greenbook - projectwise systems architecture1 1 · microstation teammate 96 was a windows based...

GreenBook PROJECTWISE

SYSTEMS ARCHITECTURE

Server Architecture

Performance

Server Modules

Networking

Version 1.1 – February 2013

ProjectWise Systems Architecture P a g e | 2

GREENBOOK

Copyright © 2013 Bentley Systems, Incorporated

Version 1.0 (September 2012)

Version 1.1 (February 2013)

Applies to:

ProjectWise V8i (SELECTseries 4) and previous versions

Disclaimer: The following information contains extracts, data, application examples, installations and

configurations that are believed to be accurate at the time of their publication. Bentley Professional Services is

constantly updating the technical details, which are subject to revisions. Bentley Professional Services strives to

present the information in an accurate manner, but does not guarantee its completeness or validity.

The material provided in this guide is advisory only, and its use is completely voluntary. Bentley Professional

Services makes no warranties, expressed or implied, in connection with this information. Any use or application of

this information will be at the user’s sole risk and responsibility. Bentley will not be responsible for any loss,

claims, or damages arising from the use or application of this information.


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Table of Contents Introduction to GREENBOOK ...................................................................................................................... 5

About the Author(s) ...................................................................................................................................... 6

History of ProjectWise .................................................................................................................................. 7

Server Architecture and Scaling .................................................................................................................... 9

ProjectWise Caching Servers ...................................................................................................................... 11

Virtual vs. Physical....................................................................................................................................... 12

ProjectWise in a High Latency Network ...................................................................................................... 13

ProjectWise and WAN Optimization Tools ................................................................................................. 16

Failover and Backup .................................................................................................................................... 17

Routing and Networks ................................................................................................................................ 20

The ProjectWise Database .......................................................................................................................... 22

Test and Development Environment .......................................................................................................... 24

Customizing ProjectWise ............................................................................................................................ 25

Dynamic Composition Server ...................................................................................................................... 26

Point Cloud Server ...................................................................................................................................... 28

Bentley Transmittals Service ....................................................................................................................... 29

ProjectWise and Network Security ............................................................................................................. 30

Working with Sub‐Consultants ................................................................................................................... 31

Mobile Access to ProjectWise ..................................................................................................................... 33

ProjectWise Server Module Overview ........................................................................................................ 34

ProjectWise Integration Server ............................................................................................................... 34

ProjectWise Caching Server .................................................................................................................... 34

ProjectWise Web Server ......................................................................................................................... 35

ProjectWise Web View Server ................................................................................................................ 35

ProjectWise InterPlot Server ................................................................................................................... 36

ProjectWise Dynamic Composition Server ............................................................................................. 36

ProjectWise Dynamic Plot Service .......................................................................................................... 37

ProjectWise Business Process Template for BS1192 .............................................................................. 37

ProjectWise Standards Validation Service .............................................................................................. 37


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Bentley Transmittals Service ................................................................................................................... 38

ProjectWise PDx Dynamic Review Service .............................................................................................. 38

ProjectWise Geospatial Management .................................................................................................... 39

ProjectWise Connector for ArcGIS .......................................................................................................... 39

ProjectWise Connector for Oracle .......................................................................................................... 40

Bentley Geospatial Server ....................................................................................................................... 40

Bentley Geo Web Publisher .................................................................................................................... 41

ProjectWise Gateway Service ................................................................................................................. 41

ProjectWise Indexing Service .................................................................................................................. 42

ProjectWise User Synchronization Service ............................................................................................. 42

ProjectWise Orchestration Framework Service ...................................................................................... 43

ProjectWise Automation Service ............................................................................................................ 43

ProjectWise Publishing Gateway Service ................................................................................................ 44

ProjectWise Web Services ...................................................................................................................... 44

ProjectWise Desktop Applications .............................................................................................................. 44

Bentley Navigator ................................................................................................................................... 44

ProjectWise Explorer .............................................................................................................................. 45

ProjectWise Administrator...................................................................................................................... 45

ProjectWise Web Parts ........................................................................................................................... 45

ProjectWise InterPlot Organizer ............................................................................................................. 46

ProjectWise Dynamic Plot Sync .............................................................................................................. 46

ProjectWise Explorer for the iPad ........................................................................................................... 46

Bentley Navigator Pano Review for the iPad .......................................................................................... 47

Bentley Navigator Mobile ....................................................................................................................... 47


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Introduction to GREENBOOK GreenBooks are created by Bentley Professional Services to provide “Best Practices” as they

relate to utilizing software solutions for the infrastructure lifecycle. This includes not only

Bentley software, but other applications that are commonly used in infrastructure projects. The

guides rely upon hundreds of Bentley Professional Services colleagues around the world to

document best practices that make our customers more efficient in their use of infrastructure

software.

