microstation/geopak cadd engineering standards meeting

Dan Reinke, P.E. 

(614) 728-8917 

daniel.reinke@dot.state.oh.us 

ODOT Central Office, Office of Production 

CADD Section 

MICROSTATION/GEOPAK CADD 

ENGINEERING STANDARDS MEETING 

Microstation Materials 

Google SketchUp & Microstation Integration 

Fly Through Creation 

Aerial Photo Draping with Descartes 

Geopak LiDAR Tools 

Roadway Designer - Preview


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CADD Section 



Microstation Materials 

Google SketchUp & Microstation 

Integration

PRESENTATION OVERVIEW 

• What is a Material? 

• Material Editor 

o Material Tables 

o Material Palettes 

o Material Creation (Live Demo) 

o Material Application (Live Demo) 

o Material Manipulation (Live Demo) 

• Environment Maps (Live Demo) 

• Google 3D Warehouse Model Integration (Live Demo)

WHAT IS A MATERIAL? 

• Materials are used to make 3D Microstation 

objects look like the real world objects that 

they represent.

MATERIAL EDITOR 

• The material editor is where all material 

related functions are located. 

• It can be accessed from the “Rendering” 

toolbox. (Tools>Visualization>Rendering)

MATERIAL TABLES AND PALETTES 

• A Material Table (.mat) is a file containing all 

the various Material Palettes. 

• A Material Palette (.pal) is a file containing all 

the various material definitions. 

Material Table Name 

Material Definitions 

Material Palette Name

MATERIAL EDITOR (CONTINUED) 

• There are two modes; 

Advanced Mode On or Off 

Advanced Mode “On” Advanced Mode “Off”

MATERIAL CREATION, APPLICATION, AND 

MANIPULATION & ENVIRONMENT MAPPING 

• The creation, application, and manipulation 

of materials, environment mapping, and 

Google 3D Warehouse usage will be 

explained via a live demonstration in 

Microstation V8 XM Edition.




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Fly Through Creation


• What is a Fly Through? 

• Dialogue Box Overview and Definitions 

• Procedure Outline 

• Live Demonstration

WHAT IS A FLY THROUGH? 

• A fly through is a sequence of rendered 

images, or frames, strung together to create 

a movie, that can be used to represent a 

birds eye view of a project along any path 

that the user chooses. 

• The fly through producer is a tool that allows 

the user to generate an AVI file that can be 

viewed by anyone using only Windows Media 

Player or another compatible video player.

DIALOGUE BOX OVERVIEW & DEFINITIONS 

• Angle (Horizontal) – Sets the angle, in degrees, 

of the lens “field of vision”. Increasing the angle 

θ 

decreases the focal length. 

L 

• Focal Length (Horizontal) – Sets the lens “focal 

length”, in millimeters, to widen the lens “field of 

vision”. Decreasing the focal length increases 

the angle. 

• Front Clip Distance - Sets the distance along the 

view z-axis, in working units, to the plane at 

which the camera begins to “see” elements in 

the design. Any part of an element closer to the 

camera than this plane is not included in the 

frame. If the plane “clips” an element, the frame 

will show a “slice” of that element. 

• Back Clip Distance - Sets the distance along the 

view z-axis, in working units, to the plane 

beyond which the camera no longer “sees” 

elements in the design. Any element (or part of 

an element) further than this plane from the 

camera is clipped.

DIALOGUE BOX OVERVIEW & DEFINITIONS (CONT’D) 

• Target Position – Affects the definition of the 

“target” at which the camera points: 

o Fixed - The camera is always focused on the 

same point while moving along the camera 

path. 

o Floating - The camera always points in the 

direction tangent to the path. 

• Speed (ticks/frame) – Sets the number of ticks 

(1/60 th second) that each frame is displayed in 

the movie. (Only used in .FLI format) 

• Resolution (pixels) – Sets the size of the screen 

displayed in the movie. Higher resolutions will 

result in larger files, taking longer to create. 

