In 1999,I encountered a product called Project Bank I was very impressed because aside from accessing a single DGN file by multi user, It also has a message system that alerts users for clash. There are more useful functions of this product that the industry is looking. This product i think would be of great value if they bring it back.
Apologies, I had not heard of this Project Bank but after discussing with my colleagues it was explained that it was a rudimentary type of DMS similar to ProjectWise. It contained methods equivalent to Design History, in MicroStation, or Versions, in ProjectWise, which allowed multiple users to access and modify the same files. You might like to ask this same question within the Content Management Forum as this appear to be a concept that they may be looking into.
https://communities.bentley.com/products/projectwise/content_management/f/content-management-forum/106818/delta-file-transfers-design-history-faster-transfers/323221#323221
https://communities.bentley.com/products/projectwise/content_publishing/f/content-publishing-forum/65503/design-history-successes---issues/167513#167513
RegardsAndrew BellTechnical SupportBentley Systems
Andrew Bell said:ProjectBank was a rudimentary type of DMS similar to ProjectWise
In defense of Keith Bentley, the last thing about ProjectBank was 'rudimentary'. It was a sophisticated approach to divide-and-rule, allowing several MicroStation users to work independently on parts of the same DGN file.
By contrast, ProjectWise uses a relational database (DB) to store a list of DGN and other files. It uses an off-the-shelf DB (usually Oracle) to store those data.
A better description of ProjectBank is that it introduced transactional processing to the task of DGN editing. That is, it adopted DB techniques for use with MicroStation. MicroStation CONNECT contains elements of that technology today.
Regards, Jon Summers LA Solutions
Ahh, ProjectBank. It was one of my favorite projects we ever worked on. It really was ahead of its time, but actually worked quite well. Jon's right, it had nothing to do with "document management" per se, and instead managed the contents of DGN files, allowing simultaneous edits. That problem is really about change tracking and change merging.
The main problem with ProjectBank was that it was implemented in Java, making it difficult to integrate with the rest of our stack. We decided that Java wasn't our future, and we discontinued development of ProjectBank.
If you're paying attention to our current trajectory around digital twins, you'll notice iModels, iModel.js, and iModelHub. That's all based on JavaScript (TypeScript really), which, other than four letters, has nothing in common with Java. There's even a program in that stack called iModelBank, if that gives you any clues...
Keith
Keith Bentley said:If you're paying attention to our current trajectory around digital twins, you'll notice iModels, iModel.js
Yes, iModelJS is great project, I like it (and not only because it's open-source ;-). For me it has been a major reason to (re)learn and strengthen my TypeScript knowledge.
Regards,
Jan
Bentley Accredited Developer: iTwin Platform - AssociateLabyrinth Technology | dev.notes() | cad.point
An old writeup about PB and something called ComponentBanks which were going to be hosted by PBs.
Imodel.js and itwins all sound eerily like ComponentBanks re-booted twenty years on. I suppose the debate back then was around of the limitations of a file-based system and schemas for smart components. Things that are still relevant and unsolved in today's environment with the cloud, Common Data Environments, Common Modeling Environments and IFC etc.
Yup. Maybe McKinsey etc are right. There has been zero productivity improvements in the construction industry over the last 50 years.