Land of the Lost (MicroStation)
If you remember the classic TV show Land of the Lost, the characters often found themselves surrounded by strange technology left behind by an ancient civilization. Hidden control panels, mysterious tools, and complex systems were everywhere but the real challenge was figuring out how the underlying system worked. Until they understood the environment they were operating in, everything felt confusing and difficult to use.
In many ways, we are seeing something similar happening in the CAD world today.
Over the past several months during training sessions, we have noticed an interesting trend. Teams are investing in learning powerful design tools like OpenRoads Designer, OpenBridge, and other OpenX applications, yet many users are missing some of the core knowledge of the platform those tools are built on: MicroStation.
During training, we often demonstrate something simple opening the tool popup with the spacebar, quickly finding a drawing command, or creating a selection set using left-to-right versus right-to-left crossing. The response we frequently hear is: “How did you do that?”
The answer is usually straightforward: That’s a MicroStation feature.
But for many users, that foundational knowledge is missing.
Recently, one of our clients held a user meeting to discuss workflow challenges. As questions came up about certain tools and commands, we explained that some of those capabilities were part of the MicroStation platform, not OpenRoads itself. That realization led to an important conclusion: their team had been trained on design workflows but had never received formal MicroStation fundamentals training. As a result, they asked us to deliver that foundational training to their staff.
For CAD Managers and executives, this is an important takeaway.
OpenRoads and the broader OpenX ecosystem are incredibly powerful design tools, but they all run on top of MicroStation. When users are trained only on the discipline-specific tools and not the platform itself, small inefficiencies begin to appear difficulty locating tools, slower editing workflows, and frequent questions about basic interface operations. Over time, those small gaps can compound into larger productivity issues across an organization.
MicroStation fundamentals training focuses on the platform skills that support every Bentley application: navigating the interface, efficient tool access, element selection techniques, snapping and precision drafting, and effective view management. These skills dramatically improve a user’s ability to work efficiently within OpenRoads and other OpenX products.
For organizations investing heavily in design technology, the most effective training strategy is often a balanced one: MicroStation fundamentals combined with discipline-specific training. When users understand both the platform and the design workflows built on top of it, they become faster, more confident, and far more productive.
In the Land of the Lost, success depended on understanding the mysterious systems that powered the world around the characters. In today’s Bentley environment, the same idea applies. OpenRoads may be the tool designers interact with every day but MicroStation is the system underneath it all.
Sometimes the biggest productivity gains come from rediscovering the foundation that everything else depends on.
Learn more about MicroStation Fundamentals training:
https://envisioncad.com/course/microstation-fundamentals/
