======================================================= Product: MicroStation 95 Version: 05.05.02.23 Language: English Date: April 1, 1996 ======================================================= This document contains important information not available in the printed or on-line documentation. * Copyrights * Getting Started Registration and licensing Installation troubleshooting for Windows and DOS Configuration variables Display drivers Dual-screen configurations Digitizer information Semaphore file locking Support and services information * MicroStation 95 Under Microsoft Windows Running under Windows 3.1x Three-button mice and Windows NT 3.51 Shelling to DOS EDG * MicroStation 95 Features Printing and plotting Archiver information DWG/DXF import/export MSBATCH MicroStation BASIC Enter data field information General graphics information * 3D Rendering Acceleration OpenGL under Windows Export visible edges * Adobe Acrobat * Non-graphic Databases General database enhancements Xbase RIS Oracle ODBC Oracle Workgroup 2000 tools For "quick" installation instructions and for information regarding the hardware keyed version of MicroStation 95, see the file README.TXT on the CD's root directory. For detailed information about installation, see the "MicroStation 95 Setup Guide." For information about new features, see the "MicroStation 95 Upgrade Guide" printed manual. ========== Copyrights ========== Copyright 1995, Bentley Systems, Incorporated. All Rights Reserved Including software, file formats, and audiovisual displays; may only be used pursuant to applicable software license agreement; contains confidential and proprietary information of Bentley Systems, Incorporated and/or third parties which is protected by copyright and trade secret law and may not be provided or otherwise made available without proper authorization. IGDS file formats Copyright 1981-1988 Intergraph Corporation. Intergraph Raster File Formats Copyright 1993 Intergraph Corporation. Used with permission. RESTRICTED RIGHTS LEGENDS Use, duplication, or disclosure by the government is subject to restrictions as set forth in subparagraph (c)(1)(ii) of the Rights to Technical Data and Computer Software clause at DFARS 252.227-7013 or subparagraphs (c)(1) and (2) of Computer Software -- Restricted Rights at 48 CFR 52.227-19 as applicable. Unpublished rights reserved under the Copyright Laws of the United States. U.S. Headquarters European Headquarters Bentley Systems, Incorporated Bentley Systems Europe B.V. 690 Pennsylvania Drive Polarisavenue 33 Exton, PA 19341 2132 JH Hoofddorp THE NETHERLANDS Phone: (1) 610 458 5000 Phone: (31) 23 5685588 FAX: (1) 610 458 1060 FAX: (31) 23 5685595 Asia-Pacific Headquarters Electronic Communications Bentley Systems Pty. Ltd. WWW: http://www.bentley.com Suite 8, 51 City Road E-mail: family@bentley.com South Melbourne VIC 3205 CompuServe: GO MSTATION AUSTRALIA America Online: MSTATION Phone: (61) 3 9699-8699 FaxBack: (1) 610 458 6485 FAX: (61) 3 9699-8677 ============== End Copyrights ============== =============== Getting Started =============== This section contains information about the following: Registration and Licensing Installation Troubleshooting for Windows and DOS Configuration Variables Display Drivers Dual-screen configurations Digitizer information Semaphore file locking Support and Services information -------------------------- Registration and licensing -------------------------- To be eligible for a variety of benefits as well as *unlocking* MicroStation 95, you should register the product with Bentley. If you are upgrading from MicroStation V5, please see the "Important Upgrade Information" card in the Upgrade pack. The license agreement for MicroStation 95 differs from previous agreements. We follow what is now standard intellectual property practice by requiring that you sign a separate agreement, the Corporate License Agreement (CLA), for concurrent usage (or license pooling) of MicroStation 95. You incur no charge or additional obligation under the CLA (in fact, there are several additional benefits), and MicroStationCSP(sm) subscribers are automatically eligible. For more information, contact the nearest Bentley office; phone numbers can be found in the "Support and Services Guide." ------------------------------------------------ Installation troubleshooting for Windows and DOS ------------------------------------------------ For "quick" installation instructions and for information regarding the hardware keyed version of MicroStation 95, see the file README.TXT on the CD's root directory. For detailed information about installation, see the "MicroStation 95 Setup