I tried. I really did try.
We had a win with MicroStation, No workspace and no workset. Only to have it taken away again by the developers of the other applications.
The reality is Bentley developers have decided to change the way applications, and their configurations, run and load.
In the past we’ve had the freedom to chop and change how we pleased. For some of us it’s meant a complete customization of the front end to make it easier for us to deliver build at just about any level. For CADmanage, it means I can easily deliver”
System
Application
Company
Office
Client
Project
User
With nothing more than a few config variable changes and an interface that takes the guess work out of a lot of it. Now we have:
System Level
Application Level
Organization Level
WorkSpace Level
WorkSet Level
Role Level
User Level
While this doesn’t seem the end of the world, the reality is, there is very little flexibility to work around any of these levels. For a build like CADmanage, it means it’s pretty much a start again. The next few articles will be more around how and what I’ve changed in my Aerison CADmanage build to keep some of the flexibility I want and still work within the framework of layers I have. The reality with this build is that there is one variable to do that all with:
So, how to use the project cfg files as they stand to set up the loading of the Workspace and Workset. This led to one other decision. How to plug in the Workspace\Workset into the overall build.
In V8i I used a Client directory to store all of my Client builds. A little more on this at:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/build-part-2-all-aboard-cfg-ride-sean-bear-forward/
So, with Client and Project builds now replaced with Workspace\Workset, these became the easy replacement. So, now the question was how to use the cfg to point to these. I’m not interested in lots of projects, so the cfg files will be used to set the Workspace and the Workset to be used. So the first part of the cfg was the easy bit, with the Aerison main build this becomes:
%undef _USTN_WORKSPACENAME
_USTN_WORKSPACENAME = Aerison
%lock _USTN_WORKSPACENAME
%undef _USTN_WORKSETNAME
_USTN_WORKSETNAME = Aerison
%lock _USTN_WORKSETNAME
Next step is to edit the folders cfg to work with the replaced directories.
This wasn’t too bad:
Variable ‘STD_CLIENT’ has been updated to:
STD_CLIENT = $(SITE_WORKSPACE)/
This is the critical path to set _USTN_WORKSPACEROOT and thus the rest of the build.
_USTN_WORKSPACEDESCR = Aerison Workspace
_USTN_WORKSPACEROOT = $(STD_CLIENT)Workspaces/$(_USTN_WORKSPACENAME)/
_USTN_WORKSETROOT = $(_USTN_WORKSPACEROOT)Worksets/$(STD_APP)/$(_USTN_WORKSETNAME)/
%lock _USTN_WORKSETROOT
_USTN_WORKSETSTANDARDS = $(_USTN_WORKSETROOT)Standards/
%lock _USTN_WORKSETSTANDARDS
If you are really a keen reader you would have noticed an additional change.
STD_APP
I’ve had a few discussions with Bentley over the past few years. On more than one occasion I’ve mentioned they need to think more around the config strengths and less around solving everything with locked down systems and code. This variable is a big reason why and an even bigger reason why the different developers of the products need to work together more.
That’s for next time.
More soon, stay tuned.