEC if spec driven. Because Tee joins can be either two
connect point (snap point) components like Weldolets or four connect point (snap
point) components like Laterals, an extra field is needed in the record that identifies
the classification. Adding a 2 or 4 following each branch type adds this extra field.
GROUP_TEE, 46.0,90.0,WLT,2,SOT,2,TOL,2,RBR,2,UBR,2
GROUP_TEE,
44.0,46.0,LTL,4,WYE,4,LLT,2,WLT,2,SOT,2,TOL,2,UBR,2,RB
R,2
GROUP_TEE, 10.0,44.0,WLT,2,SOL,2,TOL,2,UBR,2,RBR,2
GROUP_CROSS, 89.0,90.0,CRO,5
GROUP_ELBOW,89.0,90.0,PELB,3
Guidelines on Use
DS_NONMATCHING_ATTRIBUTES_LE and
DS_NONMATCHING_ATTRIBUTES are used for the same purpose, to prevent
attribute matching. However, the following guidelines explain how to use them
properly:
For example, suppose a user should be able to match the Spec attribute (from a
match component) when a component is placed, but should not be able to match
Spec when Label Edit is used. In that case,
DS_NONMATCHING_ATTRIBUTES_LE should be set to:
DS_NONMATCHING_ATTRIBUTES_LE > SPEC.
To configure DS_NONMATCHING_ATTRIBUTES
1. Open projvars.cfg in your ...\{ProjectName} directory.
2. Locate DS_NONMATCHING_ATTRIBUTES to view its
attributes, as shown.
To configure DS_NONMATCHING_ATTRIBUTES_LE
1. Open projvars.cfg in your ...\{ProjectName}\project directory.
2. To prevent users from matching the Spec name, type the following
at a blank line:
DS_NONMATCHING_ATTRIBUTES_LE =
$(DS_NONMATCHING_ATTRIBUTES);SPEC
3. Save and close the file.
You can prevent the placement of pipe that is too short for the minimum length
required for your project. The definition of "too short" can be customized. In earlier
versions of Design Series, you could not check the length during the placement of
the pipe. A new code has been added in placement to check for minimum pipe
length.
3. Edit MIN_LENGTH.
You do not need to edit LENGTH or LENGTH_OK.
4. Double-click the A= (fixed source) in the list box and edit the
JSpace expression to return the proper value for the minimum pipe
length.
For example, if you have a table called MIN_PIPE_LENGTH with
columns called NPD and LENGTH (both in millimeters) for a
metric or SI project, you would set the fixed source to be:
DB_QUERY("PS_CODES_DB","SELECT LENGTH FROM
MIN_PIPE_LENGTH
where NPD= " + SIZE_M
5. Click Apply.
6. Close all dialog boxes, and save and close ams_user.lib.
When a user gives a second data point in placing a pipe, the value for LENGTH is
calculated from the SNAP_POINTS property, a PIPE_PIPE object is created to
check the length of the pipe, and the value of LENGTH_OK is retrieved from the
object. Placement is prevented under the following conditions:
If Then
The value for LENGTH is less than LENGTH_OK = FALSE
the value for MIN_LENGTH,
LENGTH_OK = FALSE The pipe is not placed.
Examples
PIPEICON_CreatePipe = PS CREATE CELL PIPE_PVLV 11 3 1 1
Valve
EQPICON_CreateEquip = PS CREATE COMPCELL EQUIP 10 6
Design Series application programs, such as Annotation and the Stress Analysis
Interface, use the expert system to enable you to customize the applications by
adding specific knowledge to the rule files. In addition, expert rules in the
parametric modeling system create three-dimensional graphical representations of
the components.
Backward Chaining
In addition to understanding the basic elements of the IF-THEN proposition, you
need to understand how the Inference Engine (a processing program) processes
these rules to obtain values for properties associated with a particular object. The
Inference Engine uses a mechanism called backward chaining inference (or simply,
backward chaining). Backward chaining determines the values for properties and
methods.
Design Series uses the expert system for two different internal applications:
parametric modeling and annotation for each application. Different functions will
be referenced in the premise (IF) and conclusion (THEN) portions of the rules in
the knowledge base.
Knowledge Base
Three classes of statements can be found in the knowledge base:
Variable Declarations
The declarations can consist of the variable name, variable type, default or initial
values, cardinal values, and prompted values as explained in the following sections.
Variable Name
These variables are similar to the variables used in a conventional C program. The
variable name can contain:
Letters
Digits
The dollar sign ($) and underscore (_)
Variable names must be less than 64 characters in length. The first character of the
variable name must always be a letter. The name is NOT case sensitive. For example,
bandWidth_Z is the same as Bandwidth_z.
Certain keywords are considered reserved and cannot be used as variable names.
These are: IF, THEN, AND, OR, INT, INTEGER, REAL, DOUBLE, CHAR, TEXT.
Built-in function names contained in the Guide are also considered reserved words.
Variable Type
The expert system supports the traditional integer, real, and character type variables.
You can declare variables by using the following variable types as keywords:
Type Description
INTEGER or INT Four (4) byte integer
REAL or DOUBLE Eight (8) byte floating point real
CHAR or TEXT Text string up to 32767 characters
You can make variable declarations by using C programming-like syntax and, for
backward compatibility, the original (TYPE) syntax.
The original syntax requires the (TYPE) keyword. Only one variable can be declared
in a single statement. For example:
(TYPE) spec CHAR
(TYPE) pipe_size REAL
A variable can also represent an array of values. Each individual array element can be
addressed using C programming-like syntax of referencing arrays. For example:
INT flags[5];
declares an array variable flags of size 5. You can address individual elements by
using flags[0], flags[1],..., flags[4].
