MicroStation Users
If you are a MicroStation user performing traditional data capture and maintenance and workflows, Bentley Map offers a wealth of functionality and enhanced mapping capabilities without the need for data migration or complex and time consuming setup of a project environment. Much of the functionality is ready to use immediately after installing so you can quickly realize a return on your investment.
Bentley Map can improve the accuracy and consistency of your work through its coordinate system and projection management tools that allow geospatial referencing of data within MicroStation. These capabilities provide the ability to use data from various sources regardless of the source coordinate system or projection.
MicroStation users can take advantage of all of the capabilities of Bentley Map to improve the accuracy and intelligence of their data. They can also easily share data with other environments through Bentley Map’s interoperability features.
For those MicroStation users ready to take the next step to building geospatial models instead of CAD maps, Bentley Map also brings the concept of intelligent geographic features to MicroStation. With Bentley Map the ability to define standards is made possible with the use of the Bentley Geospatial Administrator application. The underlying XML Feature Modeling (XFM) architecture provides this platform enabling data administrators to ensure data standards are enforced and adhered to.
A sample VBA application referred to as “XFMize” is available to assist programmers and end users with the conversion of their DGN elements (optionally having database linkages) into native XFM feature instances using a pre-defined XFM schema (generated using the Bentley Geospatial Administrator). The “XFMize” tool is also a good basis for MicroStation programmers and end users to become more familiar with the XFM feature modeling world.
Oracle Spatial Users
For Oracle Spatial 9i and 10g users, Bentley Map extends MicroStation functionality to provide a high productivity data creation and maintenance application for Oracle Spatial data. Bentley Map includes support for the Oracle Topology Model and for multi-user pessimistic locking at the feature instance level.
If a user’s Oracle Spatial data meets some minimal requirements, Bentley Map can connect directly to the Oracle instance and provide immediate benefits such as the read/only “Attach Reference” of all available Oracle Spatial data. For Oracle Spatial users that wish to perform editing, Bentley Map supports extract, modify and post workflows with minimum setup.
Bentley Map’s integration with Oracle does not require any proprietary fields or tables, and leverages Oracle’s native capabilities for geospatial data storage. Bentley Map utilizes native Oracle spatial data types, coordinate systems, and versioning mechanisms to ensure compatibility with your other applications using the same data. Oracle Spatial data created and maintained with Bentley Map is 100% standard Oracle.
MicroStation GeoGraphics Users
For MicroStation GeoGraphics users, migration paths to Bentley Map will vary depending upon your MicroStation GeoGraphics implementation.
For MicroStation GeoGraphics 2004 Edition users that adopted the “XFM Project” paradigm, adopting Bentley Map is very straightforward. Workspaces generated with the Bentley Geospatial Administrator will be compatible and no instance data conversion will be required. Bentley Map functionalities such as Map Manager and Interoperability will immediately be able to consume and process your data. For these MicroStation GeoGraphics users, new Bentley Map tools such as the DGN2SDO application will allow their XFM instance data to be easily incorporated in Oracle Spatial if desired. Also, the Bentley Map XFM API is backwards compatible with the XFM API delivered with MicroStation GeoGraphics 2004 Edition so the migration of custom “XFM based” applications is readily achieved.
For MicroStation GeoGraphics V8 pre-2004 Edition and 2004 Edition users that make use of the “Legacy Project” paradigm, various migration considerations exist depending on your implementation.
Tools are provided to assist in migration to the XFM paradigm. You will probably want to take the opportunity to implement some of the new capabilities available to you such as Property Based Annotation, Property Based Symbology, and the seamless mapping capabilities in the Map Manager.
During the schema conversion process, RDBMS table name references are automatically converted to make use of the new Bentley Map “RDBMS Properties” functionality. This functionality provides the ability to use the best of both feature modeling worlds (e.g. legacy project and XFM project) by supporting capabilities associated with both.
For MicroStation GeoGraphics users who have been using the “Oracle Spatial Project” capabilities, considerations differ based on whether there is a desire to share data access with both MicroStation GeoGraphics and Bentley Map users. Technical documentation is available to Bentley users to address these considerations. If shared access is not required, then the Oracle Spatial feature tables can be made available to Bentley Map by simple table alterations.
If you would like more information about migrating to Bentley Map, contact your Bentley representative or request information below:
I would like to speak to a representative about Migrating to Bentley Map