The following may be helpful to create an Oracle view that can be registered and queried as a spatial feature.

The PARCELS has a number of columns:

Oracle Database 12c Standard Edition Release 12.2.0.1.0 - 64bit Production
SQL> DESCRIBE PARCELS;

Name                                 Null?   Type

------------------------------------ -------- ------------------

OWNER                                       VARCHAR2(50)
ADDRESS_1                                   VARCHAR2(50)
CITY_STATE_ZIP                              VARCHAR2(30)
ADDRESS_2                                   VARCHAR2(50)
LAND_TYPE                                   VARCHAR2(24)
TOWNSHIP                                    VARCHAR2(24)
FIRE_DISTRICT                               VARCHAR2(24)
ZONING                                      VARCHAR2(8)
TAX_DISTRICT                                VARCHAR2(8)
OGC_GEOMETRY                                MDSYS.SDO_GEOMETRY
XFM_ID                          NOT NULL    VARCHAR2(36)
ACRES                                       NUMBER(8,2)
ASSESSMENT_YEAR                             NUMBER(8)
DEEDBOOK                                    NUMBER(8)
LAND_VALUE                                  NUMBER(8)
MARKET_VALUE                                NUMBER(8)
REMODELED_YEAR                              NUMBER(8)
ROOMS                                       NUMBER(8)
SALE_PRICE                                  NUMBER(8)
TAXABLE_VALUE                               NUMBER(8)

These columns are also visible in OpenCities Map using the Data Browser or Analyze Feature:

This complete set of property data may be needed for managing the parcel data in OpenCities Map by GIS editors. However, for map reviewers, it may be necessary to provide a limited set of property data. To to that, you can set up an Oracle view.

In the following example, a view called PARCEL_MAIL_VIEW is created with the following columns from the PARCELS table: OWNER, ADDRESS_1, CITY_STATE_ZIP, XFM_ID, and OGC_GEOMETRY

CREATE VIEW PARCEL_MAIL_VIEW
AS SELECT OWNER, ADDRESS_1, CITY_STATE_ZIP, XFM_ID, OGC_GEOMETRY
FROM PARCELS;

OpenCities Map requires a primary key be defined on the spatial table. However you can’t have a primary key on a view. To get around this limitation, a primary key is created and then disabled.

ALTER VIEW PARCEL_MAIL_VIEW ADD PRIMARY KEY(XFM_ID) DISABLE;

As with spatial tables, the geometry metadata needs to be added:

INSERT INTO USER_SDO_GEOM_METADATA (TABLE_NAME, COLUMN_NAME, DIMINFO, SRID)
 VALUES ('PARCEL_MAIL_VIEW', 'OGC_GEOMETRY',
 MDSYS.SDO_DIM_ARRAY
(
MDSYS.SDO_DIM_ELEMENT('X', 2197290.78, 2401264.08, 0.00000005),
MDSYS.SDO_DIM_ELEMENT('Y', 703310.077, 911592.401, 0.00000005)
),
NULL);

Reviewing the contents of the view in Oracle SQL Developer shows that it only contains those columns as specified in the CREATE VIEW statement.

When registering the Oracle data source in Bentley Geospatial Administrator, the view will appear in the Register Features page of the wizard.

Once registered, you can proceed to insert the feature placement metadata, define symbology and perform any other administrator tasks required. Once saved and exported, the same columns are available for review using the Data Browser:

Using Oracle views is a great way to show limited property data in OpenCities Map. In this example, you could query the data and easily save the mailing address into a CSV file to use with a Microsoft Word mail merge.

Lastly, you can also consider creating Oracle user roles to provide further protection to the data. For example, a GIS_EDITOR role for the users who require full access to the spatial tables and data, and a GIS_VIEWER role for those users who only need to view the data.

A PDF of this article is available for download:

communities.bentley.com/.../Creating-Oracle-Spatial-Views.pdf

Data Streaming is a feature of spatial database connections that allows data to be dynamically queried to the view.  As you pan or zoom in and out, the view will be automatically updated with queried data.  This allows you to work uninterrupted with the OpenCities Map tools by eliminating the need to re-query as your view extents change. 

Named Connections

In named connections, Data Streaming can be set to true or false for each category.  Doing so will set it for all features that belong to that category.  If desired, you can expand the category and set data streaming to True or False for individual features.

For projects without defined categories to organize your features, the Data Streaming option is applied to the connection name or to individual features as shown.

Ad Hoc Connections

For ad hoc connections, data streaming can be set to true or false for the Current Session or for each individual feature.

