Before You Start

• When installing or uninstalling this product, you must be logged on with Administrator rights.
• It is highly recommended that you close any programs and disable any antivirus software that is running prior to the installation of this software. Be sure to turn on your antivirus software when you are finished.
• If your system is protected by firewall, make sure you enable the following URLs on the firewall:
  • https://payloadresolvesvc.bentley.com
  • http://cdnllnw.bentley.com/*
• OpenBuildings Designer CONNECT Edition is designed so it can be installed and safely coexist on the same workstation with an existing Bentley Building V8i or V8 XM Edition Commercial Release applications (such as Bentley Architecture, Bentley Structural Modeler, Bentley Building Mechanical Systems and Bentley Building Electrical Systems). It will not attempt to upgrade or uninstall an existing commercial release, and by default it installs its program and configuration files to different locations than the commercial release. When you install OpenBuildings Designer CONNECT Edition it creates the registry entries responsible for file associations. If you do not want this to happen, during installation, in the Select Features to install list, turn off the File Association check box. OpenBuildings Designer CONNECT Edition also creates the registry keys for VBA-initiated launching. Windows architecture allows for only one program to own these registry keys and the existing OpenBuildings Designer V8i or OpenBuildings Designer V8 XM Edition Commercial Release should continue to function normally by default.
• If you installed OpenBuildings Designer V8i and OpenBuildings Designer CONNECT Edition on the same workstation and then uninstalled OpenBuildings Designer V8i, you must run the Repair tool to make sure the registry and file associations are correct.
  Note: If you used Microsoft's program to uninstall, the Repair tool will work correctly. However, if you used a third-party's product to uninstall, it may have removed files needed by OpenBuildings Designer. For the procedure to repair OpenBuildings Designer, refer to the topic To Repair OpenBuildings Designer.
• When you install OpenBuildings Designer CONNECT Edition, the following applications are installed with it:
  • Product Documentation
  • Example WorkSpace
  • Visualization Content
  • CONNECTION Client
  • Structural Synchronizer
  • Bentley Structure Property Catalog
  • Bentley SPC Server
  • Bentley DGN IFilter
  • Bentley DGN Indexing Service
  • Bentley DGN Preview Handler
  • Bentley DGN Thumbnail Provider
  • HDR Preview Handler
  • Bentley i-model ODBC Driver
  • Bentley DgnDb i-model Importer 1.5 (64 bit)
  Note: Take advantage of this Technology Preview, a non-public software service and/or application for evaluation purposes only. Please use the Technology Preview in your normal business environment as needed to form an opinion concerning the performance of the Technology Preview. Bentley personnel would welcome your valued feedback concerning the performance of the Technology Preview as you evaluate the capabilities. Please be aware that at some point, you may receive notice from Bentley that such use must cease or this Technology Preview will become unavailable to you. As we receive feedback, this Technology Preview may also be enhanced, updated or also discontinued without notice. As a Technology Preview, it is provided to you "as-is" without the benefit of any Bentley warranty, indemnity or support obligation.

  For details of these features, refer to OpenBuildings Designer help.

• Examples WorkSpace contains downloadable examples.
• Visualization content in the form of ready-to-render cell libraries is installed. It also contains LumenRT ready cell libraries.
• Bentley DGN Thumbnail Provider is required to correctly view DGN thumbnails on the Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 operating systems. Immediately after installing Bentley DGN Thumbnail Provider, you still may not see the correct thumbnails for DGN files. This will be corrected by rebooting or re-logging onto the system.
• The Bentley i-model ODBC Driver is used to expose properties in i-models as an ODBC data source. It offers direct access of i-models from ODBC-compatible third-party applications such as Microsoft Office, reporting systems, and Business Intelligence applications. It allows application developers to use familiar tools to access and present i-model data from databases. When the driver is installed, the Bentley i-model ODBC Driver User Manual (Bentley_i-model_ODBC_Driver_User_Manual.pdf) is also installed.
• Bentley DGN IFilter, Bentley DGN Thumbnail Provider, Bentley DGN Indexer, HDR Preview Handler, Bentley i-model ODBC Driver, and Bentley DgnDb i-model Importer are installed as separate applications. When you uninstall OpenBuildings Designer CONNECT Edition , these applications are not removed. If you do not need them, you will have to uninstall them separately.

Companion Installations

The OpenBuildings Designer installer includes Companion Installations.

There are two types of Companion Installations, namely, Companion Features and Companion Products. Both Companion Features and Companion Products can be configured from the OpenBuildings Designer installer and may require an additional license.

A Companion Feature is a layered application that runs inside OpenBuildings Designer. It is installed independently from the OpenBuildings Designer installer.

A Companion Product is a completely independent application, which does not require OpenBuildings Designer to run. It is installed from OpenBuildings Designer but can be uninstalled or updated separately, from the Windows Add/Remove programs.

These include:

• OpenBuildings GenerativeComponents - this computation design platform can easily be included as part of any deployment of OpenBuildings Designer, and is used to quickly explore a broad range of what if alternatives for even the most complex buildings.
• OpenBuildings Station Designer - can easily be included as part of any deployment of OpenBuildings Designer
• Bentley LumenRT - Create stunning visualizations in minutes and with ease.
• Descartes - Make the most of your reality modeling data with the ability to integrate point clouds, reality meshes, scalable digital terrain models, and raster imagery into your infrastructure workflows.