In OpenBridge Modeler CE Update 8.1 a major enhancement has been made regarding the decorations that are used for the 2d graphics like support lines, beam layout, etc..

Detailed information regarding the modifications made in the libraries for this release can be found in the document OBM - Workspace Updates - 2020 Release 1.pdf that is found in C:\ProgramData\Bentley\OpenBridge Modeler CONNECT Edition\Configuration\Organization-Civil.

With this release, the user has full control over the level properties and text styles used for the following decorations: unit label, beam layout, beam end, beam SL offset, beam layout text, deck outline, cross frames, stiffeners, report lines, concrete diaphragms, bearing groups and support lines.

All these decorations are controlled by the feature definition Bridge_decorations, which can be selected when the user adds a new bridge or after the bridge was created.

The process of creating symbologies for one of the decorations is as follows:
- create a new level;
- create a new text style or chose from the library, if the decoration needs a text style;
- create an element template with the corresponding level and text style;
- create a feature symbology using the element template previously created;
- assign the feature symbology to the corresponding field in Bridge_decorations feature definition.

By default, all the text decorations are using text styles that are annotative so the user will need to use a drawing scale bigger than 1:1 to see the decorations in the 3D model. With this implementation, the user can turn off the decorations by using the options Show/Hide Decorations from the project tree or by turning on/off the levels that he specified in the element templates. For instance, one can have a level assigned to the Supportline line and another level assigned to the Supportline text, thus he can control what he wants to see in the model, especially when creating framing plans.

BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY
When opening a file that was created with an older version of OpenBridge Modeler, we can make a distinction between 2 different workspace configurations:
- SCENARIO 1 - the user had used the default feature definition provided by the program; he may use or not the Bridge_feature definition;
- SCENARIO 2 - the user had made substantial modifications to the default configuration by adding new custom feature definitions or by modifying the ones provided by default by the program.

SCENARIO 1
When the user will open an older file, he will find differences between the feature definitions saved in the file i.e. the ones created in the older version of OBM and the ones that are now saved in the libraries. For instance, if we look at the Bridge_decorations feature definition we will observe that now we have extra fields with feature symbologies that need to be completed.

The simplest way to update the feature is:
- open the level manager, select your working file, right-click and select “Update Levels”; this will update the level definition from the library;

- open the element templates dialog and go to Utilities --> Update templates from Library; this will update the element templates with the latest changes found in the libraries

- based on the feature symbologies from the libraries, manually create the missing feature symbologies that are needed for the Bridge_decorations feature definition.

SCENARIO 2
Because the user has done modifications to the default feature definitions, based on the updated feature definitions that are now provided in the libraries, the user will have to manually update his custom feature definitions.

NOTE
1. The user will need to always attach a feature definition (like Bridge_decorations) to his bridge. If he fails in doing so, some default values will be attached to the decorations.