The Datasets delivered with OpenBuildings Designer are examples intended for modification by our users; in most situations some modification and configuration will be required to make the best use of them.
Datasets can be installed for one or more regions, as many as you need to work with, we have 16 available listed at Available Regional Datasets.
Out of the box OpenBuildings Designer datasets are installed in C:\ProgramData\Bentley\OpenBuildings CONNECT Edition\Configuration\Datasets.
If you do not intend to make any changes to the delivered regional dataset it can be used from this location. However it is best to plan ahead so that when you do find that changes or additions are needed a structure is there ready to accommodate them.
There are essentially two basic strategies for utilizing the delivered datasets.
Use them as delivered in their default installed locations (C:\ProgramData\Bentley\OpenBuildings CONNECT Edition\Configuration\Datasets).
This may necessitate adding suitable configuration and resources at the Organization level of your Custom Configuration to control and contain custom dataset content that you wish to share at the Organization level. One of the complications of this approach is that the OpenBuildings Catalog has three levels where custom content can be saved, configuration is required to set the Organization level in the Catalog UI to point to the Organization folders.
For simpler configurations it may be acceptable to hold all shared common content (i.e. non-project specific) at the WorkSpace level and just use the delivered datasets as reference sources.
It is strongly advised when taking this approach to set the local datasets to be read-only to prevent accidental saving of custom content to the local drive where it is not visible to other users and is vulnerable to being lost during subsequent machine or application maintenance.
One advantage of this approach is that the majority of dataset content is on the local machine reducing network traffic and latency effects.
Increasingly our users prefer to take ownership of the dataset and make it their own. This involves locating the default datasets (copied from the originals) in the Custom Configuration
To follow this approach copy the required regional dataset(s) into a Datasets folder in your Custom Configuration alongside the Organization and WorkSpaces folders. Apply the configuration necessary to point OpenBuildings Designer at this location for its datasets as discussed in Configuring the Datasets Root Folder Location.
The copied dataset(s) can then be modified as appropriate to the needs of the organization adding content and where appropriate removing delivered content using the Catalog Item Manager. The Catalog Editor UI will automatically treat the dataset(s) as the Organization level unless configured otherwise.
Appropriate folder/file permissions should be applied to control access to shared resources. Generally all Organization and WorkSpace content is read-only to non-admin users.
Non-admin users will always require write access to WorkSet folders.
Provided that a well configured fast network is available latency due to reading core dataset content forom the network should be minimized.
IT solutions can be implemented to synchronize network based Custom Configurations to a local cache. Obviously Bentley offer ProjectWise Design Integration Managed Configurations to fulfill this function. (Future developments in ProjectWise 365 Share may offer a lower cost/impact solution.)