about Bentley content startegy

Jeff and Tom, good news!

Looking forward to the RFA Interpreter - will make life easier! 

What about the Parametric Content Modeler - will it have the same time frame as the RFA Interpreter?

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  • twitter.com/.../334390212568420353

    "An Integrated Content Modeling Environment"

    Looking at the bottom screenshot, it looks like PCS / MCAD-style constraints-solved sketches will be supported.

    "Create, import, assemble, persist and manipulate 3D parametric content"

    Assemble suggests that MCAD-style assembly:component or nesting of components will be supported. Hopefully, we will be able to 'tunnel into' the selected component level without having to 'drop' the whole thing. Ie 'Edit-in-Place'.

    "Import and reuse content from Trimble 3D Warehouse, Autodesk SEEK and Siemens Team Center"

    Sounds like RFA-Interpreter will be used to get Revit content. I wonder if ACAD Dynamic Blocks will be supported.

    "Unify and replace existing toolsets with standard MicroStation tools."

    Will replace Feature Solids / DDD, GC, PCS, Forms, SmartSolids, Solids, Surfaces... Meshes?

    I wonder how the current confusing duplication of tools will be handled. Will PCM allow Mstn to have one toolset for generating a Cone... instead of separate ones for a Solid Cone, Feature Solid Cone and Surface Cone?

    At the geometry level, will a Surface or Solid or Form be able to be modified by a Feature Solid Protrusion or Rib? Will whatever drives PCM convert the 'non-history aware' element into a history-based parametric element?

    Will PCM be able to import/convert existing DDD / Feature Cells into the new format? It would be odd to be able to read 'foreign' content but not be able to deal with 'domestic' stuff.

    Will Feature Solids / DDD parameter sets, expressions tables be accessible for use by anything else that is generated by PCM /GC?

    Will all content generated by PCM be able to be promoted by GC, as a given? Feature Solids Feature Tree is very similar to GC's DAG. It would be good if PCM 'exposes' this  for GC to use. It would make GC a lot easier to use and popular. Maximise return on investment in GC over the last 10+ years ?

    What happens when the user 'double-clicks' a PCM object or assembly that has some GC code in it? Will Mstn call up PCM or GC or PCM with GC tools nested?

    Handles, PCS positioneers, GC 3d Controllers are important UI tools that make parametric content easier to use. Hopefully PCM's 'comprehensive API' caters for this.

    "Integrated with Bentley CONNECT Content Management System"

    Content these days means managing tagged-on attribute data and their formats as well as the geometry. You have a parametric valve or fan... it has IFC or ISO 15926-defined attributes. It might have ABD DataSet-type rendering/symbology and spec information. What happens when the manufacturer updates his product? And no content will likely to be usable without some 'transformation' first (see RFA-I parametric mapping). It would be good to store this stuff 'in the cloud'.

    What about third party stuff? Should thrown exceptions and error messages be sent to and stored 'in the cloud'? This should allow a larger evidence base for debugging? PS: most users don't send their bug / crash reports as it takes so long. It would be good to make this stuff quicker or a background tread.

    What about ISM's and version tracking... If CONNECT is going to function as a big 'cell library in the sky', then it should provide DH-style version control and rollbacks.

    What happens when an OpenPlant assembly is downloaded by someone using AecoSim or ProStructures, or vice-versa? Will CONNECT check that AecoSim has enough dll's to allow the user to "import, assemble, persist and manipulate" and "reuse" the 3D parametric content? Again, it would be odd if you could do this with all that 'foreign' SEEK, Skecthup, Team Center' content but not your own home-grown stuff.

    What about Civil Cells? Will the user be able to download and re-use them in a non-PowerCivil environment? Will CONNECT automatically re-package the cell as a 'PCM-cell' with a selected amount of functionality? An input parameter UI panel or/and a few handles. No return to dumb zombies, please.

    Will the PCM-generated object be able to bring along its own smarts and rely on having a pre-positioned amount of 'parametric platform' support dll's on the local Mstn or Power Platform install? See Houdini Engine.

    "Extensible via a comprehensive API."

    I wonder if the old Dependency API has been updated? Will there be a central 'Traffic Cop' that manages all parametric dependencies and updates like Revit, instead on relying on each little tool's coder to somehow guess what the user or the other tools will do? Based on DCM?

    Hopefully includes GC's API. Will the DAG deal with the constraints solved sketches as 'collapsed' nodes? Or will the DAG be a node in a Feature Tree?

    What about the verticals? Will Triforma's Forms be incorporated? Will the user be able to 'chamfer' or 'thicken' or add a 'protrusion' a Form using a Feature Solid-type tool? Seems like Triforma has been adding a few things that look like established FS functionality over the years. Will PCM 'unify' all of this?

    What about D++?

  • Rumours...would be interesting to get more facts, like when we can expect something.

  • The MicroStation parametric content modeling initiative which I presented is alive and well!  We are hard at work unifying, modernizing and simplifying.  Look for more about it when the next generation of MicroStation betas spin up this summer.

    For those of you who have a focused interest in parametric modeling and would like to discuss it further, please private message me on BE Communities or send an email to makai.smith@bentley.com.



  • Unknown said:

    The MicroStation parametric content modeling initiative which I presented is alive and well!  We are hard at work unifying, modernizing and simplifying.  Look for more about it when the next generation of MicroStation betas spin up this summer.

    I don't believe that an 64bit AECOsim will release this year. So it means AECOsim User have to wait another year for "Modern" Parametric Tools.

    That's bad news.