If a variable (that is used in an inference rule) does not have a value assigned to
it by initialization or backward chaining, the expert system generates a prompt
for the value.
You can assign default values by using C programming-like syntax and, for backward
compatibility, the original (VALU) syntax.
The original syntax requires the (VALU) keyword for initialization. For example:
(VALU) pipe_od 6.625
where means
name Variable name
value1 Lower limit of the range
value2 Upper limit of the range
where means
name Variable name
value* Cardinal value for the string or text
For example:
(CARD) pipe_size 4.0, 12.0
(CARD) master_code "A", 'B', 'C', "D"
Prompted Values
For interactive rules that are configured to do so, the expert system has the
capability to prompt users for input. Typically this prompt is displayed to the user in
MicroStation as:
Define <variable>
where means
variable Name of the variable
If the expert system needs to display more information about a variable, you can use
the (DESC) keyword. The syntax is:
(DESC) <variable> "<description> "
where means
variable Name of the variable
description Description of the variable
For example:
(DESC) pipe_size "Pipe Diameter "
In many cases this description is not sufficient. You may need to provide a more
descriptive prompt, which you can do by using the (PROM) keyword. Valid syntax is
as follows:
(PROM) <variable> "<prompt> "
(PROM) <variable> '<prompt>'
where means
variable Name of the variable
prompt Message prompt
For example:
(PROM) pipe_size "Enter diameter of pipe"
(PROM) pipe_size 'Enter diameter of pipe'
In cases where the data entered must be treated as working units, you can use a
special syntax to inform the expert system to interpret the value by using a working
unit format of MicroStation. For example:
(PROM) <variable> "@wu<prompt>"
(PROM) pipe_size "@wuEnter diameter of pipe"
In this case, if the user enters 2 as the value, the system treats it as 2:0:0, rather than
0:2:0.
IF-THEN Syntax
Character operators
Dollar sign ($) commands
Numbers using working units and dimensional formats
Standard built-in functions
The rule syntax supports the use of AND and OR operators. These operators could
be used together with IF or THEN. The following rules are valid:
(RULE) IF A = 1 OR B = 1
THEN C = 4 AND D = 2
(RULE) IF (A = 1 AND B = 1) OR D=1
THEN C = 0
(RULE) IF A=0
THEN B=0 AND C=0 AND D=0
(RULE) IF A=1 AND B=1 AND C=1
THEN D=1
For example:
IF A and (B or C)
requires the expert system to evaluate A, B and C even if B is TRUE.
Therefore, you must be careful to ensure that all variables A, B and
C have values assigned to them. If all variables do not have an
assigned valued, the system will request a value. On the other hand,
an AND results in the system stopping evaluations when it finds the
first expression that evaluates to FALSE.
Relational Operators
Operator Meaning
< Less than
<= Less than or equal to
= Equal to
!= Not equal to
<> Not equal to
> Greater than
>= Greater than or equal to
Operator Meaning
+ Add
- Subtract
/ Divide
* Multiply
** Exponential
The expression is evaluated from left to right by using the following precedence
rules for the arithmetic operators in this order:
1. **
2. * or /
3. + or -
Expression Result
(2+3)*6-1 29
(2+3)*(6-1) 25
2+3*6-1 19
2+3*(6-1) 17
Character Operators
The only character operator that the expert system supports is the concatenation
operator (//). All white spaces are included in the result. For example:
TEXT A = "This is an example", B = "of the concatenation
operator", C;
(RULE) THEN C = A//B
Notice the omission of the IF clause in the RULE. The premise of this rule is true
by default and the rule will fire if a value for C is sought.
Directives
The expert system uses certain universal symbols. These include unit settings and
logic tracing, which you can specify in any rule file. Directives (beginning with the
dollar sign ($) symbol) are used to globally define expert system behavior for a rule
file.
$Directives are reserved for internal use. You cannot define your own.
$Directive
Description
(and Parameter)
$DYNAMIC_ON Turns on the Design Series Dynamic Placement
Server. When on, the MicroStation system can call
special dynamic placement software. The default
condition is off. For details, see the DYNAMIC_ON
option in the function CONTROL on page 5-59
of the PlantSpace Design Series Reference Guide for
Administrators.
$MASTUN <unit_name> Defines the master units name. The default
unit_name is foot.
$MODUN <unit_name> Defines the modeling units that the expert system
uses to compute all of its values. The default
unit_name is inch.
$MUSU <value> Defines how many sub-units compose one Master
unit. The default value is 12.
$PRODUCT '<prod name>' The $PRODUCT directive sets the product to a
default value in a rule. This makes it easier to make
multiple BUD calls because the product name is not
required on the bud_type line.
$REASON_FILE <filename> Defines the name of the file where the log will be
written showing the processing of the rules,
including the variable currently being evaluated. If
the filename does not specify path information, the
output file is written to the path set by the
$PS_TEMP configuration variable. The default
path is {network drive}\Projects85\{ProjectName}
\temp.
$Directive
Description
(and Parameter)
$SHIP_CELL '<keyword>' One of the following keywords must be used with
the $SHIP_CELL directive:
'CONTINUOUS' cell placement displays the cells as
they are created.
'ONE_TIME' cell creation shows the creation of the
cells within the rule all at once when the rule ends.
'DEFAULT' creates the cell whenever the
CELL('END') command is executed.
