compresses file on exit Config Variable

I'm just thinking there may be some confusion about what Compress File on Exit and how this is different to the Compress Options.

Compress File on Exit - If off (the default), the active design file is not automatically compressed when closed. The compression operation permanently removes elements marked for deletion.

communities.bentley.com/.../8367.compress-file-on-exit

Compress Options - Used to purge empty and unused data resources as well as deleted elements.

communities.bentley.com/.../configure-your-compress-options

As David has suggested, the Compress File on Exit option does not have a configuration variable as it is saved in the User Preferences File. If you wanted this to be defined by default for all your users then your would need to work with a User Preference Seed.

communities.bentley.com/.../17493.create-a-seed-user-preference-file-spf-that-does-not-contain-file-history

I'm just thinking there may be some confusion about what Compress File on Exit and how this is different to the Compress Options.

Compress File on Exit - If off (the default), the active design file is not automatically compressed when closed. The compression operation permanently removes elements marked for deletion.

communities.bentley.com/.../8367.compress-file-on-exit

Compress Options - Used to purge empty and unused data resources as well as deleted elements.

communities.bentley.com/.../configure-your-compress-options

As David has suggested, the Compress File on Exit option does not have a configuration variable as it is saved in the User Preferences File. If you wanted this to be defined by default for all your users then your would need to work with a User Preference Seed.

communities.bentley.com/.../17493.create-a-seed-user-preference-file-spf-that-does-not-contain-file-history

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the explanation. I believe I had it straight already...

While I understand that "compress file on exit" can be enabled and is saved to the User Preferences File, it would be much better from a file size management situation if there was a config variable for this option.
I don't think we want to dictate to the Users their preferences.

If it was available, and set as a global setting, every single time anyone exits a file it gets compressed.
Any data the user added and then deleted, gets cleared out of the file reducing the file size. It might be almost nothing, but could be a huge amount of data. And I've seen the Civil folks add every single point that resides in a DTM to the file as elevation text and then delete it. Also, contours that may have been added at a small interval (that was wrong) - and is deleted and replaced with a saner setting.
Without “compress on exit” that data is carried around for the remainder of the project.
• File open.
• File close
• File checkout (or copy out).
• Automatic renditioning
• New revision
• Etc…
Whereas, the ability to force every user to “compress on exit” would clean up the files every time they are closed and none of that is carried forward.
And everything works faster…

I have to fully agree with Michael on this.  I've imported step files from customers that are 75-200mb and if somebody copies that information one time then deletes it the file doubles and become un-usable.  Leaving it entirely up to users to check a box seems weird and it doesn't solve the issue of pre-existing users.

I would pose the question, how many firms have pre-defined default user profiles created and every other config file done when they started to use microstation?  I know we didn't it grew over time from back in 1997.  Now 20 years later we've never checked that setting and we're stuck with users who don't have it on.  To complicate things more most users have backup read-only copies of their .upf, .dgnlib and other files so that if they become corrupted they don't have to re-build their interfaces from scratch.

As an example the current job i'm working on has 0.98 GB of 3D models spread over 223 files at any given moment 30ish of those files could referenced into another file compounding the issue.  Poor file size management grows exponentially in this kind of project.  This project is only 4 months in and we've got 2 more years of work to do before it's complete.

Side note: you can over-ride the Auto-Save setting in the user preference file to be locked on I don't see how this is any different.

Thanks for the feedback.  So, currently, the solution is as Andrew spelled out, create seed UPF file and point to it from MS_USERPREFSEED.  You may also set MS_COMPRESS_OPTIONS to define what you want compressed.

Ok, moving forward, I want to be clear about what exactly will solve the issue.  I will state it as a request.

As a CAD Manager I want a configuration variable that forces the Compress File command on, so that when a user exits a file it will always be compressed.

In combination with MS_COMPRESS_OPTIONS would this solve the problem?

Yes that would work Samir, or just set up a MS_OPERATIONAL_PREFERENCES variable which allows you to activate or deactivate any of the settings similar to how the MS_COMPRESS_OPTIONS code works today. In truth much of the preferences menu could be done this way i'm sure this isn't the only example, others exist inside the reference category i would like to lock the "save relative path" OFF so that nobody ever accidentally turns it on (hoses our archives when they are moved from active job server to another). Not "every" setting is critical to our operation but i'm sure others have a different opinion then my own.

In fairness it might also be that some of these settings even the reference one already have variable liken to the Auto-Save which I know has a variable, I just haven't found it. A little consolidation and cleanup might help all around.

Someone said:
Compress on exit ONLY compresses when MicroStation/ABD is closed. Not when a file is closed?

Which is it?
Compress on exit MicroStation/ABD
Compress on exit file.

I have also learned that Compress on exit only do a few things of what is listed in Compress Options.
So Samirs configvar should have switches for all of these options including references.