Skip to content
Axiom
  • MicroStation
    • Products for MicroStation
      • Microsoft Office Importer™
      • MicroStation Productivity Toolkit™
      • MicroStation Acceleration Garage™
      • FileFixer™
      • Title Block Manager™
      • Translation Manager™
      • RefManager™
    • _______________
      • RasterDgn™
      • Global File Changer™
      • Custom Programming
      • DgnCompare™
      • RefMerge™
      • Duplicate Element Remover™
      • SpecChecker™
    • _______________
      • CellManager™
      • SpellCheckerPlus™
      • SpecManager™
  • Revit
    • Products for Revit
    • Microsoft Office Importer™
    • Family and View Studio™
    • Productivity Toolkit™
    • Revit Custom Programming
  • AutoCAD
    • Products for AutoCAD
    • Microsoft Office Importer™
    • Title Block Manager™
    • Translation Manager™
    • AutoCAD Productivity Toolkit™
    • AutoCAD Custom Programming
  • Support
    • Support
    • FAQ
  • CAD/BIM Tips & Tricks
    • Articles
    • CAD/BIM Videos
    • Upcoming Events
    • Webinar Videos
  • About Us
    • About
    • Contact Us
    • CAD/BIM Survey
    • Careers
  • Live Demo
plastic-1

CAD/BIM Tips & Tricks

Re-Engineering Plastic: It’s Fantastic!

11 April 2023

Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Linkedin

We’ve heard it a thousand times before, from the likes of Greta Thunberg to the talking heads at various environmental conferences that occasionally make the news headlines: What are we going to do about plastic?

We’re bombarded with catchwords and phrases that are hurled out into the ether in an endless barrage: single-use, marine life, sustainability, landfills, the great Pacific garbage patch, on and on and on until we’re numb and deaf to it, at which point nobody pays attention anymore. But just this once, listen up, because some of the ideas out there for re-engineering plastic waste are very clever and make a lot of sense.

Some of the ideas for re-engineering plastic waste are very clever and make a lot of sense.

Plastic, Return to From Whence You Came!

Many waste products, given sufficient time, will happily decompose. Food waste, paper products, leather and wood all happily biodegrade and return to the earth. Hell, even brick and mortar — given enough time — will do the whole dust-to-dust thing. But plastic? A simple disposable diaper can take up to 600 years to break down in a landfill and we currently throw out about 18 billion of those stinky suckers each year. Those innocuous plastic utensils that come with your take-out meal? They can take up to 1,000 years to decompose and the US alone plows through more than 100 million plastic utensils every day.

The main problem with most plastics is that they never truly biodegrade and “return to the earth.” They simply break down into smaller and smaller particles of plastic, which means they never really go away.

Hell, even brick and mortar — given enough time — will do the whole dust-to-dust thing.

While clever, inventive plastic alternatives are constantly being researched and developed, the issue of what to do with the mountains of existing plastic waste is a problem that has some exciting potential solutions, thanks to science and clever engineering.

Plastic’s Circle of Life

Our first mention is more like reverse engineering, as it comes closest to returning plastic to from whence it came. Japanese inventor, Akinori Ito, developed a household-sized appliance that converts waste plastic into fuel. Realizing that plastics are not much more than processed crude oil, Ito set about developing a way to return them to just that: usable fuel. The result of his research is actually remarkably efficient.

AdobeStock_140125610
Turning mountains of plastic waste into oceans of fuel simply makes sense … and cents.

One kilogram of plastic can produce approximately one liter of oil and requires approximately only one-kilowatt hour of electricity. This oil can be burned, as is, or converted into gasoline, diesel or kerosene.

Next up is ReDeTec™, inventor of the ProtoCycler, the world’s first plastic waste-gobbling 3D-print filament maker. This clever machine recycles plastic waste into new filament you can then use to print new objects, with approximately 80% cost-savings on your filament! The ProtoCycler is not a picky eater and will consume virtually anything from failed 3D prints to empty plastic bottles. All the plastics are ground down into “digestible” pieces, before being melted and extruded as spools of plastic filament, ready for your next 3D-printing project.