Note: For an alternative method of shipping cells
to MicroStation, see the function CONTROL on
page 5-59 of the PlantSpace Design Series Reference
Guide for Administrators.
$SUBUN <unit_name> Defines the name of the sub-unit. The default value
for unit_name is inch.
$SUPU <value> Defines the number of positional units that make
up one sub-unit. The default value is 8000.
$UORS <value> Defines the number of positional units that make
up one modeling unit. The default value is 8000.
$UORS is similar to $SUPU.
Example 1
In the following example, this command instructs the rule to create the graphical
output as the cells are created.
$SHIP_CELL 'CONTINUOUS'
Example 2
In the following example, the expert system is directed to place a trace of the
inferencing in the specified text file.
$REASON_FILE "d:\bp5000.txt"
The expert system can recognize integer or real numbers in two formats:
The expert system automatically converts data entered in either format into its
internal representation. This conversion provides greater flexibility to both the user
and the rule writer by enabling them to specify values in units that they are most
familiar with without regard to the current unit settings.
In the case of working unit format, the system recognizes the presence of a colon (:)
in the entry and takes appropriate conversion measures. Examples of such values are
2:6:4000, 2.5::, :10, ::1000.
For the expert system to interpret such values successfully, it must know the
relationships between the master units, positional units, and sub-units (from
MicroStation) that are used on the project. The expert system stores these
relationships internally by using expert system variables. These variables (called
EXWUNTS and UORS) are defined in the projdefe.rul file (imperial) or projdefm.rul
file (SI) in your ...\{ProjectName} directory. In addition, you can define them by using
the $Directives described earlier.
Unitized Format
In the case of unitized format, the system recognizes the presence of an underbar
(_), which concatenates a number and an allowed unit value. The following unit
values are valid:
centimeter in m ml
centimetre inch meter mm
cm inches metre y
feet kilometer mile yard
foot kilometre millimeter yrd
ft km millimetre
Each Design Series application typically includes standard functions and references
them through the production rules in the knowledge base. You can also write
functions and integrate them into the application so that you can tailor the system to
meet the needs of a specific application.
A list of the functions and their descriptions are in the chapter Parametric Modeling
Functions on page 5-1 in the PlantSpace Design Series Reference Guide for Administrators.
(END) marks the end of the rule file. It causes the expert system to ignore
everything in the file after it encounters these keywords. This feature is useful when
you want to debug a rule in question.
! End of Rule
(END)
Parametric Definitions
The parametric definitions model the component. You can directly enter them,
compute them from other dimensions that you enter, or query and compute from
the modeling database that contains such parametric definitions and values.
For a simple example, consider the parameters that you might need to define a pipe.
These values are defined by using different sources:
Source Parameters
User Nominal diameter of the pipe
Line number and spool number for line
Location and orientation of pipe
Expert system Query outer diameter from database
All valid end preparations for pipe
You can handle even complex situations, such as the definition of semi-engineered
pipe supports, complex pieces of equipment, and so on, by using the concepts built
into the parametric modeling system.
The parametric modeling system contains a rich set of functions that enable you to
completely control the look and feel of every component that you want to create
and place by using the Design Series software. The important elements of the
parametric system are:
Using the Step Array Variable to Control the Order of Processing and
Running Rules
The expert system runs and manipulates the knowledge stored in a rule file through
a series of backward chaining rules. One characteristic of such a system is that there
is no guarantee of performing the calculations and evaluations of variables in order.
Yet modeling applications require that graphic records be produced and combined
in a definite order. To ensure the correct order, you can use the step array variable
to control the order of processing and running rules. The step variable is a zero-
index integer array. The number of steps included in the rule controls its size.
W The array should always be equal to or greater than the number of steps
in the rules. You must use the step array variable indexes in order, and
you cannot skip them.
When the expert system evaluates a step array variable, the expert system never re-
evaluates it. The only way to ask the expert system to re-evaluate a step is by
clearing its value before the conclusion of the reasoning process. To clear a value,
you should call the CLEAR function, described on page 5-57 in the chapter
Parameterized Modeling Functions in the PlantSpace Design Series Reference Guide for
Administrators.
The expert system is configured to prompt the user for the value of a variable only
when the expert system cannot establish the value by evaluating rules
However, when you write new rules, it may be desirable to print or confirm the
values to assign to variables. You can confirm the values by using the Confirm-
Always flag represented by a minus (-) sign. This flag is placed in front of the
variable name when you declare the variable. For example:
real -radius1, -thickness, width;
Each time that the expert system evaluates radius1 or thickness, the system
prints the new value and enables you to override it, if necessary.
In addition, you can use the $REASON_FILE directive to debug the execution of
the rule file by creating a log of the reasoning process. This log file, which you
define, contains detailed and important information of the reasoning process and
the path that the expert system chose in arriving at the goal.
The system provides for a convenient way to develop new rules and to modify or
enhance existing rules locally, and to test them before loading them into the
database and exposing all other users to them.
The expert system can execute rules from a local directory or from the active
database. It enables you to declare a configuration variable PS_RULES to define a
local directory where you can locate rules.
When the system tries to execute a rule, it first looks in the rules directory for the
rule. The system searches by comparing the rule name with file names in the
directory. If it makes a match, then the system reads the rule file and interprets it as
it does a regular rule. If the system finds no match, it continues trying to locate the
rule in the database.
Step
Functions that create graphics must be called within a rule that sets
the step variable. Additional functions, as noted, may also require
that the step variable be set.
Non-step
Other functions that perform calculations, determine values,
perform queries, and so on, and return valid values should not be
part of the step statement. It is useful to use a flag[] array
variable, similar to step[] to control the execution of these rules.
