Hello,
I haven't seen any new comments about Microstation Connect on this forum. Does it mean that I am now the only person suffering from slow opening files, constant freezes and crashes with Connect?
Do I need to upgrade my pc which is now dual xeon 12 core system with 6 GB graphic card and 16gb Ram? Not the latest spec but quite a decent workstation, I think and it works quite well with other 3d packages including rendering.
Sarcasm aside: I have been paying the subscription for what I would assume is an upgrade and improvement to the product which is considered a top shelf cad/ 3d package.
Instead, I am getting the functionality which is way inferior than what is available from sketchup + autocad + vray, which come together as a cheaper annual expense. By functionality, I mean speed, user experience, stability, not just the number of tools available.
I am not questioning new elements such as solid feature modelling and general 3d options , but I have serious doubts about the new philosophy and direction of the UI and its functionality- ie who came with the idea of assigning new shortcuts to the Task manager? If I need to re-learn the interface this should be because it does provide an improvement in speed, not to slow and confuse.
If Microstation is to emulate Autocad I don't see the point- in fact I notice autocad has recently become more user friendly and logical even after years of not using it.
Of course, the natural decision would be to switch the software, but for many users like me have already invested a lot of time and money into what used to be considered a great product. It has been almost 18 years of my professional work with a big part of it covered by Bentley Subscription. At the end of a day, new Microstation Connect just disappoints and we are on edition 11! It's my third attempt to start working on Connect and every time I need to go back to the older V8i to get my work done.
Can somebody from Bentley please answer me, when the long due improvement to the speed and stability will be provided, as my subscription is now due for renewal?
Kind regards,
Radek Stefanczyk
If you have a look through the Resolved Issues shown in the following articles for Update 10 and 11 you will see that Bentley are working hard in getting MicroStation CONNECT Edition working as well as it can and resolving any issues with the speed of operation or crashing issues.
https://communities.bentley.com/products/microstation/w/microstation__wiki/39101/resolved-issues-in-microstation-connect-edition-update-10-10-10-00-23
https://communities.bentley.com/products/microstation/w/microstation__wiki/40172/resolved-issue-in-microstation-connect-edition-update-11-10-11-00-36
If you have any specific issues with your workflow or files we will work with you to see what may be affecting the operation of MicroStation CONNECT Edition on your system. You might like to post exactly what type of operations you are finding an issue. Like opening a specific type of file, performing a rendering operation, etc. If you raise a new Service Request we can work with you one-to-one to resolve any issues you might have.
https://apps.bentley.com/srmanager/ProductSupport
RegardsAndrew BellTechnical SupportBentley Systems
Had the same problem with AECOsim..wich in fact is Microstation CONNECT related.
communities.bentley.com/.../responsiveness
I've managed to get used to the GUI but the performance is still sub-v8i. The implementation of the old shortcuts doesn't seem to me to work too well. The reaction from our staff has been universally negative and I'm not looking forward to forcing them to use it once Bentley pull the support on V8i. Most of the new Connect features add very little value for us as people just don't need them. Those that might be useful like parametrics and constraints are not robust enough yet in my opinion. The fact we are on U11 almost U12 and still having issues is a big problem. If I were Bentley I would suspend all new features and focus everything on performance and a 'classic' interface so people have the option to work as they do in V8i without noticing the difference. We are increasingly moving to a Rhino / Revit workflow and I just don't see Bentley responding in a way that is going to stop that direction of travel. As a Microstation user for around 26 years this make me very sad.
Hi Christophe,
chris Cher said:Had the same problem with AECOsim..wich in fact is Microstation CONNECT related.
it's a bit more complicated, especially when you want to be exact in details ;-)
AECOsim Building Designer is not built on top of MicroStation (it's very often widespread mistake), but all products including MicroStation are based on so called Power Platform. Of course it's closest to MicroStation, because MicroStation is the most general product.
Where AECOsim BD calls platform functions directly, its performance is probably equal to MicroStation (which means it's similarly slow). But ABD, as well as OpenRoads Designer, Bentley Map etc. add extra complex level(s) on top of the platform. And my feeling is that whereas platform is slow e.g. in GUI (to switch ribbon task is awfully slow), how data models are implemented in industry specific products are slow also, so the result is not friendly and performant environment.
On the other hand it allows (not sure whether it's reality) to optimize the levels (platform and industry/product logic) in parallel.
With regards,
Jan
Bentley Accredited Developer: iTwin Platform - AssociateLabyrinth Technology | dev.notes() | cad.point
Hi Duncan,
Duncan Macdonald said:I've managed to get used to the GUI but the performance is still sub-v8i
It's unfortunately true. I found some scenarios where Update 11 is faster than V8i using the same data, but all these improvements are lost completely because of unresponsive GUI. It's well known fact in UX design that typically nearly complete personal opinion about software performance is based on GUI reponsiveness, not on software real performance.
Unfortunately to design and implement GUI efficently in a modern style (asynchronous, well implemented memory allocation and many other technical challenges) is pretty complicated and requires long term commitment of senior designers and developers.
Duncan Macdonald said:The fact we are on U11 almost U12 and still having issues is a big problem.
Update 12 is very delayed. It was expected at the end of the last year and it's mid February now, so something is not as planned and expected. On the other hand it's probably good that Bentley prefer to follow quality standards (despite of many users do not believe any exists in MicroStation development because of number of bugs).
Duncan Macdonald said:If I were Bentley I would suspend all new features and focus everything on performance
It was discussed that Update 12 will focus on bugs fixing and performance improvements. It seems it was not followed completely (see What's new in Update 12 documentation), but I hope that when it will be released, it will offer faster GUI and better overall performance.
I know developers in Bentley are aware of the issues (because of several phone discussions with them), but I have no idea how many resources can be allocated to the optimization.