Working from home with Bentley Raceway and Cable Management


In these challenging times when COVID-19 is imposing significant disruptions to day to day activities and affecting normal business flow of our much-valued users and employees, we at Bentley are mindfully committed to ensuring smooth transition of work from office to remote location or home. Our innovative software and services are all geared for working from home or remote locations and do not impose the need to be in an office set-up.

To ensure smooth transition of work and effectiveness of your daily workflows with Bentley software, we have assembled information that you can refer to while working remotely or from home. We are working hard to deliver high levels of customer service, and welcome feedback, questions, and ideas on how we can serve you better in a remote work environment.

There are several options to work remotely with our applications:

HOME INSTALLATION

You may decide to install the software on your home computer. If you do this, once signed in via the CONNECTION Client using your normal work email login, you will have the same licenses available as you do in the office.

  1. MACHINE REQUIREMENTS

    Please see these minimum machine requirements for Bentley Raceway and Cable Management:

    Installation Requirements

    Compatibility Chart for Bentley Raceway and Cable Management


  2. INTERNET CONNECTIVITY

    Internet Access

    Internet access is required for downloading, installing and licensing the software (unless the machine concerned has a checked-out licence). As the Bentley Raceway and Cable Management installer is almost 8 GB, installation may take a significant time over low bandwidth connections. Ensure the connection used has sufficient data allowance if it is not an unlimited data package. Many CONNECT Edition products are installed from a small installer file that pulls the rest of the installation files form our servers. If you encounter problems using this installation route, please refer to the DOWNLOADING SOFTWARE section below for links to full software downloads or guidance on the use of Deployment Images to take home.

    Internet Proxy Settings

    Bentley Raceway and Cable Management will try to obtain your Internet Proxy Settings from the Internet Explorer browser. If this is not possible, you can fill the details manually as described in this page.

    Access Connect Features through Proxy Settings

    Connecting to your Organization’s Network via VPN

    Virtual Private Network enables organizations to provide a secure connection to their network over the Internet so their employees can connect remotely or from public places. Follow these instructions to connect to Windows VPN. If your organization uses a different VPN software, contact your IT Administrator to guide you with the steps.

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/help/20510/windows-10-connect-to-vpn


  3. DOWNLOADING SOFTWARE

    Software Downloads

    https://softwaredownloads.bentley.com

    Portable Deployment Images

    We already recommend that CAD/BIM administrators create Deployment Images to use as the source for multiple installations in normal circumstances. To ease home installation either an existing or a new Deployment Image can be copied to removable media and taken home to use as the installation source where Internet availability/speed is limited (note: Internet access is still essential to sign-in to licensing services).

    The steps to create a Deployment Image for Bentley Raceway and Cable Management CONNECT Edition are explained here:

    How To create Deployment Image for BRCM CONNECT

    For more details visit.

    Deployment Guide

    Creating a Deployment Image for other products is very similar.

  1. REMOTE DESKTOP CONNECTION

    Remotely Accessing an Office Computer

    If you work on a heavy-duty desktop machine that is difficult to carry or if your organization does not allow employees to move computers out of the office premises, Remote Desktop Connection offers a great way to log into that machine from your personal computer. You will require your computer name or IP address. Follow the instructions on this page.

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/help/4028379/windows-10-how-to-use-remote-desktop

  1. SHARING CONFIGURATIONS AND PROJECT DATA

    When you’re working remotely, you are still part of a team and therefore sharing of project data is crucial. This is where the Configuration system shines. No matter where you are you can be sure to be using the correct CAD standard with server-based Configurations. If your system has already been configured to use server-based resources, accessing it via virtualization or remote desktop access will result in a similar experience to working in the office; there may be some graphic latency, but the system will be identical.

