Hello, I'm a system administrator (responsible for printing and graphical applications) for a water-distribution company in Belgium. We use a mixture of Bentley Microstation, AECOsim, AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT and other design software in our line of work. Why we have so many different ones has historical causes, I'm not going into that. But I am convinced that we should go all-Bentley, certainly for all the big projects.
Currently we have 32 concurrent-use licenses of Microstation. But my reports indicate me that we are constantly brushing the limits of our license file and we have no room for more users or usage. A consultant pointed out that we could just as well use Powerdraft instead of Microstation V8i, as we don't use the advanced features that differentiate MiSt. from PoDr. anyway. If that were so, I could replace installations of MiSt. with PoDr., and have more usage licenses, so that I could push the usage of Bentley products more. (at an exchange rate of 8 PdDr. to 5 MiSt.)
But do have a some questions.
- is Powerdraft 100% compatible with Microstation?
- Does Powerdraft accept the startup settings, used by and for Microstation, and reacts in the same way?
- Are user-interface configurations, made for Microstation, taken over by Powerdraft?
Only if all 3 questions can be answered as YES, can I continue to opt for a migration from one to the other.
Regards,
Jan
PowerDraft provides a sub-set of MicroStation functionality. For the sort of 2D network mapping in your business, the absence of advanced 3D tools and visualisation is unlikely to cause you any problems. You can of course retain one or two licenses for full MicroStation if you do have an occasional need for visualisation.
It's always tricky to answer questions about configuration, which are by definition site-specific. Under the terms of your SELECT agreement, I believe that you should be able to obtain a license of PowerDraft for evaluation. That evaluation would give you an opportunity to test your start-up settings and custom user interface.
Regards, Jon Summers LA Solutions