Microstation Vault Add-in should support current and forthcoming versions of Microstation.

[erin.albino]

The company that I work for have identified an issue with Microstation CONNECT Edition 17.X’s DGN Tag Data and Autodesk Vault 2020’s Properties. The Version of the Autodesk® Vault® 2020 Add-in for MicroStation is matched to the Vault version in our production environment.

The issue we experience is that the values, when edited in Vault’s Edit Properties, do not display correctly within Microstation, with spurious characters apparent in the Edit Tags.

An example of this is with this image:
Highlighted are the areas where the original values have been ‘polluted’ with imprecise characters.
(The correct values are those in the black background area, and incorrect in white area below)

Various testing configurations (with Autodesk support) ranging from rolling back Microstation versions, to using a Vault 2022 & 2023 server/client environment has revealed the issue to be due to the version of Microstation being effectively locked to 10.16.02.34 – and subsequently 2022 & 3 also locked to specific versions, which does not bode well for the integrity of our CAD environment.

We habitually maintain up-to-date versions of Microstation software (currently on V. 10.17.01.058), and it would preferable if the Vault for Microstation Add-in (2022 > Future) be developed with upcoming versions of Microstation in mind. Whatever is binding the version of Microstation DGN Property Provider should be made more flexible to accommodate impending updates.

We are heading into an organisation-wide (approximately 250-300 users) Autodesk Upgrade towards 2022/3/4 versions and it is imperative for us to be confident that the Microstation and Vault relationship is operationally maintained, secure and precise.
@leigh.menzel , @Anonymous 

[gregor.nightingale]

This is a great idea and something that is critical in maintaining quality data.

[grawlins_CAD]

Cross platform support is critical for multi-disciplinary offices to leverage investments in all information systems. Non-synchronous metadata defeats user confidence and diminishes value in the overall system. A single source of truth with quality data is imperative. It is important to have this simple link fully operational.

[ihayesjr]

@erin.albino 

Thank you for posting the idea. However, this is not a simple task. 

As CAD application update from version to version, they may make changes to features and APIs.

These changes require that we retest a lot of workflows each time they perform an update which requires a lot of time to test and make adjustments to the adding and possible Vault features to support the new version(s).

To add, this amount of effort would them be multiples by the number of Vault versions that would support the new version(s) of the CAD application. Using your example, we to support the latest version of Microstation, we would have to test Vault 2022, 2023 and 2024 every time Microstation created a new version. 

This would not be sustainable.

[grawlins_CAD]

@ihayesjr 

I am not sure you need to change this with each new (minor) version of MicroStation, just when the library changes. Feedback from users will indicate when something is not working.  The Vault server side write of DGN files is currently not working, you need to update to the latest library to write the DGN changes correctly. Just a suggestion - you can supply separate server side plug-ins for MicroStation Update 15, 17, etc and let the user decide which they need to be using.

[erin.albino]

With all due respect @ihayesjr , the way that it is managed now by Autodesk, and from a consumer level perspective is not at all sustainable.

The application provided should indeed be flexible enough to account for the API changes, and whilst I understand that this is no mean feat (especially considering it is a 3rd party product), that is kind of where I am coming from suggesting that making it a little more flexible could accommodate impending updates.

These Bentley Microstation updates are inevitable, and if an organisation/user group is using Microstation as a primary design tool, and equally AutoCAD flavours, then with Vault being the obvious choice for an ADMS this should be more accommodating especially if this app is developed by Autodesk.

Have you thought of making the Source Code open source (to an extent), such that developers can make the necessary changes to have it suit their individual needs, with the "core" of the app locked... A simple XML or config file could suffice for the movement/stipulation of install directory for the necessary Microstation DLLs...

Thank you for your response.

[ihayesjr]

@erin.albino 

If it were as simple as an edit to an XML or config file, we would have already done it.

This integration has multiple components, not just the add-in.

Also, making it open source would mean that we, Autodesk, would no longer update or support it.

So, no, we are not going to make it open source.

[erin.albino]

@ihayesjr 
Thank you for your response, and I apologise for inadvertently inferring that an XML or config file would have been outside of the decision process of the developers at Autodesk with regards to this add-in.

I understand that there are factors outside of Autodesk's control here, but was just proposing that if Autodesk are not supporting and updating for the core product (being Microstation versions) that the add-in is intended to be used for, then it puts the users of it at a distinct disadvantage and impaired from considering updates to that software.

Perhaps instead of suggesting that the application be made easier to customise as a 3rd party developer, that perhaps we could at the very least get some discussion going around having the 2022-24 versions updated to support the current version of Microstation CONNECT Edition 17.XX. Would that be possible?

[ihayesjr]

@erin.albino 

We do not go back and add support to previously released add-in versions. The next add-in version is targeted to support the latest version of Microstation.