Declaring the flag[] variable with the Confirm Always option,
gives the programmer an easy way to regularly monitor execution
while debugging.
For a full description of these functions, see the chapter Parametric Modeling
Functions on page 5-1 in the PlantSpace Design Series Reference Guide for
Administrators.
Most importantly, you must build the component by using a valid set of local axes.
In the Design Series software, creating primitive graphics is viewed the same way as
subroutines in a C program. It is very useful to create a collection of building blocks
that you can combine together in a variety of ways by using the BUD function from
a higher level set of rules. Details on the BUD function are on page 5-36 in the
chapter Parametric Modeling Functions in the PlantSpace Design Series Reference Guide for
Administrators.
For a full description of these primitives and the building blocks available, see the
chapter Parametric Modeling Primitives on page 6-1 in the PlantSpace Design Series
Reference Guide for Administrators.
This chapter explains how to configure the files that control the
creation of stress analysis neutral files.
You, as the administrator or lead stress engineer, must review and edit the
stress files to match project criteria.
Internal Processes
Internally the Pipe Stress Interface program:
This piping network is then used to generate an output file with a file extension *.cii
for CAESAR II or *.ntl for AutoPipe.
2. Running the Pipe Stress Interface and selecting the JSM created in
stage 1 as the data source
Users can then use the output in a third-party stress analysis application such as
CAESAR II.
Both generic data files and project-specific data files are in your
...\{ProjectName}\dbload\data\pipe\stress directory.
These DAT files are loaded into the project database. All tables related to the Stress
Interface have table names starting with the prefix STRESS_ .
The following tables contain generic data that is standard for the industry.
The following tables are created from the e.dat file in the ...\pipe\stress
\material directory.
You can modify the user-specified table in the files: e.dat (E_U table) or sh.dat
(SH_U table). The default values and the format of these tables are the same as
those in files: e_d.dat and sh_d.dat.
The project-specific data for insulation, such as insulation density and insulation
material, is in the STRESS_INSUL_MATERIAL table in the insulation.dat file in
the ...\pipe\stress\insulation directory.
The following tables are created from the sh.dat file in the ...\pipe\stress
\material directory.
If the material used is different from the material provided in the standard tables,
you can define the parameters of the new material in the respective tables:
STRESS_E_U and STRESS_SH_U.
The STRESS_MATERIAL_EXP table defines the conversion factor for each of the
STRESS_SH and STRESS_E tables to convert the values to PSI. The values in the
row with MATERIAL_TYPE are temperatures in degrees Fahrenheit.
The values for Youngs modulus and allowable stress are interpolated between
temperatures.
W Before users open the Pipe Stress Interface application, you need to
make sure that the following steps have been taken. You may need to be
familiar with the input requirements of CAESAR-II to configure some
of the data.
This chapter explains how to configure the files that control the
creation of reports.
This application uses ams.lib, which you can customize by modifying ams_user.lib
and then synchronizing the changes with ams.lib. You can do this by using the
Database Setup Tool delivered with the Design Series software. More information
on how to customize and synchronize ams.lib is in the chapter "Configuring Your
Project" in this Administrator Guide.
The system reports an object as being in an area if it meets the following criteria:
To define a report
1. On the Windows Start>Programs menu, locate the PlantSpace
Design Series program group and select the Object Reporter icon.
If you have two or more PCF files in the location pointed to by
the MicroStation configuration variable, _USTN_PROJECT, the
Select Project dialog box is displayed. Once you select a project
and click OK, you can continue.
You must use a JSpace grouping class to create summary data in the Object
Reporter. The grouping classes are stored in the PS_GROUP.LIB JSpace
library.
The result must be the same for all members of a given group.
You must delimit the expressions by using the backward single
quote (`).
7. Click OK.
The Groups dialog box is redisplayed.
8. To modify the group definition, select a group name in the list box,
and click the Modify button.
9. Make the changes in the Define Groups dialog box, and click OK.
10. To delete a group definition, select it in the list box, and click the
Delete button.
11. Click Yes to confirm the deletion.
Introduction
This appendix serves as a quick reference to explain the different file formats by file
extension that you may find in using PlantSpace Design Series.
Alphabetized Listing
The following table lists the file extensions and describes the type of file that
contains each extension.
File
Description
Extension
*.blk Equipment property values file, which can be saved and loaded for
placing building block equipment
*.cfg Configuration variable file used to define configuration variables in
Design Series
Example: mslocal.cfg
*.dat Design Series data file used for a variety of purposes such as for
engineering specifications and settings
Example: rimref.dat (for storing component label data)
*.dbf dBASE IV (DBF) file created in the Design Series Object Reporter
to display formatted report data in a third-party application such as
Microsoft Access
Example: myreport.dbf
*.cel MicroStation cell library used in Design Series to create a unique
component or terminator cells
Example: symbol.cel
*.dgn MicroStation design (DGN) file used in Design Series modeling
Example: ps_pipe.dgn
*.eps MicroStation plot (EPS) file used to print design files
*.eqp Equipment property values file, which can be saved and loaded for
placing parametric equipment
File
Description
Extension
*.fnc JSpace system file containing the built-in functions used as part of
JSpace technology in all PlantSpace applications
Example: Jspace.fnc
.jsm JSpace object model (JSM) file, an intelligent 3D file used in Design
Series
Example: ps_pipe.jsm
*.lbl Obsolete.
Note: The annotation rule file called default.lbl was changed to a
class library (LIB) file in version 8.0.
