[ORD/CONNECT] Workset template?

RE: [ORD/CONNECT] Workset template?

MaryB — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 15:41:34 GMT

Thank you so much!

RE: [ORD/CONNECT] Workset template?

Rod Wing — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 15:28:12 GMT

That is correct.

RE: [ORD/CONNECT] Workset template?

MaryB — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 15:25:45 GMT

I was unaware of the search function in Worksets. That makes this much easier - we'd end up with a list of dozens and dozens of project worksets, but a search simplifies finding the right one.

We wouldn't have any issue with year based breakdowns because that's how our project directory is set up - everyone is used to looking at that sort of list. But the search will work fine.

To confirm...I really only need a "workset template" if I am creating worksets through the MicroStation interface, and I use "workset standards". If I have a pre-existing project directory structure, I only need a workset CFG file because the DGNWS will be created from that "seed" when the workset is first opened. Is that right?

RE: [ORD/CONNECT] Workset template?

Rod Wing — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 14:42:14 GMT

You don't have to separate your WorkSets by year. They can all be in the same folder with custom variables in the workset cfg directing them to the right path. We had proposed to some DOTs setting up the WorkSpaces-WorkSets by year as well. They thought there would be too much confusion as to what year to look in for the project.

We did some test for them and generated over 2000 WorkSets in a single WorkSpace for them. ORD handled it just fine, and there is a search option to search for WorkSet names so they were happy with that.

RE: [ORD/CONNECT] Workset template?

MaryB — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 14:14:04 GMT

So...keep the client workspaces but abandon their worksets directory in favor of a "S:\Projects\year\Worksets directory (for read/write access)?

Yeah, with that I'd HAVE to have a custom tool. If "Year" is defined in the workset, it can't be accessed by any process that happens before that, including "Create Workset".

I thought I was on the edge of understanding this well enough to put it all together, but I'm getting more confused again.

Workspace: Client
Worksetsroot: Many (by year, in projects directories) or one(in client workspace directory)
Workset Template: One (client)

Workspace: Year
Worksetsroot: One (by year, in projects directory) or many (in client workspace directory)
Workset Template: Many (client)

Do i have the analysis right?

RE: [ORD/CONNECT] Workset template?

Rod Wing — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 13:29:35 GMT

Since your clients will provide WorkSpace, use what they provide. It will make your life a lot easier.

That leaves you to navigating between years. You can put a year variable in your WorkSet template. I have clients that do that. After creating the WorkSet, the manually edit the WorkSet cfg to set the year and other custom path variables. A custom WorkSet creation tool would solve that problem.

RE: [ORD/CONNECT] Workset template?

MaryB — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 13:23:35 GMT

I am less concerned about people getting into the CFG file than I am having worksets that anyone could create and a DGNWS that everyone can write to. I am blessed/cursed with a team that are not power users, so once things are set up, they aren't likely to go poking around.

Unfortunately, the way it looks like I might have to set everything up to work with our data structure, I would need a variety of templates available. Our projects are organized by year, and not by client - any given year will have projects for any number of clients. KY might be 22-0057, IN could be 22-0103, TN could be 22-0126 and so on. Creating worksets through the standard interface would require all of those templates to be available to be picked as needed. This means that defining one single workset template doesn't meet our needs. MicroStation appears to only look in the WORKSETSROOT directory for both worksets and templates. I don't see a way to define a template directory separate from the rest of the worksets. It also means I would have to maintain workset templates in every different workspace so that the proper worksets could be created.

I can either define workspaces by client, and have to navigate between years, or define workspaces by years and navigate/%include clients. Year workspaces don't seem too bad - except for the workset template issue.

RE: [ORD/CONNECT] Workset template?

Rod Wing — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 12:00:55 GMT

The main thing is they do not retain the Advanced/Custom WorkSet properties. You can create them, but next time you open the WorkSet they are gone.

RE: [ORD/CONNECT] Workset template?

Kevin van Haaren — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 11:28:23 GMT

What issues are you seeing with it in a different location? All our Projectwise ones have them separated, but I'm not sure we've used them extensively yet to actually hold sheet info so we may not have seen the issue yet.

RE: [ORD/CONNECT] Workset template?

Rod Wing — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 23:23:45 GMT

[quote userid="2378" url="~/products/administration/f/product-administration-forum/237078/ord-connect-workset-template/737782"]But if you change worksets root, doesn't that make the workset.cfg editable by everybody too?[/quote]

Yes it does. The problem is that the dgnws does not function properly if it's not in the _USTN_WORKSETSROOT folder. That's been a long standing problem with the CONNECT Edition.

You have to pick your poison.

RE: [ORD/CONNECT] Workset template?

Kevin van Haaren — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 22:08:46 GMT

But if you change worksets root, doesn't that make the workset.cfg editable by everybody too? We want the cfg locked down but the dgnws in a writable location.

RE: [ORD/CONNECT] Workset template?

Kevin van Haaren — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 22:06:51 GMT

Oh, I just remembered when ORD (or other product) is opened it doesn't just create a DGNWS for the current workset, it actually creates one for every .cfg in _ustn_worksetsroot that doesn't already have one, even if you don't open that particular workset. So if you take a template file, rename it to a .cfg file and start editing it, if somebody else opens any other workset in that folder it creates the dgnws for your cfg from whatever it's template is.

I think we filed this as a bug but I can't remember if Bentley agreed. Currently we say to keep the .template part until you're actually done editing it.

RE: [ORD/CONNECT] Workset template?

Kevin van Haaren — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 21:59:00 GMT

I'm not sure if you can set _USTN_WORKSETDGNWSTEMPLATE in the workset.cfg, I want to say it has to be at the workspace or lower but it's been a long time since i tried and I don't remember the results. Mine is set at effectively the organization level.

RE: [ORD/CONNECT] Workset template?

MaryB — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 20:40:41 GMT

That sounds as if I don't need to create a DGNWS to create a workset?
Would I be able to set _USTNWORKSETDGNWSTEMPLATE in the workset CFG? That would certainly simplify one thing...And it suggests that I could bypass the "Create Workset" dialog entirely, as long as I could generate the workset CFG any other way.

Also...Is there a way to isolate the workset templates from the regular worksets? If I do need to use the standard "Create Workset" dialog, I would like it to just show my templates for the workspace, not all of the worksets for the workspace.

_USTN_WORKSETTEMPLATE is for a single file. If I need to use the standard dialog, I need them to be able to select from a list of client templates for the workset, but I wouldn't want to bog that list down with all the rest of the workspace worksets.

Of course, if I all I really need to do is create the CFG file, that is fortunately moot.

RE: [ORD/CONNECT] Workset template?

Rod Wing — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 20:14:09 GMT

[quote userid="2378" url="~/products/administration/f/product-administration-forum/237078/ord-connect-workset-template/737768"]Person that creates the file has to have read/write on the destination, but that's always me currently so hasn't been an issue.[/quote]

Every user will need read/write access to the dgnws file if you want them to be able to edit the WorkSet Properties, and add sheets to the Sheet Index. That's the main reason we remap the location of _USTN_WORKSETSROOT so that everything under _USTN_CUSTOM_CONFIGURATION can be read only except for the admins.

RE: [ORD/CONNECT] Workset template?

Kevin van Haaren — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 20:04:55 GMT

[quote userid="2436" url="~/products/administration/f/product-administration-forum/237078/ord-connect-workset-template/737762"]Since I can't just copy and rename worksets (DGNWS), I imagine I still need to go through the actual "Create Workset" dialog.[/quote]

No, if the dgnws doesn't exist the first person to open the workset will create it by copying the defined dgnws template file. You can define a template for JUST the dgnws using _USTN_WORKSETDGNWSTEMPLATE. That variable can point to any file at any path. It will be copied to either the default location or what _USTN_WORKSETDGNWS points at.

Person that creates the file has to have read/write on the destination, but that's always me currently so hasn't been an issue.

RE: [ORD/CONNECT] Workset template?

MaryB — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 19:28:33 GMT

So far, we don't have to actually deliver full design packages. I know it's coming (from somewhere) but at this point it's not a requirement. I suppose I can set up my own workspaces/worksets to get the work done until that does show up.

All but one of my DOTs has all of their files in Organization-Civil, so eliminating the client workspaces will probably not actually affect anything...So to create "Yearly" workspaces that can point to a Worksets directory in each project year directory. Then access to every client's workset templates so that each project can %include the correct client standards files.

Since I can't just copy and rename worksets (DGNWS), I imagine I still need to go through the actual "Create Workset" dialog. I can see a VBA that could copy (create) and edit the workset CFG file based on a few user values, and the project directories will already exist, but I don't see any way around the official process for the DGNWS.

It would be really nice if you could Browse...for a workset template.

RE: [ORD/CONNECT] Workset template?

Rod Wing — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 12:42:08 GMT

To keep your sanity, sometimes you have to ditch the client based WorkSet template folder structure and use your own when you have conflicting folder setups. In cases where you have to package up the entire project folder for delivery to the client using their standard folder setup, then you're kind of stuck using theirs.

From what you have been describing, I think a custom WorkSet creation tool makes sense.

RE: [ORD/CONNECT] Workset template?

MaryB — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 19:28:13 GMT

Unfortunately, I don't have permissions to create a directory in our Project Files root directory...and everything under that is divided by year.

The client-based WorkSets directory underneath the client-based WorkSpaces comes automatically with the client resources, so in theory a lot of things work without the need to redirect it all. We don't have things locked down as much on the standards drive (I know, I know...but right now it works in my favor). The other option I keep playing with is year-based workspaces, with the workset CFG %including the client workspace resources, but I don't know how to get around client based workset templates. As in, an IN workset template (as delivered) is set up differently than a TN workset template. Or I don't know how to store my workset templates in a different location than the actual worksets.

RE: [ORD/CONNECT] Workset template?

Rod Wing — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 18:28:41 GMT

[quote userid="2436" url="~/products/administration/f/product-administration-forum/237078/ord-connect-workset-template/737497"]Am I allowed to MOVE workset files?[/quote]

Yes.

We configure a separate WorkSets folder where the standard project folders are. That way IT doesn't have to go through any gymnastics to give all users write access to the dgnws file while restricting the rest of the files.

Set the _USTN_WORKSETSROOT folder to the Project\WorkSets folder. Your WorkSet.cfg and dgnws files will automatically be created and referenced from there.

Something like this....

That Projects folder can be anywhere you like outside of the ORD Configuration tree.

FYI - If you want to rename a WorkSet, create your new WorkSet using the old WorkSet as a template.

RE: [ORD/CONNECT] Workset template?

MaryB — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 15:38:15 GMT

Am I allowed to MOVE workset files?

RE: [ORD/CONNECT] Workset template?

MaryB — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 14:56:29 GMT

Yes...I did...
OK, I'll see about getting "clean" versions created from the original provided worksets.
This is a real pain if you can't even rename files.

RE: [ORD/CONNECT] Workset template?

svancleave — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 14:02:46 GMT

Just a guess... did you rename your workset template? I would clone the original provided template each name change, just in case...

RE: [ORD/CONNECT] Workset template?

MaryB — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 13:54:41 GMT

I spoke too soon. it was the end of the day, and I was too eager to be done.

I have corrected the code:

_USTN_TEMPLATEWORKSETNAME = TDOT_RDWY_TEMPLATE
_USTN_WORKSETDGNWSTEMPLATE = $(_USTN_WORKSETSROOT)$(_USTN_TEMPLATEWORKSETNAME).dgnws
_USTN_WORKSETTEMPLATE 		= $(_USTN_WORKSETSROOT)$(_USTN_TEMPLATEWORKSETNAME)

And I can see my template when I try to create a new workset. However, only the CFG gets copied to the new workset name - the DGNWS and the Template folder do not get reproduced. Without a DGNWS there is no workset available to select.

The template named has a CFG, a DGNWS, and a folder:

So I'm not missing anything?

RE: [ORD/CONNECT] Workset template?

MaryB — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 21:36:03 GMT

We have a winner! I've been looking at this for way too long...