Selectable "Roles" on the Work Page

I have a new development to report on this...

After installing the Ohio DOT configuration through their installer program, it edited my C:\ProgramData\Bentley\MicroStation CONNECT Edition\Configuration\ConfigurationSetup.cfg. I edited the file to undo the change. The next time I opened MicroStation the Role drop-down appeared on the WorkPage.

I still had my Roles folder set up from my previous attempts:

_USTN_ROLESDIR      : System         = C:\ProgramData\Bentley\MicroStation CONNECT Edition\Configuration\WorkSpaces\Roles\ 

Now, all of a sudden, it's working.

Go figure.

FYI... 

The location of USTN_ROLESDIR is defined as follows _USTN_ROLESDIR=$(_USTN_WORKSPACEROOT)Roles\

In our EnvisionCAD Traning Workspace we redefine _USTN_WORKSPACEROOT to go to C:\EnvisionCAD\Training\ Creating a Roles folder there with the two .cfg files, the WorkPage Role drop-down has no problems picking them up.

Edit: attached my ConfigurationSetup.cfg file to show that there is nothing special set in this file.

4135.ConfigurationSetup.cfg

what version of MicroStation are you using ?

and did you create role 1 and role 2 ?

I am not finding anything on ODOT that mentions roles or it being defined by anything in ODOT.

I did some testing on this.

If you define _USTN_ROLESDIR to be anything OTHER than $(_USTN_WORKSPACEROOT)Roles/ you will not see the drop-down in the UI. THis is at any level.

HOWEVER, if you have _USTN_ROLE_NAME defined in your Personal.ucf, and there is a cfg file for that ROLE_NAME wherever you did point ROLESDIR to, that config file will be loaded even though you don't see the Role selector in the File Open screen.

I tested setting _USTN_ROLESDIR in WorkspaceSetup.cfg, our Organization standards cfg, our workspace cfg and our workset cfg and it obeyed those 2 rules in all locations.

I tested setting _USTN_ROLESDIR to each of:

_USTN_ROLESDIR = $(_USTN_WORKSPACEROOT)Roles/
_USTN_ROLESDIR = $(_USTN_ORGANIZATION)Roles/
_USTN_ROLESDIR = $(_USTN_WORKSETROOT)Roles/
_USTN_ROLESDIR = $(_USTN_WORKSPACEROOT)Office_Roles/

All failed to show the UI except the first (even the last one where I set it to the the workspace folder, but just a different name than Roles).

As long as I had _USTN_ROLE_NAME in my Personal.UCF and a role of that name in the roles directory, the config was processed for all of the settings I tried above.

I should add, if you don't define _USTN_ROLESDIR to anything, but a Roles folder with cfg files in it is created in _USTN_WORKSPACEROOT, it will automatically show up in the UI.

so as I stated above - the only way the UI choice works - is if it is part of the workspace.

Only if you want it to show in the UI (also it must be named Roles, you can't define a location in the workspace with name other than Roles).

If you want to manually put the _USTN_ROLE_NAME in the user's PCF you can put the Roles folder anywhere and it'll be used. This makes me think the current behavior is a bug.

I agree.

The role has been in  the product since the beginning - so this is really not new - as you have always been able to do what you mentioned.

But the UI part they have added - as you have discovered as well - is limited to the workspace (at least that is what you and I have found).

It would be nice to hear from Bentley on the design of this functionality. Does this function as designed ?

I agree.

The role has been in  the product since the beginning - so this is really not new - as you have always been able to do what you mentioned.

But the UI part they have added - as you have discovered as well - is limited to the workspace (at least that is what you and I have found).

It would be nice to hear from Bentley on the design of this functionality. Does this function as designed ?