An i-model is a V8-format DGN file published from an original design file. It contains both graphical and business/component information from the original file. The graphical information is converted to a simpler, more efficient representation in the i-model, and the business/component information is converted into a common form in the i-model that does not require access to the original project workspaces or connections to external project databases.

The Bentley i-model Composition Server for i-models extension of Bentley Automation Service is used to define and run jobs that automate the publishing of i-models from your source documents in ProjectWise.

There are three types of i-models you can create:

• A published i-model (.DGN.I.DGN), which is a new file created from a single CAD file
• A packaged i-model (.I.DGN), which is multiple published i-models combined into a single file
• A mobile i-model (.IMODEL), the newest i-model format, which is at least one packaged i-model combined with other supporting documents into a single file, which can then be viewed in the Navigator Mobile app

Bentley i-model Composition Server for i-models uses Bentley i-model Composer to create published and packaged i-models, and uses Navigator Mobile Publisher to create mobile i-models.

Delivered extensions:

• Bentley i-model Composition Server for i-models — Used to publish i-models (and optionally create packaged i-models) from existing documents in your datasource, and then store the newly created i-models in the same datasource. This extension leverages Bentley i-model Composer to publish i-models, and also requires Navigator Mobile Publisher if you want to publish mobile i-models. This extension requires a Bentley i-model Composition Server license.
• DGN Indexing — This extension is used to create an index in the datasource of component-level information extracted from standard 2D and 3D DGN or DWG documents in the datasource. This extension does not require a license.

Every job, whether or not it creates packaged or mobile i-models, will first create a published i-model for each CAD document explicitly called into your input set. If a job is configured to only create published i-models, then the published i-models will be checked in to ProjectWise at the end of the job, in the same folder as the original file. If an i-model of the same name exists in the original folder, the new i-model will automatically overwrite the old one. The options to create packaged i-models and mobile i-models are both off by default. If you turn on either of those options, you then have the option to not check in the published i-models that get created by the job.

When defining the job:

• The user account you specify must have non-expiring credentials. If the ProjectWise user account is based on a Windows domain account, the syntax for the username is Domain\user.name.
• The computer you are working from must be included in the selected server's Trusted Server list.
• Input sets cannot contain documents from multiple datasources;