__________CONTENTS_________________________________________________

o   Current News
o   Next meeting date, time & location
o   Minutes of the last meeting
o   Training Opportunities
o   MicroStation Tip of the Month
o   Unsubscribe information
o   MMLC Officers contact information

_________CURRENT NEWS______________________________________________

#--- Happy Holidays! ---#

Happy Holidays!! We're in the middle of lots of Cross-cultural
Holidays. We hope your particular one is safe and enjoyable. This is
the last MMLC newsletter until 2001 (Why is that year so
familiar...?), and one of the last for MMLC if our name is changed,
see the next item for more news on that.

#--- A Rose by any other name... ---#

At the 11/21 meeting, we voted for the top 5 new group names. Here are
those names:

        o TC-TMC
        o MSP-TMC
        o Great Lakes TMC
        o MN-MUG
        o MMUG

We'll vote for a final names at our January meeting, but If you have
any opinions (or votes) on this issue, and can't make it to that
meeting, please e-mail your response to mmlc_mail@yahoo.com (or one of
the Officers) by Jan. 9th.

#--- GeoPak 2000 is OUT ---#

The long awaited GeoPak 2000 update is available on www.geopak.com.
Unfortunately those with slow connections will have to wait for the
CD, as the web site only offers online installation, not a
downloadable install file. Go to the following link for more info
on what's new.

http://www.geopak.com/html/geopak_2000.html

#--- Modeler to be revamped ---#

Confidential sources reveal that an outspoken Modeler critic will be
brought into Bentley for consultation to revive this Bentley product
which almost was abandoned.

#--- Checkout our download site ---#

Checkout MMLC's file download site at:

http://briefcase.yahoo.com/mmlc_mail

Click on the "Shared Files" folder for downloadable files or "Tips"
for the archived monthly tips. If anyone has any files (MDLs, Macros,
etc.) to share with the group, please mail them to mmlc_mail@yahoo.com.

_________NEXT MONTH'S MEETING DATE/TIME/LOCATION___________________

DATE:       December 12th, 2000

TIME:       5:00 to 7:00 PM

LOCATION:   T.G.I. Friday's (St. Louis Park)

DIRECTIONS: On I-394, get off on the Xenia/Park Place exit (about 1/4
            mile west of Hwy. 100). Go south to 16th St. W., turn
            right and go all the way to the end. Turn right on Zarthan
            Ave. and go to the Wayzata Blvd Frontage road. Turn right
            again and you're there.

December's meeting will be held at TGI Friday's Restaurant in St.
Louis Park in front of the old OSM building on 394.

We hope to see all of you there! Please feel free to contact any of us
for further directions (if needed), to RSVP, or just show up.
Everyone's welcome!!!

Items on the Agenda:

1. Eating
2. Talking (subject optional)
3. Eating
4. More Eating

DATE:      Nov. 21, 2000

TIME:      4:30 to 6:30 PM

LOCATION:  SRF Conference Room

ATTENDEES: Dave Dickson, Pam Schmitz, Dean Sturgis, Cindi Olichwier,
           Scott Ornat, Leslie Van Drasek, Joe Kiesow, Craig Tobias,
           Jim Henderson

The meeting was convened at 4:50 pm.

Craig Tobias of the Itasca Group presented a very interesting talk on
MicroStation/AutoCad file translations based on the Bentley pdf file
"File Portability". Craig was kind enough to give us a copy of the
file to post on our Yahoo Download site located at:

http://briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/mmlc_mail?c&.flabel=fld6&.src=bc&start=1
Or at: http://briefcase.yahoo.com/mmlc_mail, click on "Shared Files".

He helped clarify some traditionally confusing issues to most uSTN
users. Some important lessons learned were:

1. DON'T use File> Open to open DWG/DXF files. The better method is to
use a properly set up seed file and use File> Import.

2. Determine if the file is going used Bi-directionaly. Some
properties and features will not translate at all and are best avoided
if the file needs to go back and forth across formats.

3. Be careful about using the setting "Convert Blocks to: Library
Cells" in Import Drawing File Settings. Blocks will converted to cells
and appended to the current cell library. The setting should use
"Shared Cells". Here's some other recommended settings:

Resolve Xrefs = Always (Always write attachments)
Color Palette = Design File
Attribs to = Text
Xref Nest = 1 (Be careful with higher nest numbers)
Frozen Layers = ON
Display Elements = ON (Shows the process of creating the elements)
Character Mapping = OFF (Problems with different font libraries)

4. Large Blocks may exceed the Cell size limits (@128 kb). When faced
with large Blocks, it may be best to "explode" them.

5. Backup your DgnControl.ba file. This file is easily corruptable and
is absolutely necessary for translation to run.

6. Dimensions don't translate well at all. Import as DIMCELL.

7. PaperSpace is a hot item in the Acad world, but request that the
Acad user not use it because it doesn't translate well into uSTN.

