RVM Connector Documentation
Creating a Synchronization with RVM data:
RVM data can be synchronized using Bentley Infrastructure Cloud (BIC) Portal: https://infrastructurecloud.bentley.com/
Once you have created a project in Bentley Infrastructure Cloud and have created an iModel that you want to synchronize with RVM data, create a connection and pick to add Design Files:
Browse to the location of your RVM data:
Then select the RVM file(s) you wish to synchronize and click Select.
Once you have selected the RVM files, you may have to select one of the files to define the Geocoordinate system if one has not already been defined in this iModel.
Give the connection a name and click Done. If you picked the synchronize manually start the synchronization.
Note that you are only able to select RVM files when setting up a connection, but if there is an att file with a matching name to the RVM file, then that will be used as part of the synchronization.
Considerations when setting up RVM exports:
Determine what will be exported
It is the user’s responsibility to ensure that the data being exported into the rvm files covers the desired content from E3D and that there is no duplication of data across rvm exports.
Consistent setup for the RVM exports
Maintain a consistent set of exports to RVM between different runs. Doing this will avoid creating duplicate data in an iModel.
For example:
1st Export:
Export.rvm contains data from:
Zone1
Zone2
Synchronize Export.rvm and Export.att
Later after making modifications to the E3D project, export data:
2nd Export:
Instead of creating a single rvm file that contains the content of Zone1 and Zone2, you instead create:
Zone1.rvm
Zone2.rvm
If you synchronize this by adding these 2 rvm files to your synchronization, you will likely end up with duplicated data in your iModel.
If you are forced to synchronize in this manner, first unmap Export.rvm and then add Zone1.rvm and Zone2.rvm to a connection and synchronize.
Un-mapping will remove the data from the tip of the iModel and version compare will treat this as a deletion and addition for all the elements being unmapped from Export.rvm and added from the new RVM files.
RVM Size
Consider the amount of data exported into the RVM files for running updates into the iModel. The connector only processes changes to the content, so minor updates should process fairly quickly even for a large model, but it may take considerable time to generate a large RVM model.
Attribute files
The attribute files are optional, but the attribute files contain all of the property data of the E3D components. You can synchronize without an attribute file, but you will receive an error in the synchronization report if the connector is not able to find a corresponding attribute file.
In order for attribute data to be read, the filename must be the same as the RVMs filename.
The attribute file and the RVM file must be in the same directory.
Attributes files must contain the database reference number. This is configurable by the user and must be one of the following. It is not case sensitive:
Ref
Ref-no
Refno
This is configurable via Cdxattdump.pmlfrm in your E3D installation.
Attribute files must have the .att file extension otherwise the data will not be read by the RVM Connector.
For example:
OK:
Site1.rvm
Site1.att
Not OK:
Site1.rvm
Site-1.att
Site1.rvm
Site1.txt
Geolocation
RVM data does not contain a defined geolocation. If this is needed for your model, a geolocation should first be specified in the iModel. Please consult the page on iTwin Spatial Alignment for further information. https://bentleysystems.service-now.com/community?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0098345
Ref-No
RefNo/Ref/Ref-No from Att file is used to uniquely identify each component in RVM file. When RefNo is not present the connector uses a unique hash of the component name and its parent component name as the identifier.
RefNo are tied to the context of the RVM file, hence it is important to not repeat the RefNo within the scope of the RVM file. Duplicate RefNo may be present across multiple files.