Update on Update 13

Season meaning Spring, which is how I'd phrased it until a colleague astutely reminded me the Earth isn't flat.  So, I should say by the end of Spring-or-Fall-depending-on-where-you-live.

If the DWG performance you're referring to is the issue where legacy ACIS solids cause delay, then you may be glad to hear opening such files will be about 50% faster in U13 compared to previous CE Update releases.  We will continue to work through this until we have parity or better with V8i.

Thanks for remarking on my typo, I have corrected the first sentence.

-Makai 

Hi Makai,

Makai Smith said:

So, I should say by the end of Spring-or-Fall-depending-on-where-you-live.

What about to used generally accepted names of months? Why to make things more complicated?

Makai Smith said:

then you may be glad to hear opening such files will be about 50% faster in U13 compared to previous CE Update releases.

Well, not too much. I understand you want to create good feeling from solving issues that should never been released, but to use comparison against the worst situation (which is example of very bad implementation and code quality) does not address real projects expectations. Please provide comparison based on "real ethalon", which is V8i.

I recall discussions about DWG that requires just a minute to be opened in V8i but tens of minutes in CE. In such situation 50% is completely useless information, because wait 10 minutes to open a file instead of 20 minutes does still means "no way to migrate to CONNECT Edition".

Duncan Macdonald said:

The speed up will be most welcome but it's also the fact that V8i will open DWG files that crash Connect.

I agree, there have plenty of other migration stoppers reported and discussed. Both crashes and GUI performance are often mentioned migration stoppers.

What about e.g. performance of element operations when Properties or Explorer dialogs are opened (which makes MicroStation unresponsive for tens of minutes) or GUI itself, when mouse operations that required fractions of second in V8i now require 0.5 secs to several seconds (tool start, GUI response, change ribbon workflow...)?

With regards,

  Jan

Jan,

We will continue to put performance and stability first until such time as we have parity with V8i then better.  All else will follow from this.  The improvements will come as quickly as possible, but will not in many cases be achieved in one step.  While 50% better is better, I don't for a moment assert that the work is done.  Already CONNECT Edition is much better than V8i in many ways: in many capabilities, and the 68-bit architecture means that CONNECT Edition will open files that V8i will not.  Each of the known issues you list are being addressed separately, and you are in contact directly with Bentley Support and development colleagues about them.    

-Makai

Is this problem still on for U13? https://communities.bentley.com/products/microstation/f/microstation-forum/175956/update-to-sr-7000752298-model-copy-level-problem-with-dwg-refs-required

Yes, that defect will be fixed in Update 13.

Hi Makai,

Makai Smith said:

We will continue to put performance and stability first until such time as we have parity with V8i then better.

This is something you (Bentley) ignored for all years CONNECT Edition is available on market and you resigned from code and product quality standards (and quality was something Bentley were proud of in the past). Critical performance issues have been reported by users from the first MicroStation release without any change until recent updates.

About 50% of my customers already started or have plans to test and evaluate migration to competitive platforms (that of course have own problems), simply because there see no quality increase for the most of MicroStation updates (performance is crucial, not new features) and there are no clear plans avaialable what will be solved when.

These decisions are usually expensive, but unfortunately all issues with CE platform (MicroStation quality is smaller part of migration disaster) together with weak local support (because Bentley fought with partners for years, so they started offer alternatives) and ignoring local standards and required features (e.g. in EU without WMTS and WFS used by INSPIRE implementations you are out of game in any industry, competitors have supported it for years) cumulatively push users to competitive platforms.

I am aware of places where CE have been the same or even faster than V8i, but they are just a few and used rarely.

So sorry, no friendly hug and optimisim here and no acceptance and understanding for sentences like  "performance and stability first" until CE products with V8i quality are available.

Makai Smith said:

While 50% better is better

I can quote my friend (and customer) when we discussed announced features of Update 13 yesterday: "50% speed increase means it's not 100% but 50% dud? Ok, but it means it still cannot be used."

What I hear from customers is that V8i is the only benchmark used to evaluate CE features, simply because current workflows, procedures and projects are based on it. To say "it's 50% faster comparing to previous version" is useless marketing speech from this perspective. Please provide comparison with V8i.

Makai Smith said:

Already CONNECT Edition is much better than V8i in many ways

What are new features benefits for running projects with tight dealines, when you have to wait minutes to open every model, every ribbon workflow switch means delay and sometimes data are printed differently? BTW MicroStation is still great compared to e.g. ORD where "responsivenss unit" for any action (even simple mouse click) are seconds or even minutes and several crashes every day is normal.

I am very sure you will not buy car with last generation assistants and automaticl pilot when engine have problem with 2 pistons, breaks sometimes do not work and undercarriage with suspension behaves more like tractor than city car. When basic features are not good, new extra features are useless.

I agree some new features are great, but overall platform now is still disaster and requires huge investment into quality and performance (including industry specific products like ORD, BM and ABD, because they are used together with MicroStation).

Makai Smith said:

and you are in contact directly with Bentley Support

Bentley Support is just big hole where you can anything put in, but there is no response. It's visible from many posts and questions in forum that to translate issue into defect number through communities is "doable", but not always fast, but do the same through service ticket is much longer. And to receive any further information how the ticket was evaluated, prioritized and when it's expected it will be solved is simply impossible. To ask separately again and again for every single defect number (and not all tickets end as defects) here in forum is not efficient solution.

With regards,

  Jan

Makai Smith said:

CONNECT Edition is much better than V8i in many ways ... the 68-bit architecture

How I've longed for a 68-bit app. to run on my Windows 68 computer!

Makai Smith said:

CONNECT Edition is much better than V8i in many ways ... the 68-bit architecture

How I've longed for a 68-bit app. to run on my Windows 68 computer!

Those extra 4 bits make a massive difference

Itanium IA-128 back from the dead? :-)