Recognizing that a workspace for V7 and V8 are not compatible, just like a V8i and Connect workspace, we are wondering if for less significant version differences, could a common workspace be defined?
At my last company, we shared a network workspace with Power Survey, Power InRoads, MicroStation, PowerCivil for North America and often, the versions varied from a low of V8 XM to V8i SELECTseries 3 for the CAD engine and V8 XM to V8i SELECTseries 4 for the Civil Platform. And the only special things I needed to do was
However, that approach was easily controlled by me and only 15 users were being supported. And we always installed the default workspace in the default location, so one PC's with multiple versions or platforms had multiple workspaces.
Now I'm at a large agency with multiple offices and dozens of consultant firms using our workspace. Additionally, we are moving away from any edits to any files under the Program Files folders. Therefore we have to use the ..\WorkSpace\Standards folder as the starting point for our CFG settings. And we would like to release a versions of our workspace that can meet our internal users needs while being relatively easy to integrate into any consultants workspace.
If we are able so share most workspace files and folders when networked, we wondered if one could also use a common local workspace location during the install process?
So instead of multiple folders getting created during the install:
Could you specify a single folder like:
And then, if you wanted to install our workspace locally, it could exist as another folder under that location and automatically be available for any product using the common workspace. And however you implement swapping workspaces - UCF or PCF, the entire process is handled from a single location.
So, does Bentley have any thoughts or recommendations on this? Does anyone else have any experience with this scenario?
TIA
One approach could be:
The example in MicroStation - QuickConfig Standard contains a configuration file, ZZ_*_CompanyConfig.cfg, located in the ..\WorkSpace\Standards folder that redirects to the network avoiding any need to modify anything under Program Files/Program Files (x86).
_COMPANY_WORKSPACE = V:/6a_V8i_SS6/
#----------------------------------------------------------------------# If on network use network workspace and windows username#----------------------------------------------------------------------
%if exists ($(_COMPANY_WORKSPACE)Standards/)_USTN_SITE = $(_COMPANY_WORKSPACE)Standards/_USTN_PROJECT = $(parentdevdir(_USTN_SITE))PCF/_USTN_PROJECTDATA = D:/_PROJECTS/$(_USTN_PROJECTNAME)/ %if exists ($(parentdevdir(_USTN_SITE))Users/$(USERNAME)/) _USTN_USER = $(parentdevdir(_USTN_SITE))Users/$(USERNAME)/ %else %error Your MicroStation user configuration is missing please contact CAD Support........ %endif_USTN_HOMEROOT = $(_USTN_USER)
#----------------------------------------------------------------------# Otherwise use default installation#----------------------------------------------------------------------%else _USTN_SITE = $(_USTN_WORKSPACEROOT)standards/ _USTN_USERNAME = untitled _USTN_USER = $(_USTN_WORKSPACEROOT)Users/%endif
#----------------------------------------------------------------------# common config#----------------------------------------------------------------------_USTN_USERINTROOT = $(parentdevdir(_USTN_SITE))Interfaces/
#----------------------------------------------------------------------# Process config files in network _USTN_SITE folder#----------------------------------------------------------------------
%if exists ($(_USTN_SITE)*.cfg)%include $(_USTN_SITE)*.cfg%endif
By using _USTN_SITE the company configuration is kept separate from any required files in ...\WorkSpace\System avoiding version or application conflicts.
The final three lines are the essential innovation that result in the the CFG files in ..\WorkSpace\Standards being read.
Additional CFGs, files and folders could be added under ..\WorkSpace\Standards to support the Power applications.
Once a working configuration has been established and tested it can be replicated by:
I have not tried this out with the Power applications you listed but the principle should be sound.
Marc
While this is helpful, my question still stands. But let me clarify a few things:
We wanted to know if is is safe to specify a common local workspace during installation, to eliminate all the duplicate files. Does anyone know of any issues that might come up with a shared workspace across multiple version and products within the same major version number?
If we can have a common, shared, local default workspace across the platforms, we would also then have a single location where we would put a ZZ_*_CompanyConfig.cfg file? This cfg would be used to redirect the workspace to whatever location needed to implement our workspace within any organization using our workspace, be it local or networked.
Charles (Chuck) Rheault CADD Manager
MDOT State Highway Administration Maryland DOT - State Highway Administration User Communities Page
Using this technique, each application installed would require a ZZ_*_CompanyConfig.cfg in its ..\WorkSpace\Standards folder, however if you want to share the config from a single file it might work if the ZZ_*_CompanyConfig.cfg just contained the lines required to include the active content from an include file in a single shared location.
V8i is always going to need a file in the ..\WorkSpace\Standards for each application.