MicroStation

What is it?

MicroStation is a suite of CAD software products for 2- and 3-dimensional design and drafting, developed and sold by Bentley Systems. The latest versions of the software are released solely for Microsoft Windows operating systems.

The most popular versions of MicroStation are MicroStation SE (released in 1997 year), MicroStation J (released in 1998 year), MicroStation V8 (released in 2001 year)

The latest version is MicroStation V8 XM (aka MicroStation 8.9), released in 2006. It builds upon the changes made by V8. The XM edition includes a completely revised Direct3d-based graphics subsystem, PDF References, task navigation, and keyboard mapping. Curiously enough, according to Bentley, "XM" doesn't stand for anything

MicroStation V7 is just common name for pre-MicroStation V8 releases (95, SE, J). It appeared because of significant version change which appeared between MicroStation J and MicroStation V8. Most users which wanted to start their applications which successfully worked under MicroStation J, failed to launch in MicroStation V8. This resulted in huge amount of work for rewriting applications to MicroStation V8.

MicroStation DGN format. How can I view these files?

Bentley created free viewer that allows you to open, view, interrogate, and print MicroStation DGN and AutoCAD DWG drawings and models. With an installed user base in the millions, Bentley View is possibly one of the most widely used CAD viewing tools available anywhere in the world. You can see screenshot of the Bentley View application below:

That is excellent decision for those people who do not want to spend money for viewing MicroStation DGN files.

MicroStation add-ons

MicroStation is famous for it's flexible ability for extension. Each user can potentially write an extension which can be used with MicroStation to add to its functionality.

Like AutoCAD's AutoLISP, MicroStation has it's own developing tools:

• The MicroStation Development Language (MDL) which is a 'C' like programming language
• Visual Basic for Applications
• MicroStation Basic
• User Command Macros (UCMs). Once very popular, support for these is no longer guaranteed in V8.
• JMDL
• SDK, which can be used for creation of Windows tools, which will be able to launch MicroStation functions

In fact there are 3 effective ways to use these extension possibilities:

1. Hire MDL programmer with at least 3 years programming experience
2. Use MDL programming services of third party company. For example, description of our MDL programming services is here.
3. Find appropriate tool between free and shareware tools. You can find their description here and between our MicroStation add-ons.

The first way is most efficient if you have constant amount of programming work and you are able to spend resources and time to find and hire good MDL developer. The second way is most appropriate for all companies which want to minimize their expenses for CAD and raise quality of the programs.

The third way - buying of time-saving tools for MicroStation - is the cheapest way to increase efficiency and productivity of CAD department in a short period of time. Since these tools in most cases are very reliable, flexible and the expenses for their creation have been already divided between hundreds or thousands of MicroStation users from all around the world!