    Attempting to connect to a configuration on office-based shares via VPN may be possible, depending on your IT systems, but is likely to be subject to significant latency, especially with many more VPN users than in normal times. Working with a local copy of the network configuration may be more appropriate

    How to Deploy a Shared WorkSpace in BRCM CONNECT Edition


  2. Collaborating on Projects with ProjectWise

    The beauty of working with ProjectWise is that Work Sharing is built-in and the concept of being tied to a location is foreign. In a Client-Server architecture, the client can be anywhere.  By storing standards and work files on a server you can ensure proper access by anyone. By establishing a digital environment for all project information, you can give access to people regardless of location and device type.

    However, ensuring the correct access is the key to success. So the local setup of ProjectWise Explorer is key. The way to install ProjectWise Explorer can be found here:

    To Install ProjectWise Explorer

    ProjectWise Integration - Bentley Raceway and Cable Management CONNECT

  3. SQL DATABASE

    A. Working with Central Database

    Bentley Raceway and Cable Management requires SQL database connectivity to store information about the components. If you have a central/common database system in your office and you want to connect to the database while working remotely then you need to check the following things.

    i. Necessary VPN setting should be done before connecting to the organization’s central database.
       Please refer section 2 of this article for more information on ‘connecting to your Organization’s Network via VPN.’

    ii. Check with your organization’s IT administrator to ensure you are granted any additional required security permissions needed to access the SQL Server database.

    iii. Windows firewall settings on your local machine should also be checked to ensure you can obtain a proper connection to the database.

    B. Working with Local Database

    If you are unable to access the database in your office from your home or if you are experiencing severe latency that increases the time to update the database you have the option of working with a local database. 

    The following steps will guide you the process of configuring a local SQL database:
  1. First, we need to ensure that you have a proper installation of the SQL Server Express on your local machine. Follow these instructions to check your installation, and if needs be, to install the SQL Server Express on your local machine.

i. Generally, the SQL server and BRCM database are included in the delivered installation package. If that is not installed you can install it by modifying the installed application.

Open the BRCM installer file as an administrator. BRCM installer will open.
Click on Configure.

ii. Click Next until the Features dialog appears and select the Microsoft SQL server and BRCM database options.
Click Next and proceed with the installation.




iii. This installation will install the SQL server and create a BRCM database with a BRCMUser login and an ODBC DSN for the BRCM database.

You can also create the database manually:

a. Create a new database

b. Create a new login for the database

c. Provide ODBC DSN for the database (make sure that ODBC 64 bit data source is used)

The connection string for the database is given in the BRCM.cfg file located at workset standards folder:
For instance:



Open the BRCM.cfg file to check the connection string and make sure the connection string is matching with the ODBC DSN.


For more details please visit:
Bentley Raceway and Cable Management Database Configuration

  1. Export the project database from the central/Office server:

    i. Open a BRCM project DGN file and navigate to the Manage ribbon tab.
    ii. Click on the Export to XML tool to export the existing BRCM database tables to XML files.
    iii. Select a folder location for the XML files and click OK.
    iv. Select a separate folder for the database export, so that it will not create tables in the root folder.



  2. BRCM Database Export to XML dialog will open.
    This dialog shows the available tables in the database.
    Select all tables (<CTRL> + selection or Select first + <Shift> + Select last) and click OK.




  3. Navigate to the selected folder to review XML files created.



  4. These files can be imported to the local BRCM database.

    i. Copy these files to the local folder.
    ii. Open a BRCM Project DGN file and Navigate to the Manage ribbon tab.
    iii. Click Import From XML tool.
    iv. Select the folder which contains the database export.




  5. BRCM Database Import from XML dialog will open. This will show the available tables.
    Select all the tables and click OK.




  6. You can review the imported tables from SQL management Studio.



  7. In this way, the Local database can be set up for your machine.
    If you want to share your database with another colleague then you can follow these steps:

    i. Export the database to XML as explained above.

    ii. Provide the XML files to your colleague.

    iii. Your colleague can import the database as explained above.

ONLINE HELP

  1. RESOLVING LICENSING ISSUES

  1. HOW TO GET HELP
  1. USEFUL ARTICLES ABOUT WORKING REMOTELY