*.lib JSpace class library file
Example: ams.lib and jclass.lib (sample library files delivered with
Design Series)
*.log Text file used for a variety of purposes to display results of
processing
Example: ps_dbrpt.log (log of the run data to create a DBF file when
you run Object Reporter from a command line)
*.ma MicroStation application file
Example: autotext.ma
*.mdb Microsoft Access database (MDB) file
*.pcf MicroStation project configuration file (PCF) used to define your
(MicroStation) project configuration.
Example: {ProjectName}.pcf
*.pdf Portable document format (PDF), the platform-independent
document file used to view and print electronic books
Example: PSDSadmin.pdf (Design Series Administrator Guide)
*.qry Query file created when you save a query in the MCS Check-out
operation
*.qtl Query file created when you save a query in Utilities>Query
*.r Design Series rule files that are loaded into the project database
during installation
Example: atdfn000.r
*.rdf Report definition file, a plain text file created in Specification Maker
to be added to the report_e.dat (imperial) file or report_m.dat (SI or
metric) file in the Object Reporter to generate a DBF file for reports
File
Description
Extension
*.ref MicroStation reference file. The default naming convention is to give
the reference file the same name as the primary file and add the REF
extension.
Example: primaryfile.ref
*.res JSpace resource file with language-dependent strings used in
internalization/localization. See also .rsc.
Example: ams.res
*.rgb Files used in color definitions when you load data from another
CAD application
Example: acad.rgb
*.rsc MicroStation resource file with language-dependent strings used in
internalization/localization. See also .res.
Example: jlibmsg.rsc
*.rul Design Series rule files that are text files containing settings
Example: default.rul (sample pipe label file delivered with Design
Series)
*.run Report run file in the Object Reporter program used to save the
input required to process report data so that you can re-use the same
settings to get the same output at a later time
Example: reportrun.run
*.s71 File in Specification Maker that is compatible with PlantSpace
Design Series version 7.1x
*.scr Script file used to execute your own script commands through the
Database Setup tool
*.spe File in Specification Generator that the newer program, Specification
Maker, can convert to an S71 file
*.spt File in Specification Generator that the newer program, Specification
Maker, can convert to an S71 file
*.sql Structured Query Language (SQL) file used when you want to
execute your own SQL commands through the Database Setup tool
*.sup Interference detection suppression (SUP) rules file used to suppress
certain rules in checking interferences
Example: psdesign.sup
*.vol Master or discipline volume (VOL) definition file used to define
areas of a design file
Example: project.vol
Introduction
This appendix shows the location of your directories and files in Design Series.
In 2004 Edition, the Design Series program files are in their own subdirectory
in the ...\Bentley\Program directory. In the previous release, Design Series was
in a subdirectory under TriForma.
The Logs directory pertains only to MicroStation, and the Workspace directory
pertains only to TriForma. Because the modules for Design Series Structural
(steel and concrete with the related SDNF program), Ortho Drawing
Generation, and Hidden Line Creation have been replaced by Structural for
TriForma and Drawing Extraction Manager for TriForma, the directories and
files for these modules have been removed. Also, because SupportModeler,
IsoExtractor, and AutoISOGEN are delivered under separate license, the
directories and files for these products have been removed.
The Documentation directory contains the PDFs and CHMs (help files) of the
documentation for Design Series. These are the same PDFs and CHMs displayed on
the MicroStation Help menu.
When you install Design Series on a local machine for users and add a new project,
the system displays each project in a separate subdirectory, such as Project1 and
Project2.
The psdstut directory contains the sample tutorial files for use with the PlantSpace
Design Series QuickStart Guide.
The Program directory contains the files that are used to run the products.
The DesignSeries directory contains the sample tutorial files for use with the
PlantSpace Design Series QuickStart Guide.
...\Projects85 Directory
Although the Projects85 directory is installed on a network drive, the users should
work on the copy of these project files that they install on their hard drives in a
separate ...\Bentley\Home\{ProjectName} directory for each project.
...\ProjPcfs Directory
A
Advanced Modeling A Design Series program used during modeling to parametrically draw the
System 3D graphical components that you want in your design file. AMS takes the
data in your project database and applies rules that define the shape and
type of graphical cells to be placed.
AMS The acronym for the Advanced Modeling System. See expert system.
attribute definition file A text file that defines the attributes that are displayed for all Design Series
components.
B
basic data type The JSpace data types are logical, numeric, and character data types. The
logical data type defines values that are either TRUE or FALSE. The
numeric data type defines values that are numbers used in arithmetic or
mathematical calculations. The character data type defines individual text
characters or strings of textual character information. See also data types.
BUD Table The table that stores Design Series components in the database.
BUD_TYPE Class The class in ams_user that is defined for each BUD_TYPE, such as
PIPE_PIPE_USER or PIPE_PELB_USER. The format is
*****_****_USER where *****_**** is the BUD_TYPE of the
component.
C
catalog table A database table that contains component dimensions used in modeling.
child A class that has a parent class. The child class inherits the class definition
of the parent class.
Class Editor The JSpace program that creates and manages class libraries and their
classes, and creates and browses object model files. The full name is JSpace
Class Editor.
Class Library A file for storing a set of class definitions. A class library contains classes
and is normally identified by the LIB file extension.
command An instruction that tells Design Series what to do. Commands are activated
by icons in tools boxes, pull down menus, settings in dialog boxes, and key-
ins.
comparison operator The class library operators that perform a comparison, the result of which
is TRUE or FALSE: Is Equal To (==), Is Greater Than (>), Is Less Than
(<), Is Greater Than or Equal To (>=), Is Less Than or Equal To (<=), Is
Not Equal To (!=).
