Users Guide

RasEdit
Take control of your raster reference files!
Version 4.0 for MicroStation/J

Axiom
1805 Drew Street
Clearwater, Florida 33765
727-442-7774 voice
727-442-8344 fax
AxiomInt@AxiomInt.com
www.AxiomInt.com

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Copyright 2008 Axiom.

All rights reserved.
This document was last modified on 14 May 2008 2:51 PM.

This software and manual are provided as is without warranty of any kind, either
expressed or implied, including, but not limited to the implied warranties of
merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The entire risk as to the quality and
performance of this program is with you. You are advised to test the program thoroughly
before you rely on it. Should the program prove defective, you (and not the seller nor
manufacturer) assume the entire cost of all necessary servicing, repair or correction. Any
liability of seller or manufacturer of this software will be limited exclusively to product
replacement or refund of the purchase price. Venue for the resolution of any dispute
related to this license or the use of this product shall be Pinellas County, Florida.

MicroStation is a registered trademark of Bentley Systems, Incorporated.

RasEdit is a trademark of Axiom.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction--------------------------------------------------------------------- 5
Introducing RasEdit----------------------------------------------------------------------------------5

Chapter 2 Installation----------------------------------------------------------------------- 6
Before You Install ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------6
Typical Installation from CD -----------------------------------------------------------------------6
Congratulations------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12

Chapter 3 Uninstalling --------------------------------------------------------------------13

Uninstalling Axiom products --------------------------------------------------------------------- 13

Chapter 4 Quick Start ---------------------------------------------------------------------14

RasEdit basics -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14
Demonstration versions --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14
Quick Start 1 Copy Raster Area by Rectangle---------------------------------------------- 14
Quick Start 2 Deskew -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15
Quick Start 3 Despeckle ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 16

Chapter 5 Using RasEdit -----------------------------------------------------------------18

Raster Reference File Types ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 18
Loading RasEdit------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 18
MicroStation versions------------------------------------------------------------------------ 18
RasEdit works with MicroStation/J The RasEdit menu--------------------------------------- 18
RasEdit Toolbar------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19
Select Active Raster-------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19
Deskew ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19
Despeckle-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 20
Delete ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 21
Move ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21
Copy-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22
Stamp Vector ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 23
Help | Contents ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 24
Help | About-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 24
Exit --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 24
Support for MicroStations Undo or <Ctrl-Z> ------------------------------------------------- 24

Chapter 6 Troubleshooting--------------------------------------------------------------25
Stamping CIT files --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 25
Still using MicroStation SE?---------------------------------------------------------------------- 25

Chapter 7 Well Make (Almost) Any Enhancements You Want---------------26

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Chapter 8 New Features and Fixes ---------------------------------------------------27

4.0a 15 May 2008 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 27

Chapter 1 Introduction

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Chapter 1 Intr oduction

Introducing RasEdit
Axiom is proud to announce the release of RasEdit the easiest way to edit your raster
reference files. RasEdit keeps MicroStation users in control of their raster reference files
with almost no training.
RasEdits features include:

Copy/Move raster data by fence or user-defined area Edit raster reference files
directly from within MicroStation!

Delete raster data by fence, user-defined area or brush.

Stamp Vector Rasterize vector data, writing it to an attached raster reference file.

Deskew Easily and automatically rotate referenced raster files to make them level.

Despeckle Instantly remove speckling from your attached raster reference files.

Note: New users can get started with RasEdit with little or no training!

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Chapter 2 Inst allation

Installation of RasEdit is quick and easy. Just follow the instructions below for the
operating system on which RasEdit is being installed.
Your computer must have MicroStation up and running. The plotting system should also
be installed, configured and running.

Before You Install

This chapter will walk you through a typical Axiom product installation. These
instructions apply to both MicroStation V7 and V8. V7 products are used in the
examples.
To install one or more Axiom products, you need:

The latest Axiom product CD; and

A license file on floppy disk for the product(s) you are about to install.

Please shut down all MicroStation sessions on your computer before continuing.

Typical Installation from CD

1. Insert the Axiom product CD into your CD drive.
2. The dialog box below should come up automatically. This may take a few moments
depending on computer and CD drive speed.
CONDITIONAL: In some cases Windows is set to suppress auto-running executables.
If the installation process does not begin automatically when you insert the CD, you will
need to start the process manually. From the Windows Start Menu, choose Run and
type in the following:
D:\Setup.exe
where D is your CD drive letter.

