Will I still be able to activate and use Bentley Microstation V8i after January 1, 2022?

Hi Tim Doyle,

Yes, you will still be able to run/activate your MicroStation v8i Select Series 10 product even in a discontinued support state. 
More can be read here:
https://communities.bentley.com/communities/everything_else_community/bentley-support-policy/w/bentley-support-policy/56576/v8i-selectseries-10-support-policy-deprecation-and-connect-edition-upgrade-initiative

I would recommend planning your migration to MicroStation CONNECT as soon as possible. From prior experience, I have observed multiple organizations using both versions in tandem - for example, when project/client requirements call for v8i utilization, but the end goal is to eventually migrate to CONNECT. This way, you can adjust to CONNECT while also fulfilling project requirements in v8i.

Cheers,
JP

There are many reasons NOT to migrate to CONNECT - the biggest is to meet client standards. While this may not be as critical for plain MicroStation, it is essential for the other design products. I know that civil, in particular, has project schedules that can last for years (if not decades). Many large DOTs have not made the leap to CONNECT, and may not for some time. As long as the standards and deliverables are SS10, we will not be switching over. The client gets what the client wants. Even when those large clients begin to switch over to CONNECT products, the projects begun in "legacy" software will remain in legacy format - project contracts negotiated two years ago do not have the extra budget for the complete redesign halfway through.

CONNECT (and the other related design softwares) are a disappointment. Every release has regressions (some critical!), new bugs, and none of the features people have requested for years. I hear that stability and speed are still an issue, and there are other technical difficulties all across this board. Ending support on the last solid release of products is shortsighted and tone-deaf.

Oto said:

One of main reasons to migrate to CONNECT is thanks to Autodesk marketing releasing new DWG formats.

Making the choice of requesting consultants issue me with DWG's in no later than 2016 format was a complete no brainer, compared to having to use CONNECT.

Jayson Perry said:

I would recommend planning your migration to MicroStation CONNECT as soon as possible.

Out of curiosity, why?

Why exactly would you recommend Tim move to a software which is evidently worse in almost every way, than V8i? Do you want Tim and his colleagues to experience the same frustrations that are consistently reported by regular CE users? I could fully understand IF CONNECT was at least on par with V8i in its performance but we all know that's not the case.

Hi Barry,

Thanks for contributing to the conversation - input from our users is very important to us.
There are many benefits when upgrading to MicroStation CONNECT from MicroStation v8i - support status, continuous updates, and new features to name a few. Making the move to MicroStation CONNECT would be the logical choice, especially since development has been discontinued for the v8i generation. Although we understand there may be some understandable limitations (projects, client needs, etc.), it will eventually be in your best interest to upgrade. Now is a better time than ever, especially since you can use both v8i and CE at the same time.

I would encourage you to read this blog post as it goes into more detail regarding "parallel installations" as well as what is new in MicroStation CONNECT:
https://communities.bentley.com/products/microstation/b/microstation_blog/posts/like-v8i-you-ll-love-connect-side-by-side-the-microstation-connect-edition-and-microstation-v8i

If you have further concerns or issues with upgrading to MicroStation CONNECT, I would encourage you to Create a New Service Request via our Service Request Manager to voice your concerns and/or receive further assistance.

Cheers,
Jayson P.

It appears that you have no experience using both products in a production environment.

While there are aspects of V8i that I might like updated, it is a reliable, stable software release. It does not need "continuous updates" because it WORKS. Those continuous updates have caused a lot of bugs and regressions, and the new features aren't always that useful.

Besides, those "benefits" will be of no use to me until my clients upgrade. As a matter of fact, they will cost me quite a bit of time and budget to develop in-house standards (approximating the clients' V8i standards), which will be discarded when we finally DO receive our client standards.

Jayson Perry said:

Making the move to MicroStation CONNECT would be the logical choice

I think that several of the posts here explain why it may not be a logical choice.

Jayson Perry said:

It will eventually be in your best interest to upgrade

It will be in Bentley's immediate interest to pay attention to your customers' numerous complaints about the look, feel, functionality, performance and stability of MicroStation CONNECT.

Jayson Perry said:

I would encourage you to Create a New Service Request to voice your concerns

What evidence is there that concerns raised via a service request have any effect?

Hi Jayson,

Jayson Perry said:

input from our users is very important to us.

Years ago I would have believed that, but now that's nothing but an unsubstantiated claim with no credible evidence to back it up. Yet, on the other hand, when Bentley developers are challenged with why they have changed certain aspects of the software WITHOUT proposing the changes to the userbase in advance, and their response is that it was "Just something I wanted to do", that tells me all I need to know what current day Bentley thinks of its users. Seen as nothing more than a cash cow, and completely vindicates my decision to not renew my SELECT subscription earlier this year (something all users should be at least considering).

Jayson Perry said:

support status

The same support which has reported that it will take approx. 1 year to fix point clouds broken in the latest CE update, and still hasn't added functionality that was approved for implementation over 5 years ago?

Jayson Perry said:

continuous updates

Oh please. MicroStation has NEVER had continuous updates, it would be more accurate to describe the frequency as 'once in a blue moon'. Software which actually does update continuously would be Chrome or Office365 products. 

