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How to avoid migration disasters
Preventative steps to ensure a successful
V7 to V8 migration.
CLEARWATER, FL, USA — Are you longing to work
with MicroStation V8 but obligated to continue using V7 for
the immediate future? If so, you are certainly not alone.
Axiom continues to energetically support its large number
of V7 clients and continues to enhance the V7 version of MicroStation
Productivity Toolkit applications.
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| With MicroStation V8 on the horizon
for many MicroStation shops, preparing legacy V7 files
for a successful migration is a growing concern. MicroStation
Productivity Toolkit offers solutions to ensure migrations
go smoothly. |
But there’s no reason to be excluded from the world
of V8. There are a number of actions you can take right now
on your V7 projects which will immediately save time and increase
productivity while also preparing your projects for
V8. This article describes actions you can take right now
which will benefit both your current V7 projects and future
V8 projects.
Avoiding emergencies
Use FileFixer to search for problems in your V7 project
files and to identify those files which require repair. You
can use FileFixer’s “Search for Problems”
mode to generate a full report of all problems found in one
or more project files — this is perfect mid-project to
debug corrupted files which have halted your project. However,
if you are responsible for hundreds or thousands of V7 files,
perhaps on the verge of migration to V8, you need a summarization
of the corruption found in your files so you can quickly identify
and handle the most severely corrupted files with FileFixer
before they impact your project or migration to V8. Use FileFixer
to generate a list of files with the most serious problems
and then use FileFixer’s “Automatic Repair”
mode to fix the identified troublemakers. When you are responsible
for hundreds or thousands of files, this fast solution is
an effective trade-off of time and thoroughness. This quick
action alone avoids expensive emergencies, project delays
and disrepute. Check your V7 project files this way before
archiving a completed project — ensure there are no time
bombs that will blow up months or years later. Using FileFixer
to identify and repair your most seriously corrupted project
files is also the best way to ensure your project files will
import into V8 healthy and whole. Post-migration, use FileFixer
for V8 to handle any troublesome V8 files and to maintain
the continued health of your V8 files.
Creating backups
Back up your project files! Regrettably, Axiom clients have
reported a few too many horror stories that resulted from
failure to back up files. Back up your project files to tape,
CD, DVD or a second hard drive — it doesn’t matter.
This is a good practice for any project and is particularly
crucial before executing a bulk import of V7 files into V8.
When the time comes for you to upgrade your V7 files to V8
using MicroStation’s “Upgrade to V8” command,
each new V8 file inherits the name and location of the V7
original. Note: if you de-select MicroStation’s backup
option (not recommended!) your V7 files will be lost (instead
of being copied to a user-defined directory)! The moral of
the story: back up your project files regularly and don’t
disable the backup option when executing MicroStation’s
bulk upgrade command.
Saving full file path in references
Reference file full paths are often a source of trouble when
project files are moved from one directory or drive to another
— a common occurrence for V7 projects and particularly
common when a new V8 project is started. You can use Axiom’s
RefManager to remove saved full paths. You can also
use RefManager to insert MicroStation configuration
variables in place of saved full paths. For example, MYPROJECT:MyRef.dgn.
Configuration variables are portable to V8 — and the
definition for the configuration variable MYPROJECT can point
to different directories in your V7 and V8 workspaces. Or,
if you prefer to use saved full paths, RefManager can
help update the saved full path when project files are moved
to a new directory or drive.
Deleting useless cells
Use CellManager to delete obsolete, duplicate and non-standard
cells from your cell libraries and consolidate multiple cell
libraries into one efficient, standard library. This optimizes
your ongoing V7 projects and ensures you don’t carry
confused, non-standard cells with you to V8. Note: once you
convert your V7 cell libraries to V8 there is no way to convert
them back to V7 format. Back up your cell libraries!
Adhering to standards
Adopt standards now and automatically standardize your project
files with SpecChecker. This achieves consistency,
efficiency and pleased clients now, while preparing your drawings
for V8’s level-based standards.
Migrating User Commands
It is amazing how long some user commands (UCMs) remain in
productive use. Few other examples of “software”
survive more than 15 years — unrivaled return on investment!
However, despite the fact that some UCMs still work
with MicroStation V8, Bentley has stated that UCMs are an
unsupported V8 feature and will be removed in a future release
of V8, so it might be time to think about retiring your beloved
UCMs. Take a moment to survey your drafters to identify those
vital UCMs that are actually still in use. Try using the Bentley
UCM2BAS utility to convert your UCMs to BASIC (compatible
with MicroStation/J and V8). If you begin converting your
UCMs now you will avoid an often-unanticipated V8 migration
problem.
Naming V7 levels
You don’t have to wait for V8 to use level names now.
MicroStation/J supports level names and level descriptions
select Settings | Levels | Names… from MicroStation/J’s
main menu bar. MicroStation/J also allows you to group named
levels into logical groups. Level name definitions are saved
to a file that can be imported into any V7 project file —
use Global File Changer to add level definitions to
your entire project. Attaching level name definitions to a
V7 file simply assigns a label and description to existing
numbered levels — you can still refer to level numbers
if you wish, but level names and descriptions serve as reminders
for V7 project staff while introducing them to an important
aspect of V8 life. V7 level names will be imported automatically
into MicroStation V8 when the time comes (and are fully compatible
with V7 workmode too).
Checking files in V7 workmode
Open one of your V7 files with MicroStation V8 in V7 workmode
and use Axiom’s Problem Element Viewer to traverse
through your elements to see how they have are represented
by MicroStation V8. Yes, this works in V7 workmode! This illustrates
how your V7 files will be converted to V8 when you upgrade
them — an interesting study!
All of the Axiom applications described in this article are
components of MicroStation Productivity Toolkit.
Learn more about MicroStation Productivity
Toolkit
For more information on MicroStation
Productivity Toolkit contact an Axiom MicroStation
Consultant today! Call 727-442-7774 extension 9208 or e-mail
9208@axiomint.com.
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