Frequently Asked Questions
The following table contains frequently asked questions related to the Bentley Map functionalities:
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| I'm upgrading from a previous release of Bentley Map V8i and have projects that involve connections to a spatial database. Is it recommended that I use the "Register Features..." process in the Bentley Geospatial Administrator to update the registered features of my project? | Yes. When moving from previous Bentley Map releases to Bentley Map V8i (SELECTseries 10) it is recommended that all registered feature classes in a spatial database project be re-registered to take advantage of the new product capabilities. |
My organization currently uses
previous releases of one or more of the following products:
I understand that Bentley Map V8i (SELECTseries 2) and later releases are replacements for the above products but may require a new license for proper product activation and use. Is this correct? ** Including all previous Bentley Map 08.09 and 08.11 product releases, up to and including the Bentley Map V8i (SELECTseries 1) 08.11.07.1xx releases. |
Yes. Beginning with the Bentley
Map V8i (SELECTseries 2) 08.11.07.4xx releases, the different "Product
Editions" represent new products that use new product IDs and therefore
to properly activate them you must contact your sales representative to acquire
new licenses.
If you already own licenses of any of the listed products you’ll be able to acquire licenses of the new products by paying the difference in SELECT fees. A simple procedure is in place to help with the transition and your sales representatives have been informed and trained on the transition. |
| Is there a public discussion group where Bentley Map users can go to discuss issues related to the product? | Yes. Bentley also hosts a new forum for user interaction: Bentley Communities. Communities can be user or Bentley managed. Bentley Communities also contains various forums, blogs and a Wiki to help you get the most from your Bentley investment. Please see Bentley Communities for more information and visit the "Geospatial Desktop Forum" to discuss Bentley Map specific issues. |
| Now that the geographic coordinate system (GCS) functionality previously delivered in MicroStation GeoGraphics and Bentley Map has been integrated into MicroStation, does the ability to assign geographic coordinate systems and perform reprojections to multiple design files still exist? | Yes. These multi-file geographic coordinate system operations can be performed using the MicroStation "Batch File Processor" application. See the "Applying a geographic coordinate system (GCS) to multiple design files" section in the product help file. |
| Can I make use of any custom coordinate system, datum or ellipsoid definitions I may have created with previous MicroStation GeoGraphics or Bentley Map installations? | Yes. MicroStation now includes the ability to define a geographic coordinate system (GCS) for a design file and to handle on-the-fly reprojection of other files with properly defined geographic coordinate systems. The operation has changed somewhat in that the delivered coordinate system file is now read-only. The Bentley Map user can now define a user coordinate system library. This is so new releases of MicroStation can deliver a new coordinate system library without affecting a user's custom library. Bentley Map provides the ability create and edit custom geographic coordinate systems. Details are available in the Help. Look for ‘Coordinate Systems Editing’ If you have created custom geographic coordinate systems in a previous version of Bentley Map or MicroStation GeoGraphics then you will have to manually copy those GCS to a user GCS library. The procedure is described in the Help. Look for ‘Upgrading a Custom Coordinate System from a Previous Version of Bentley Map or MicroStation GeoGraphics’. |
| What versions of Oracle client and server products are supported by Bentley Map? | Please refer to the "Requirements" section for additional details. |
| While working with the "Interoperability" application when an Oracle Spatial schema is present in the workspace, it has been observed that feature instances "queried" from Oracle Spatial with some properties not included, show those properties with empty values in "Data Browser" and "Edit Feature" tools. Is this correct and what if anything can be done to import feature instances from Oracle Spatial with some properties not included? |
Yes, this is the expected behavior. After using the Register Features…" process in the Bentley Geospatial Administrator, the feature class definitions (including properties) are persisted as part of the workspace. When using the Interoperability application to query or import feature instances from those classes, choosing to disable or turn off selected properties does not change the underlying feature class definition in the schema. Therefore when applications such as the Data Browser load feature instances from the session, the underlying feature class definition (from the persisted workspace schema) is used to determine what properties appear. In this case, since certain properties were disabled during query those property values appear as empty values. This same issue is evident using Edit Feature on an instance that was queried with certain properties disabled (e.g. the Edit Feature form shows those properties with empty values). Using an ad-hoc Oracle Spatial connection without a workspace persisted schema should produce the expected results (e.g. the Data Browser and Edit Feature workflows should not show the properties that had been disabled during import process). |
| Are existing MicroStation GeoGraphics projects compatible with Bentley Map? | Yes. The MicroStation GeoGraphics project structure, in use for so many years, has been replaced with the new XFM project structure. This new XFM environment can be used for defining and implementing geospatial projects and applications. Existing MicroStation GeoGraphics project databases can be converted into equivalent XFM project schemas using the "Import MicroStation GeoGraphics Database" tool located on the "File" menu in the Bentley Geospatial Administrator. |