• Gamma Correction - Sets the brightness of the 

images in the output file(s). The default value is 

1; the valid range is 0.1 to 3.0. Increasing the 

Gamma Correction setting lightens the images; 

decreasing it darkens the images.

DIALOGUE BOX OVERVIEW & DEFINITIONS (CONT’D) 

• Frame – This defines the number of frames that 

make up the movie. More frames will make the 

movie longer and “fly” slower, less frames will 

make the movie shorter and “fly” faster. 

o As a starting point, a smooth realistic 

“speed” for creating a fly through, note the 

following: 

0.122 frames/ft of camera path works 

well, and produces a smooth fly through. 

Example: 

Camera path = 1500 ft therefore; 

1500 ft * (0.122 frames/ft) = 

183 frames

PROCEDURE OUTLINE 

• Draw Camera Path 

• Open Fly Through Producer 

(Utilities>Render>Fly Through) 

• Populate Dialogue Box 

• Define Camera Path/Target 

• Preview 

• Record

LIVE DEMONSTRATION




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Aerial Photo Draping with 

Descartes


• What is aerial photo draping? 

• Requirements/Procedure Outline for draping 

with Descartes. 

• Live Demonstration

WHAT IS AERIAL PHOTO DRAPING?

COMPARISON: 

WITHOUT DRAPING

COMPARISON: 

WITH DRAPING

REQUIREMENTS/PROCEDURE OUTLINE FOR 

DRAPING WITH DESCARTES 

• Descartes installed. Five licenses currently 

available on server. (Image file size limitations 

draping with Microstation alone.) 

• Aerial image attached using Raster Manager 

• Aerial image properly located (horizontally) 

• “Draping” toggled on in Raster Manager 

• dcdrape.pal loaded and assigned in Material 

Editor 

• Render to verify results

LIVE DEMONSTRATION




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Geopak LiDAR Tools


• Description of new Geopak LAS tool 

• Location of North Zone OSIP LAS data 

• Overview of steps to create TIN model from LAS data 

• Live demo of TIN creation from LAS data

GEOPAK LAS TOOL 

• Geopak XM, Service Pack 1, version 08.09.05.36 

• LAS tool is located in “LIDAR XYZ Tools” within 

Geopak DTM tools. 

• Creates binary XYZ file as an output. 

• Horizontal location of LAS data will not line up 

initially when overlaid on ground survey. 

Suspected Grid to Ground issue.

LOCATION OF NORTH ZONE OSIP LAS DATA 

• LAS Data location 

o //itcfs007/gdrive/GEOMEDIA/warehouses/images/ 

osip/lidar/”county” 

• Mr. SID Imagery location 

o //itcfs007/gdrive/GEOMEDIA/warehouses/images/ 

imagery/North 

• LAS Data location on OGRIP website 

o http://gis3.oit.ohio.gov/geodata/ 

o Note: Internet Explorer usually cannot handle the size of 

the downloads, so Firefox or Opera could be used. All 

data can be obtained on the G: drive so web interface 

should not be needed typically. 

• Information regarding OSIP program and status 

o http://ogrip.oit.ohio.gov/ServicesData/ 

StatewideImagery/tabid/86/Default.aspx

OVERVIEW OF STEPS TO CREATE TIN MODEL 

FROM LAS DATA 

• Locate and copy LAS tiles for area in question 

o A Microstation .dgn file has been posted on the 

Central Office Production FTP site which contains 

each tile location along with county/district 

boundaries and roadways. 

o Central Office Production FTP site address 

ftp://ftp.dot.state.oh.us/pub/Production/OSIP_LAS_Tile 

s/OSIP_Tiles.dgn


FROM LAS DATA (CONTINUED)


FROM LAS DATA (CONTINUED) 

• Open “LIDAR XYZ Tools” in Geopak 

• Convert LAS file to binary XYZ (Use “Ground” feature) 

o Select input file (LAS), and define output file (XYZ) 

• Convert XYZ file to TIN file 

o Select input file (XYZ), and define output file (TIN)

LIVE DEMONSTRATION




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microstation/geopak cadd engineering standards meeting

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