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User Customization

You can make several user customizations in the program. The most common ones are described below.

Drawing Categories in Project Menu

You can define your own drawing categories and template files (figure files) as needed.

Factory standard for categories and templates is defined in the file DrawingCategories.ini which is stored in the folder ...\Sys\Market\ for the selected language.

Procedure

  1. Copy DrawingCategories.ini to the User folder
  2. Add your own categories to this file

The content will be merged with the content in the file on the Sys folder. User-defined categories with the same name will override those from the Sys folder.

The file contains the following attributes:

  • Name:
    Displayed in the dropdown menu so you can select drawing type when creating a new drawing

  • Bimfile:
    The content of the template bim file is copied into the new drawing you create

  • Tooltip:
    Displayed as tooltip in the category field when creating a new drawing

  • Description prefix:
    Suggested as prefix for description when creating a new drawing

Content in standard file:

;Format: Name=BimFile;Tooltip;Description prefix    
[DrawingCategories]    
Standard=Ter.BIM;Regular drawing with 2D/3D model;Map        
Personal=Ter.BIM;Personal work drawing;User:       
Cross sections=TerCsect.BIM;Cross section drawing with sheet;Cross sections, SFI:   
Longitudinal profile=TerLsect.BIM;Longitudinal profile drawing with sheet;Longitudinal profile, SFI:  
Plan drawing=TerPlan.BIM;Plan drawing with sheet;Plan drawing:   
""=;Not specified

The template files contain:

  • Ter.BIM:
    Model type Terrain Model with sunlight given by fixed angle.
    Toolset for planning, design and execution is active.

  • TerCsect.BIM:
    Model type Presentation Drawing.
    Inserted sheet for A3 portrait.
    Toolset for cross sections is active.

  • TerLsect.BIM:
    Model type Presentation Drawing.
    Inserted sheet for A1 general landscape.
    Toolset for longitudinal profile is active.

  • TerPlan.BIM:
    Model type Presentation Drawing.
    Inserted sheet for A3 landscape with space for legend.
    Standard toolset is active.

Create your own template files as described in the section about custom figure files below.

Custom Title Fields (BIM Files)

You can customize standard title fields, for example by inserting your own logo.

Customize Title Fields

  1. Copy the title field from the directory ...Sys\Market\... to the User directory
  2. Place image file with company logo in the User folder
  3. Open the title field drawing from the User folder via File - Open on the menu bar
  4. Open the title field drawings one by one and insert logo using Insert - Insert Image File
  5. Select the image file located in your User folder and place it in the desired position. Adjust scaling directly in the image file dialog.
  6. Select File - Save As in the User folder

You can use the same name, or change the variant number if you need multiple variants of the same title field.

If you change the variant number, you must also add the user-customized title fields to the corresponding text file. Then you will also get these in the list together with the predefined title fields.

Create New Title Fields

  1. Copy TitlefieldWindow.txt from the Sys folder to the User folder (contains list of predefined title fields)
  2. Open the text file in the User folder in Notepad
  3. Delete all the predefined title fields in this file
  4. Add the new title field variants in the same way

Note

You delete the predefined title fields in the file so they don't appear twice in the list. The program merges the content of the files in the Sys and User folders.

See presentation drawings for more detailed description of title fields.

Custom Reports (Excel Templates)

In the Sys folder you will find all Excel templates for:

  • Statistics
  • Geometric controls
  • Mass report

The reports can be customized by adding your own logo.

Procedure

  1. Place company logo in the User folder
  2. Open the Excel sheets from the folder ...\Sys\Market\ one by one
  3. When opening the sheet, do not activate macro (then the sheet will not work afterwards)
  4. Replace standard logo with company logo (get the image located in your User folder)
  5. Go through all tabs in the Excel sheet
  6. Save the sheet with the same name in the User folder. These will not be overwritten when a new program update arrives.
  7. Set up the program to retrieve the user-defined reports from the User folder in the dialog Gemini Terrain Settings - Reports on the Tools menu.

Custom Figure Files and Libraries

The standard figure and sheet library for Gemini Terrain is called FI0400.LIB and is located in the Sys folder.

Warning

It is important that you do not make changes to these libraries. The program may update these from version to version, and if you have your own, specially adapted versions of these, conflicts will occur with new installations.