8. Insist that the file be converted (or drawn in) Acad R12 or Export
from MicroStation to R12 until MicroStation V8 is available. R13 and
higher file present too many problems translating into MS 7.1 or
lower.

9. Hatch patterns in Acad 2000 files may cause a Batch Translation to
fail.

Craig also discussed some new Bentley MDL Enhancements available on
Select Stream: ViewSet and Raster Manager. Both are worth downloading
and checking out.

He then discussed some of Itasca Group's ProServices Software
Development custom MDL apps for MicroStation, most of which will be
available for sale. Check their website for more details:

http://www.itascagroup.com/proservices.htm

Joe and Craig fielded some general MicroStation questions and left.
Thanks again guys, the presentation was very informative!

Discussion occurred about the name change (see the Current News
section) and we voted for our top 3 choices which resulted in the
remaining 5 choices to vote in January. The January meeting is
tentatively set at MTS on January 16th. We may even talk Mike Yoho
into another fascinating tour through MTS's labs.

Lastly, Dave mentioned that a downtown firm is looking for a CAD
Manager. The drawback is that it's located *downtown* <g>. Call Dave
for more details if you are interested.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:30 pm.

_________TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES_____________________________

For Questions and/or Information Please Email or call Lisa Christenson,
Training Coordinator  (888) 299-8860

The Itasca Group upcoming training classes:

Essential MicroStation  Jan.    2nd-4th Minneapolis, MN
Productive MicroStation Jan.    8th-10th Minneapolis, MN
MicroStation Technical  Jan.    18th Minneapolis, MN
Everything 3D           Jan.    23rd-25th Minneapolis, MN
Essential MicroStation  Jan.    30th-1st Minneapolis, MN
GeoPak Survey           Feb.    5th-7th Minneapolis, MN
GeoPak Criteria         Feb.    8th-9th Minneapolis, MN

Introducing  MICROSTATION TECHNICAL:

This class is offered as an introduction and overview of using
MicroStation's 3D tools in conjunction with other Windows desktop
applications. In addition, we will explore the usage of some of the
graphic plot drivers that are available within MicroStation. This
class is intended for the MicroStation user who is looking to get
just enough direction to venture into creating images and animations
for use in technical documentation, marketing collateral or in web
pages.

The class is outlined as follows:
Introduction to Micro Station's 3D AccuDraw
Overview of Smartsolids
Building a simple Smartsolid model
Overview of light sources
Applying materials
Rendering options
Cutting, Pasting, Linking, and embedding to Microsoft Word or Excel
Creating VRML files and viewing with a web browser
Plotting to JPEG, TIFF, WMF, CGM, PNG and SVF
Using Pen Tables to control image output
Creating an animated GIF with freeware from the MicroStation
SmartSolid
Model

All class participants are encouraged to bring in examples of the work
they would like to achieve for open discussion in the class. All
students will receive the free web browser plug-ins used in the class
on diskette.

Prerequisites:
MicroStation 2D fundamentals knowledge is required.

_________MICROSTATION TIP OF THE MONTH_____________________________

Controlling Construction Plotting

Q:
Anyone know how to add a line to the plot driver so it doesn't plot
constructions?

A(1):
Insert a constructions off command to occur prior to plotting.  An
easy way to do this is to customize the plot button.  The standard
button probably issues a command like "PLOT" or "DIALOG PLOT".  Change
this to, "<whatever the keyin to set constructions off is>;selview
all;dialog plot".  If you want to get fancy or if you want to
externalize the post plotting operations so to provide added
flexibility, change the command line to "macro Preplot; dialog plot".
Then put all the preplotting operations into a macro called Preplot.
You might even have a Postplot macro.

From: Allan Seidel <aseidel@primary.net>
Date: Wed, 06 Dec 2000 17:38:50 -0600
Newsgroups: comp.cad.microstation

A(2):
It doesn't appear that you can control this directly via the driver.
Having said that though...you *can* do this by using BatchPlot.
Another alternative is to write a wee little pen table which instructs
Mstn to not plot Construction elements, and have the driver auto-load
the table by editing this line:
pentable=\dir\file.tbl

From: Inga Morozoff <morozoff@workplacewisdom.com>
Date: Wed, 06 Dec 2000 20:14:04 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.cad.microstation

_________MMLC OFFICERS CONTACT INFORMATION_________________________

If you want to contact one of MMLC's current Officers:

  Chair:      Dave Dickson      ddickson@sehinc.com
  Vice Chair: Dean Sturgis      dean.sturgis@dot.state.mn.us
  Secretary:  Scott Ornat       sornat@ci.minnetonka.mn.us
  Treasurer:  Cindi Olichwier   colichwier@srfconsulting.com
  Web Design: Pam Schmitz       PSchmitz@HNTB.com

For general questions regarding MMLC, please send email to our
Official Web-Mail address at:

    mmlc_mail@yahoo.com

Remember to check the MMLC Website:

   http:\\www.soncom.com\schmitz