GreenBooks can take on various formats from a quick TechNote, How to Guide, Instructional

Manual, White Paper, to a full Book format. All GreenBooks are provided in PDF format for

downloading and printing. Because these are continually being updated with new information,

always check online for the latest revision.

GreenBooks are often first published in a Draft state. This allows earlier access to potentially

valuable information. Due to this fact, Draft documents are sometimes less polished and could

contain errors that a more extensive and time consuming review process would discover.

Bentley’s Be Communities is the delivery system that allows any Be Community member to

download and utilize best practices in their industry. Membership in the Be Community is free.

To sign up, visit http://communities.bentley.com. To find this GreenBook and others, visit Be

Communities and search on GreenBook.


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About the Author(s)

Eddie Anderson is the Global Practice Leader for ProjectWise Professional Services at Bentley. Mr.

Anderson has been with Bentley Professional Services since 1994 in various roles. He has been involved

with ProjectWise since 1995 when it was named TeamMate. Mr. Anderson has trained thousands of

users in the use of both MicroStation and ProjectWise over the years. Currently, he oversees all

ProjectWise Professional Services globally for Bentley.

Follow Mr. Anderson on Twitter @ http://www.Twitter.com/EddieJAnderson


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History of ProjectWise

In 1995 Bentley was a $100 million dollar company that was rapidly growing, not only in revenue but

also in product offerings. A year earlier, Intergraph had a major stake in Bentley and had the

distribution rights to MicroStation. A dispute over royalties ensued, which put Bentley in charge of its

own destiny. This suit would not be settled for several years to come, however, it did turn out heavily in

favor of Bentley.

Bentley now had the desire to grow with new product offerings to help its 220,000 users design and

build the world’s infrastructure projects. One of the first products offered was MicroStation Field, a

mobile product designed to work on a pen based tablet so remote users could view and markup

drawings in the field. Released in 1994, it was ahead of its time. Teamed with the high cost of a pen

based tablet at that time, it was discontinued. However, the need to collaborate on projects never went

away. It was at that time the Bentley executives looked for solutions. The options included developing

a server based management system, or possibly leveraging existing technology.

In August of 1995 Bentley formalized a relationship with Opti inter‐Consult, signed them as a Strategic

Affiliate and took on a partial ownership in the company. Opti Inter‐Consult was a small Finland based

company that was founded in 1990. It was the developer of TeamMate, which was a Document

Management System exclusively distributed by Bentley. Opti Inter‐Consult had a suite of products

based on Document Management and Facility Management.

The following year Bentley acquired the remaining shares of Opti Inter‐Consult and split the two product

lines in half. The Facilities Management products went to a newly formed joint venture with Primavera

named WorkPlace Systems. With George Church as its president, the newly formed company focused

on the lifecycle of facility asset management. George already had several years experience with Bentley

and Intergraph and was a good fit for the joint venture, which was then a strategic affiliation between

both Bentley and Primavera. WorkPlace Systems developed several products including ActiveAsset

Manager, ActiveAsset Planner, and ActiveAsset Inquirer.

TeamMate was merged with Bentley development and MicroStation. TeamMate 96 was released in

1996. This version was focused on MicroStation support, but also handled other formats and

applications such as Microsoft Office and AutoCAD. TeamMate also had metadata, file history, versions,

and Query By Example to locate files.

MicroStation TeamMate 96 was a Windows based document management solution that ran on

Windows 3.x and the popular Windows 95 operating systems. Server side was handled by Windows NT.