Jayson Perry said:

new features

How silly of me to forget that I've never been able to produce drawings for the construction of houses, flatted developments, Hotels, Hospitals, Student Accomodations, Major road bridges, railway electrifications projects etc... in MicroStation V8i, all because I never had Item Types. Oh wait.....

Jayson Perry said:

it will eventually be in your best interest to upgrade

Key word in that statement being eventually. Here's a question for you, which you will unlikely be able to provide a definitive answer to: When will CE have the same level of performance, stability and functionality as V8i? I'm sure all your CE-using users will await your response with bated breath because its the one answer they want.

Jayson Perry said:

Now is a better time than ever, especially since you can use both v8i and CE at the same time.

I've done it previously, and uninstalled not long after. I gave it a chance but it was absolute trash; Tasks didn't work correctly at the time, the ribbon couldn't be customised to my liking, performance was atrocious, tools critical to my workflow were either removed entirely or deprecated, Projects removed in place of flaky Worksets (or whatever). I will almost certainly never use CONNECT again and will stick with V8i and eventually return to REVIT for projects where it would be more beneficial than V8i.

Jayson, I imagine that none of the users (myself included) on this thread know you personally, and none of what is written here is specifically aimed at you. I appreciate that it's perhaps part of your job (whatever that actually is) to respond on here, but aside from Tim (who I'm not familiar with), the rest of us are long-term MicroStation Users/Developers, not some inexperienced graduate that stumbled onto the forum. We don't drink the Bentley Kool-Aid and we can easily see through the 'marketing spiel' that your employers are clearly instructing you to spread, so it's in your best interests to not waste your time spreading falsehoods.

Hi Jayson,

Jayson Perry said:

input from our users is very important to us.

Years ago I would have believed that, but now that's nothing but an unsubstantiated claim with no credible evidence to back it up. Yet, on the other hand, when Bentley developers are challenged with why they have changed certain aspects of the software WITHOUT proposing the changes to the userbase in advance, and their response is that it was "Just something I wanted to do", that tells me all I need to know what current day Bentley thinks of its users. Seen as nothing more than a cash cow, and completely vindicates my decision to not renew my SELECT subscription earlier this year (something all users should be at least considering).

Jayson Perry said:

support status

The same support which has reported that it will take approx. 1 year to fix point clouds broken in the latest CE update, and still hasn't added functionality that was approved for implementation over 5 years ago?

Jayson Perry said:

continuous updates

Oh please. MicroStation has NEVER had continuous updates, it would be more accurate to describe the frequency as 'once in a blue moon'. Software which actually does update continuously would be Chrome or Office365 products. 

Jayson Perry said:

new features

How silly of me to forget that I've never been able to produce drawings for the construction of houses, flatted developments, Hotels, Hospitals, Student Accomodations, Major road bridges, railway electrifications projects etc... in MicroStation V8i, all because I never had Item Types. Oh wait.....

Jayson Perry said:

it will eventually be in your best interest to upgrade

Key word in that statement being eventually. Here's a question for you, which you will unlikely be able to provide a definitive answer to: When will CE have the same level of performance, stability and functionality as V8i? I'm sure all your CE-using users will await your response with bated breath because its the one answer they want.

Jayson Perry said:

Now is a better time than ever, especially since you can use both v8i and CE at the same time.

I've done it previously, and uninstalled not long after. I gave it a chance but it was absolute trash; Tasks didn't work correctly at the time, the ribbon couldn't be customised to my liking, performance was atrocious, tools critical to my workflow were either removed entirely or deprecated, Projects removed in place of flaky Worksets (or whatever). I will almost certainly never use CONNECT again and will stick with V8i and eventually return to REVIT for projects where it would be more beneficial than V8i.

Jayson, I imagine that none of the users (myself included) on this thread know you personally, and none of what is written here is specifically aimed at you. I appreciate that it's perhaps part of your job (whatever that actually is) to respond on here, but aside from Tim (who I'm not familiar with), the rest of us are long-term MicroStation Users/Developers, not some inexperienced graduate that stumbled onto the forum. We don't drink the Bentley Kool-Aid and we can easily see through the 'marketing spiel' that your employers are clearly instructing you to spread, so it's in your best interests to not waste your time spreading falsehoods.

Barry Lothian said:

"Just something I wanted to do",

Like in latest version text tools become blue. Why? Users complained that interface is not blue enough? Is it bug or feature?

Similar to Print dialog where Print button is always active and react to Enter key. A feature no one asked for and also it is no longer even MS Office standard as this change was justified in v8i before. 

https://communities.bentley.com/products/microstation/f/microstation-forum/220917/mstn-ce-u16-1-performance-drop-when-point-cloud-is-attached/677516#677516

Here is a discussion about the issues with Point clouds. For some people, this issue alone will be reason to not upgrade, or certainly, not update beyond CE15 until it is "eventually" fixed.

Hi Oto,

Obviously, to aid in our productivity, Bentley has created a "dark interface".  (Or was that just to look cool?)  The dark, good contrasting colors don't work well with a dark background.  Therefore Bentley is making the icons a lighter color (blue) so that they read better with the dark interface.  Meanwhile, those of us who don't want to use the cool new feature (which does not help productivity) suffer from icons with lower contrast and are harder to read, thereby decreasing productivity.

If Bentley wants to create a dark interface,they need to have separate icons for the dark and light interfaces, not destroy the standard icons for the "new look".

--Robert