• State Not Answered
  • Replies 1 reply
  • Subscribers 59 subscribers
  • Views 1899 views
  • Users 0 members are here

Advanced Map Finishing

Rod Wing
Offline

What is the future of the Advanced Map Finishing tools in Bentley Map?

These tools are delivered with Bentley Map, but they aren't really a part of Bentley Map. It is a very frustrating experience to try to use the two together. I knew not much would change in the last Map V8i SS4 update release (08.11.09.713), but was still disappointed nonetheless.

Switching between the two I have close out of MicroStation completely when in Bentley Map, then launch a new instance of MicroStation with different startup parameters to use the Advanced Finishing tools. If I want to go back to Map, I have to close out of MicroStation again, then launch the Map instance. Why in the world can we not use the two together in the same session of MicroStation?

Are there plans to update the Advanced Map Finishing tools to work with the updates to MicroStation and Map?

Many of the tools and odd looking dialogs have not been modified since the older CADScript product when it was acquired by Bentley (see the iFill dialog as an example where the Browse buttons are labeled with a "?" and there are command buttons with an "_" label that clear the associated fields).  Then there are other quirky things that have been around a while that make you wonder how much attention is given to this product. Take a look at the Create Quill Text tool. The main dialog has a close button in the top right, but it is disabled. Opening up the sub dialogs you see that not a lot of care was taken with sizing and gadget arrangement on some of them (see Tools>Spelling as an example). 

It would also be awesome if the grids in the Map Index tool could be integrated with the Grid styles in Map so you only had one place to define mapping related grids.

I know a number of DOT's use the printing features to produce their state highway maps, and I think some of the other tools are very useful as well so I'm not looking for these tools to be discontinued. I'm just discouraged as I see updates are made to MicroStation and Map, but little seems to get updated or added in the Advanced Map Finishing tools.

  • 0 Offline
    Hello Rod,

    First, I would like to thank you for putting this to our attention. You are correct in stating that the Map Finishing tools were never seamlessly integrated into the Map products. Although the development team is continuously looking for ways to improve our offering, there are no immediate plans to work on integration of the Map Finishing tools in the V8i generation of the Map products.

    The Map team has started its work on the next generation of Map products. Part of this process is evaluating the current functionality and come of with ways to move the functionality forward. In that light, your input on Map Finishing is greatly appreciated. Please note however, that a release schedule for next generation Map products has not been made public at this point.

    See also: communities.bentley.com/.../24672.bentley-map-v8i-vs-connect-edition

    Best regards,


    Gijsbert


    This is a test

Communities
Support and Services
Training and Learning
Social Media