How to Handle the Rats’ Nest Masquerading as “Nested References” in Some MicroStation Files
"Most everyone recognizes that nested references can be cool — except when you’re a few levels deep and have to start keeping a spiral notebook to track them. The real goat rodeo gets started once you add inexperienced users and/or piss-poor file management into the overall mix.
– Anonymous CAD Manager."
MicroStation’s Live Nesting feature is a great idea and it is well executed. But nested references are not a cure-all. Every nested reference on a project has a price — the price of maintenance and management. Every nested reference needs to be set properly, which sometimes changes throughout a project.
As a MicroStation user or CAD/Engineering manager, how do you make changes to more than one nested reference attachment at a time? How do you ensure your nested reference attachments are displaying the right levels, have their Locate and Snap settings correctly set for your project needs and have Level Symbology set properly at each stage of your projects? What if you need to turn off Display on certain nested reference attachments temporarily or after a certain phase in a project?
What about when you get files from an outside source (clients or contractors) and their direct and nested references aren’t set up properly? How do you fix those things and still keep projects running on schedule?
Don’t let the metaphorical “rat” keep making its home in your nested reference files. It’s time to root it out from its source (humanely of course).
MicroStation reference attachments are already a lot to handle, without throwing levels of nested references into the mix. How do you ensure your nested references are properly set up and how do you make changes to them when the need arises? Doing this manually isn’t just tedious and error-prone — it’s time consuming! It costs money and it takes you away from other critical tasks. And what if you have a problem with some nested references that pops up right before a submittal? How do you handle it and how do you find out about these problems early next time, so it’s not an emergency?
RefManager from Axiom is the solution. Since 1987, RefManager has been the MicroStation user’s go-to tool for reporting on and modifying multiple reference attachments in multiple sheet files.
But what about nested references specifically? Until now, RefManager’s vast modification abilities were only focused on directly referenced files, with no ability to modify nested references. RefManager’s nested reference support was limited to reporting.
But in the live-nesting world we live in today, MicroStation shops need the same kind of help with their nested references, which is why the latest release of RefManager adds the ability to modify nested reference settings for the first time ever.
RefManager 8.14 lets you report on or make changes to just about any reference attachment setting across any number of sheet files, including support for nested references, not just direct references.
RefManager has long had the ability to report on nested references and the nesting depth settings of direct references. Plus it has been able to edit nesting depth values in existing references. RefManager 8.14 adds nested reference modification features, giving any user the ability to precisely control:
- Various properties of nested references, including Display, Locate and more.
- Nested reference level display for each view; and
- Nested reference level symbology settings.
This new version of RefManager also adds the ability to change the reference attachment setting “Display Overrides”, which applies to nested references but is actually a setting in the direct references.
Manage Nested References
What are the things you want to modify about nested reference attachments on a regular basis — and in multiple sheet files? Chances are, RefManager can make short work of those manual tasks.
Want to find out about how your nested references are already set? RefManager can do that. Want to modify a nested reference setting in more than one nested reference file? RefManager can do that, too. RefManager 8.14 makes it easy.
Get Your Reference Files Under Control
For more information on RefManager or to schedule a free, online demonstration, contact an Axiom Consultant today! Call 727-442-7774 extension 4960, e-mail Infomail@AxiomInt.com or visit Axiom on the Web at www.AxiomInt.com now