Guide." Windows ------- MicroStation 95 for x86 Windows that is contained on this delivery set runs under Windows 3.1x, Windows 95 or Windows NT. The x86 version will not run on DEC Alpha NT, IBM PowerPC NT, or similar RISC-NT based workstations. You need to obtain the appropriate RISC-NT version of MicroStation 95 to run on these other platforms. DOS --- The DOS installation program, "install.exe," requires approximately 360K to run properly. The configuration program, "usconfig.exe," requires approximately 340K to run properly. ----------------------- Configuration variables ----------------------- New Project Configuration files can only be created through a text editor. MS_CELLSELECTORDIR determines the directory for the Cell Selector button configuration (.csf) files. See also "Printing and Plotting", "Archiver Information" and "Database." --------------- Display drivers --------------- NOTE: Bentley does not endorse any hardware peripherals. This includes plotters, printers, display adapters, or input devices. Bentley highly recommends obtaining the latest versions of video drivers from your graphics vendor. MicroStation 95 for Windows uses your existing Windows display drivers. Please consult with your graphics card vendor for information that you may need regarding various video configurations. MicroStation 95 for DOS supports any third party display drivers that function with MicroStation V5. Aspect Ratio ------------ MicroStation automatically detects the aspect ratio of the display screens on most systems. In some configurations (including some dual screen Windows displays), the video driver returns incorrect display size information, causing elements to appear stretched in either the horizontal or vertical direction. The MicroStation configuration variable MS_ASPECTRATIO specifies the correct aspect ratio to use in these situations. This variable should be set to the ratio of the width to the height of the display area. For example: System A: Display screen is 200mm wide by 150mm high. The aspect ratio is 200/150 = 1.33, so set MS_ASPECTRATIO=1.33. System B: A dual screen system where each screen is the size of the System A display and the monitors are arranged side-by-side. The display area width is 400mm and the aspect ratio would be 400/150 = 2.67, so set MS_ASPECTRATIO=2.67. IMPORTANT NOTES: If your display is not distorted, there is no need to create this configuration variable. If MS_ASPECTRATIO is set as a system environment variable in AUTOEXEC.BAT, it will affect operation in both the DOS and Windows 3.1x, potentially causing a problem in the version that receives correct information about the display size. Therefore, it is highly recommended that this variable only be set through the configuration variable dialog box of MicroStation 95 (Workspace > Configuration > New dialog). -------------------------- Dual-screen configurations -------------------------- MicroStation 95 does not control the primary or secondary video display under Windows 3.1x, Windows 95 and Windows NT. In these environments, the operating system and graphics card drivers handle the video display in single- and multi-head environments. Please see the "Frequently Asked Questions" card that was included in the MicroStation 95 delivery for more information. --------------------- Digitizer information --------------------- NOTE: Bentley does not endorse any hardware peripherals. This includes plotters, printers, display adapters, or input devices. Windows 3.1x, Windows 95 and Windows NT users will need to contact their digitizer manufacturer for information regarding WINTAB drivers in order to use specific digitizer tablets or tables in Windows. Note that 16-bit WINTAB drivers (Windows 3.1x) will not run in a 32-bit (Windows 95 and NT) environment and vice-versa. If the digitizer manufacturer does not have a WINTAB compatible driver, you will have to use the DOS version of MicroStation 95 when digitizing is required. Please see the "Frequently Asked Questions" card that was included in the MicroStation 95 delivery for more information. ---------------------- Semaphore file locking ---------------------- For information on this new feature, refer to Chapter 1 in the Administrator's Guide. Note that the semaphore lock file is checked for the master design file that MicroStation opens (as in File > Open, Newfile, etc.) Tools and utilities like File Fence, Save Fence, MERGE and MDL applications that don't utilize master design file open do not check for the semaphore lock file. -------------------------------- Support and services information -------------------------------- Please reference the "Support and Services Guide" for more information regarding support and services from Bentley. ====================== End of Getting Started ====================== ======================================= MicroStation 95 Under Microsoft Windows ======================================= This section contains the following: Running Under Windows 3.1x Three-button mice and Windows NT 3.51 Shelling to DOS EDG -------------------------- Running under Windows 3.1x -------------------------- MicroStation 95 no longer relies on Windows Connection to run in Windows 3.1x. The Windows version of MicroStation 95 runs under Windows 3.1x, Windows 95 and Windows NT. Running MicroStation 95 under Windows 3.1x is accomplished using a Microsoft utility called Win32s (version 1.25.141) that lets 32-bit Windows applications (like MicroStation 95 for x86 Windows) to run under 16-bit Windows 3.1x. Win32s can be installed from the CD and is found in the \win32s\ directory. You will need to install Win32s under Windows 3.1x before installing the Windows version of MicroStation 95. There are complete instructions in the "MicroStation 95 Setup Guide." Note that you do not need to install Win32s in Windows 95 or Windows NT. Win32s is a Windows 3.1x enhancement from Microsoft. Bentley assumes no responsibility for unexpected behavior resulting from the installation of Win32s. Please see refer to the appropriate Microsoft documentation for more information about Win32s. The DOS versions of MicroStation, MicroStation Review, and MicroStation PowerDraft use memory resident programs in order to communicate with graphic cards and input devices. If the DOS version of any of these programs has been run before starting Windows to run the Windows version of MicroStation 95, an error message will be displayed after you attempt to start MicroStation 95 ("Error: resource file is wrong platform, Expected=(Windows), File=(PC))". You will need to either use MARK.COM and RELEASE.EXE in DOS to remove these memory resident drivers before getting into Windows or reboot after running these programs. (Note that MARK.COM and RELEASE.EXE are only delivered with the DOS version of MicroStation 95 and can be found in the $(MS)/utils/ directory, please refer to the documentation regarding usage.) Make sure that you do not have any DOS level environment variables (like MS_CONFIG and MS) set up to point to DOS versions of MicroStation products. This will result in messages similar to what was described in the previous paragraph. Some users may notice a departure from expected behavior using Links to and from Microsoft Excel 5.0 (and above) and Microsoft Word 6.0 (and above). The linking method used by these applications differs from Microsoft published standards. Linking with previous versions of these applications will function as expected. Further, Microsoft Word 6.0 will not properly display views served by MicroStation 95 running under Windows 3.1x. This is due to a limitation in the Microsoft Word 6.0's ability to accept the link format used for served views. Microsoft has confirmed these be problem with Word and Excel. Bentley is working with Microsoft to investigate and resolve these issues. Bentley will post a notification through the customary channels when more information becomes available. ------------------------------------- Three-button mice and Windows NT 3.51 ------------------------------------- Due to a known problem within Windows NT 3.51, attempting to assign the middle button of a three button mouse may not produce the desired results. Please contact Microsoft or your mouse manufacturer regarding the availability of updated three button mouse drivers for Windows NT 3.51. --------------- Shelling to DOS --------------- Although the preferred method is to open an MS-DOS prompt window by double clicking on the MS-DOS icon (usually found in Windows's Main Program Group,) the NTBANG MDL application (found in ..\ustation\mdl\examples\ntexmpls\) that is delivered with MicroStation 95 for Windows enables you to send DOS commands from within MicroStation. NTBANG users will need to build the application using BMAKEWIN (in Windows 95/NT) and set the configuration variable MS_CONSMODE=1 before running the application. See ..\ustation\mdl\examples\ntexmpls\NTBANG.TXT for further setup instructions. For those who do not have the proper setup to build NTBANG, the compiled application file (NTBANG.MA) is available on Bentley's MAINline FTP site (ftp.bentley.com). --- EDG --- To install EDG and the EDG Help icons in the MicroStation 95 for Windows Program Group in Windows 3.1x: 1. Make the MicroStation 95 Program Group "active". 