MicroStation Reviews & Insights

Score6 out of 10

24 Reviews and Ratings

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for MicroStation are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Wide range of design alternatives: Users have praised MicroStation for offering a wide range of design alternatives, allowing for a diverse set of options throughout the entire design process. Multiple reviewers have noted this aspect positively.

Comprehensive parametric mesh and surface modeling: Reviewers have commended MicroStation for its detailed approach towards parametric mesh and surface modeling. This comprehensive toolset provided by the software has been appreciated by multiple users.

Streamlined design workflows: The well-integrated modeling workflows in MicroStation have been highly appreciated by reviewers, as they streamline the design process and enhance productivity. Several users have highlighted this aspect as one of the strengths of the software.

Reviews

8 Reviews

Microstation-good for roadway and corridor model, bad for new users

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

November 10, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Microstation is the product we use most often for transportation design-specifically roadway design-at my organization. I use the inroads add-in very often in my position to model storm sewer networks and draw out basin maps, though I also use Microstation's plain jane features for cutting sheets, annotation, and running corridors too. Microstation is the preferred program for most DOTs and municipalities in my region, so this is why I use it over AutoCAD Civil 3D.

Pros

roadway and corridor modeling
storm sewer and utility layout
cutting sheets and production
plan and profile annotation

Cons

adding smart tables to the plans is difficult-I always end up using axiom
tying utilities to a surface-rims, grates, and other features typically need to be assigned elevations manually
profiles for pipes are difficult to draw and do not update automatically like they would in ssa

Likelihood to Recommend

MicroStation is THE program to use for roadway and corridor modeling. Most departments of transportation and municipalities in my region require that the models be delivered in the dgn format, so it is MicroStation or bust. It is an absolute pain to use some of the add-in features though. Things that are easy in other programs like making smart tables that update with the latest information usually necessitate the use of axiom or similar outside programs/add-ins. I design storm sewer systems, and it takes us 6 months to train up new hires on this software, because it is NOT intuitive. You need to know which buttons to press, since it is not designed to be easily command-based like AutoCAD Civil 3D.

Verified User

Engineer in Engineering (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

7 years of experience

Digital Revolution of Computer-Aided Design!

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

July 7, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

MicroStation is used as an alternative platform apart from AutoCAD to teach students interior design. MicroStation's infrastructure designing with the real-world context helps students to better understand the subject thereby creating a solution which has a practical approach.

Pros

Plethora of design alternatives to choose from right from design to completed models
Detailed approach towards parametric, mesh and surface modelling
Well integrated modelling workflows
Intelligent parametric components with 2D and 3D designs

Cons

Expensive software
Workset configuration and design file settings should be more intuitive and easy to understand
Lacks intuitive and modern design

Likelihood to Recommend

MicroStation is well suited for environments where animation and 3D modelling is required for designs. It perfectly fits into scenarios where Building Information Modelling (BIM) is used. One should avoid this platform if the budget is low and the overall length of the project is not huge.

Huma Ali

Center Head at iNIFD (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

Perfect solution for 2D document drafting and easy to compare various design views.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

July 7, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

MicroStation effectively provides amazing 2D capability for quick Engineering project drawings production, as well as easy on 3D object modeling. The features are easy to manipulate and provide the best quality Engineering drawings.

Pros

Easy view comparison.
2D drafting.
Design modeling.

Cons

3d rendering functionality.
Designing of large projects design slows the entire process.
Deployment on Cloud.

Likelihood to Recommend

Civil Engineering project object design and documentation, annotation ability is amazing and also for design analysis as well as easy annotation capability.

Jackline Julias

Proyecto Coordindor in Engineering at JOYCO (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

View profile

A solid competitor to other CAD software on the market

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

February 21, 2020

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I have used MicroStation for many years at various levels. In my current office, it isn't the key CAD application. Still, we do have a copy of MicroStation for enabling us to open any transmitted drawings to us truly. Convert them to our current main CAD product easily, as well as check over drawings we're sending out, to ensure that they are fully readable and usable for our other team members.

Pros

Simple user interface
Easy to pick up from using any other CAD tool

Cons

Some of the more complex models have had a few issues exporting.
We've struggled with external consultants using the custom Autocad engineering tools, and it plays nicely with MicroStation.

Likelihood to Recommend

MicroStation has been a great tool to use when it was the core application in a previous practice - we found it easy to train users on, and exchange drawings without much fuss. In recent years, and the explosion of BIM, it's keeping up with competitors, and cost-wise / feature set wise seems on-par.

Verified User

Manager (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

10 years of experience

Quick overview of MicroStation

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

February 6, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

MicroStation is our main CAD package. We, like the majority of US DOT's, use MicroStation and its add-in products for all of our design work.

Pros

MicroStation, as a stand-alone CAD package, is a great plan production tool.
MicroStation makes a very good base to build other applications on top of.
It has at least, in my opinion, a very easy to use interface.

Cons

While it has a very usable interface it contains a lot of commands and can be intimidating to a beginner.
MicroStation uses several interfaces (depending on versions) which can complicate its use in large spread out organizations.
Multiple versions of the product can be an issue for large organizations to keep up with.

Likelihood to Recommend

MicroStation and its roadway design packages are the "standard" for Highway and Bridge design. MicroStation is also a great tool for organizations that deal with both Bentley and Autodesk products since it handles both DGN and DWG files interchangeably.

Randall (Rande) Robinson

Information Technology Specialist in Information Technology at North Carolina Dept. Information Technology - Transportation (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

29 years of experience

View profile

My Review of MicroStation

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

February 6, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

MicroStation is the required CAD program that is to be used by the DOT. Our company uses MicroStation and GEOPAK for civil applications (transportation, site, drainage, etc.) as well as for structural bridge drawings.

Pros

References are easy to import, do not bog down your computer, and allow the user to interact with them.
MicroStation allows you to open multiple instances of the program at once without the lag on the computer that you get with AutoCAD.
Smart Lock!! I use this all the time. It is one of my favorite features of MicroStation.

Cons

Tables: There needs to be a function to insert a table (like AutoCAD has) and the test inside behaves much like Excel.
Dimension manipulation. There should be easy commands to break dimension lines when dimensions intersect as well as a command to add a jog. These are all things that are done easily in AutoCAD.

Likelihood to Recommend

MicroStation is well suited and required by most (if not all) DOT's.

Verified User

Engineer in Engineering (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

8 years of experience

A look at MicroStation

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

February 1, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Well, MicroStation doesn't solve any real business problems, we don't have any issues like that per se. But only our department in at least this office uses MicroStation. We mostly use it for DOT work because our local DOT only uses MicroStation. We use it as our drafting platform, sometimes alongside AutoCAD.

Pros

Xrefs work extremely well
Some of the snap commands and element selection are great
Editing references are extremely easy also

Cons

User Inteface
Input commands, key board shortcut keys hard with just numbers
Layers could use a better interface

Likelihood to Recommend

There isn't really a time when it is not suited; it is a great drafting program. It is used because some industries use that program, so we utilize it when working with those specific disciplines. When working with solely MicroStation formatted files it is great. When the need arises to use AutoCAD files within MicroStation or vice versa it is equally troublesome.

Verified User

Engineer in Engineering (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience