benefits of automated cad qa brian watt – tribal technology (uk)
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Benefits of Automated CAD QA Brian Watt – Tribal Technology (UK)
Company & Personal BioCompany• Tribal Technology part of Tribal Group Plc• Listed on the London Stock Exchange• Public Sector Consultancy and Outsourced Services• £260M Turnover in 2005/06
Personal• 35 years CAD experience – Transportation and Construction• Implementation and management of complex multiple site CAD
environments together with associated process• Currently CAD Service Manager facilitating outsourced CAD and
Information Management services to London Underground & Tube Lines Limited, supporting over 300 users
Why do we need CAD QA ?Four decades of CAD evolution
1970’s – Academic development and large institutional pilots (little or no CAD standards, data exchange or project collaboration).
1980’s – Vendor developed systems, Mini, Unix and PC based, AutoCAD & MicroStation launched (CAD standards and data exchange start to emerge, project collaboration still a pipe dream).
1990’s – Large, Medium, Small client server CAD networks become the norm (mainly windows based), CAD standards and data exchange are commonplace (sometimes supported by contractual Terms & Conditions) project collaboration and drawing management systems start to emerge.
2000 onwards – Critical mass of data starts to impact medium to large systems, extensive use of drawing management and project collaboration systems. CAD standards supported by contractual Terms & Conditions. CAD QA (sometimes automated) starts to emerge.
Four Decades of CAD Evolution
1970’s 1980’s 1990’s 2000 Onwards
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Product Evolution• London Underground Ltd CAD Start-Up CD 1996• Mandatory vs Advisory Requirements (optional)• Set of Legacy Utilities 1996 - 2006• Automated CAD QA Version 1 released January 2003
Runs outside ProjectWise – MicroStation V7 files• Automated CAD QA Version 2 released January 2004
Runs inside ProjectWise 2004 – MicroStation V7 & V8 files Utilised by Tube Lines Ltd Runs outside ProjectWise – MicroStation V7 & V8 files Utilised by Tube Lines Ltd
• Automated CAD QA Version 3 released November 2006 Runs inside ProjectWise 2004 – MicroStation V7 & V8 files Utilised by Tube Lines Ltd Runs outside ProjectWise – MicroStation V7 & V8 files Utilised by London Underground Ltd and Tube Lines Ltd
What’s in the Current Product • QA Specification Generator (feature extractor)
Extracts level symbology definitions from an Excel spreadsheet Adds DGN file parameters (e.g. no nested cells, ref locate off) Generates XML specification file
• QA Batch Controller Windows tool (AutoDocQA) to start batch QA operations
Runs MicroStation V8 on each DGN file in a designated folder • QA Analysis MicroStation V8 application (qa.ma)
Uses XML specification file to analysis DGN contents Works with MicroStation/J and MicroStation V8 file formats Creates one QA report XML file per DGN
Continued
Current Product - Continued• QA Reporting
Individual report is available in HTML format Windows tool to consolidate multiple XML reports into single
HTML file with links to individual reports Reports are available on customer's Intranet, viewable with
web browser
What it checks - Mandatory• File Format Data in MicroStation version
• Working Units
• Global Origin setting
• Active Scale
What it checks - Advisory• BORDER FILE More than one = failure• REFERENCE FILES Attached with full path = failure• SYMBOLOGY Symbology checked against level/symbology
requirements• REFERENCE FILES Locate OFF• REFERENCE FILES Snap ON• REFERENCE FILES Display ON• CELLS
Not scaledNot nestedNot shared
Outside ProjectWise• Automated CADQA Utility (Client based processing)• Single or Multiple files checked (MicroStation V7 & V8)• VB front end• Directory navigation• Settings Manager & DGNLIBS supported• MDL + XML Templates (company/discipline defined)• Pass Mandatory = Check summary report file• Fail Mandatory = Check summary report file• Advisory failures 1 & 2 = Check summary report file• Fail 3 x Advisory = Check summary report file• Summary & Individual file Reporting
Inside ProjectWise 2004• Automated CADQA Utility (Client based processing)• Each file checked following move to CADQA Workflow State (MicroStation V7 & V8)• Settings Manager & DGNLIBS supported• ProjectWise API ‘hooks’• MDL + XML Templates (company/discipline defined)• Pass Mandatory = Move forward to next Workflow State• Fail Mandatory = Move back to First Workflow State (WIP) user auto notification of
Mandatory failure• Advisory failures 1 & 2 = Move forward to next Workflow State, user auto notification
of Advisory failure• Fail 3 x Advisory = Move back to First Workflow State (WIP) user auto notification of
Advisory failure• Individual file reporting + Audit Trail population• Fail Counter Adjustable• Process Timeout Factor Adjustable
Conclusions• Flexible tool – saving time & money
• Engage supply chain in use of utility
• Consistency of data structure will bring efficiency benefits
• Future MicroStation & ProjectWise XM versions
• Future auto correction tools
• Future link to supply chain performance statistics package
• Demonstration of current tools
Questions & Feedback
• Email [email protected]• Website www.tribalgroup.co.uk• Phone +44 207 0278647• Mobile +44 797 6946365• Fax +44 207 0278226
Feature Extractor
Discipline Key Source
Spreadsheet
Dgnlib.csv
Xml QA Rules file
Text file for generation of stg file
QA Specification Rules File
Spreadsheet
XML Rules File
QA Batch Controller
XML CAD QA Report
QA Reporting
QA Reporting (Continued)