Chapter 2 Installation

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3. Click the <OK> button and the first installation dialog box (below) will appear.

4. Select MicroStation V7 or MicroStation V8 and click <Next>.

5. Choose which type of installation you want to perform. The Typical installation is
best for most situations and asks the user to make very few decisions.

6. These instructions will describe only the Typical installation path. Choose
Typical and click <Next>.

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7. Choose the license file for this installation. Place the floppy disk that came with this
installation CD into your floppy drive now.

8. Choose I have a floppy disk from Axiom. and click <Next>.

Although you have already selected the MicroStation family (V7 or V8) for which
you want to install Axiom tools, it is common for one computer to have more than
one instance of MicroStation installed on it. For example, you might have two
versions of MicroStation/J installed (07.01.04.16 and 07.02.04.20). You must choose
which of the two you want to associate your Axiom tools with.

Chapter 2 Installation

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9. Highlight the version of MicroStation you want to associate the Axiom tools with and
click <Next>.

Since this is a Typical installation, all programs for which an Axiom license was
found will already be checked-on to be installed. Other items that are also
automatically checked-on for installation are the product Users Guides, individual
product sample files and Axioms MicroStation pull-down menu.

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10. To proceed with default selections click <Next>.

Youve now completed the Pre-Setup.

11. Click <Next> to proceed with the installation.

Chapter 2 Installation

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12. The <Next>button is grayed-out unless you accept the agreement.

If you accept the license and click <Next>, the installation will begin. You can click
<Cancel> at any time to abort the installation.

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13. This is the final dialog box. It shows that the installation is complete. By default the
View Readme.pdf option is toggled on and will display the Readme.pdf document
when you click <Finish>.

Congratulations
Thats it! You have successfully completed the installation of your Axiom tools.

Chapter 3 Uninstalling

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Chapter 3 Uni nstalling

Uninstalling Axiom products

Axiom products can be uninstalled easily through the Windows Start Menu.
1. Go to <Start>, Programs | Axiom.
2. Select Uninstall V7 products or Uninstall V8 products depending on the products
you want to uninstall.

3. Choose Select all. or Select components to uninstall. If you choose Select

components to uninstall. then each product in the list can be manually checked or
unchecked. This allows for any combination of products to be uninstalled. Only
installed products will be shown in the list.
Note: At the bottom of the list of products you also have the option to uninstall sample
design files, users guides and even the Axiom pull-down menu.
4. Once youve made your selections, click the <Uninstall> button to complete the
uninstall process.

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Chapter 4 Qui ck Start

RasEdit basics
Once RasEdit has been installed as described above, you can run it from your Axiom
menu in MicroStation.

Demonstration versions
The demonstration version of RasEdit:

Expires after 30 days.

Only runs for five minutes at a time.

Displays an <OK> button that you must click after a delay. The delay gets longer
each time you run RasEdit.

Only runs on design files that are 200KB or smaller.

Needless to say, your permanent version of RasEdit will not have these restrictions.

Quick Start 1 Copy Raster Area by Rectangle

If you can use one of RasEdits features, you can use them all. Its really quite simple.
Well get you started by showing you how to copy part of a raster reference file to
another part of that raster reference file and then undo it.
1. Open MicroStation.
2. Open the rasedit\sample\rasedit.dgn file installed with RasEdit. This is usually
c:\Program Files\Axiom\V7\rasedit\sample\rasedit.dgn.
3. Load RasEdit from your Axiom menu. The RasEdit menu will appear on
MicroStations menu bar.
4. From the RasEdit menu, choose Copy | Rectangle.
5. Using your mouse, define two corners of a rectangle in the raster reference file
attached to your design file.
6. Now choose a data point as your from location and another datapoint as your to
location.
7. Observe that the raster data is immediately copied. RasEdit modified the attached
raster reference file.

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8. Now choose Edit | Undo copy rectangle in MicroStation or just type <Ctrl-Z> to
undo the copy. Observe that the copy is immediately undone.
Thats all there is to copying one area of your raster file to another with RasEdit!