Note: In parametric modeling, the result of comparisons and other
Boolean operations is ".TRUE." or ".FALSE." and the comparison
operator for Is Equal To is a single equals sign (=).
component An object used in a JSpace model file such as a pipe. Similar to an element
in MicroStation.
component-based A feature in Model Control System that stores design file components
storage modeled from the Design Series 3D applications in an ODBC-compliant
database such as Access, Oracle, or SQL Server. Contrast with file-based
storage.
compound data type A JSpace data type composed of multiple instances or occurrences of a
basic numeric data type. These are pre-defined and used for specific
purposes, such as storing the X, Y, and Z coordinates of a point in space
as a single data type called DPoint. See also data types.
connect point A point element located at the beginning of a cell before any other
MicroStation element. Any cell can optionally include any number of
connect points. Also, a point that enables Design Series components to
connect to each other at a logical location in the Design Series model.
D
data file A text file with a DAT extension containing attribute definitions or catalog
data for Design Series components to be loaded into the database.
data source A database that stores the data used in Design Series modeling Design
Series components.
data type The kind of data values that can be assigned to a property. JSpace has basic
and compound data types. See also basic data types and compound data types.
Database Setup A Design Series program that sets up new project databases, and recreates
and maintains existing databases.
Design Series The product name for Jacobus software that is based on JSPACE object-
oriented technology providing a full range of intelligent 3D modeling
applications.
DGN The file extension that by convention identifies a MicroStation design file.
Discipline Volume The Design Series text file that consists of one or more areas representing
Definition File parts of a project. Multiple discipline volume definition files can be created
for each project for use with MCS for the designers work areas or for use
with other applications such as the Object Reporter or Hidden Line
Creation. Contrast with Master Volume Definition File.
DLM The acronym for PlantSpace Dynamic Link Module, which creates and
operates on objects from within the MicroStation environment.
E
environment variable All environment variables in MicroStation as of version 7.1 are now called
configuration variables. See configuration variable.
expert rules A set of directions for creating geometric representations or text including
guidelines, calculations, and database values.
expert system A computer application that performs a task that would otherwise be
performed by a human expert. For example, when you select a 6-inch
standard gate valve, the expert system acquires the correct dimensions
based on the rules and creates the graphical representation.
F
file-based storage The storage of component data directly into a MicroStation design file.
The file is then checked into MCS. Contrast with component-based storage.
G
GUI The acronym for Graphical User Interface.
I
INI The file extension that identifies an initialization file containing definitions
of configuration variables used within the product. For example, the
JSPACE.INI file is the initialization file for JSPACE and PlantSpace
programs.
instance (1) A term used to refer to an object that belongs to a particular class. For
example, an elbow is an instance of a class pipe. (2) A database table. (3) The
database instance is an empty database. In the same way that an object is
an instance of a class, a data source is an instance of a database
management system (DBMS) that contains one or more database tables.
Intelligent Line String In Design Series, a 3D graphical representation of pipe routing used for
preliminary or conceptual routing. An Intelligent Line String contains
attribute information.
Isometric (1) The standard view that shows top, left, and front facets of a design.
(2) A piping drawing created with 30 degree to 60 degree axes that is
sometimes called an "iso" drawing.
J
JSM The file extension that by convention identifies a JSpace object model file.
JSPACE_OBJECT The basic class in the JCLASS.LIB file and the class at the root of the
parent-child hierarchy of classes. Other classes are based on the
JSPACE_OBJECT class or a class derived from this class.
L
label A text string within Design Series that stores the attributes for each Design
Series component.
LIB The file extension that by convention identifies a class library file. For
example, JSPACE.LIB is the standard JSpace class library that contains
over 100 predefined classes of objects used by PlantSpace applications.
M
Master Volume The Design Series text file that consists of one or more areas
Definition File encompassing the entire project and that is used with MCS for project
design. Only one Master Volume Definition File can be defined for each
project. After someone familiar with the project site sets up the Master
Volume Definition File, the administrator can load that file into the
database. Contrast with Discipline Volume Definition File.
MCS The acronym for the Model Control System (explained in the Model Control
System (MCS) Guide)
MicroStation The language that enables programmers to execute C language code within
Development MicroStation. MDL applications are fully transportable across all
Language (MDL) platforms. Programs written in MDL use MicroStation as a CAD engine.
middleware Any software that resides between the application and the control program
that enables the application to run in different computer environments.
Model Control System The program that enables users to access Design Series components
stored in a database.
modeling tables The static database tables including CLASSES table, ATTRDEFN table,
EXPERT_RULES table, Catalog tables, and specification tables.
N
null value A special character used to indicate no value or that a value has not been
assigned. A NULL value is different from a value of zero (0) for numeric
data types or blank (" ") for character data.
O
object A self-contained entity consisting of data (properties) and software
(methods) which operate on that data.
object model file A file, normally identified by the JSM file extension, that contains objects
based on JSpace technology and that is used in PlantSpace applications.
P
parent A class used as the basis for creating a new class. The new class becomes a
child class and inherits the class definition of the parent class.
product data All information about a specific product, such as PlantSpace Piping.
product file A text file listing product data and expert rule files to be loaded into
database.
property The data fields and values stored in an object. Properties are one of the
categories of a class definition.
PSHOME The configuration variable defining the default name provided with the
product or the name of the PlantSpace home directory.
R
RDBMS The acronym for relational database management system.
