Is there any way to help decrease the load time of DataGroup System files when switching between Models and/or DGN files? We tend to keep the MicroStation Element Information tool docked on one side and have been told that this can contribute to the delay we're seeing.
While AECOsim Building Designer uses the DataGroup System as the schema to store business data, MicroStation uses what is called the "EC Schema". So when using certain MicroStation tools (such as Element Information) a real-time conversion between schemas is required in order to display those attributes.
A cached copy of this data is maintained in each WorkSet (typically stored on a shared network drive) to increase performance by not needing to re-load the DataGroup Data schemas each time that tool is opened.
The variable BB_DG_ECSCHEMA_CACHE is defined to point to a WorkSet location since the WorkSet and it's content are in the the most current schema state, incorporating any project specific DataGroup content. By setting it to the project level, only one person should see a one-time performance hit for generation of the new schema cache while everyone else will simply sync to that pre-compiled cache. This WorkSet based cache automatically creates a corresponding version on the local machine to help improve performance.
ABD SS5 - BB_DG_ECSCHEMA_CACHE