Upgrading V8i MDL Apps to Connect

Is there any documentation on the absolute basic essentials to implement when porting from V8i mdl's to Connect?.  I have written a few mdls in the past and want to now re-compile them for Connect.  I have no idea where to start, and am not familiar with Windows programming.  I previously made use of Select Series III SDK - I am lost in unfamiliar territory.  I am hoping there is a fairly easy way out!

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  • Hi John,

    I agree with Jon the migration of a code to CONNECT Edition is not very simple one step process. You did not write whether you applications are old pseudocode MDL apps (compiled by mcomp.exe) or native C apps compiled by Visual Studio 2005 into dll files.

    As Jon mentioned, there are plenty of changes in CONNECT Edition, especially:

    • Pseudocode is not supported anymore, so mcomp.exe compiler is not part of MicroStation SDK.
    • MicroStation CONNECT Edition is 64bit application.
    • MDL API (based on C) and MicroStationAPI (C++) were reworked into one single native C++ API with plenty of new features. Some MDL functions are still available (in a form of C++ methods), often with different signatures (because of data types changes), and some were removed.
    • Visual Studo 2015 is required to compile native code app for MicroStation CONNECT Edition Update 5 (VS2013 was required in older CE versions).
    • User interace is different (ribbon is introduced), which often requires modificaiton of existing application to adapt new GUI.

    If your applications are pseudocode applications, there are (at least) two conversion together required: To change MDL code to native code and to change V8i code to CE code. In my opinion it's better to do these conversions separately, so at first to convert V8i MDL code to V8i native code (which is about to change make file and to change the code in specific places) and then to convert working V8i native code to CE native code. But this approach requires to have also Visual Studio 2005 (maybe VS2008 is enough for basic testing) to be able to compile and test V8i native code application.

    With MicroStation CONNECT Edition SDK a migration tool is delivered, which helps to change MDL functions call to their new parameters. But it's not fully automatic conversion tool, only a help with repeating task.

    With regards,

      Jan

Reply
  • Hi John,

    I agree with Jon the migration of a code to CONNECT Edition is not very simple one step process. You did not write whether you applications are old pseudocode MDL apps (compiled by mcomp.exe) or native C apps compiled by Visual Studio 2005 into dll files.

    As Jon mentioned, there are plenty of changes in CONNECT Edition, especially:

    • Pseudocode is not supported anymore, so mcomp.exe compiler is not part of MicroStation SDK.
    • MicroStation CONNECT Edition is 64bit application.
    • MDL API (based on C) and MicroStationAPI (C++) were reworked into one single native C++ API with plenty of new features. Some MDL functions are still available (in a form of C++ methods), often with different signatures (because of data types changes), and some were removed.
    • Visual Studo 2015 is required to compile native code app for MicroStation CONNECT Edition Update 5 (VS2013 was required in older CE versions).
    • User interace is different (ribbon is introduced), which often requires modificaiton of existing application to adapt new GUI.

    If your applications are pseudocode applications, there are (at least) two conversion together required: To change MDL code to native code and to change V8i code to CE code. In my opinion it's better to do these conversions separately, so at first to convert V8i MDL code to V8i native code (which is about to change make file and to change the code in specific places) and then to convert working V8i native code to CE native code. But this approach requires to have also Visual Studio 2005 (maybe VS2008 is enough for basic testing) to be able to compile and test V8i native code application.

    With MicroStation CONNECT Edition SDK a migration tool is delivered, which helps to change MDL functions call to their new parameters. But it's not fully automatic conversion tool, only a help with repeating task.

    With regards,

      Jan

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