RimRef.Dat A text file that specifies the positions where attributes are stored in the
label. This information is used in post-processing functions.
rule file A text file containing expert system rules to create 3D geometric
representation of Design Series components in the Design Series model.
S
snap point Former name for connect point. See connect point.
specification table A database table that defines the acceptable component specifications for
a particular BUD_TYPE. The table name is *****_****_SPEC where
*****_**** is the BUD_TYPE of the component. For example,
PIPE_PIPE_SPEC or PIPE_PELB_SPEC.
SQL Query A Standard Query Language (SQL) expression that is used to access data
from a database table.
V
Volume Definition See Master Volume Definition File And Discipline Volume Definition File.
File
Symbols B
$BUDTYPE property (for parametric equipment) 7-3 Batch Processing the Append JSM File operation 5-13
$DEFUNITS property (for parametric equipment) 7-3 Bolt Information
$DIAGRAM property (for parametric equipment) 7-3 Configuration variables used by the bolts engine
{ProjectName}.pcf 5-3 3-16
Enhancements in the Bolts Engine 3-2
Modifying Bolt Catalog Data 3-13
A Modifying the BOLTS Table Data 3-16
Accessing Data from the PlantSpace P&ID Applica- Tables inside the PlantSpace database 3-14
tion 2-41 Troubleshooting Problems Generating Bolt Data
Accessing Data from Third-Party Applications 2-47 3-18
Advanced Modeling System, description of 1-2 BOLT_ASSEMBLY Class 3-2, 3-9
AMS, description of 1-2 BOLT_ASSEMBLY object 3-2
ams.lib 2-5, 2-29, 11-1 BOLT_BASE_USER class 3-2
ams_user.lib 2-5, 11-1 BOLT_COMPONENT Class 3-2, 3-10
Annotation BOLT_MATERIAL Table 3-16
Configuring the content in Your Annotation BOLT_ORDER Class 3-2, 3-11
Class Library 8-5 BOLT_ORDER object 3-7
Configuring the Terminators 8-12 BOLTS Table 3-14
Configuring the Text Styles 8-10 bolts_util_v80.exe for troubleshooting problems in
Annotation utility 8-4 generating bolt data 3-18
annotation_types.dat 8-10 BOTH_SYMB table 2-38
annotatione.lib 8-7 BUD_TYPE classes (in the Specification Check Utili-
annotationm.lib 8-7 ty) 8-17
APP_FLAG attribute 2-14, 2-19, 8-24, 8-26
Append Object Model operation 5-12
Appending JSMs to the Database C
In batch mode 5-13 Catalog Tables 2-2
Individually 5-12 Catalog Tables, updating 2-32
ATTRDEFN Table 2-2 Cell Name Property (for parametric equipment) 7-2
Attribute Definitions Cell, building a valid Design Series cell 9-20
Modifying 2-112-12 changes.txt file 1-4
Attributes dialog box Check Design utility
Customizing the Value column 2-54 Compatibility option 8-20
Displaying the Component Type Name 2-53 Duplicate ID option 8-22
Attributes, prevent matching on 8-43 Gap Correction option 8-24
Autotext. See Annotation utility. Overlap Correction option 8-24
Slope Direction option 8-20
Specification option 8-15
Superimposed Components option 8-15
Check Design Utility, description of 8-13 Digital Rights and Digital Signatures 5-7
Class definition, example of creating 7-5 Directory Structure
Class Definitions Changing 5-8
Parametric Equipment Definitions 7-1 Description and guidelines 2-3
Class definitions Drawing Extraction Manager 8-5
Description 2-6 DS_ANNOTATION_DEFINITIONS configuration
Class Libraries 2-5 variable 8-5, 8-8
Classes 2-5 DS_ANNOTATION_TERMCELLIB configuration
CLIP_LENGTH property 11-1 variable 8-13
Compatibility Checking, automatic 8-3 DS_ILCREATE_DELETE_SMARTLINE configu-
Compatibility option 8-20 ration variable 8-38
CompDefn.s71 6-3 DS_SYMBOLOGY_LIBRARY configuration vari-
Component Labels able 8-34, 8-38
Converting to the Current Version of Design Se- Duplicate ID option 8-22
ries 1-11
Converting to the current version of the software
8-29 E
Creating a Summary of Label Utilization 5-20 e.dat 10-2
Displaying 5-15 Editing Text Files, description 2-3
Mapping of Component Attributes Compared to Eds-compdefn.s71 6-3
Label Positions 5-18 Eds-specs.s71 6-3
Component type name, displaying it in the attributes Equipment Class Definition, concept of 7-1
dialog box 2-53 EXE_REPORT_ARGS Table 2-51
Configuration Tables 2-2 EXE_REPORT_CRITERIA Table 2-48
Configuration, understanding 5-1 EXE_REPORT_TYPES Table 2-50
Configuring and Customizing Design Series, stages 1- Expert System
12 IF-THEN production rules
Configuring Report Output for Your Project 11-111- Features 9-9
10 Expert system
Configuring to Prevent Matching on Specific At- Backward chaining
tributes 8-43 Handling an unknown variable 9-3
Custom Keypoints 8-2 How it works 9-2
Cardinal values and ranges 9-7
Comments and End Of Rule 9-16
D Default or initial values 9-6
Data Storage 1-2 How knowledge is represented 9-1
Database Setup Tool, description 2-4 IF-THEN Production Rules 9-1
Datum, configuring 7-17 IF-THEN production rules 9-9
Description Tables 2-2 AND and OR operators 9-10
Design Series Arithmetic operators and precedence order
Features 9-11
Current 1-2 Character operators 9-12
New in this version 1-3 Directives 9-12