Hardware requirements back then included the i386 (with math co‐processor) all the way up to the

Pentium. The recommended 16MB to 24MB of RAM kept TeamMate running strong. Hard drive specs

were in the 200MB range. You probably remember the days. Supported Databases back then included


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just about anything that could be connected with ODBC, including Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft

Access, Oracle, Informix, and Solid. The list of Databases would change over the years, including support

for Sybase for a few releases.

In 1998 TeamMate was rebranded to the name ‘ProjectWise’ after several other discarded names. For a

while it was branded as CheckMate, until it was discovered that this was a conflict of interest.

Remember, this was the 1990’s and the Internet was still not in wide use. If fact, the domain name

‘Google’ was not even registered until September of 1997.

ProjectWise 3.xx was released early 2000 and over the next two years added features that included the

Web Explorer Lite, which was the first web client. Document level security, DWG redlining, and the

document creation wizard were also added.

ProjectWise V8 started the modern era of ProjectWise. The January 2003 release included such

innovations as the Preview Pane, Workspace Profiles, Components, Audit Trail, and the Distribution

System. Over the next few years we saw 2004 and V8 XM Edition ProjectWise releases. These releases

included Full Text Search, Thumbnails, DGN Indexing, Managed Workspaces, and SharePoint Web Parts.

Late in 2008, the first V8i release of ProjectWise was introduced. It included Delta File Transfer, the

Web View Server, Spatial Navigation, the Quick Search tool bar and auto login to integrated applications.

Over the next several years SELECTseries releases (one through four) have included Revit and Civil3D

integration, as well at Transmittals, Dynamic Composition Server, Point Cloud Streaming, and Dynamic

Plotting.

Today’s ProjectWise is a true 64‐bit application that scales up to thousands and thousands of users with

excellent performance, especially over higher latency networks. ProjectWise has truly become the most

mature Engineering Information Management System in the industry.


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Server Architecture and Scaling

Since ProjectWise consists of several servers that need to work together, it is sometimes difficult to

diagnose performance issues. ProjectWise performance diagnosis usually fits into five different

categories. It is best to ensure that you have the “right size” system. Consider the following:

CPU

File I/O

Network

Memory

Database

In general, most hardware has a three year life cycle around which you can plan a system. This means

that the hardware will be sufficient enough to perform with future versions of the software applications,

such as the ProjectWise Integration Server, but also work with new operating systems that may be

deployed over time. In addition to the software requirements, the expected user load must be taken in

consideration. Most companies that use ProjectWise will grow their usage over time.

The following chart shows how one Integration Server can be scaled to handle the load for up to 2000

connected users. It would be a best practice to include a second (or more) Integration Server, in either a

cluster or network load balanced set up, to allow for failover and for spreading the load.

50 100 250 500 750 1000 1500 2000

Processors/Cores 2 3 4 5 6 8 10 12

GB RAM 6 6 6 8 8 8 10 12

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

Processors & RAM

Integration Server ScalingPer Connected Users


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ProjectWise Caching Servers

The ProjectWise Caching Server has a dual purpose. The first is to store files that are managed by the

ProjectWise system and the second is to cache files that are stored in remote offices. A Caching Server

generally would need the same processing power as a local file server and is not processor intensive.

However, the addition of a Point Cloud Service can increase the need for processing power. The Point

Cloud Service is only needed on a ProjectWise Caching Server that is also the storage area for the point

clouds.

For medium to larger installs, it is highly recommended that a ProjectWise Caching Server be at the

same location as the ProjectWise Integration Server for performance reasons. Having ProjectWise

Caching Servers in a remote office is one of the largest decisions when determining the system

architecture. General rules for determining if an office needs a ProjectWise Caching Server include the

following:

10 or more users in an office that will utilize ProjectWise

Five or more users in an office that work on the same projects and files

Offices that have higher latency

Offices with limited bandwidth

Use of large files

When distributed storage is desired

When better performance is needed


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Virtual vs. Physical

In today’s times virtual seems to be the way that most IT organizations are headed, and for good

reasons. More new installations of ProjectWise are now in virtual environments and this trend

continues to grow. Virtual environments offer the ability to easily change disk space, RAM, and cores to

allow optimization for each virtual machine running in the environment. They also offer easy snapshots

that allow for rapid recovery and cloning (copies).

