MicroStation CONNECT Edition SDK Update 13

Hi Loren,

well, I am not Bentley employee or SDK author, but...

Loren said:

"VS 2017 Professional (or better) ":

"Better" does not mean "newer" in this context, but e.g. VS2017 Enterprise.

Loren said:

Anyone using VS 2019?

VS2019 is not supported by SDK (namely this version is not detected by AssertToolSet.mki).

But technically it should be possible, when you will do not use SDK and will configure VS C++ project to use proper toolset, because Microsoft maintains forward compatibility for C++ 2015, 2017 and 2019 (see this article).

Loren said:

Can I use VS 2019 Community version?

When you will solve the problem with missing support in SDK, it's the same whether you will use Community or Pro Edition.

Loren said:

Will apps compiled using Update 13 SDK run ok on MicroStation CE Update 12 (wondering about backward compatibility)

It's not ensured by Bentley.

Both U12 and U13 are based on VS2017 compiler, so there is probably no problem with compiler, but Bentley do not provide backward API compatibility, so when you will use class/method released in U13 API, it will lead do error in U12. So I think it's better to compile your project with U12 SDK, because U13 contains (nearly) everything from U12.

With regards,

  Jan

Hi Loren,

A couple quick points.

1. Professional (or better) - loosely translates to using Professional or Enterprise editions of Visual Studio
2. Starting with Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 Microsoft has provided an improved focus on Visual C runtime library binary comparability permitting later versions (e.g. VS2017 and VS2019) to produce e.g. VS2015 compatible output binaries. So the "or better" mostly pertains to "edition", though "binary compatibility" adds one more helpful dimension to building supportable target applications.
3. The worse case would be if you experience instabilities with your customization using a VS2019 project producing VS2017 VC runtime binaries AND had a reproducible problem, we would request you provide us a Test Case and if we are not able to reproduce the issue using VS2017 then there may be a valid need to compile with a true supported edition of VS2017 to confirm proper operation against our product release requirements.
4. MicroStation CONNECT Edition Update 14 is only about another month to a month and a half away and will provide additional enhancements in what toolsets you can run.  Until then, I would highly recommend for MicroStation CONNECT Edition Update 13 to "overlay" your installed files with the Early Access Update 14 MKI files (remove completely when upgrading to Update 14 please).

HTH,
Bob