2. From the Program Manager menu, select File > New... 3. In the New Program Object dialog, make sure Program Item is checked and click OK. 4. In the Program Item Properties dialog, select the Browse button and change directories to $(MS)EDG, where $(MS) is the root directory for MicroStation 95 (\win32app\ustation\, for example) 5. Double click EDG.EXE 6. Click OK in the Program Item Properties dialog You should now have the EDG Program Item in your MicroStation 95 Program Group. Follow steps 1 through 3 and then continue with the following steps to install the EDG Help icon: 4. In the Program Item Properties dialog, select the Browse button and change directories to $(MS)HELP\ENGLISH, where $(MS) is the root directory for MicroStation 95 (\win32app\ustation\, for example) 5. Change the List Files of Type to All Files, then double click EDG.HLP 6. Click OK in the Program Item Properties dialog You should now be able to access the EDG and EDG Help icons in your MicroStation 95 Program Group. ============================================== End of MicroStation 95 Under Microsoft Windows ============================================== ======================== MicroStation 95 Features ======================== This section contains information about the following: Printing and Plotting Archiver information DWG/DXF import/export MSBATCH MicroStation BASIC Enter Data Field information General Graphics Information --------------------- Printing and plotting --------------------- NOTE: Bentley does not endorse any hardware peripherals. This includes plotters, printers, display adapters, or input devices. Due to Win32s limitations, printing under Windows 3.1x will support standard line styles or line weights, but not both. If an element has both style and weight, then only the style will be honored. Custom line styles are not affected. Plotting does not have this limitation. The following types of plot key-ins are now supported: preview (opens plot dialog box in preview mode) plot (opens plot dialog box) plot view 1 plot c:\tmp\topview.ini plot c:\tmp\topview.ini lpt2 plot fence plot fence lpt2 plot view 1 "\\printman\laserjet1" Note that Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path names may now be used with the key-in. Plotter driver files are now stored in the $(MSDIR)plotdrv/ directory. Since the Plot dialog is non-modal in MicroStation 95, placing a fence while the Plot application is loaded will not automatically change the Entity from View to Fence. That must be either done manually or by unloading the Plot application (Plot > Exit) and then restarting it after a fence has been placed. -------------------- Archiver information -------------------- Dragging and dropping a directory icon from the Windows File Manager will not Archive any files contained in that directory. You must select each file to be archived, and then drag them to the MicroStation 95 Archive dialog box. Long filenames are truncated to the first eight characters when transferred to an operating system that does not support long filenames (DOS). For the Use Path Filter option to have any effect, the Save Directories option must also be selected. MS_ARCHIVE is used to select the directories to include in the search path for Archive (.mar) files. MS_ARCHIVECLASS is used to select the directories to include in the search path for Archive class (.mac) files. --------------------- DWG/DXF import/export --------------------- Some of the import/export settings can now be set only through a MicroStation BASIC macro. Please see $(MS)/tables/dwg/dwg.bas for examples. The Override Level Names toggle in the Export Drawing File Settings dialog can be thought of as Use Level Names. If enabled, Level Name entries will override the respective entry in the import/export Layer - Level Mapping table. There is a new "dumptables" option for the batch file processing feature of the DWG/DXF import application. This option creates a text file containing all font file and block names that are in a DWG/DXF file. The syntax is as follows: msbatch dwgin input: dumptables [outdgn:] When the "dumptables" option is specified, a design file is not created. Instead, the text file is built. This file can be used as a data source to cut and paste from when mapping fonts and block names in a MicroStation BASIC macro for import/export. If outdgn: is not specified on the command line, will default to .dmp. Since font file and cell to/from block name mapping are supported only through MicroStation BASIC in MicroStation 95, the "dumptables" option should be used as a convenient starting point to build the tables, which can then be called in the import