MicroStation Connect - Tags Sets going away

Tags/tagsets are never going to go away unless there will be a file format change which is not in our short term plan, so not only they will stay but they still have to function correctly. What has been removed in CONNECT is the GUI - the tools that create and modify tags/tagsets are no longer in the default GUI. But the keyin's are still available. As far as DWG compatibility is concerned, tags are probably still a better match for attributes, both of which are a result of legacy design with their limitations. Item Types can represent attributes fairly well and they are accessible in Properties. A general rule of thumb is that if your attributes are properly created (i.e. every attribute corresponds to an attribute definition in the parent block), use item types. A DWG file with lots of missing attribute definitions (some add-in apps or macros might create these) or full of orphaned attribute definitions (incorrectly using attrdef entities as attributes) is probably better to be opened with "Block Attributes as Tags" turned on.

Don,

I did find the "Block Attributes as Tags" setting and that now allows me to edit the AutoCAD attributes, which were standard text before.  In the help file for MicroStation Connect (see attachment) it states that Tags are going away.

Hi Mike,

Unknown said:

In the help file for MicroStation Connect (see attachment) it states that Tags are going away.

In my opinion there is no contradiction between what Don wrote and what is mentioned in MicroStation help file. The documentation tells the deprecated features will be removed in some (not specified) future version. If Don wrote they will become available as long as current DGN format will be used, together it means if there will be a version of MicroStation in future, that will bring and require new DGN format, Tags and Tag Sets will be removed at this time.

Deprecated means nothing else than recommendation to don't use a particular feature as (usually) better replacement is available and the old feature will be removed after some period. Specifically in relation to MicroStation and other Bentley products the period is pretty long because of maintaining backward compatibility and smooth transition. E.g. MicroStation BASIC was marked as obsolete in MicroStation 8.0 and removed ... in MicroStation CONNECT Edition ... nearly 15 years later.

So I guess we will have enough time to migrate our projects from tags ;-)

With regards,

  Jan