Just tried adding a Bing Map to a site plan following this blog https://communities.bentley.com/products/microstation/b/microstation_blog/posts/like-v8i-you-ll-love-connect---make-using-bing-maps-a-snap-by-using-microstation-connect-edition
The aerial view drops in OK but the quality is rubbish. How do I get a better/sharper display of the map. @Shawn McGaffick
@Shawn McGaffick Can you help with this?
Hi Stuart,
I will check with Shawn and some of my other colleagues to get you some help with this. In the meantime, can you help provide the following information?
Regards,
Jesse DringoliTechnical Support Manager, OpenFlowsBentley Communities Site AdministratorBentley Systems, Inc.
Thanks Jesse for pointing this comment out to me.
I agree the attachment is easy enough and as a simple background it is acceptable for viewing.
But zoom into a small area such as a driveway or curb, and the quality leaves a bit to be desired. Very pixelated.
However, we are just using Bing Maps as a background, we simply consume the images. Raster Manager will still be the desired tool for anything more substantial like clipping, moving, ordering etc. and having multiple imagery types.
Between you and I, I think we really meant “Background” Map and that was it, when it comes to View Attributes. Great tool to orientate yourself, a quick check of geometry to reality. But not meant to replace standard aerial images, that are at much higher resolution.
An example of what you might be running into is pick an area in Bing maps (https://www4.bing.com/maps), then zoom to its Maximum zoom level, anything displayed with larger pixel sizes will be lower quality.
Then in MicroStation locate the same area, the same area in MicroStation at that zoom level does not look all that bad.
However, if I zoom into MicroStation more, the image obviously gets more granular as the pixel size on the screen increases and gets distorted and looks terrible. Bing Maps prevents (in their app) us from zooming past the maximum level.
I believe we are really at the mercy of Bing Maps on this one, again we consume what they provide. Their imagery that is posted for Bing Maps is not meant for this fine of detail, I think they are really for routing and planning. Using them as a background is a great planning tool, but not for finer detail. This is my opinion and I’m not an expert on all Bing Maps can do outside of MicroStation.
Again, use Bing Maps “Background” as simply that, a background while anything needing better scaled resolution, such as a set of plans with clipped imagery, then we need to continue with Raster Manager.
Then you guarantee you have the detail/resolution at the zoom factor needed.
Hope that makes sense and I understood your question and comment.
Shawn
stuartw said:The aerial view drops in OK but the quality is rubbish. How do I get a better/sharper display of the map
To add to Shawn's comments perhaps this article will help elaborate the limitations of Bing maps in terms of image resolution and scale.
Can "you" (Shawn and/or David) provide some guidance on getting the Bing Map options to work. They have NOT worked for me since Update 4, and my posts in regards to this issue seems to go unanswered for the most part. I am unable to use either a Background Map or attach an image thru Raster Manager. When I open a file that has a Bing Map already attached (from the Update 4 days), I see:
www.bing.com/.../Aerial (Password required)
and when I look in Raster Manager, and right-click on the raster, I see "Enter Credentials" in the pop-up, but nothing opens when I select it (not sure what I'd have to enter anyway).
Yes - I AM signed into CONNECTION Client.
I suspect it's something to do with our firewalls, so it would be nice to see a document that specifies the requirements for getting this to work.
Bruce