Biology: 2, Plastic: 0

You’d never look at a bowl of pasta drenched in a delectably creamy mushroom sauce, and think, “I bet I could get fungi to eat plastic!” But that’s kind of what happened to Sehroon Khan of the World Agroforestry Center. Mr. Khan and his team discovered a plastic-eating fungus, Aspergillus Tubingensis, that lives in soil. It secretes enzymes onto plastics that help break down the long polymer chains responsible for holding plastic together. The major concern with Aspergillus Tubingensis is the chance that it could become invasive if it hungrily sets its sights on materials other than plastic for consumption.

Finally, in a similar vein, researchers in a Japanese recycling plant discovered a mutant bacterium, Ideonella sakaiensis, that produces an enzyme, PETase, that literally breaks down plastic and consumes it.

AdobeStock_280860661
Meet Ideonella sakaiensis, the bacteria whose plastic-eating enzyme McGeehan is working to improve.

Professor John McGeehan, a research scientist at the University of Portsmouth and currently the scientific lead of the World Plastics Summit, has led an international team that is working to engineer improved versions of the PETase enzyme, making it more efficient. The team’s ultimate goal is to engineer improved enzymes that can break down plastics into their original building blocks on an industrial scale so that they can be reused as part of a circular plastics economy.

With a host of plastic-alternative products being brought to market and promising solutions for dealing with existing plastic waste, perhaps future generations won’t face the plastic problems we currently face. We’ll have safeguarded and improved the environment and plastic will turn out to have been a mere blip on the eco-radar.

Solutions Come in All Shapes and Sizes

Whether you design and engineer autobody parts, bridges or bacterial enzymes, as a MicroStation®;, Revit®;or AutoCAD®, you’re probably familiar with the blips — or quirks — of your platform.

Whether it’s getting your Word®; and Excel®; imports to format correctly, or dealing with changes to title blocks, or easily finding and editing Revit families, or dealing with conversions between DGNs and DWGs, Axiom produces purpose-built tools for each of these platforms, specifically designed to save you time and reduce frustration.

The MicroStation menu is here, Revit options are here, and AutoCAD offerings are here. Alternatively, call a helpful Service Consultant at 727-442-7774 to discuss your particular situation.

Axiom. CAD and BIM made easier.

Tools to solve your MicroStation problems: View products
Import Excel spreadsheets and Word documents to MicroStation or AutoCAD with perfect formatiing

AXIOM

Axiom provides powerful software that helps thousands of engineers, architects, designers, project leaders, CAD managers and CAD/BIM users all over the globe.

POPULAR PRODUCTS

Microsoft Office Importer™
MicroStation Productivity Toolkit™
MicroStation Acceleration Garage™
FileFixer™
Title Block Manager™
Translation Manager™
Products for MicroStation
Products for Revit
Products for AutoCAD

CONNECT WITH US

1805 Drew St
Clearwater, FL 33765
Phone: 727-442-7774
E-mail: InfoMail@AxiomInt.com

“Facebook” “Twitter” “LinkedIn” “LinkedIn”

TrustPilot-Axiom
Copyright © 2017–2025 Axiom Services, Inc. and IntelliProp LLC.  All Rights Reserved.  Axiom, CellManager, DgnCompare, Duplicate Element Remover, FileFixer, Global File Changer, Office Importer, Productivity Toolkit, RasterDgn, RefManager, RefMerge, SpecManager, SpellCheckerPlus, Title Block Manager, Translation Manager and Family Studio are trademarks of IntelliProp. Revit and AutoCAD are registered trademarks of Autodesk‚ Inc. MicroStation is a registered trademark of Bentley Systems, Inc. Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Other trademarks are held by their respective owners. Not responsible for inadvertent errors.
Privacy Policy | Sitemap

Game-Changing Protection

LinkFixer Advanced™   for Revit is a lifesaver. Why? When your project file references are moved or renamed, those linked files (such as rvt, dwg or dwf) will no longer be found. LinkFixer Advanced will protect your files from this catastrophe with patented file immunization technology.

A Word About Links

Got missing reference attachments? Here’s a brief explanation:

Files often contain links. We generally refer to these files as the parent files. The links point to other files which we call child files. In the case of CAD/BIM files, this is how other files are “referenced” to a main project file.

When the child files are moved or renamed, the links in the parent files break. This indicates that the child file is no longer located where the parent file link is pointing or it means the link in the parent file is looking for the old filename of a renamed child file and, of course, not finding it. Either way, your references will be missing and it’s annoying and frustrating to deal with when it happens to you and you’re left staring helplessly at the typical error message displayed on your screen.

