ProjectWise CONNECT and MicroStation CONNECT

We are running into the same issue now at our organization. Is there any official or "unofficial" documentation on how to setup CE projects with worksets to work with ProjectWise?

Here is the O\official configuration setup guide: https://docs.bentley.com/LiveContent/web/ProjectWise%20Managed%20Configuration%20Setup%20Guide-v1/en/GUID-94B9DA14-6B62-44E0-8778-716B16838208.html

Be sure to read the Limitations section under Before you Begin.  You MUST have your Workspace and Workset cfg files in ProjectWise.  We create a Workset folder under each project to store the matching workset cfg file and the .wsdgn file.  The workset cfg file name should match the Project name assigned in PW as outlined in that document.  The workset file in PW doesn't have set any configs if you're using a CSB to set things.  The file just has to exist for things to work.  We keep our workspace cfg files outside of the project folder structure in a normal folder and that works fine. Just depends on how you're organizing things.

Hello Mark, its 2 years I know but just on the off chance - could you please elaborate on dgnws created locally and then imported in PW... I've done all that with ABD update 3 vs PW 280 and still no joy... 

As of update 10 or 11 the workspace can be separated from the workset. They must be defined but not longer are required to be in ProjectWise. So we keep the workspaces and the configuration for them on a local server x's offices with a similar mapped drive. The workset configs and dgnws files are stored in PW and are named the same as the PW project. Everything for these items are stored in PW CSB's to allow PW to resolve all paths up front before MicroStation or any Connect application can step in and saturate the environment.

We set the configuration to the workspace level to the server and not in ProjectWise, then the workset is defined to be in ProjectWise. This ensures that the 2 levels of the Connect configuration that is required is in check, Workspace and Workset. You must define and resolve these. Mandatory for the Connect configuration and very different in limitation compared to V8i. Any failure will result in problems, and more so with any application except MicroStation. Programs such as AECOsim/OpenBuildings fail hard if things are not in check. Another important factor is the workset/project is a ProjectWise project. Something in the folder structure must be a ProjectWise project in order to resolve the workset configuration and use the "$(LastDirPiece(DMS_PROJECT(_DGNDIR)))" variable to find that PW project. it should be defined as:

_USTN_WORKSETNAME = $(lastdirpiece(dms_project(_dgndir))) 

It is just how Bentley designed it so we must work within the confines of it. Be sure to define a location for the WORKSETSROOT location as this determines where the workset cfg and dgnws are found. We keep these in a single folder in the hope that Bentley relaxes the configuration requirements for this. But we can also run a query on this to validate that the workset cfg exists. The file can be completely empty but it must exist. Same with the workspaces cfg file.

We create the workset config file manually (scripted via PW admin and PowerShell) and when MicroStation CE or any Connect application is started for the first time on the project, the configuration in place validates that the workset config is in place and then natively the Connect application checks to see if the dgnws file is in the same place as the workset.cfg, if Yes, then PW pulls it down and uses it, if No, then the Connect application automatically creates it in the dms folder, pushes it into PW, checks it in and then uses it. I have not found a way to create a dgnws and push it into PW outside of this workflow in a seemless process. Seems like the Connect application needs to do all that work.

As of update 10 or 11 the workspace can be separated from the workset. They must be defined but not longer are required to be in ProjectWise. So we keep the workspaces and the configuration for them on a local server x's offices with a similar mapped drive. The workset configs and dgnws files are stored in PW and are named the same as the PW project. Everything for these items are stored in PW CSB's to allow PW to resolve all paths up front before MicroStation or any Connect application can step in and saturate the environment.

We set the configuration to the workspace level to the server and not in ProjectWise, then the workset is defined to be in ProjectWise. This ensures that the 2 levels of the Connect configuration that is required is in check, Workspace and Workset. You must define and resolve these. Mandatory for the Connect configuration and very different in limitation compared to V8i. Any failure will result in problems, and more so with any application except MicroStation. Programs such as AECOsim/OpenBuildings fail hard if things are not in check. Another important factor is the workset/project is a ProjectWise project. Something in the folder structure must be a ProjectWise project in order to resolve the workset configuration and use the "$(LastDirPiece(DMS_PROJECT(_DGNDIR)))" variable to find that PW project. it should be defined as:

_USTN_WORKSETNAME = $(lastdirpiece(dms_project(_dgndir))) 

It is just how Bentley designed it so we must work within the confines of it. Be sure to define a location for the WORKSETSROOT location as this determines where the workset cfg and dgnws are found. We keep these in a single folder in the hope that Bentley relaxes the configuration requirements for this. But we can also run a query on this to validate that the workset cfg exists. The file can be completely empty but it must exist. Same with the workspaces cfg file.

We create the workset config file manually (scripted via PW admin and PowerShell) and when MicroStation CE or any Connect application is started for the first time on the project, the configuration in place validates that the workset config is in place and then natively the Connect application checks to see if the dgnws file is in the same place as the workset.cfg, if Yes, then PW pulls it down and uses it, if No, then the Connect application automatically creates it in the dms folder, pushes it into PW, checks it in and then uses it. I have not found a way to create a dgnws and push it into PW outside of this workflow in a seemless process. Seems like the Connect application needs to do all that work.

Thanks Mark, appreciate your help. Do you know if there are compatibility issues in terms of managed workspaces between the myriad of updates on both ABD CE and PW CE? Why would there be issues in the first place I wonder... 

Thanks again

in regards to managed workspaces, MicroStation CE was not fully integrated until update 11 which I believe is update 4 for AECOsim. This is with ProjectWise 3.49, client and server. Those are the minimums.

Thanks Mark, I have been struggling with ABD update 3 vs PW 280...

Finally got it to "work" although it still seems very temperamental... I set both the Worksetsroot and Workspacesroot (why make it simple when it can be oh so complicated...)  in the predefined CSB, all else was failing miserably...

I actually disabled the _TF_WORKSPACEROOT also which didn't seem to have any negative side-effects...

All in all, hours spent during which I'd rather be designing :-) Thanks again.

Oh also I associated the files with Microstation, if associated with ABD CE I get the error message "cannot load mcm.ma".... Talk about trial and error ! :-)