Data Streaming Key-ins

In addition to setting data streaming via the dialogs shown above, you can also use the following key-ins:

Source:

https://docs.bentley.com/LiveContent/content/en/Bentley%20Map%20Help-v2/GUID-DDA483FB-B8B1-DEFD-49AE-578FA5672006

PBA text replacement for SQL Server dates

The following discusses how to replace date fields in queried SQL Server features that are being placed as a cell.

communities.bentley.com/.../03-_2D00_-SQL-Server-Date-_2D00_-Replacement-Text.mp4

A cell is created and specified in the Symbology tab of the Symbology node. In this example, the text values [DATE_ADDED] and [DATE_EDITED] are used as placeholders for the database date properties.

Note: There is no formatting associated with date fields in SQL Server. The display of the date is controlled by the application getting the dates from the database.

When SQL Server features are registered, date properties are set as follows:

For the Date_Edited property, an Editing key was added and set to dateTimeTicks. This enables OpenCities Map to extract the current date and apply it to this field when the feature is edited.

The display format can be changed to any number of valid formats as described in the following table:

When defining text replacement, you may find yourself inserting Simple Replacement Text for date properties. This will result in date ticks being used rather than properly formatted date fields.

To overcome this, select PBA Replacement Text instead of a Simple Replacement Text.

The Value field can be any text string and is used to identify the replacement text. In this example, Date_Added and Date_Edited are used.

In the Details section, the Old Text is defined as the text to replace. In this example, its [DATE_ADDED] and [DATE_EDITED] in the cell that will be placed during the query process.

Details for Date_Added property:

Details for Date_Edited property:

When the replacement text has been defined, the associated PBA needs to be created.

This is done by highlighting the Replacement Text key and selecting Insert > PBA (Expression) from the right click menu.

A new PBA key is inserted above the Replacement Text. The value of the PBA key is edited from the default [Expression] to the name of the feature property being replaced. Note that the property name must be enclosed in square brackets as shown:

Finally, in the PBA Details, change the default Name New to the value of the Replacement Text key.   In this example, it’s Date_Added and Date_Edited.  The Type value will remain as a PBA Expression.

Date Added PBA Details:

Date Edited PBA Details:

When placing new features, the Date Added and Date Edited fields are automatically set to the current date:

However, they can be set manually as well:

Finally, when queried features are edited, the Date Edited field will automatically update to capture the current date:

communities.bentley.com/.../SQL-Date-Replacement.pdf  Download the PDF

 communities.bentley.com/.../SQL-Server-Date.zip

Attached is the project schema which you can use for learning.

- modified the Wiki category, 07/06/2019

When working with spatial features, it can be difficult to determine which features are locked and modified and which are not.  For example, the image below contains spatial features queried from SQL Server.  Some features are locked, while others are not.

Using the Attribute Masking tool from the Utilities tool box can help *.  Simply adjust the settings to read Spatial Features, Locked and enter a data point on the screen.The Locked setting is especially useful since it can also be used to determine which spatial features you locked, or were locked by others. 

And before posting changes to the database, it can be useful to double check your work by setting Modified option to either Modified or Un-Modified. 

NOTES: 

The highlight colour used by Attribute Masking will not show up if your Level Overrides are turned on.

The highlight symbology is set in Workspace Preferences > Symbology > Mask

* Currently only available in Bentley Map V8i editions

There can be situations where OpenCities Map is showing level, domain list and/or feature names with __x00##__ similar to the following:

This is the result of encoded characters that are illegal in the EC Framework which is the internal storage structure for the non-graphical portion of an element.  The recommended workaround is to rename the item in the schema file during the Register Features process using the Geospatial Administrator.

NOTE regarding PostgreSQL (PostGIS)

To avoid __x0022__  (denotes a double quote) in your feature property names, do not use UPPER CASE characters in the column names.  For example, the following columns contain upper case characters: Well Name and DEPTH.  When registered, each word is wrapped with double quotes which translates to __x0022__.

Using only lower case characters will eliminate the presence of __x0022_ as shown below:

An alternate solution is to edit the XFM Feature Name and Display Name as you register the features.

In these challenging times when COVID-19 is imposing significant disruptions to day to day activities and affecting normal business flow of our much-valued users and employees, we at Bentley are mindfully committed to ensuring a smooth transition of work from the office to a remote location or home. Our innovative software and services are all geared for working from home or remote locations and do not impose the need to be in an office set-up.

To ensure a smooth transition of work and effectiveness of your daily workflows with OpenCities Map, we have assembled information that you can refer to while working remotely or from home. We are working hard to deliver high levels of customer service, and welcome feedback, questions, and ideas on how we can serve you better in a remote work environment.

To learn more about working from home with Bentley software, please visit the followingFAQ. 