LinkFixer Advanced, however, is the fast, modern way to protect, move and repair links in the following situations:

  • If you have good, working links (references) you’d like to protect in case the files are moved or renamed, use the Inoculate and Cure tool. This is your safety net. Consider this: The novice in your IT department decides to do a mini migration on the weekend. You come in Monday and poof! — your references are missing. Inconvenient? Yes. Catastrophic? Not a chance. Run LinkFixer Advanced on your pre-treated files and watch your missing references appear like magic.
  • If you need to move or rename files and you would prefer that the embedded links don’t break, use the Move/Rename tool. You know those clients you have to wait on hand and foot? The ones that have a different drive and file structure you have to use at submittal time? The Move/Rename feature will allow you to serve the high and mighty with little effort by allowing you to accommodate their needs and still smartly retain their reference file linkages with no additional effort on your part.
  • If you’ve got files that contain broken links (causing the resulting missing data), and you need to repair those links (and restore the data), use the Modify Links tool. It’s not uncommon to have a folder or two renamed. The client’s name changes, the project name changes, the boss is a lunatic, the reasons are endless. Simple yet sophisticated rule-writing allows you to execute a simple string change to fix all of the links in your chosen file set.

Nothing can restore a link if the file has been permanently deleted, but for all your other link requirements in your project files, LinkFixer Advanced has you covered.

A Word About Links

Got missing reference attachments? Here’s a brief explanation:

Files often contain links. We generally refer to these files as the parent files. The links point to other files, which we call child files.

When the child files are moved or renamed, the links in the parent files appear to break. This simply indicates that the child file is no longer located where the parent file link is pointing, but it’s annoying and frustrating to deal with when it happens to you and you’re left staring helplessly at the typical error message displayed on your screen.

LinkFixer Advanced, however, is the fast, modern way to protect, move and repair links in the following situations:

  • If you have good, working links you’d like to protect in case the files are moved or renamed, use the Inoculate and Cure tool.
  • If you need to move or rename files and would prefer that the embedded links don’t break, use the Move/Rename tool.
  • If you’ve got files that contain broken links (causing the resulting missing data), and you need to repair those links (and restore the data), use the Modify Links tool.

Nothing can restore a link if the file has been permanently deleted, but for all your other link requirements in your project files, LinkFixer Advanced has you covered.

AutoCAD Productivity Toolkit Free Demo

  • Impeccable imports that are beautifully formatted and look exactly like the originals.
  • Accurate, up-to-date title blocks, at the push of a button.
  • Time-savings and improved productivity, with the ability to safely move or rename AutoCAD files without fear of disappearing references (despite your users’ best efforts).

To find out more, fill out the form, call us at 727-442-7774 or email us at InfoMail@AxiomInt.com

  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

We hate spam. We don’t sell e-mail addresses.

Title Block Manager  Free Demo

Achieve title block consistency automatically.

Title Block Manager™ will:

  • Quickly and easily renumber all of your sheets for you using one Excel spreadsheet. Say goodbye to the stress of last-minute sheet-number changes.
  • Save you hours you’d typically spend manually editing your title blocks.
  • Keep your title blocks up-to-date, with a push of a button.

To find out more, fill out the form, call us at 727-442-7774 or email us at InfoMail@AxiomInt.com

  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

We hate spam. We don’t sell e-mail addresses.

Axiom Maintenance Plus Includes:

  • Free product updates.
  • Free technical support.
  • Free license support (such as when computer-IDs change).
  • Free user training, via the Internet, on maintained products.
  • Free customization of maintained products.
  • Discounts on comparable products for different versions of Microstation or AutoCAD.

To find out more, fill out the form, call us at 727-442-7774 or email us at InfoMail@AxiomInt.com

  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

We hate spam. We don’t sell e-mail addresses.

Productivity Toolkit  for Revit

  • Have editable, searchable Word imports in a snap.
  • Word and Excel columns can be easily moved while maintaining formatting and link integrity.
  • Have your imports automatically update when source files change.
  • Have an easier time searching for families.
  • You’ll have expanded search capabilities that easily find exactly what you’re looking for.
  • You won’t have to exit the search function to verify that you’ve selected the correct family.

