Benefits of Automated CAD QA Brian Watt – Tribal Technology (UK)

Company & Personal Bio Company 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 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’s1990’s 2000 Onwards Small Medium Large Data Data Exchange Data Data Exchange Data Data Exchange Data

Product Evolution London Underground Ltd CAD Start-Up CD 1996 Mandatory vs Advisory Requirements (optional) Set of Legacy Utilities 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 scaled Not nested Not 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 Website Phone Mobile Fax

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)