is there any way to get older version of bentley view (Bentley view V8i)?

You may need to file a Service Ticket with Select Support to request the older version.

As previous versions of Bentley View have expiring support they are no longer available for general download. We would suggest you should be using the current CONNECT version. If you are getting an error relating to "no entitlement" you should first look at whether you are logged into the Connection Client as this is a requirement for the use of this version. The following Wiki article may assist in understanding what is required.

https://communities.bentley.com/products/licensing/w/licensing__wiki/40262/how-to-activate-products-under-subscription-entitlement-service

If you have any further issues you might like to raise a new Service Request for a Bentley Analyst to investigate.

Bentley Viewer: Free Product, or a Path Blocked by Incomprehension?

Andrew Bell said:

If you are getting an error relating to "no entitlement"

To a casual user wanting to view some DGN files, using a 'free' viewer, that message is bewildering. 

Andrew Bell said:

you should first look at whether you are logged into the Connection Client

Bentley View is supposedly free to use, yet there is a hurdle to jump in understanding jargon such as 'entitlement' and 'Connection Client'.  What do they have to do with viewing DGN files?

We read often here about problems faced by people wanting to use a Bentley System product but who find a barrier of apparently unrelated requirements to using a free download.  Bentley Systems should put themselves in the shoes of the unknown customer, who is possibly unfamiliar with the company and its products. Then attempt to imagine how it feels to have to navigate a twisting path blocked by incomprehensible barriers. 

What about the Competion?

Bob Mac wrote: The AutoCAD freeviewer is installed & up & running in around 3 minutes.

mlm wrote: I just installed Navis Freedom Viewer. 5 Minutes.

What if Acrobat were so Hard to Use?

We all use PDF.  How would it be if, instead of a simple download-and-use idiom, Adobe were to impose similar conditions on the installation and use of Adobe Acrobat Reader?  That is, to install Acrobat we should satisfy some 'entitlement' criterion without being told what that means, and then have to create credentials to connect to something with a quite different name on the web?  My guess is that few people today would be using Acrobat.

Thank you Jon for summarising Bentley view issue perfectly.

My organisation is in a similar boat where there are other users like Project managers or engineers who just want to view a drawing (and or Print) via this so called free Bentley View product.

Previous versions of Bentley view had no issues. And now all of our users who wants to view a drawing using Bentley view are getting a warning message saying that the current session will run out in 2 mins. We haven't decided to upgrade to Bentley view Connect edition yet since it involves all users to have to sign up to Bentley and enter username password in connection client. This is just an extra admin work for us we didn't ask for.

Imagine having to sign in with username password to use a free Paint software. I don't understand why Bentley says Bentley view is a free product yet you must sign in to connection client to activate the product.

Nice Bentley Nice