7 Myths About CONNECT Edition pg. 1

©2018 ConnectPress, Ltd.

7 Myths About CONNECT Edition

Get the facts. Don’t let rumors keep you from productivity gains.

By Dan Raker, ConnectPress

Back in the Fall of 2014 when Bentley Systems’ CONNECT Edition was first

announced there was a swirl of misinformation. Perhaps a better way to

describe this was a lack of information.

Now with CONNECT Edition in its seventh release, some of the rumors persist.

Why? Perhaps users’ misconceptions reinforce an underlying fear of change –

not wanting to upgrade away from tools and workflows they are comfortable

with.

Or perhaps some just latched onto early misinformation or lack of information

and have never taken the time to get the facts. Let’s fix that right now.

Myth #7: If you use one CONNECT Edition product, you need to use

the CONNECT Edition of all your Bentley products.

Wrong!

Since introducing their robust DGN format in the mid-1980’s, Bentley has

continued to show a commitment to forward, reverse compatibility and

interoperability as one of the company’s leading strengths.

You can run MicroStation CONNECT Edition while still running pre-CONNECT

Editions or the very latest releases of ProjectWise, AssetWise, GEOPAK or any

other Bentley application – interchangeably.

Here’s an example that will drive home this point. In the illustration below you

see a reality mesh visible in MicroStation CONNECT Edition. What is fascinating

about this screenshot isthe sheer number of ‘different versions’ of Bentley tools

appearing in one integrated view.

You are seeing a current workspace view from CONNECT Edition. Inside the

working area you see an older, not CONNECT Edition, resolution mesh view on

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©2018 ConnectPress, Ltd.

the left plus a newer, higher resolution, upgraded mesh view on the right. The

former mesh view is pre-CONNECT, the latter comes from the latest release.

MicroStation doesn’t care! And the message is that you shouldn’t care either –

go ahead and mix and match pre- and post-CONNECT Edition applications and

data.

All viewed from inside CONNECT Edition: a reality mesh on the left from V8i and on the right a

higher resolution 3SM scalable mesh from the CONNECT Edition.

Myth #6: DGN and other file formats change in CONNECT Edition

Wrong!

The underlying DGN file format is the same in V8i, CONNECT and pretty much all

Bentley releases since the mid 1980’s (See Myth #7 above).

Says Samir Haque, Bentley’s Power Platform Manager, “We believe that things

like file formats are the responsibility of computer scientists, not users.” Perhaps

in a dig at Autodesk and other competitors where recent upgrades have

necessitated changes to underlying formats, the ongoing Bentley commitment

remains the same – no file format changes.

This is true even for the formats of files like DGNLIBs, RSCs, etc.

To further buffer CONNECT Edition users from file format problems on import

(and export) to other brands, Bentley continues to aggressively support things

like Real DWG R14-2018 and others.

Myth #5: The new CONNECT Edition Ribbon UX (user interface)

removes my old 2-key input

Wrong!

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©2018 ConnectPress, Ltd.

For years I remember proud announcements at Bentley conferences like ‘what

last year needed 14 clicks can now be done in eight.’ Yes, long-term users are

fiercely proud of and defensive of 2-key input.

First, the ribbon user interface opens the door to so many more productivity

tools that many users will soon move on from 2-key input. The space bar ‘pop

up hub’ and search tools, for example, radically improve speed and ease-of-use.

But for the diehards, 2-key input is still present and only a ribbon-click away for a

2-key pop-up:

2-key input in CONNECT Edition. Notice the enhanced, suggestive pop-up example “di=” gives all

the ‘di’ options available.

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©2018 ConnectPress, Ltd.

Myth #4: You cannot use CONNECT Edition if you are stuck using,

say, an older version of OpenRoads Designer

Wrong!

Forward and backward compatibility as well as co-existence works just fine

across all Bentley applications.

