Rendition Settings

In support of Bentley i-model Composition Server for PDF, ProjectWise Administrator has a datasource node called Renditions, under which are two subnodes: Rendition Profiles and Rendition Profile Components.

A rendition profile is a template that contains the default rendition settings that will be used when a user creates a rendition from ProjectWise Explorer. The settings contained in a rendition profile are divided into the following component categories:

• Source File Presentation Settings — Specifies which InterPlot settings file(s) to use (if any) to create the renditions. InterPlot settings files can define such things as the plot area, size/scale, rotation, pen table, design script, and so on.
• Output File Formats — Specifies the file type(s) that will be created from the selected source files.
• Output File Naming Conventions — Specifies how the newly created rendition documents will be named.
• Output Destination Folders — Specifies where in ProjectWise the newly created rendition document(s) and (optionally) distributed source files will be stored.

For users to be able to create renditions from ProjectWise Explorer, the administrator will first create the necessary rendition profile components, then create a rendition profile that contains the rendition profile components. For each category above you can create as many components as you want. You can also define as many rendition profiles as you want. If you have more than one component for a particular category, you can add some or all of them to your rendition profile and then designate which of those components will be the default choice for the user. A rendition profile must have an output file format component, an output file naming convention component, and an output destination folder component, but the source file presentation settings component is optional.

For the batch rendition jobs you define in Bentley i-model Composition Server Administrator, rendition profiles components are still used, but rendition profiles are not. So instead of applying a single rendition profile as you would in ProjectWise Explorer, you can select from all of the available rendition profile components in the datasource and add whichever ones you want to the job definition.

Creating Rendition Jobs Using Bentley i-model Composition Server Administrator

Bentley i-model Composition Server Administrator, inside Orchestration Framework Administrator, is where you create, schedule, run, monitor, and review batch rendition jobs. These jobs can be simple jobs that only process a few documents, but they can also be complex jobs that process hundreds or even thousands of documents from various folders, work areas, and/or saved searches, and can be configured to run automatically based on a schedule. This interface will be familiar to those familiar with setting up Bentley Automation Service jobs, with the main difference being that Bentley i-model Composition Server Administrator jobs let you select predefined rendition profile components (stored in ProjectWise Administrator) that determine how the documents in the input set will be processed.

Creating Renditions from ProjectWise Explorer

Creating renditions from documents in ProjectWise Explorer is easy. Simply select your documents in the document list, select Document > Create Rendition, then select a rendition profile. Rendition profiles are preconfigured by the administrator to control what happens to the documents selected for processing, so there are typically no additional settings the user needs to configure. The administrator may set up the rendition profile so that the user can select where they want to store the newly created renditions and (optionally) distributed source files, or so that the user can select from a few different rendition profile components, but otherwise the user does not have to configure anything. If more than one rendition profile exists in the datasource, the administrator is responsible for instructing their users which one they should be using.

No additional software needs to be installed on the ProjectWise Explorer computer to create renditions. The only thing required is that your administrator first create a rendition profile in ProjectWise Administrator. If a rendition profile does not exist in the datasource, the user will not see the Document > Create Rendition option when they select a document in the document list.