Considerations

When working remotely, the best practice is to use a company issued laptop with OpenCities Map product installed. 

OpenCities Map utilizes MicroStation's configuration and workspaces.  Please refer to the guidelines published in the following article:  Working from home with MicroStation. 

To access spatial databases that are hosted on your corporate server, you'll need to install VPN software.  Please contact your IT department for further instructions.

Resolving licensing issues:

Licensing Wiki
https://communities.bentley.com/products/licensing/w/licensing__wiki 

Subscription Entitlement Service
https://communities.bentley.com/products/licensing/w/licensing__wiki/37813/subscription-entitlement-service 

Bentley User Registration
https://www.bentley.com/en/perspectives-and-viewpoints/topics/campaign/bentley-user-registration 

Offline Usage
https://communities.bentley.com/products/licensing/w/licensing__wiki/40445/offline-usage 

How to ensure usage from only one user on a shared workstation
https://communities.bentley.com/products/licensing/w/licensing__wiki/43969/how-to-ensure-usage-from-only-one-user-on-a-shared-workstation 

How remote usage is recorded with Subscription Entitlement Service (SES)
https://communities.bentley.com/products/licensing/w/licensing__wiki/47070/how-remote-usage-is-recorded 

How to check out licenses from Entitlement Management (how to run offline)
https://communities.bentley.com/products/licensing/w/licensing__wiki/41085/how-to-check-out-licenses-from-entitlement-management 

How to bulk checkout licenses from Entitlement Management (extended offline scenarios)
https://communities.bentley.com/products/licensing/w/licensing__wiki/42117/how-to-bulk-checkout-licenses-from-entitlement-management 

How to activate your Bentley software or if you have limited internet access:
Working from Home using Bentley Licensing

General videos on Subscription Entitlement Service (SES)

• SES Part 1 https://youtu.be/n3UaGHSTLGo
• SES Part 2 https://youtu.be/aCHcAg4ViHI
• User and Groups https://youtu.be/FLHIIoDgqeg
• Alerts https://youtu.be/vj79UiyLfnE
• License Check Out https://youtu.be/phhydFDLgrE
• Reports https://youtu.be/MMe_2auBgJY

How to get help

Service Request Manager for any technical question and support.
Our technical experts are ready to help
https://apps.bentley.com/srmanager/ProductSupport

Bentley Communities
This Wiki and Forum

CONNECT Center
https://connect.bentley.com

communities.bentley.com/.../Working-From-Home-with-OpenCities-Map_5F00_YT.mp4

Useful articles about working remotely

Suddenly Remote? Here's How to Regain Your Productivity in Record Time
https://dzone.com/articles/suddenly-remote-heres-how-to-regain-your-productiv

The Ultimate Guide to Remote Work
https://zapier.com/learn/remote-work/ 

It is not possible to install two versions of Bentley Map on the same machine.  For example, Bentley Map V8i (SELECTSeries2) and Bentley Map V8i (SELECTSeries 10).  You can however install different Bentley Map or OpenCities Map products on the same machines.  For example, Bentley Map PowerView V8i SELECTSeries 10 and OpenCities Map Ultimate CONNECT Edition Update 7.

If a higher version of Bentley Map is detected during installation, then installing the lower version will not be allowed.  If an existing lower version is detected, it will be upgraded to the higher version. 

Should you find yourself in a situation where two versions are installed simultaneously, they you would need to initialize each in the Run as Admin... mode in order to register each package's components successfully, then reverse the procedure prior to initializing the other.  In situations such as this, the mixture is not supported.

The Attribute Masking tool is dynamic display tool which allows re-symbolizing of selected elements based on certain properties.

The tool settings provides a wide number of display options.  For example, quickly see which elements are inferred features, or which are in an attached reference. 

The colour used to highlight the mask is set in your Workspace > Preferences > Symbology > Mask option.

For more information on the use of this tool, refer to:

https://docs.bentley.com/LiveContent/content/en/Bentley%20Map%20Help-v2/AttributeMaskingTool

Update December, 2020:  At this time, attribute Masking is not available in OpenCities Map CONNECT Edition Update 6

To transform (move, scale and rotate) elements based on a pair of control points, use the Warp tool located in the Utilities toolbox. This tool is only available with Bentley Map V8i Enterprise and was not carried over to the CONNECT Edition.

For OpenCities Map Ultimate CONNECT users, resample vector data using Register tool found in Raster Manager > Tools.  For more information, refer to Registering Images and Vector Data

It is possible to set up OpenCities Map so that every time a DGN is opened, a connection is established to a graphical source such as Oracle Spatial, SQL Server Spatial, PostGIS, OGC WFS, or Esri File Geodatabase

To do this, first define the named graphical sourcbetnleye in your project schema. 