Quick Start 2 Deskew

Now well show you how to automatically deskew (rotate) a raster reference file to make
it level.
Well start from the beginning in case youre not doing these quick starts in order.
1. Open MicroStation.
2. Open the rasedit\sample\rasedit.dgn file installed with RasEdit. This is usually
c:\Program Files\Axiom\ V7\rasedit\sample\rasedit.dgn.
3. Notice that the attached raster file is not level. It needs to be deskewed.
4. Load RasEdit from your Axiom menu. The RasEdit menu will appear on
MicroStations menu bar.
5. From the RasEdit menu, choose Deskew. A box will display suggesting a rotation
that will deskew the raster reference file.

6. Click <OK> to accept the suggested rotation angle. Now a box will display so you
can confirm the change before the raster file is modified permanently. This action
cannot be undone. Click <Yes>.

7. Notice that the raster file has now been automatically deskewed!
Thats all it takes to deskew a raster reference file with RasEdit.

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Quick Start 3 Despeckle

RasEdit can clean up stray pixel noise in your raster reference files. This ability is
called Despeckle.
Well start from the beginning in case youre not doing these quick starts in order.
1. Open MicroStation.
2. Open the rasedit\sample\rasedit.dgn file installed with RasEdit. This is usually
c:\Program Files\Axiom\ V7\rasedit\sample\rasedit.dgn.
3. Notice that the attached raster file is very noisy. Well fix that.
4. Load RasEdit from your Axiom menu. The RasEdit menu will appear on
MicroStations menu bar.
5. From the RasEdit menu, choose Despeckle. A box will display asking you how
many contiguous stray pixels to remove from your raster file.

6. There is no right or wrong answer here. It depends on how noisy your file is. 4 (x) by
4 (y) is generally considered a moderate degree of despeckling. Enter 4 in each of
the two boxes as in the picture above.
7. Click <OK> to start the despeckling.
8. A box will display telling you how many pixels will be removed. In this case, its
92,922 pixels because this file is so noisy! This action cannot be undone. Click
<Yes>.

Chapter 4 Quick Start

9. Notice that the raster file is now very clean!

Thats all there is to despeckling with RasEdit.
The rest of RasEdit is just as easy to use.
Enjoy!

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Chapter 5 Usi ng RasEdit

Raster Reference File Types

RasEdit is certified for use with TIF and CIT* raster reference files.
While RasEdit may work well with some other types of raster reference file types, they
are not officially supported.
* An exception to RasEdits support for CIT files is Stamp, which is not designed to
work with CIT files. See the Troubleshooting section of this guide for more about this.

Loading RasEdit
RasEdit can be loaded from the Axiom menu in your MicroStation menu bar.

MicroStation versions

RasEdit works with MicroStation/J The RasEdit menu

As soon as RasEdit is loaded, its menu appears on the MicroStation menu bar. All of
RasEdits features are available through its menu.

Chapter 5 Using RasEdit

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RasEdit Toolbar
This opens the RasEdit toolbar, from which you can perform many of RasEdits main
features. This guide does not describe the toolbar specifically as it is only a subset of the
items available from the RasEdit menu.
Tip: Use the menu for the more exotic RasEdit features, like Stamp Vector, as they are
not available on the toolbar.

Select Active Raster

Select
When your active design file has more than one raster reference file, RasEdit needs to
know which of them you want to work on at any given time. In this case, use RasEdit |
Select Active Raster | Select to choose the raster reference file you want to work on.
Tip: If your active design file has only one raster reference attachment, you dont need to
select it before working on it with RasEdit.

Save As
Make a copy of RasEdits active raster reference file with this feature. This will not
create a new raster reference file attachment, it will just create a new raster file.
[x] Also rename the reference file attachment.

If you want the existing raster reference file attachment to be modified to point at the new
raster file, check on the Also rename the reference file attachment. option. If you leave
this option off, you are just creating a copy of your active raster reference file without
changing anything inside of your design file. Your existing raster reference file will still
point at the old raster file.

Deskew
If your raster reference file is not level, use Deskew to fix it.
You will be asked to choose the raster reference file you want to deskew from a list if you
have more than one raster reference file attached.

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RasEdit will automatically recommend a rotation angle for you. You can either use
RasEdits suggestion or enter your own rotation angle.

RasEdit analyzed the raster reference file and suggested the above deskew
value.Warning: Deskew operations cannot be undone.

Despeckle
Use Despeckle to remove unwanted speckling from your raster reference files. Speckles
are stray pixels or noise in a raster file.

You define a speckle as an area up to 10x10 pixels.

Before the raster reference file is actually changed, RasEdit will tell you how
many pixels will be removed.
Warning: Despeckle operations cannot be undone.