Product 1-1 Numbers using working units and dimen-
Diagram cell sional formats 9-14
Example of creating 7-13 Relational operators 9-11
Explanation of the example 7-14 Standard built-in functions 9-15
Rules for creating 7-13 Syntax 9-9
O
I Object Reporter program 11-1
iljoin.txt 8-40 ODBC Data Source (in Spec Maker) 6-83
Overlap Correction option 8-24
J
JSpace 1-1 P
P&ID, accessing data from 2-41
Parametric Equipment Definitions
K Creating 7-4
Keypoints, custom in Design Series 8-2 Parametric equipment, troubleshooting problems in
Knowledge Base 9-4 placing building blocks 7-16
Parametric equipment, troubleshooting problems in
placing parametric equipment 7-14
L Parametric Modeling System 9-169-20
Label Edit tool 8-26 Definitions 9-16
Label Position Files, Creating 2-57 Functions 9-19
Labels. See Component Labels Primitives 9-20
LBLCVT, how the utility converts a cell 8-29 Rules 9-17
Level Symbology and Your V7 Files 8-38 Understanding How To Debug Your Rules
LIB file extension 2-5 9-18
LINEO_SYMB table 2-37 Using the STEP array variable to control
the order of processing and running rules
9-18
M Writing New Rules or Modifying or En-
Managing External Files and JSM Files 5-12 hancing Existing Rules 9-19
Modeling Tables 2-2 PID_COMPONENT Table 2-41
ATTRDEFN Table 2-2
To retain or delete the MicroStation SmartLine Procedures for Customizing the Display of the Spec
after IL creation 8-38 Maker Interface 6-42
To retain the level symbology on your V7 files 8- Procedures for Customizing the Output 11-2
38 Procedures for Maintaining Specifications 6-81
To run LBLCVT to convert component labels 8- Procedures for Opening and Closing the Application
31 and Files (in Spec Maker) 6-8
To save a project specification file under a differ- Procedures for Setting Up a Project Specification File
ent name 6-12 6-49
To set the criteria properties (in Spec Maker) 6-74 Procedures for Using Spec Maker 2.0 Spec Files 6-23
To set up bolts to be filtered with their Design Se- Procedures for Viewing the Project Specification File
ries components (for output applications) 3- 6-30
13 Procedures for Working with Component Types 6-55
To set up digital rights 5-23 Procedures for Working with Criteria 6-65
To set up digital signatures 5-24 Procedures Involved in Managing a Project 5-8
To set up the access to data in third-party applica- Product Files, updating 2-38
tions 2-52 Projdefe.rul file 5-11
To synchronize the Ams.lib file with your project Projdefm.rul file 5-11
database 2-30 Project 5-1
To test your changes (to the edited Default configuration setup 5-2
Pidattr_user.dat file) 2-46 Managing 5-15-24
To troubleshoot problems generating bolt data 3- Project Database
18 Modeling Tables 2-2
To update a product file 2-38 Product Files 2-5
To update an expert system rule file 2-34 Rule Files 2-5
To update the catalog tables) 2-33 Script Files 2-4
To update the edited Pidattr_user.dat file 2-46 Updating expert system rule files 2-34
To upgrade the typical users machine from a pre- Updating Product Files 2-38
vious version of Design Series 1-11 Updating the Catalog Tables 2-32
To upgrade your project database tables 1-8 Upgrading to the current version 1-8
To use Spec Maker 2.0 spec files 6-23 Project root directory 5-10
To view a spec definition 6-34 Project specification file 6-4
To view all component types in a project 6-32 Projvars.cfg 5-3
To view all specs in a project 6-31 Prompt Property (for parametric equipment) 7-2
To view database table fields 6-37 PS CREATE CELL 8-47
To view guidelines as a group 6-40 PS CREATE COMPCELL 8-47
To view guidelines individually 6-39 PS CREATE EQUIPMENT MECHELEC 8-48
To view the active component types associated PS_GROUP.LIB 11-8, 11-9
with a spec 6-33 ps_menu.rul file 8-47
To view the active specs associated with a compo- Pscfg.dll 5-2
nent type 6-35 PSDesign.s71 6-3
To view the catalog selection criteria 6-36
To view the component definition 6-38
Procedures for Configuring Nozzle Manager 7-17 R
Procedures for Configuring the Check Design Utility Report Configuration
8-14 Customizing the Output 11-2
Procedures for Configuring the Text Styles, Content, Defining Filters and Fields 11-2
and Terminators 8-5 Grouping and Summarizing Data 11-8
Procedures for Configuring Your Project 2-10 Processing Report Data on Specific Areas of a
T
Tables
BOLT_MATERIAL 3-16
BOLTS 3-14
BOTH_SYMB 2-38
EXE_REPORT_ARGS 2-51
EXE_REPORT_CRITERIA 2-48
EXE_REPORT_TYPES 2-50
LINEO_SYMB 2-37
PID_COMPONENT 2-41
PID_MAP 2-42
Text Files
Editing 2-12
Third-party applications, accessing data from 2-47
TriForma Element Information Tool 2-55
U
Unit Names (in parametric equipment) 7-3
Units of measurement
Changing project units 5-10
Units of measurement, customizing
Imperial 5-9
Metric 5-9
Upgrading Legacy Data 1-4
Upgrading Your Project Database Tables to the cur-
rent version 1-8
V
Value column, customizing the display in the attributes
dialog box 2-54
Volumes Tables, Updating 2-40