When will we get multiple user full access to one file in MicroStation?

When will a version of MicroStation be released that will allow multiple users to read/edit one file? Is this in the pipeline for a future release? 

Revit can do this and, from my point of view, works a treat. This allows whole team to work in one model.

  • stuartw said:
    When will a version of Xxxx be released that will allow multiple users to read/edit one file?

    If you generalise your question to be about product Xxxx, then what should the answer be?  Suppose Xxxx = Word: does it make sense to have multiple authors working on one Word document?  If Xxxx = Excel: wouldn't multiple accountants working on the same workbook collide in their calculations?

    Transactional Processing

    The only well-known class of applications that are designed to accommodate multiple simultaneous users are relational databases, such as Oracle and SQL Server.  They implement transactional processing, which helps to mitigate simultaneous attempts by more than one user to modify a database record.

    stuartw said:
    When will a version of MicroStation be released that will allow multiple users to read/edit one file?

    Multiple users can already read a single file.  That's what references are for: you use them every day.  Your question boils down to When will a version of MicroStation be released that will allow multiple users to edit one file?

    Bentley Systems introduced multiple access read/write technology many years ago, in the V7 era.  Was that ProjectBank, or am I thinking of another doomed project?  ProjectBank was an innovative transactional extension to MicroStation.  It was informed by relational database theory and included a forerunner of today's EC Schemas.  Customers either didn't like it or didn't understand it, so it was dropped. 

     
    Regards, Jon Summers
    LA Solutions

  • As Jon says, this technology was in Microstation but was dropped; I suspect the reason is because it was positively not wanted.

    What is the advantage of a single file?
    It can only be in one place (realistically), so it will slow down any remote users.
    It requires a whole level of control - who can do what - in the Application. Reference files are an easy way to do this, which the Operating System (and IT departements) understand.
    And if it goes wrong - you lose the whole project.

    You can currently have multiple users reading a Microstation file - all seeing it as a reference file - and being notified when it changes.

    What are you trying to do, that reference files can not do?

  • Working in files that comprise a factory floor of about 100000 sqm usually involves more than one planner. While someone is concerned with the nordwesterncorner of the floor, others may add or change something in the middle of the floor or the opposite corner. This scenario could be split into different files which would have to be merged into one when returning the files to the client. If the editor of the south-west corner changes something that will affect the north-eastern one as well he would have to wait until the n-e-editor closes his file. If it were just one file perhaps he or she could ask the s-e-editor for permission to change or erase his or her object. I think ArchiCAD and Revit have a concept like that.

    As Jon Summers pointed out relational databases may allow multiple simultaneous users, is not a CAD file very much like a database? At least the sample files showing cross references between some office floor and a database have accompanied Microstation ever since I got my educational version back in the nineties. Probably even longer.

    For me reference files work out well if they are stored on local rather than network drives. Working in an environment with full network access to over 150 colleagues seems to reduce network bandwidth to each individual user to 1980s speed. If I copy my network files to my harddrive I get a much better performance but do not have a real-time reference to the work of others. Sounds as though ProjectWise might be an option but that would, of course, cost extra.

  • Unknown said:
    Is not a CAD file very much like a database?

    Keep your eye on announcements that mention MicroStation and SQLite.

    In particular, look at the list of organisations in the SQLite Consortium.  Draw your own conclusions!

     
    Regards, Jon Summers
    LA Solutions

  • files work out well if they are stored on local rather than network drives. Working in an environment with full network access to over 150 colleagues seems to reduce network bandwidth to each individual user to 1980s speed.

    Maybe the issue is an undersized/underpowered network. We routinely edit files "over the network" and don't see speed issues UNLESS the user has a 10 mb and sometimes 100 mb network speed. With 1gb speed response time is just fine. Now, I realize that speed=$$$ ...