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Delete
Use Delete to delete pixels in your raster reference file by

User-defined rectangle

Fenced area (inside of fence is used regardless of fence mode)

A rectangular brush whose size you define in this box:

Technical Note: Deleting pixels in the raster file really means turning them from
on to off in the raster reference file.

Move
Use Move to move raster data from one area in a raster reference file to another area,
either in the same or another raster reference attachment.
Undo Tip: Use Undo twice to undo a Move operation.

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Move Rectangle

Transparent

Use Transparent if you dont want to overwrite pixels in the destination area. Think of
this as merging the from and to raster areas.

Move Fence

In addition to having the Transparent option just like Move Rectangle above, RasEdits
Move Fence can include vector data in your raster move operation.

Copy
Copy Rectangle

In addition to the Transparent and Invert options that Copy Rectangle has in common
with many other RasEdit features, Copy Rectangle has a unique option: Copy Multiple.
Set Copy: to Multiple (not Single) to create multiple copies of the raster data in
side your rectangle. A new copy will be created at every coordinate you click your
mouse. Make as many copies as you like.

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Copy Fence

Just like Move Fence, Copy Fence can include raster or raster and vector data. And it can
rotate and scale that data during the copy operation.

Stamp Vector
Stamping is the process of turning vector elements drawn with MicroStation into raster
pixels in a raster reference file. This is powerful feature can significantly extend the life
of your raster files.
Stamp Vector works on a fence that includes vector elements overlapping the raster
reference file.
The conversion from MicroStation line weight to pixel weight is controlled from the
RasEdit configuration file, rasedit.ini, much like MicroStation plot drivers.
Stamp Vector prompts you with the count of vector elements it is about to stamp and lets
you choose whether to delete the vector elements after they are stamped.

Warning: Stamp Vector operations cannot be undone.

Backup Note: The original read-only raster file is saved for redundancy purposes in the
location pointed to by the MicroStation MS_TMP configuration variable and can be
manually deleted when no longer needed.

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Help | Contents
This opens RasEdits online help file, which contains the full product documentation in
Windows help file format.

Help | About
This opens your default web browser and displays an HTML page with information about
your current RasEdit version.

Exit
This unloads RasEdit.

Support for MicroStations Undo or <Ctrl-Z>

Most of RasEdits operations support MicroStations Undo. The following RasEdit
operations, however, cannot be undone:

Despeckle

Deskew

Stamp (However, Undo will undelete any deleted vector elements that were
stamped.)

Chapter 6 Troubleshooting

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Chapter 6 Tro ubleshooting

Stamping CIT files

RasEdits Stamp feature does not currently support CIT files. Stamp only supports TIF
files. If you need to Stamp CIT files, contact Axiom Support for help.

Still using MicroStation SE?

If you need RasEdit for MicroStation SE, please let us know. While not formally
released, there is a version available upon request.

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Chapter 7 We ll Make (Almost) Any

Enhancements You Want
RasEdit is a very powerful program. Nonetheless, we realize that you, a skilled and
creative MicroStation user, will think of ways in which it can be improved. We invite you
to tell us your ideas.
For ten years weve listened to you, the skilled MicroStation professional, and have
implemented the features youve requested. Every widely acclaimed product weve ever
developed, including FileFixer, evolved in this manner.
Wed like to make RasEdit perform every function you could ever imagine such a
product being able to do. We intend to make you such a satisfied RasEdit customer that
you cant wait for the next user group meeting so you can tell your friends and associates
how much you like RasEdit and how strongly you recommend it.
Your suggestions on how to improve RasEdit are most welcome. You may email your
suggestions to support@AxiomInt.com, or call us.

Chapter 8 New Features and Fixes

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Chapter 8 New Features and Fixes

4.0a 15 May 2008

Product acquired by Axiom.
Initial Axiom RasEdit for V7 release.
Important upgrade information for users of RasEdit 2.2.6 and earlier:
RasEdit now uses Axioms licensing system. This system does not include concurrent use
licensing.
RasEdit 4.0a does not support PowerDraft. This is planned for a future release.
RasEdit 4.0a installs in the Axiom directory system. It no longer installs its files in
c:\rasedit\ and the MicroStation mdlapps\ directory.
RasEdit 4.0a executable files (rasedit.ma and rasedit.dll) were renamed to include
MicroStation family version in their name so they can be installed to the same directory
simultaneously. New file names are raseditj.ma and raseditj.dll.