Many users are contractually limited to certain releases by project. This may be

due to deliverables to a DOT or other owner. But this limitation is not a

CONNECT Edition-imposed problem.

You can convert to MicroStationCONNECT Edition right now and still produce

compatible deliverables in things like older editions of OpenRoads. There’s no

reason to miss out on advanced productivity tools in the CONNECT Edition while

waiting for contract or project obligations to shift.

In fact, early adopters are finding ways to earn better margins on fixed fee

projects by accelerating work internally with CONNECT Edition productivity yet

still meeting contract deliverable obligations.

CONNECT Edition introduces a whole array of ‘database within a design file’ tools

where new ‘data types’ and properties vastly improve design productivity. Even

this data is backwards compatible and are visible when opened in V8i

applications.

Myth #3: Big brother is always watching – you must cloud enable

everything

Wrong!

First, you can control how everything you work on is or is not shared with the

cloud.

Now a disclaimer on this one: once you understand how to use the cloud-

enabled tools built into CONNECT Edition you will likely understand that

CONNECT turns all your colleagues into ‘good’ big brothers – the kind who teach

you stuff and support you at every step. Most CONNECT Edition users agree that

sharing in the cloud is not a burden.

Here are a few examples of cloud-enabled tools and controls you can use in

CONNECT Edition:

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Access to cloud-enabled tools can be enabled and limited through user, project and enterprise

settings. Turning on cloud services is easy and instantaneous.

Myth #2: Migrating to CONNECT Edition requires substantial

training and conversion

Wrong!

First, moving to CONNECT Edition requires almost no conversions: not for file

types, project files or more. Pretty much the only thing that needs upfront

conversion are V8i “Workspaces” to CONNECT Edition “Configuration.”

CONNECT Edition even comes with a wizard to help you make Workstation-to-

Configuration changes that eliminates most of the work. To be fair, these do

require human intervention, but most users who have migrated report they

invested‘ less than an afternoon” of work to go from V8i to CONNECT Edition.

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©2018 ConnectPress, Ltd.

Above: Most of the differences between V8i and CONNECT Edition are in name identification only.

You do need to convert V8i “Workspaces” to CONNECT Edition “Configurations”. Below: There is

a wizard to help with this conversion.

As you use enhanced CONNECT Edition features like ‘data type’ properties, you

are going to want to take some time to organize and setup smart data that will

then become available across users, project and enterprises, but this activity will

likely grow as projects evolve. Of course, you can invest in enterprise-wide

libraries early on for even more productivity.

Second, let’s talk about training. One of the huge benefits of CONNECT Edition is

contextual training built right into the CONNECT Edition UX (user interface). This

means that CONNECT Edition can and does suggest work-context access to the

Bentley LEARN server, YouTube channel, your enterprise tools (once you set

them up) through the built-in CONNECT Advisor.

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©2018 ConnectPress, Ltd.

The ribbon UX is largely intuitive for most new users. And V8i and older users

will likely adapt quickly or with a little help from the contextual learning tools.

CONNECT Advisor will become your new best friend – it is the “?” in a circle at

the top right of the ribbon.

Myth #1: Either Or! You must use either V8i or CONNECT Edition on

a single workstation – you cannot have both

Wrong!

Plain and simple: you can keep your V8i configuration the way it is and start

using CONNECT Edition on your workstation and local configuration at the same

time.

What are you waiting for?

Dan Raker has been writing about CAD and MicroStation software for over 35

years.

This article originally appeared in MicroStationConnections.com and is copyright

©2017 by ConnectPress, Ltd. Some of the material in this article originated in

the live webinar “Why you should start using MicroStation CONNECT Edition” on

October 25, 2018. You can watch the view on demand version of this webinar at

http://microstationconnections.com/feature_full.php?cpfeatureid=118508.

ConnectPress’ MicroStationConnections.com also runs a resource page for

CONNECT Edition learning and migration at

http://microstationconnections.com/spotlight.php?spotid=805.