MicroStation Development Libraries
The MicroStationAPI and the MicroStation Development Library
The C++ development library for MicroStation CONNECT and later is the MicroStationAPI. The MicroStation Development Library (MDL) has been Bentley Systems' premier development kit for MicroStation since version 4 in 1993. With MicroStation XM, Bentley introduced the C++ MicroStationAPI.
There is no published printed material about the MicroStationAPI or MDL.
The DgnPlatformNet and the MstnPlatformNET Development Libraries
Developers of .NET AddIns or Apps for MicroStation CONNECT have several first-class libraries available.
There is no published printed material about the MstnPlatformNET or MstnPlatformNET.
MicroStation VBA
MicroStation VBA (MVBA) is delivered with MicroStation, which also provides a comprehensive help manual in Windows HTML format.
There is plenty of published printed material, both printed and on the Internet, about MicroStation VBA.
C++ and the Standard Library
There are plenty of books about C++. Many books cover the Standard Library, including its containers, algorithms and iterators. There are also plenty of websites that offer advice and help for C++ developers. You can see some on our links page.
| Book | Title | Authors | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|
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A Tour of C++ | Bjarne Stroustrup | Addison-Wesley |
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Effective Modern C++ | Scott Meyers | O'Reilly |
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C++ Coding Standards | Herb Sutter, Andrei Alexandrescu | Addison Wesley |
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Functional Programming in C++ | Ivan Cukic | Manning Publications |
You should take a look at Boost. Boost provides free peer-reviewed portable C++ source libraries. There are libraries that make C++ easier to use. There are libraries that offer new programming models and algorithms. The Boost::Geometry library may be relevant to your programming challenges with MicroStation.
There are also several books about Boost.
Regular Expressions
There are plenty of books about regular expressions. For example …
| Book | Title | Authors | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|
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Introducing Regular Expressions | Michael Fitzgerald | O'Reilly |
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Mastering Regular Expressions | Jeffrey Friedl | O'Reilly |
Computational Geometry
There are one or two other books that may be interesting to MicroStation developers, whether writing MDL, VBA, or C++ code. The Head First series published by O'Reilly, provide an introduction; Essential Mathematics for Computer Graphics is more formal, yet easy to digest, and Architectural Geometry is more heavyweight (literally) …
| Book | Title | Authors | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|
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Essential Mathematics for Computer Graphics | John Vince | Springer Verlag |
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Head First 2D Geometry | Lindsey Fallow, Dawn Griffiths | O'Reilly Media |
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Math for Programmers | Paul Orland | Manning Publications |
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Architectural Geometry | Helmut Pottmann, Andreas Asperl, Michael Hofer, Axel Kilian | Bentley Institute Press |
MicroStation® Visual Basic for Applications™ (MVBA)
MVBA is Bentley Systems' adaptation of the Microsoft VBA toolkit. It provides a subset of Visual Basic™ (VB) functionality and is similar to the VBA implementations in Microsoft Word™, Excel™ and applications from third-parties. A MicroStation installation includes a VBA Help file.
Bentley have published a book about MicroStation VBA …
| Book | Title | Authors | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|
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Regrettably, Learning MicroStation VBA is out of print. | Jerry Winters | Bentley Institute Press |
Excel VBA Programming
I'm not providing an Excel VBA tutorial here: there are plenty of developers' web sites that can help you. There are also text books for Excel VBA programmers, such as …
| Book | Title | Authors | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|
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Programming Excel with VBA and .NET | Steve Saunders & Jeff Webb | O'Reilly press |
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Writing Excel Macros with VBA | Dr Steven Roman | O'Reilly press |