To find out more, fill out the form, call us at 727-442-7774 or email us at InfoMail@AxiomInt.com

  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

We hate spam. We don’t sell e-mail addresses.

Family and View Studio:

The Key to Drama-Free Revit Families and Views

A free trial may be helpful to you if you want:

  • To have working with families and views made much easier and more intuitive to save you a boatload of time.
  • To use the powerful and focused search capabilities to find families and views outside of your active Revit project and easily load them.
  • To see large thumbnails of views to easily determine which is the one you want.
  • To easily place a view in your project.

To find out more, fill out the form, call us at 727-442-7774 or email us at InfoMail@AxiomInt.com

  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

We hate spam. We don’t sell e-mail addresses.

FileFixer™ Free Demo Request

Fix any MicroStation® file automatically, including:

  • DGN files that produce error messages when opened.
  • Design files that won’t open at all. Elements that misbehave.
  • Elements that won’t plot the same way they appear on your monitor.
  • DGN files that covert incorrectly to AutoCAD or other file types.
  • Elements you can’t select or delete.
  • Elements not on a defined level.

To find out more, fill out the form, call us at 727-442-7774 or email us at InfoMail@AxiomInt.com

  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

We hate spam. We don’t sell e-mail addresses.

Microsoft Office Importer for Revit Free Trial Version

  • Paste your Word notes into Revit instead of re-typing them.
  • Move Word and Excel columns around while maintaining formatting and link integrity.
  • Automatically update your imports from the source file.
  • Precision text-size mapping.
  • Paste multipage PDFs into Revit, all at once.
  • Control the scale of PDF pages as you are pasting

To find out more, fill out the form, call us at 727-442-7774 or email us at InfoMail@AxiomInt.com

  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

We hate spam. We don’t sell e-mail addresses.

MicroStation Productivity Toolkit Demo

Got MicroStation® problems? There’s a tool for that.

  • Experienced trouble when trying to paste Excel® spreadsheets or Word® documents into MicroStation?
  • Suffered through finding and reattaching a bunch of missing references or had to change the reference settings in more files than you care to remember?
  • Received an error message when trying to open a DGN file or had a file that wouldn’t open at all?
  • Needed to replace text or modify the properties of text elements in multiple DGN files?
  • Encountered some other MicroStation-related problem?

To find out more, fill out the form, call us at 727-442-7774 or email us at InfoMail@AxiomInt.com

  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

We hate spam. We don’t sell e-mail addresses.

MicroStation Acceleration Garage Demo

Got MicroStation problems? There’s a tool for that.

  • Experienced trouble when trying to paste Excel spreadsheets or Word documents into MicroStation?
  • Suffered through finding and reattaching a bunch of missing references or had to change the reference settings in more files than you care to remember?
  • Received an error message when trying to open a DGN file or had a file that wouldn’t open at all?
  • Needed to replace text or modify the properties of text elements in multiple DGN files?
  • Encountered some other MicroStation-related problem?

To find out more, fill out the form, call us at 727-442-7774 or email us at InfoMail@AxiomInt.com

  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

We hate spam. We don’t sell e-mail addresses.

Microsoft Office Importer for AutoCAD Free Trial

Tools That Save Time and Increase Productivity

  • Easily spread imports of huge Excel spreadsheets or Word docs into multiple columns in your DWG files.
  • Keep your imported data linked & synced to the source files.
  • Enjoy complete control over your CAD standards, including color, weight, style, text size, font, and more.

To find out more, fill out the form, call us at 727-442-7774 or email us at InfoMail@AxiomInt.com

  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

We hate spam. We don’t sell e-mail addresses.

Microsoft Office Importer  Free Trial Version

Tools That Save Time and Increase Productivity

  • Microsoft Office Importer™  saves you valuable time by automatically managing the hundred little things that have to go right.
  • Microsoft Office Importer eliminates double-work. No more manual data entry and formatting of information that’s already in Excel or Word files.
  • Microsoft Office Importer leaves you in control. You don’t have to sacrifice your standards to achieve fast, top-quality results in record time. Finally get the recognition you deserve.

To find out more, fill out the form, call us at 727-442-7774 or email us at InfoMail@AxiomInt.com

  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

We hate spam. We don’t sell e-mail addresses.