For example, the following illustrates a named connection to an Oracle database:Open

Then select the Macros node of the User Workspace, and add the following configuration variable:  MS_GEOINITCMD

Set the value of the variable to execute the following keyin:

GDI CONNECT GRAPHICALSOURCE  name=graphicalSourceName user=userName password=password

Save and export your changes.  The next time the workspace is run and a file is opened, a live connection to the graphical source will be automatically established.  This can be seen by navigating to the Connections tab of the Map Interoperability dialog as shown below.

Notes:

- Ensure there are no spaces before and after the = sign in the keyin.

- The user and password are visible to others.

- For SQL Server and Esri File Geodatabase, the user and password are not required.  Simply use:  GDI CONNECT GRAPHICALSOURCE

The Geospatial Administrator does not provide options for customizing the Command Manager. For example, the following are the results of running the Update Command Manager List tool.  Note that the Place and Promote entries are placed in the same category as the feature which may not be desired.

A quick and easy method to reorganize the Command Manager is to select all rows and press CTRL+C to copy the contents to the system clipboard.

Open Excel, or a similar spreadsheet program, and do a CTRL+V.  Then proceed to customize and re-order as needed.  When done, select the rows in the workbook and copy to the changes back to the system clipboard.

In the Geospatial Administrator, select all of the rows in the Command Manager tab and do a CTRL+V to paste the customized list of commands from Excel.

When exported, the Command Manager will reflect the changes.  In this example, all of the Promote commands were put into their own category for simplicity. 

Note:  Another method of customizing the Command Manager is make the changes directly inside MainMenu.xml using any text editor.  While this might work for you, keep in mind that the file will be written over the next time the project is exported from Geospatial Administrator. 

When creating Date Time properties, the Show None option is disabled by default.  This prevents you from placing or editing features with a null value for the date.

To overcome this, enable Show None which adds a toggle to the Date Time property.

If the tick box is on,  the date property is saved when placing new feature instances.  When the tick box is off, the date is not saved resulting in a null value.

NOTE:  The Data Browser does not recognize or support the Show None toggle.  For this reason, use the Edit Feature tool to make changes to date fields with the Show None option.

A OpenCities Map CONNECT Edition sample schema is attached for your learning.

communities.bentley.com/.../DateShowNone.zip

To create multi-line text for PBA annotation use \010 to insert a new line or carriage return:

For example:   Valve Number \010 [ValveID]  will  produce the following:

Consider this, you just installed OpenCities Map and created a Schema using the Geospatial Administrator.  You Run your Workspace, Place a new Feature and enter 123.45 or 123.45678 as an attribute property.  You Post the Feature then Query it to see the results - the decimal precision isn't anything like you entered it!  Your client's data modeling requirements have strict definitions - how can you resolve this?

Display Format changes are needed for OpenCities Map to support the validation of the number of decimal places for Number-based properties.

The suggested workaround is to change the Display Format in OpenCities Geospatial Administrator from the default value of %s to %w.

This causes the property field to only accept numbers as defined by the working units of the design file.

Therefore, if the design file has its working unit accuracy defined as 0.12, the property field will only accept two decimal places:

When entering values exceeding the accuracy setting, automatic rounding will take place:

For Spatial database users:

Many feature settings cannot be modified directly in OpenCities Geospatial Administrator and will appear to be greyed out. To edit these values, simply open the XML in any robust text editor, look for your feature definition and manually edit the textbox formatToDisplay tag.

For example:

<textBox formatToDisplay="%f" formatToInternal="%s" />

 to

 <textBox formatToDisplay="%w" formatToInternal="%s" />

 For more information on the valid display types, please refer to the following section in the OpenCities Map Help document:

https://docs.bentley.com/LiveContent/content/en/Bentley%20Map%20Help-v2/GUID-613C3CDA-B665-BBFA-D3DF-696133CE98C0

In this example, existing polygon features have a Name and Date Changed property.

When the Name is edited, the Date Changed property will automatically update to the current date.  

To do that, you need to define a Property Watcher on the Name field with Type=SynchItem. 

In the Synch Item Watcher Detail section, you'll notice that there's no provision to specify a dateFormat for the ValueType:

The suggested workaround is to open the XML with  a text editor, search for the watchersList tag and edit the valueType from none to dateFormat:

<watchersList><watcher name="UpdateDateChanged" type="SynchItem" alias="Site" operation="" property="DateChanged" redraw="true" valueType="dateFormat" >%Y-%m-%d</watchersList>

Note that this change will not be reflected in the Geospatial Administrator, but will operate fine in the design file:

A sample schema is provided for your learning.

communities.bentley.com/.../DateChange.zip

The default paths for the shortcut targets are noted below.