and/or export macro. EX: msbatch dwgin input:dwgfile.dwg dumptables outdgn:acad.dmp The command line above will create the text file acad.dmp in the directory specified by MS_DGNOUT. This file will contain font file and block names that exist in the file dwgfile.dwg. No translation will take place. EX: msbatch dwgin input:dwgfile.dwg dumptables The command line above will create the text file dwgfile.dmp in the directory specified by MS_DGNOUT. This file will contain font file and block names that exist in the file dwgfile.dwg. Note that the name of the text file (dwgfile.dmp) is obtained from the input file (dwgfile.dwg) as outdgn: is not specified on the command line. Again, no translation will take place because the "dumptables" option is specified. If the macro setting MbeDWGImportSettings.ignoreEmptyLayers = MBE_OFF for DWG import, MicroStation 95 will "purge" unused layers in the DWG file. However, a layer in a DWG file may contain an erroneous flag value, which may produce incorrect results. To correct this situation in R12, you can SAVE/SAVEAS the file before exiting. In R13, you will have to PURGE your file. If you set MbeDWGImportSettings.ignoreEmptyLayers = MBE_ON, which is the default, this situation will not occur. ------- MSBATCH ------- When using MSBATCH with the import/export applications, some users may experience limits to the number of files that are operated on with one batch process. This limit is related to the exhaustion of available system resources and can vary from system to system. Typically, more physical memory and/or available swap space will increase the number of files that can be operated on in a single batch process. ------------------ MicroStation BASIC ------------------ In the MicroStation BASIC Guide, the examples for MbeCExpressionLong, MbeCExpressionDouble and MbeCExpressionString are not correct. The substring "mdl" should be "Mbe". For example: Dim nextNodeNum as Long nextNodeNum = MbeCExpressionLong ("tcb->canode") Dim trueNorthAzimuth as Double trueNorthAzimuth = MbeCExpressionDouble ("tcb->azimuth") Dim altLibraryName as String altLibraryName = MbeCExpressionString ("tcb->altLibraryName") ---------------------------- Enter data field information ---------------------------- EDIT SINGLE and AUTO EDIT are sensitive to the text preference for text editor style. These commands should always take input from the keyin field for compatibility with Version 5 user commands, scripts, Settings Groups and command menus. EDIT SINGLE and AUTO EDIT work the same way PLACE TEXT does. ---------------------------- General graphics information ---------------------------- A new tool, DELETE SYMBOL, has been added to delete symbols from a line style resource file. The syntax is 'DELETE SYMBOL ' To use it, a line style library must be active while in a design session. If the line style editor is open, the library that is currently being accessed by the editor is used. Otherwise, the most recently opened library in the session is used. This is the same as 'CREATE SYMBOL '. A symbol that is currently referenced by any Point component cannot be deleted. In this case, the message "Symbol cannot be deleted because it is in use" is displayed in the error field. If the symbol is deleted successfully. the message, "Symbol deleted from library" is displayed in the status field. =============================== End of MicroStation 95 Features =============================== == 3D == This section contains information about the following: Rendering Acceleration OpenGL under Windows Export Visible Edges ---------------------- Rendering Acceleration ---------------------- MicroStation 95 can be optionally configured to make use of advanced graphics acceleration interfaces to improve performance of rendered images. Support for acceleration is through an MDL extension which may be supplied by Bentley or a third-party vendor. Bentley supports OpenGL on available platforms in MicroStation 95. The primary reason for using a graphics acceleration interface like OpenGL is to improve rendering performance, but there can be a tradeoff between increased performance and visual quality for rendered views. A toggle button labeled "Graphics Acceleration" has been added to the Settings > Rendering > View Attributes dialog. It marks the view as eligible to be drawn using OpenGL or (depending upon platform) some other graphics- acceleration interface. If toggled on, the view will be accelerated on all platforms that have an accelerator extension installed. If off, the view is drawn without acceleration. -------------------- OpenGL under Windows -------------------- OpenGL is available in