Notes on the Example Session

The commands used in the example are described in detail below:

GENERATE PDMS /file1

Open a PDMS DESIGN macro file called file1.mac which will hold the Marine/Design commands for importing 3D data taken from the DGN files specified by the next ISFF commands. Every GENERATE command closes down any previous opened files.

ISFF /turb1.dgn

Read the file turb1.dgn for 3D data and generate the PDMS commands for import to PDMS DESIGN. The PDMS primitives generated will be under the PDMS ZONE element called /turb1.dgn as no zone name was specified.

SOLID

After giving this command, any DGN surfaces will be output as solids. This command should be used, for example, when exporting pipes, so that tubes or bends are exported as cylinders and circular toruses and not as faceted models. The SOLID command is the default and produces solid models.

UNITS METRE

See Units in ImPLANT-I.exe.

STRUC (or EQUIP or VOLM)

By default, all generated PDMS/Outfitting elements will be of type EQUIPMENT. To change this to STRUCTURE use the STRUC command and the VOLM command to change to VOLUME elements.

The STRUC command sets the mode so that the ISFF command generates the PDMS/Outfitting hierarchy STRUC/SUBST/Geometric primitives (BOX etc.). The EQUIP command sets the mode so that the ISFF command generates the hierarchy ZONE/EQUIPMENT/Geometric primitives (BOX etc.). In EQUIPMENT mode, the primitives are packed into the same EQUI until a MicroStation CELL entity is encountered. Then a new EQUI is generated. If GROUP ON is set in addition to EQUIPMENT mode then a new EQUI is generated for each micro station primitive.

Note that the STRU and ZONE PDMS elements take the name of the DGN file supplied, unless otherwise specified.

The VOLM command does exactly the same as the EQUIP command but replaces all EQUIPMENT elements with VOLUME elements.

APPROX 3

Change the curvature approximation to 3 (more coarse than the default value of 5).

GROUPPRIMITIVES

Stops primitives being grouped into arbitrary hierarchies. This is important if attributes are being output.

ATTRIBUTES /file3.att

For all geometry files processed by following ISFF commands, process the corresponding attribute files with the same names and output the results in an AVEVA Attributes file named file3.att. The attribute files normally have the file extension .drv, and their format is shown in Attribute Translation.

The ATTRIBUTES filename command opens a new attributes file and switches attribute processing on. Opening an attributes file will close any attributes file that is already open. ATTRIBUTES END closes the attributes file. The output of attributes can be toggled on and off.

Note: ImPLANT-I maintains cell ownership and Review segments within a cell segment inherit the attributes of the cell segment. In other words, the segments within a cell do not have attribute entries within the AVEVA Attributes file, only significant segments do.

ISFF /*.str /BUILD

Read all files with extension .str which have been generated by MicroStation and append the primitive records to the Review file file3.model. Standard windows wild-card characters may be used.

If you wish to use file names which include spaces, or certain other characters, you must use single-quotes around the name.

EXCLUDE BOX

From now on do not export boxes. To include them back again in this example the commands INCLUDE ALL or INCLUDE BOX can be used.

EXCLUDE COL 0

After this command has been given, primitives with color 0 will not be exported. To include primitives with color 0 again, the commands INCLUDE ALL or INCLUDE COL 0 can be used. Note that sometimes MicroStation users use color 0 to create a face that they subsequently use to create a projected surface, or surface of revolution object with a different color. In this case there will be a clash of colour between the construction face color (that is 0) and the object's color as they occur in the same place. To avoid this clash of colours, in Review export only, exclude color 0 from the model.

Most of the EXCLUDE/INCLUDE options are self-explanatory. However there are some options that describe MicroStation type of primitives/records and others describe 3D type of models as generated by ImPLANT-I.exe.

The MicroStation types of primitives/records are described in the MicroStation documentation and these are: CELL, TRUNCATED CONE, CAPPED SURFACE, SURFACE, SURFACE OF REVOLUTION.

Other element types referenced by the EXCLUDE command:

• CURVED SOLID Any solid that has been recognized as curved and which does not fit into the standard curved primitives such as circular torus, rectangular torus etc.

• PLANAR SOLID Any solid that does not have curved parts and does not fit into the standard primitives such as box, pyramid etc.

SHIFT 2000.0 3000.0 0.0

The SHIFT command specifies a shift in millimetres for the model.

MESSAGE /message

The MESSAGE command specifies an output file where all user commands and output messages can be stored.

MES END

The MES END command closes the message output file.