__________CONTENTS_________________________________________________

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

_________CURRENT NEWS______________________________________________

#--- Special Training Opportunities ---#

Essential MicroStation       Minneapolis        December 5th-7th
MicroStation Descartes       Minneapolis        December 11th
Productive MicroStation      Minneapolis        December 12th-14th

Contact Lisa Christenson, Training Coordinator, The Itasca Group
763-571-8860 phone
763-571-8904 fax
lisa.christenson@itascagroup.com email

Note: If anyone notices training opportunities (via MVARS, Bentley, or
Others), please tell us so we can inform the membership through this
newsletter.

#--- TMC Sponsored Website ?? ---#
Pam Schmitz says:

"I just spent about 20 minutes talking to Paulette Walters from
Bentley.  She said they are a lot closer to hosting websites for TMC
groups, possibly within a couple of months.  She didn't know any
details yet so we may want to hold off registering a domain name at
this time, but it would be wise to get a name and logo so we're ready
when they are"

#--- V8 Beta ??? ---#
Here's what Marc Thomas of TMC UK said on comp.cad.microstation on
11/10/00:

"It's now due in about 4 weeks or so, we were told this by Phil
Chouinard at a v8 briefing on Monday. The programme for release is
still June 2001."

#--- Viecon Not Ready For Prime Time ---#
For those who have tried Bentley's new Viecon project management
intranet service, you'll know this, but if you haven't, beware that it
is 'Not Ready for Prime Time', depending on your needs. G. Scott
Caudle of Bentley has verified that the following features are
forthcoming:

1. Synchronization will be included by Q1 2001.  This includes Palm
devices, Outlook and other e-mail clients, calendars, etc.

2. Reference file processing in Q1 2001.  Files uploaded to viecon.com
will stay linked so when someone views our downloads the file, the
references come with it.

3. In Q4 2000, there will be online project archiving tools to request
specific back ups for your use.

4. In Q4 2000 or Q1 2001 Model Server Publisher type publishing will
be available. This should allow users to view and redline files
without having to download any special software.

Viecon still has a cool slick interface and is useful if you have
project collaborators outside your office, don't use reference files
too extensively and don't mind your PIM data to be duplicated.

#--- Dig up that old Gordon Lightfoot 45 or LP ---#
Today is the 25th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

_________NEXT MONTH'S MEETING DATE/TIME/LOCATION___________________

DATE:       November 21, 2000
TIME:       4:30pm to 6:30pm
LOCATION:   SRF Consulting Group, Inc.

DIRECTIONS: SRF is located at Suite 150, One Carlson Parkway, North
            in Plymouth (612) 475-0010

            Take 1st exit (Carlson Parkway) north of 394 & 494
            Interchange. Head west (left) and SRF is the 1st office
            complex on the right (One Carlson Pkwy). Enter through
            main doors and follow signs to meeting room.

TOPIC(S):   New Name/Logo, SIGs, User Conference

We have some exciting things to talk about! Come and present your
input.

Continued from last month's meeting, we will be talking some more
about changing the name of our group and logo. Come and provide your
ideas and opinions!

Items on the Agenda:

1. Itasca will be giving a demonstration on a few items, one being
their MDL programs Craig Tobias has developed.

2. Vote on new Group Name. Here are some contenders:

        o TC-TMC
        o MSP-TMC
        o Great Lakes TMC
        o North Star TMC
        o Gopher State TMC
        o Midwest TMC
        o MN-TMC
        o MN-MUG

Come and provide more ideas for names if you have one of your own.
We'll vote one in at the November meeting.

3. Vote to Elect (or Reelect) Group Officers (Just because you're not
present doesn't mean you're safe from nomination <g>).

4. Go over Group Charter

5. Discuss Special Interest Group (SIG) formation.

We hope to see all of you there! Please feel free to contact Dave for
further directions at 612-912-2627. Everyone's welcome!!!

_________MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING_______________________________

DATE:      Oct 24th, 2000

TIME:      5:30 to 7:30 PM

LOCATION:  SEH Conference Room

ATTENDEES: Dave Dickson, Pam Schmitz, Steve Stewart, Beatrice Sauve,
           Kim Midthun, Dean Sturgis, Cindi Olichwier, Scott Ornat,
           Tom Ferry, Leslie Van Drasek,

TOPIC:     New Name/Logo, SIGs, User Conference

The meeting was convened at 5:30 pm.

TMC sent some nice grab-bags of goodies including golf tees, luggage
tags, Silly Putty (Complete with TMC logo), pen/highlighter, erasers, ect.
There was plenty of bags left over, so come and grab some leftovers
next week.

We started out the meeting talking about Group names (see the list in
the Agenda part of the Next Month's meeting section). The consensus is
to have part of the name with TMC to identify us with the national TMC
organization, and part based on a local identifier such as TC or MSP.

We discussed whether to meet monthly or just have a few meetings plus
a Forum. We still want to work towards having a Forum/Conference, but
also want regular monthly meetings until we vote how to meet
differently (to take effect next year).

There was lots more discussion on hosting a Forum/Conference like
Iowa's IDDEA organization. We would likely use an Educational Facility
during a school holiday and use their kitchen staff to prepare any
food. Dunwoody, Normandale or other Junior Colleges are likely
candidates. A committee to help setup the Forum was discussed being
formed which will need about 10-15 people with different
responsibilities. Iowa takes about 24 weeks to set theirs up.

Dave mentioned that the National TMC is making more efforts to help
the local chapters. Tracy at TMC may be our advisor. TMC will publish
our meeting schedule on their website and in the MicroStation Manager
magazine. We'll look into getting other CAD newsletters such as
CadGurus (www.cadgurus.com) to publish meeting dates too.

There was some discussion about the privacy of our member list
database, and concerns that Vendors and other Salespersons may get
access to the list. Our stance is too keep that list *private*, with
no one except Group Officers and interested members having access to
it.

Cindi discussed getting CAD/CAM to host the November meeting and
provide some demos, but after no response she arranged Itasca Group to
discuss some things with us at her offices at SRF.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:30 pm.

_________MICROSTATION TIP OF THE MONTH_____________________________

Subject: Re: modify arrowheads on dims
From: dan.42@home.com (Dan MacNeil)
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2000 03:08:21 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.cad.microstation

The following macro will toggle the arrowheads between inside and
outside on the fly while you are dragging the dimension around
dynamically.

-------------------------------------------------
Sub main
   Dim arrow as Long

   arrow = mbeCExpressionLong ("tcb->ad4.ext_dimflg.arrowOut")
   If (arrow = 2) Then 'Inside is set
      'Change it to Outside
      MbeSetAppVariable "DIMSET", "tcb->ad4.ext_dimflg.arrowOut", 3&

   ElseIf (arrow = 3) Then 'Outside is set
     'Change it to Inside
      MbeSetAppVariable "DIMSET", "tcb->ad4.ext_dimflg.arrowOut", 2&

   Else 'Must be set to Automatic or Reversed. Default to Inside.
      MbeSetAppVariable "DIMSET", "tcb->ad4.ext_dimflg.arrowOut", 2&

   End If
End Sub
-------------------------------------------------

_________MMLC OFFICERS CONTACT INFORMATION_________________________

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