Bentley MicroStation ReviewUsing MicroStation Review, you can monitor the progress of your design project, mark up drawings, send your mark-ups directly to designers and engineers, and approve design changes as soon as they are made. You can also review a project in the field with a hand-held, pen-based computer to supervise on-site construction, survey existing conditions, or develop as-built drawings. Now, from your desk or on-site, you have the power to oversee project development with MicroStation Review from Bentley Systems.
With one low-cost package, you have the perfect medium for communicating changes to project drawings and designs. MicroStation Review automates review, redlining, and approval cycles. Easy to use, it is suitable for all members of the project team, regardless of their level of CAD expertise. Choose MicroStation Review to streamline editing and revision cycles and eliminate the costs associated with repetitious check plots.
MicroStation Review shares many features with MicroStation, the technological CAD leader from Bentley Systems. The user interface is based on MicroStation’s – graphical and easy to use. Customization tools let you tailor the user interface to suit your specific tasks and CAD proficiency. Pull-down menus, palettes, and dialog boxes can be created and customized without programming. MicroStation Review is easy to learn and use even for the casual user.
MicroStation Review lets you redline, or mark up, designs and drawings with comments and revision notes. Draw lines and freehand sketch on the items you want changed, adding any notes or observations. These comments, notes, and change specifications are automatically stored in a separate file (MicroStation Review makes use of MicroStation's reference file feature). The information in no way affects the original drawing, ensuring project data integrity.
You can create and quickly select different line weights, colors, fonts, and text sizes for your comments and revisions. Place cells or hatch areas to further define your changes. With comprehensive redlining, you now have a way to readily communicate revision information to the original designer or draftsman.
With MicroStation Review, you have full access to MicroStation’s 2D and 3D files and associated reference files, as well as AutoCAD DWG and DXF files. AutoCAD files can be directly imported to and exported from MicroStation Review with complete data integrity – even incorporated paper space files.
MicroStation Review includes all MicroStation’s measurement tools for field verification and as-builts, as well as rendering tools for interference checking and presentations. You can also review and edit associated databases for instant access to current information, and run check plots on laser and dot matrix printers.
MicroStation Review is a powerful, easy-to-use tool for checking current information on a design project. MicroStation Review can satisfy your organization’s need for easy review from conceptual design through manufacturing to on-site construction. With MicroStation Review in the review cycle, you can better avoid delays in production that waste time and money.
For example, in mapping and GIS, you can check an underlying database for properties that have requested building permits, which may be candidates for updated tax assessment. Or you can check a community’s entire utility distribution network, including phone, gas, electrical, sewer, and water lines, for modernization proposals.
In architectural design, a project architect can review drawings for program or code compliance. You can visualize overall design and interior detail with photorealistic rendering. You can help clients understand a design with walkthrough animations. Quality assurance consultants can review drawing sets for adherence to corporate drawing standards, and estimators can tabulate materials and quantities electronically. All of these processes can be done online without a check set of unmanageable paper drawings.
With MicroStation Review, a project engineer or manager can examine all aspects of an assembly throughout the design process. A drawing checker can review the design to ensure that it meets company specifications and industry standards. Or as manufacturing problems arise, a machinist on the shop floor can mark up drawings and return them to engineering for resolution. And for engineering change notices, electronic redlining reduces paperwork.
MicroStation Review gives you easy access to scanned information and raster image files. Raster files can be attached to a design file in much the same way that other design files are referenced. Version 5 can display continuous tone (greyscale) and color images. It lets you look at and mark up hybrid raster and vector files without altering the original file (raster formats supported include .TG4, .RLE, and .CIT). For example, facility managers can scan in paper plans and provide a low-cost viewing station for building maintenance and support personnel. MicroStation Review offers hybrid plotting for small-format devices that support Postscript and HPGL and for network plotting as well.
You can customize MicroStation Review using the MicroStation Development Language (MDL) programming environment. MDL can be used to tailor the information flow between designers and reviewers to match standard office work flow procedures. For example, MDL can be used to develop an interface between field data collection devices and MicroStation Review. This enhances the speed and accuracy at which field data can be input into MicroStation. MDL applications that offer only viewing functions will work with both MicroStation and MicroStation Review.
MicroStation Review for pen computers lets you retrieve complete project information and indicate necessary changes from any location. You have instant access to CAD information while in the field or on the manufacturing floor, extending the use of CAD beyond the drafting and design department. You can make comments and revision notes using the computer’s stylus or pen, as though you were marking up conventional blueprints. Review’s graphical user interface is easily manipulated by the pen — users simply tap tools and write key-in commands, eliminating the need for a mouse or keyboard.
MicroStation Review is available for all MicroStation platforms and for many industry-leading pen computers. Common plotters and laser and dot matrix printers are supported. MicroStation Review for DOS and Windows can support a math coprocessor or emulate one.
Windows provides an impressive environment for running MicroStation Review on PCs. MicroStation Review runs in a window on the desktop along with other Windows applications. MicroStation Review can be used with many popular products to extend the viewing process. Spread sheets, forms builders, or word processing can utilize MicroStation graphic and non-graphic data for an array of practical applications.
For example, MicroStation mapping and GIS data can feed forms that display property ownership information for tax assessment review. Facility managers can develop working spreadsheets and records on maintenance or company assets. MicroStation Review then becomes more than a review and revision tool – it provides a secure medium for extending CAD-related information to downstream activities.
Cut and paste and object linking are supported to integrate your project data across applications. You can cut and paste raster (bitmap) files into a proposal or copy metafile (vector) design data for a technical illustration. Even notes and specifications in a word processor can be pasted into the redline file.
You can also link sound to your review designs. For example, a checker can mark up a design and send detailed comments to the designer in audio format. The designer simply clicks on a microphone icon in the MicroStation Review file to play back the message.
MicroStation Review and Windows are a perfect combination, making CAD information available for new users.
