Bentley Map CONNECT Edition Technology Preview?

Is there a schedule now?

Thank you for asking. We are currently in the process of finalizing our plans for 2017. Please stay tuned...

Hi Gijbert,

it would be great to stop to say "we are working on it" and to become more specific. CONNECT Edition platform was announced with big appluad in 2015, MicroStation is there more than a year, other product lines were released already (Descartes) or will be available at least as Technology Previews or Betas shortly (GenerativeComponents, OpenRoads Designer...), but no information about geo.

In such situation I understand my customers who have lost their confidence in Bentley geo focus and started to think about future and what platform to use. And loyal customers who like Bentley Map are disillusioned, because for more than year there is no clear information about plans and development direction. Also in mixed environment (MicroStation + BM) it often blocks migration to MicroStation, because IT people don't want to maintain two different workspaces and product lines (regardles sometimes they are used in different teams or departments).

With regards,

  Jan

If Bentley Map CONNECT will have the same old and ugly "Bentley Geospatial Administrator" then I better wait.

At least some insights what we could expect from Bentley Map CONNECT. It will be just a port to Microstation CE with migrated old and introduced new bugs or major update?

Unknown said:

At least some insights what we could expect from Bentley Map CONNECT. It will be just a port to Microstation CE with migrated old and introduced new bugs or major update?

It's exactly the information that were shared in disucssions for some other products and despite of because of time and software development constraints not always were reached fully or had to be changed, they have helped user to make preliminary decisions and plans. It's very usefull e.g. when budget and resources are planned annually.

Regards,

  Jan

Hello Jan,

I can only agree with you that it would be great if we are at the point of being able to be more specific. However, I can only be specific once the approvals are assured to move forward and we are not quite there yet, I hope you .

If in the eyes of the users we have been unclear where were going with Map, that is something I do not wish to take lightly. I was under the impression that we were clear enough that our focus in 2016 was always going to be on fine-tuning our product offering on the V8i platform (which we did, delivering two update releases and a third update release scheduled to be released before the end of the year). If that message did not come across clearly enough, I would like to apologize.

What I can say at this point is that the Map team is very seriously working on the plans for 2017, and that our ambition is to go beyond our goals for 2016 and shift focus to post-V8i generation development. I have faith that those plans should be a step in the right direction for all of us.

Once our plans are in place - which I expect to be (very) soon - I will inform you and the community.

Best regards,


Gijsbert

Hello Jan,

I can only agree with you that it would be great if we are at the point of being able to be more specific. However, I can only be specific once the approvals are assured to move forward and we are not quite there yet, I hope you .

If in the eyes of the users we have been unclear where were going with Map, that is something I do not wish to take lightly. I was under the impression that we were clear enough that our focus in 2016 was always going to be on fine-tuning our product offering on the V8i platform (which we did, delivering two update releases and a third update release scheduled to be released before the end of the year). If that message did not come across clearly enough, I would like to apologize.

What I can say at this point is that the Map team is very seriously working on the plans for 2017, and that our ambition is to go beyond our goals for 2016 and shift focus to post-V8i generation development. I have faith that those plans should be a step in the right direction for all of us.

Once our plans are in place - which I expect to be (very) soon - I will inform you and the community.

Best regards,


Gijsbert

Hi Gijsbert,

thanks for your anwer, just one comment:

Unknown said:

I was under the impression that we were clear enough that our focus in 2016 was always going to be on fine-tuning our product offering on the V8i platform

I am not quite sure if there was clearly explained in the past. Or maybe it was lost between other posts, which can happen easily. It's what I commented several times in the past: There is no easy-to-be-monitored channel with announcements and news related to specific product or area (common Bentley problem, not specific to geo). Compare it with both global and local blogs and twitter channels from companies like Microsoft (not not flexible mastodont anymore), local subsidiaries or partner of ESRI, Autodesk and also growing communities of open-source solutions (QGIS, OpenStreetMaps...), publishing news or even only ideas only to get quick feedback. So they keep they users interested in because of continuous flow of information about development and progress.

And the problem is multiplied because of local perspective: I don't know about other countries, but localy Bentley presence in magazines, news and web annoucement is zero. So what local users can know and remember today? Big CONNECT Edition announcement in 2015 and the conference (we will release "CONNECT Edition everything" soon), but I don't believe they track all discussions at BE Communities and I don't think there is any other source of up-to-date information.

With regards,

  Jan

Hello Jan,

Thank you for your suggestion about opening up our communication about development. It is definitely worth looking into improving the way we inform and engage with you and all other users.

Best regards,


Gijsbert

Thanks Gijsbert

Unknown said:

Hello Jan,

I can only agree with you that it would be great if we are at the point of being able to be more specific. However, I can only be specific once the approvals are assured to move forward and we are not quite there yet, I hope you .

If in the eyes of the users we have been unclear where were going with Map, that is something I do not wish to take lightly. I was under the impression that we were clear enough that our focus in 2016 was always going to be on fine-tuning our product offering on the V8i platform (which we did, delivering two update releases and a third update release scheduled to be released before the end of the year). If that message did not come across clearly enough, I would like to apologize.

What I can say at this point is that the Map team is very seriously working on the plans for 2017, and that our ambition is to go beyond our goals for 2016 and shift focus to post-V8i generation development. I have faith that those plans should be a step in the right direction for all of us.

Once our plans are in place - which I expect to be (very) soon - I will inform you and the community.

Best regards,


Gijsbert

Thank you for bringing this topic back up. My apologies for not specifically posting in this thread, but our FAQ communities.bentley.com/.../24672.bentley-map-v8i-vs-connect-edition was update late November last year (2016) with the information that there will be a Map CONNECT Edition.

So answering your straightforward yes/no questions:

1. Will there by a CONNECT Edition of Bentley Map (or some successor with a different name)?

Yes.

Initial development has already started, and once the next V8i Update release is completed (expected near of the end of February 2016) the whole Map development team will be on this. This is not a trivial project, so a release before the end of 2017 is uncertain at this time.

2. If so, will it be included in a future release of OpenRoads Designer CONNECT Edition?

No.

At this point, the development of OpenRoads CONNECT is without Map capabilities, but at the same time I do not believe that now that we have a green light for Map CONNECT, a future integration is completely ruled out.

Best regards,


Gijsbert