What Configuration changes have been made between Power Platform V8i and CONNECT Edition?


 Product(s):OpenBuildings Designer (and AECOsim Building Designer)
 Version(s):CONNECT Edition and V8i
 Area:Configuration
 Subarea:Migration

Background

This is a high level overview of differences between V8i and CONNECT Edition configuration structures and will largely be of interest to administrators responsible for migrating an existing configuration form V8i to CONNECT Edition. These changes are common to all Power Platform based CONNECT Edition applications.

Further explanation of these changes can be found in the delivered help:

Home > Setting Up the Environment > Configuration

or in our online help documents at Bentley Product Documentation.

V8i System Folder content moved

In V8i the WorkSpace folder contained essential system and user editable resources, e.g.: C:\ProgramData\Bentley\AECOsimBuildingDesigner V8i Ss6\WorkSpace\System. This added to the complexity of V8i configuration, in particular when CAD Administrators moved the Workspace folder and its subfolders and files to a networked location creating the possibility of version mismatches between application and the networked folders.

To avoid this issue and to make a clearer distinction between files that are fundamental to application function and those that can or should be site specific, all system resources are now in C:\Program Files\Bentley\OpenBuildings CONNECT Edition\OpenBuildingsDesigner\ in the appropriate folders, including Config, Default and DataGroupSystem. The location and contents of these folders should not be changed as they are essential for application operation.

Additional configuration levels

CONNECT Edition has two additional configuration levels :

Further explanation of these can be found in the delivered help:

Home > Setting Up the Environment > Configuration > Configuration Concepts

Some of the terminology that has changed

Further explanation of this can be found in the delivered help:

Home > What's New? > New and Changed in MicroStation > Configuration

Folder comparison and variable name changes

Below is a comparison of the delivered directory structure and some of the configuration variables that are most commonly worked with:

 

      V8i                                                  CONNECT Edition

NOTE: Pre-CONNECT Edition variables are struck through and the variables listed below the arrows are the CONNECT Edition equivalents.

_USTN_WORKSPACEROOT is now used to define the root directory of a specific Workspace:

 

Some new CONNECT configuration variables

Here are some of the new configuration variables and their resulting folders in the new directory structure:

 

Something to be aware of with the new variables is the similarity between two sets of variables:

 _USTN_WORKSPACEROOT and _USTN_WORKSPACESROOT      (notice the extra “S”)

_USTN_WORKSETROOT and _USTN_WORKSETSROOT                  (notice the extra “S”)