Windows NT and is expected to be available in a future upgrade to Windows 95. These systems support OpenGL regardless of hardware configuration. However, using OpenGL will not significantly improve MicroStation 95 performance except on systems that are configured with a hardware graphics accelerator. In order to use OpenGL with MicroStation 95, the system display driver must be set for at least 32768 colors in the Windows Control Panel. Wireframe views may be displayed using OpenGL, but the greatest performance improvement from OpenGL is realized when displaying rendered views. This performance advantage diminishes if texture maps are enabled since most hardware accelerators do not accelerate this operation. Phong rendering is not supported by OpenGL. Selecting Phong rendering in an OpenGL accelerated view will result in an unaccelerated rendering. Rendering large files with the View Cache toggle on in the OpenGL Settings dialog can consume a lot of virtual memory. Make sure that you have plenty of free disk space when using this feature. Due to an operating system bug in Windows NT 3.50, double buffering may not be possible in some systems. -------------------- Export visible edges -------------------- In Chapter 2 - File Menu of the on-line Reference Guide, under Export > Visible Edges..., the sentence "If off, text and dimensions are not included in the output. The default is on." should read "If off, text and dimensions are displayed without any test for visibility. That is, they will show regardless of depth in view. The default is on." In some instances (i.e.: 12 point font at 640x480), the Visible Edges dialog is too big to fit on the screen -- the OK/Preview/Cancel push buttons along the bottom of the dialog will not display. Since the dialog is modal, you can press the key to get out of the dialog. If you encounter this situation, you can use a shorter, but wider, version of the dialog by using the command EDGES WIDEDIALOG instead of EDGES DIALOG. To automatically activate this dialog from the menu bar, use the Customize tools to change the File > Export > Visible Edges... key-in to MDL KEYIN EDGES EDGES WIDEDIALOG. ========= End of 3D ========= ============= Adobe Acrobat ============= Documentation is provided in PDF (Portable Document Format) files that can be browsed, searched, or printed with the supplied Acrobat Reader from Adobe Systems Incorporated. All printed product documentation as well as additional technical information is supplied in PDF format. For information about installing Acrobat Reader, see "acroread.txt" in the \acrobat\ directory on the CD. For information about using Acrobat Reader, see "help_r.pdf," which is installed in Acrobat Reader's "help" directory. Here are some quick instructions for viewing the PDF documents: 1. In the File Manager, go to the CD's \docs\ directory and double-click the "readfrst.pdf" file. or In Acrobat Reader, choose Open from the File menu. Go to the CD's \docs\ directory and select "readfrst.pdf." The Home Page opens. As you move the pointer across the Home Page, it turns into a hand with a pointing finger when it passes over hypertext links. 2. Open the desired document by pointing at its title and clicking it. The document's Table of Contents opens. 3. Open the desired section by pointing at a topic and clicking it. You can use bookmarks to "jump" to a specific topic. Click the Bookmark Icon (the second icon from the left on the toolbar) to open a list of bookmarks. The blue boxes at the beginning of sections, chapters, and tables of contents move you "up" a level and, eventually, back to the Home Page. Alternately, you can open PDF documents by double-clicking them in the File Manager. Each sub-directory in the \docs\ directory contains an on-line "book." Within each "book" sub-directory, each PDF file corresponds all or part of a chapter. For example, the PDF files for the On-line Reference are in the "ref" sub- directory; the file "ref02.pdf" is Chapter 2. Note: In the MDL documentation, each topic is contained in a separate PDF file. If you experience unexpected results when printing the PDF files, it is recommended that you contact your printer vendor to obtain the latest printer drivers for the device that you're using. The Adobe Acrobat Reader is an Adobe product and is supported by that organization. Although we would like to be informed about any problems that you encounter with the Reader, please contact Adobe for technical support with regard to that product. Automated Technical Support Adobe Products: 206-628-2757 Adobe Consumer Products: 206-628-2752 FaxYI Fax-on-Demand Support All Products: 206-628-5737 BBS - Support info, filters, drivers, etc. 206-623-6984 FTP - Support info, filters, drivers, etc. ftp.adobe.com WWW - Support info, filters, drivers, etc. http://www.adobe.com/ ==================== End of Adobe Acrobat ==================== ===================== Non-graphic Databases ===================== This section contains information about the following: General database enhancements Xbase RIS Oracle ODBC Oracle Workgroup 2000 Tools ----------------------------- General database enhancements ----------------------------- - FI= statement where the mslink value is null: If the where clause on an FI= statement is such that it specifies only a single row, and the mslink column is null or zero, (i.e. unpopulated) and the linkage mode is duplicate, the mslink column for that row will automatically get assigned the next highest one, and will be used as the AE. If, in the case of the above scenario, there is more than one row that satisfies the where clause, that will cause an error. You will see the message - Unable to assign mslink. Version 4.0 functionality has been restored. FI= works where the mslink value is null in both New and Duplicate linkage mode. - Now allows decoding of a DB linkage without having server.ma running or being connected to a database. mdlDB_decodeLink will set link->tablename to an empty string if not connected to a database. - All servers are DLMs (for faster performance), except for Oracle and RIS on DOS. - The following describes the add row without locking functions: If MS_DBNOLOCKING is defined (value does not matter) then MicroStation 95 will not lock the table to add a new row. The server will get the largest mslink in the table, add one to it, and try to insert the new row. If the insert fails, the mslink is incremented and another insert is attempted. This process continues until the row has been successfully inserted or MS_DBMAXATTEMPTS is reached. The maximum number of attempted inserts defaults to 10 when MS_DBMAXATTEMPTS is undefined. - Configuration Variable "MS_DBMSFORMS" MicroStation 95 has the new capability of using temporary (randomly generated) table names for the "msforms" data. This is to better accommodate multi-user situations, so different users don't use the same msforms table. Those database systems that use external forms managers need to know the name of this msforms table. That is not possible if a new name is generated for each database connection. The variable "MS_DBMSFORMS" solves this by allowing the user to specify the name of the msforms table. So, each workstation using the database would have a different name, and the forms trigger would refer to the msforms name assigned for that workstation. If the variable is set to something, its value will be used as the msforms table name. If it is not set, then, in the non-Xbase case, the name of the msforms table will be "msforms". In the Xbase-case, if the "Use temporary ae/msforms tables" User Preference is set such that temporary tables ARE used, then a randomly generated table name will be used as the msforms table. Otherwise, "msforms" will be used. Note that the user preference setting for msforms only applies to Xbase. ----- Xbase ----- Some significant progress has been made in the improvement of performance in the Xbase servers. The affected areas are: Fence Reporting Fence Filters FI= (setting the active entity) Loading Displayable Attributes (forms and non-forms mode) Cursor processing mdlDB_readColumn function There are now Xbase specific implementations of cursor open, fetch and close. They are in rdbmslib.ml, so the prototypes can be found in rdbmslib.fdf. The interface is exactly the same as with the normal cursor functions, except for mdlDB_openCursorXbase. Its extra parameter is an indicator from the caller as to whether any more than just the column's values are desired. If the other information in the MS_sqlda structure is not needed by the caller, set this parameter to FALSE. That will result in better performance. Also, mdlDB_simpleSelectXbase is a new function. It provides the MDL developer the ability to issue a select statement and receive a single row's column values back without the overhead of opening and closing a cursor. This is an improvement over mdlDB_sqlQuery because as many columns as desired can be specified in the select statement. - XBASE Sample files added. The data dictionary files for the GIS example are now included in the delivery. This means that you can connect to GIS simply by using the menu - right out of the box. No additional configuration needed. There is no need to run build.bat or initialize the data dictionary to connect to the sample