Hi,
I have a user who logs in from a computer in the office and a computer at home. Today, 20 minutes before a conference call that I had to attend, she texts me to tell me that Microstation on her home computer says that it has "No Entitlements" (even though her work computer is fine). I did a remote log-in to her computer and tried a couple things, including "refresh policy" and "activation wizard". The activation wizard ran and reported errors with Microstation and Bentley View.
Then I called Bentley tech support (15 minutes before my conference call). The guy there tried a couple things, including logging in with my username and password, with no luck. I had to hang up on him and allow him to continue the remote access unattended. The bottom line was that nothing got fixed and my user could not use Microstation. I eventually fixed it by finding and installing an update to the Connection Client.
This exercise took 30 to 45 minutes of my time, and it left my employee stranded for 90 minutes without the tool that she need to do her job. So that is two+ hours of labor spent on a Bentley software failure. The nice thing is that this is Friday morning (Pacific Time) (2pm Eastern Time) instead of Friday afternoon when Bentley is closed. The bad thing is that we have paid $x,xxx for a Microstation license and we pay $x,xxx per seat per year for the service contract to have our employees wasting time because Microstation won't start.
Question #1 for Bentley: What are the procedures to debug / fix the licensing client? (I assume check the connection, refresh the policy, etc.) I also know that there are licensing cache / database files that can be deleted when they get corrupted--what was the procedure for deleting them? What other steps can be done to fix this issue?
Question #2 for Bentley: When it is 2pm Friday afternoon (5:01 pm Eastern time), and we have a big dead line that we are working late for and working on the weekend for, and either the license server goes down or a license client has issues, how do we get Microstation to work through the weekend until we can call tech support?
Also, what is the procedure to back-charge Bentley for time and expenses due to the failure of our already-paid-for-software refusing to operate?
--Thanks,--Robert
P.S. The 7 day "grace" period is ridiculous--it is reasonable to expect a computer not to used for a week. If then go to use that computer and don't have an internet connection,or the server is down, then how do you start Microstation, which you are fully entitled to use? The 30 day grace period is much more reasonable. I mention this because it leads to the same situation.
Also, this particular "No Entitlement" error had no warning. The tech support guy apparently was unable to solve it on his own. I suspect that I was really lucky in not having the latest Connection Client installed because I suspect that installing the upgrade reset the cache / database files, which allowed things to work again.
Wow!! 9 days and no response from Bentley! It's almost like they are ignoring the problem.
Today I received several dozen DGN files from a State level department and my firm was asked to assist in reviewing the engineering and design specifications embedded in these general design standards. As we do not have ready means of opening DGN file types, I followed the logical process of using the appropriate viewer, here is my experience:
In order to use the free DGN viewer I downloaded the Bentley Viewer which in turn required the Bentley Connect Server which required me to create an account with Bentley which required me to Log in to the Bentley Connect community interface which requires a password which, being a new User, required me to update/create a password, which required me to reply to the e-mail link confirming my just created account address, which required me to then agree to the terms of use of the Bentley Connect community which then allowed me to associate the DGN files with the viewer - which when attempting to open gave me a "No Entitlement" alert and locked up the computer, which required me to restart and attempt a second time which opened a second session of the server which locked up again after the "No Entitlement" alert which required me to dig around in the HELP sections of the forums and Wiki which eventually described the possibility of an outdated Connect module which required / suggested that I relaunch the installation "two times" which, after a third restart of my machine, and having the Connect Server open and active, would finally allow me to open a DGN file on my machine after about nearly 3 hours of messing with getting a viewer for DGN files.
All I wanted to do was view the files!
I had no problem using the free viewer but after this convoluted process I think I will just e-mail the files home and open them on my AutoCAD there, it will be so much easier and faster. Now, 3 hours in, I still have yet to open any of the other files, talk about time wasted.
I am seriously thinking of uninstalling everything, this was such a bad experience and the idea of having 3 apps open just to view a single DGN is silly to me.
To be helpful - for anyone else having a similar bad "first time experience" try reloading the Bentley Connect module at least 3 times as that Wiki suggestion (hint #3) appears to help fix things, at least regarding the "No Entitlement" when using the simple free DGN Viewer.
Wow. That's a nice introduction to Bentley for people you give a link to view your dgn files...
--Robert
Not bad for a free viewer. I would have given up ages ago!!