Why has the CONNECT edition of Bentley View been removed?

Bentley View V8i SELECTseries 4 is offered as the most current version of the View product, available at no cost. It has sufficient support for viewing and printing most DGN files, and was updated to support CONNECTED Users and CONNECTED Projects. If you require additional viewing and review functionality beyond what is found in Bentley View V8i SELECTseries 4, please consider Bentley Navigator CONNECT Edition, which is available via an affordable BIM Review Visa with a Cloud Services Subscription, or Bentley Navigator CONNECT Edition mobile which is available with just a Bentley CONNECTIONS Passport. MicroStation PowerDraft CONNECT Edition is another alternative to view and edit DGN files with full fidelity.

Regards,
Makai Smith
Director of Product Management, MicroStation Product Line
Bentley Systems, Inc.

"...most DGN files,..."

I'm going out on a limb here, but back myself 100%. If Bentley do NOT provide and promote a free (FREE) zero cost to download and use daily, viewer that opens and diplays FULL DGN allowing printing and measuring of ALL elements/data their suite of software produces, and support this on an ongoing basis, they will lose customers.

Yes there will be those in upper Bentey echelons who are promoting the end of free software, but when you have 00's of Engineers and Technicians wishing to open manipulate and measure DGNs, the cost of maintaining a suite of Bentley becomes untenable and alternatives are immediately attractive, even with the cost of retraining (software will be transfered for virtually free by willing vendors to get onto the subscription cycle).

NB. I'm not entering an argument about SS4 because this is clearly a stop gap towards subscription or pay per use (i.e. everyone needs a Passport/Visa to use Bentley software) when Review CONNECT comes out.

"...most DGN files,..."

I'm going out on a limb here, but back myself 100%. If Bentley do NOT provide and promote a free (FREE) zero cost to download and use daily, viewer that opens and diplays FULL DGN allowing printing and measuring of ALL elements/data their suite of software produces, and support this on an ongoing basis, they will lose customers.

Yes there will be those in upper Bentey echelons who are promoting the end of free software, but when you have 00's of Engineers and Technicians wishing to open manipulate and measure DGNs, the cost of maintaining a suite of Bentley becomes untenable and alternatives are immediately attractive, even with the cost of retraining (software will be transfered for virtually free by willing vendors to get onto the subscription cycle).

NB. I'm not entering an argument about SS4 because this is clearly a stop gap towards subscription or pay per use (i.e. everyone needs a Passport/Visa to use Bentley software) when Review CONNECT comes out.