Bentley Map V8i Standalone - C:\Program Files (x86)\Bentley\MapStandalone\V8i\MapStandalone\MapStandalone.exe

Bentley Map V8i for MicroStation - C:\Program Files (x86)\Bentley\MicroStation V8i (SELECTseries)\Microstation\ustation.exe

Bentley Map V8i Powerview - C:\Program Files (x86)\Bentley\MapPowerView V8i\MapPowerView\mappowerview.exe

Bentley Map V8i Enterprise - C:\Program Files (x86)\Bentley\MapEnterprise V8i\MapEnterprise\mapenterprise.exe

OpenCities Map Powerview - C:\Program Files\Bentley\OpenCities Map Powerview CONNECT Edition\MapPowerview\MapPowerview.exe

OpenCities Map Advanced - C:\Program Files\Bentley\OpenCities Map Advanced CONNECT Edition\MapAdvanced\MapAdvanced.exe

OpenCities Map Ultimate - C:\Program Files\Bentley\OpenCities Map Ultimate CONNECT Edition\MapUltimate\MapUltimate.exe

Text Justification sets the position of text relative to its origin. MicroStation supports all justification types for both single-line and multi-line text.

Text Justification is used only for text whereas Text Node Justification is used only for Text Nodes. 

Text Justification is set in the Text Style that's defined as part of the text feature symbology.

This setting, as with the other text style settings, can be overridden by inserting a new key:

Note:  New settings will be created with a default value of 0 for the criteria and won't be considered.  Set the criteria value to blank or 1 to ensure it will be used. 

It's important to define your text size properly in the GIS schema to get the desired results on the map.  In this article, we'll take a look a the parameters, values and settings to get it right the first time.

Apply Drawing Scale, when enabled, the Plot Scale is applied to the text or cell  size.  Your project will have a default plot scale defined in the User workspace node.  This value can be overwritten by selecting a new plot scale from the menu bar in an open design file.

Text Style - This is the text style that will hold text settings.  Many of the text style settings can be defined in the symbology tab of the feature definition in which case they will take priority. 

Note:  When adding a text setting, a default setting of 0 will be added to the criteria.  When left as 0, the newly added setting will not be considered.  Either erase the value or set it to 1.   

Scale - The scale can alter the size of the output text without changing the Text Style or the Plot Scale.  If you prefer to control and manage the text sizes in the Text Style, it would be recommended to set this value to 1 for simplicity. 

The output size of the text is defined as:

Text Height/Width *  Scale * Plot Scale

Therefore, assuming that Apply Plot Scale is turned on:

A text size is 2, with scale 0.0008, and a plot factor of 5000, would produce a text size of 2 * 0.0008 * 5000 = 8

A text size of 1, with a scale of 0.001 and a plot factor of 1:200, would produce a text size of 1 * 0.001 * 200 = 0.2

Note:  The similar formula is applied to cells.

The final cell size is:  cell X/Y/Z scale * Plot scale

You can update a user defined property when split/merge tools are used against a polygon.  For example, perhaps you have a property called DateChanged and you'd like that field to automatically update when the polygon is split or merged.

Before Split/Merge:

After Split/Merge:

To do that, make use of Initial Values in the DateChanged property.

The following initial value keys are available which are used to determine the current action to which the value should be applied:

•  Placing - used when a feature is initially placed
•  Editing - used when a feature is edited
•  Split - used when a feature is split using the polygon split tool
•  Merge - used when a feature is merged using the polygon merge tool

These initial values are added to the property to be automatically changed.  In this example, that's the DateChanged property.

A sample schema is provided for your learning.

communities.bentley.com/.../8637.DateChange.zip

When importing shapefiles in OpenCities Map CONNECT Edition, by default all associated feature properties are imported.

However, Map Interoperability does allow you to control which properties are transferred.

Steps to follow:

1) In OpenCities Map CONNECT Edition, go to File> Import > Shapefiles
Browse to the location of your Shapefile and select the Shapefile> Click Done

2) Map Interoperability dialog opens, under the Import Node you will see the Shapefile that you selected
Right‐click on the feature, and Select Show Properties> Ungrouped.

3) Expand the feature to display all associated properties and uncheck the properties that you do not want to import with the feature.

4) Right-Click on Import Node and select Import to start the process.

The Shapefile is imported in Active DGN only with the checked feature properties.

communities.bentley.com/.../7827.ImportSpecific.mp4