i just made the switch. the hardest thing to deal with is knowing how to do it autocad and not in microstation. accept being stupid and learn one thing at a time. all the key commands are different and knowing the autocad ones will confuse you. plus they are all 2 letters so line is not "L" but "LL" match attributes is not "ma" but "ca". microstation saves/overwrites a file in realtime as you go, with every change not just when you tell it to. snaps are also very different. there is a button on the bottom left to turn on snaps. most microstation users are annoyed by the visual cue and automatic snap feature which as an autocad user you are used to. finding this button and turning it on will help. also to snap during a command hold shift and right click. this will bring up a list of which specific snap to choose from(ie intersection, nearest, etc). the mouse functions and rituals are hard to adapt to but will come with practice. the best way to learn is just to try. try redrawing something you drew in autocad and see what function you really need to know for competency and what ones just make you more productive

oh and by the way there is not running list of text at the bottom of the screen to tell you your history. but text does appear to help you perform a function. it is just not as clear and useful as in autocad.

i agree with bawmis. just accept the fact that you will suck at microstation. basically forget everything you learned in autocad and prepare yourself to start from scratch. get the book "inside microstation". it's awesome. it gives you step by step instructions on how to do what you need to be productive with microstation. also, realize right off the bat that microstation is very button-intensive which can be a pain for us cad users (my screen doesn't have a single button present and i love it that way). but the advanced functionalities of microstation are awesome as well. when you draw in microstation you are building plan and model at the same time. so much nicer at times than cad. good luck.

Thanks for the help. Guess I better have a few drinks this Friday to kill off those pesky Autocad brain cells and start fresh.

set up your function keys, this will negate the use of most of the buttons on the side and top bars if you set the right ones up.

the text at the bottom is in my opinion less confusing than autocad. it offers you explicit instructions on how to perform the operation you are currently in, step by step.

the reference managing is in my opinion way better than autocads xref commands. you can reference the same file into itself if necessary. you can also copy in elemnts from a reference, where as in cad, the xref sits there as a giant block, somwhat unusable. also, it seems easier to me to turn levels/layers off and on in microstation. also, remember that there is a separate group of tools for manipulating references. there is a move reference tools versus just the move tool. this is good for keeping them in place so people who don't know why something is there can't move it. also, you can see the references references as far down as you need to, turning all layers off independently. (think of it as having the ability to have 50 layers of tracing paper if necessary, and being able to turn off a layer on the bottom piece of paper if you need to.

the level/layer manager can also stay up while you are doing things instead of having to open and close it and apply changes, just plain annoying in autocad.

when turning levels on and off, remember there are three places to make this happen. 1, the top bar (almost exactly like autocad), 2, the level display dialog box (very good for turning things off and on in references), and 3, the full blown level manager dialog box.

do not forget everything you have done in autocad. remember the concepts, and some things just have slightly different names.

xref = reference
polyline = smartline
block = cell
etc.

get your f'ing hand off the escape key. you don't need it.

oh, and the transition to 3d is seamless. you can do good renderings quickly if you know what you are doing.

also, because the transition to 3d is seamless, you may want to remember to work in a 2d file until you get the hang of both. i have seen people measure a distance for 30 minutes because the can't figure out why something that is supposed to be 10' apart is reading as a distance of 3126'-4". the reason for this is that the elements may appear how you want them in top view, they may be spread out in the z direction.

good luck.

my recollection is that you can load an autocad transition menu in microstantion that shows the microstation command and the autocad equivalent next to it - very handy.

Ok, been working on microstation for a few weeks now. Starting to learn it but it seems like everything takes twice as many commands compared to Autocad.

When drawing a line I've been told to do the DI= or DL= and then type in distances. There has got to be a faster way.

Is there anything similar to object tracking in Autocad?

Can I change it so I can just type in 10'-0" and get a 10'-0" line?

Is there a way to set my snaps so they stay on?

I bought "The Microstation V8 Training Manual" by Peter A. Mann. It is excellent at setting up your user preferences so that MicroStation works the way you want it to.

Make sure you are using AccuDraw.
Set your middle mouse button as tentative snap.
Assign your function keys with your most used commands.

By the way, if you are going through this pain for just one project, why not do it in AutoCAD, open the files in MicroStation and save as a .dgn?

Good Luck

Well, it's a new client that we will have a multiple project relationship with. Might as well use the program for more than Autocad conversion.

I've got the hang of it pretty well. Thanks for the suggestions though. For the most part the CAD techs are running with it. I just need to add a note here, change some walls there.