The program always searches for figures in library FI0400.lib in the following order:

  1. Project folder (for example ...\Data\Demo)
  2. User folder
  3. Sys folder

If there is a user-customized FI0400.lib in the project folder, the program will search for the figure in this first. Any update of the figure in the library in the Sys folder will then not be used.

Naming and Placement of Figure Files

The standard libraries have many figure files with naming convention:

  • FInnnn.BIN
  • SOSInnnn.BIN

Tip

Do not create figure files with such naming convention because you may conflict with figure files in the libraries.

Recommended procedure for custom figure files to be used across projects:

Procedure

  1. Add description in the model with prefix @ if the figures should also be available in the presentation rules for application layers.

  1. Place the figure files directly in the User folder
  2. Come up with good names you can remember (e.g. MyLogo.bim)
  3. Use max. eight characters in the filename, and avoid special characters (e.g. ÆØÅ)

Using Custom Figure Libraries

It is recommended to avoid using figure libraries for two reasons:

  1. It is cumbersome to manage figure libraries
  2. You must include an LU command in each drawing that will use the library

If you eventually get very many BIM files in the User folder, it may still be relevant to create custom libraries. Then the file TER.BIM can be used to avoid entering the LU command manually in each drawing.

Custom Batch Jobs (Import)

In the Sys folder there is a file called applayer_batch.txt. The file contains the batch jobs that the program uses in the function File - Import.... If you want to add your own batch jobs, you must copy applayer_batch.txt to the User folder, and add your own to this.

A batch job creates application layers with the same name as the templates and imports data from the selected external file. The templates will typically contain import profile with filter that distributes the content in the data source to the different layers.

Procedure

  1. Copy the file to the User folder
  2. Open the file in Notepad
  3. Add new batch jobs at the bottom of the file applayer_batch.txt

Each batch job consists of a line with the name of the batch job and file type, plus all the templates to be used:

Format:<Batch job name>,<filetype>
template1.aly
template2.aly
template3.aly

If you only want to import a format to an application layer with the same name as the file, you can do it as follows:

Format:<Batch job name>,<filetype>
template1.aly,separate

Application Layer Template

An application layer template can contain:

  1. Presentation rules for plan and 3D
  2. Filters for display in plan and 3D
  3. Properties to be created on the layer
  4. Layer information
  5. Import profile

After defining the desired setup for an application layer, you can save this as a template with Save Template... You can find this option in the properties dialog for application layer.

An application layer template will at minimum point to a format, but can also point to an import profile. If you open the template in Notepad, you will find this in the section:

[CnvImport]
FormatId=1
Profile=<Profile name>

The import profiles can contain predefined filters and are saved in a separate text file called cnvprofiles.ini.

cnvprofiles.ini

By default, you will find cnvprofiles.ini in the Sys folder. If you create your own import profiles, these will end up in separate cnvprofiles.ini files either in the User folder or Ini folder.

User-defined import profiles can also contain filters. You can define filters for all object types: line, point, text and polygon. The filter tells which codes should be allowed into the layers that use the import profile.

[<Profile name>_CNVProfile]
Xref_file=
FormatId=1
UseXref=0
UseFilter=1
AttrMode=1
[<Profile name>_Attributes]
UseLines=0
UsePolys=0
UsePoints=0
UseTexts=0
LineAttrs=S_FCODE
PolyAttrs= S_FCODE
PointAttrs= S_FCODE
TextsAttrs= S_FCODE
[<Profile name>Filter]
LineUseFilter=1
LineUseObjects=1
LineUseExclude=0
LineFieldName=S_FCODE
LineFi1=Value:"<from code>"-"<to code>"
PointUseFilter=0
PointUseObjects=0
PointUseExclude=0
PointFieldName= S_FCODE
PointFi1=Value:"<from code>"-"<to code>"
TextUseFilter=0
TextUseObjects=0
TextUseExclude=0
TextFieldName= S_FCODE
TextFi1=Value:"<from code>"-"<to code>"
PolygonUseFilter=1
PolygonUseObjects=1
PolygonUseExclude=0
PolygonFieldName= S_FCODE
PolygonFi1=Value:"<from code>"-"<to code>"