XBASE, XBASENDX or XBASEFOX databases. - If you are a single user of an Xbase database, be sure to set the configuration variable "MS_DBMODE" to "nonshared". (Note that not defining it at all is not adequate.) This will improve performance of activities that require the generation of a new MSLINK value (e.g. ATTACH AE while LINKAGE MODE is "New"). - Configuration variable "MS_XBFORMITEMSIZER" This allows the user to have the fields of an Xbase form automatically adjusted to better accommodate longer values. Because the font used for dialog item values is a proportional one, depending on the characters that are in the actual value the entire value may or may not be visible if the size of the item is set to a string that has "wide" characters (capital W, for instance). This configuration variable allows you to specify how much bigger each field will be, relative to the DBF files' column width. MS_XBFORMITEMSIZER should be set to a string like "x.y". This means the field size will be adjusted according to the below formula: dialogItemWidth = columnWidth + x + columnWidth ^ 0.y ("^" means "raised to the power of"). This causes the fields for small columns to be enlarged relatively more than that for wider columns. If MS_XBFORMITEMSIZER is not set, the default value is "0.0", meaning there will be no adjustment at all. If there is a picture clause for the item, that will take precedence, and MS_XBFORMITEMSIZER will be ignored for that field. Hint: A good value for MS_XBFORMITEMSIZER would be something in the range of "3.5". - XBASE forms with Memo Fields are not supported in MicroStation 95. MicroStation 95 will bypass these field and not display memo data on the form. --- RIS --- - RIS is not supported under Win32s (in Windows 3.1x) - The RIS DOS client was created with 4.3 tools and can not connect to a RIS 5.x server. At present, Intergraph does not plan to generate RIS 5.x tools for DOS. ------ Oracle ------ - Oracle native is not supported under Win32s Windows 3.1, it is supported under Win32s Windows 3.11 (WFW). You can also connect with Intersolv ODBC Oracle drivers. - Oracle DOS does not support sql statements or return data greater than 2000 characters. - MicroStation 95 adds support for Oracle Forms 4.5 on Intel. If Settings > Database > Dialog > Text Forms is selected, MicroStation 95 will invoke the Oracle Forms 4.5 runform program (f45run.exe) displaying database information in a user defined form when elements are reviewed for database information (review attributes). The configuration variables that effect Oracle forms execution is MS_FORMSMANAGER. This specifies the forms manager executable that MicroStation 95 will use to display Oracle forms. When undefined MicroStation 95 uses 'f45run.exe' as the Oracle Forms runtime executable. Use this variable to specify a different forms executable. MS_FORMSARGS - This specifies arguments to invoke the forms manager. Normally, MicroStation 95 does not use any arguments when it invokes the forms manager. Use this variable if you want to invoke the Oracle Forms Manager with arguments. ---- ODBC ---- - In MicroStation 95, users must run under NT 3.51 (NOT 3.5) to successfully connect using the Microsoft Access ODBC driver. The supported Intersolv drivers work under both NT 3.5 and NT 3.51. - MicroStation 95 will support ODBC Access forms. MicroStation 95 supports other forms managers under Windows. Setup procedures will be issued in a technical note after release. - Access ODBC driver does not support columns with "view" in the name (such as SQLVIEW). Therefore the create MSCATALOG function will not execute successfully. As a workaround, you can create the MSCATALOG in Access or import an existing one into Access. --------------------------- Oracle Workgroup 2000 tools --------------------------- To get the Workgroup server tools (16 bit) to connect up under NT, when you install 16 bit SQL*Net TCP/IP (under NT), you must select Winsock dlls, Windows NT 3.1/3.5 transportation layer. If you are under Windows 3.11 select Windows for Workgroups 3.11 TCP/IP (VDx). This allows you to use the Workgroup Server 2000 Tools to manage network databases: startup / shutdown, operate in tables, resize databases, etc. If you also have a local Oracle 7 database under NT, you must install the 32 bit Server version of SQL*Net TCP/IP or Named Pipes. It gets confusing, but in essence you are running the 32-bit server listener and connecting from 16 bit client tools on the same box. You can also manage UNIX databases with these tools. ============================ End of Non-graphic Databases ============================ =========== END OF FILE ===========