Physical on the other hand also has its benefits. Most servers sit idle the majority of the time and are a

good fit for a virtual environment, however when you have very intensive servers, then you may face

performance issues. Physical servers are much better when dealing with I/O and don’t have the

performance overhead of VMs. Server sprawl is another issue with VMs in which IT organizations add

too many VMs to the server which can become a drag on all VMs, thus limiting resource.

We are also seeing a new trend of placing the database server inside of a virtual environment; though

this may not be the best practice for medium to large deployments. It does, however, offer many

benefits in backup, recovery, and resource scaling. Traditionally speaking a database server has been a

well thought out system in which the spindles on which each portion of the server resides on is even

important. This is not so easily done with virtual machines.

Virtual environments usually start with hardware which contain many cores and a gob of RAM, back

engine software such as VMware ESX and a SAN which offer plenty of space. Microsoft offers a

Windows Server Data Center License which can be used on many virtual machines without additional

cost. Each virtual machine is allocated cores, RAM, and disk space.


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ProjectWise in a High Latency Network

Effects of Latency on ProjectWise

Much of the anticipated performance can be determined by the latency between clients and servers. In

today's digital age, bandwidth and latency determine the speed at which you receive your data. The nice

thing is that money will usually buy you more bandwidth, but when it comes to latency, that is not

always the case. Latency is the measurement of the time it takes a packet of data to move back and

forth. The data must go from the user interface into the kernel, out the network card, to switches,

firewalls, routers, back to a network card, into the kernel, and then back through the same route. The

time it takes this whole process to happen is referred to as latency. This operation may be repeated

thousands of times per minute. Therefore, a high latency returns poor performance regardless of

bandwidth, which determines the amount of simultaneous packets that can be sent.

Bentley has developed ProjectWise to minimize the effects of latency with many latency related

enhancements in ProjectWise V8i (SELECTseries 3) and even more in (SELECTseries 4). This has been

accomplished by developing less chatty and chunkier transactions. The use of Caching Servers has also

helped decrease the number of packets that have to be transmitted across high latency lines. In

ProjectWise V8i we now have Delta File Transfer (DFT) which can significantly decrease the number of

packets sent. All of these features have an effect on performance. ProjectWise now delivers PWPING

(discussed later in this document) which can be used to determine the latency between hops. Bentley's

Technical Support Group (TSG) wrote an excellent article on the ProjectWise Traceroute Utility.

Regardless of your network, the data is limited to the maximum speed at which it transmits; the speed

of light. The speed of light is a little over 186,282 miles per second. If you do the math, this means that a

ping from the US to Europe will always take a minimum of 30 milliseconds as a baseline. That in itself is

not a problem, but if you add other aspects and you may possibly have performance that is poorer than

expected. In those situations it is best to utilize Caching Servers and DFT. The use of the fetchfiles.exe

utility can also aid in pre‐populating your cache.

Starting with the servers, the Database Server and the ProjectWise Integration Server should be in close

proximity to each other, preferably in the same rack. Since so many transitions happen between these

two servers it is important that latency be kept to a minimum, ideally <1ms. Latency of greater than 10

milliseconds could to hinder performance.

The performance of the ProjectWise Explorer Client can also degrade with higher latency.


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ProjectWise Configuration

The ProjectWise configuration contributes to performance issues, in particular the use of ProjectWise

attributes and triggers. A reduction in the attributes and triggers can improve performance across high

latency environments.

Another area of improvement related to configuration is the use of Preview Panes and the configuration

of Views in the user interface. Removing Preview Panes and reducing the number of attributes displayed

in user Views demonstrated improvement for navigating the ProjectWise Explorer interface in testing

subsequent to other test cases.

WAN Latency Response and Packet Traffic Capture

In networking, latency represents the amount of time it takes a packet to travel from source to

destination. Together, latency and bandwidth define the speed and capacity of a network.

Network latency can be identified as directly contributing to the performance of ProjectWise.

Work Processes

Work processes that have been implemented, particularly our use of specific commands such as

UpdateDMS, are contributing to performance with respect to file open and close times and updating of

title blocks. This requires a review of the functional requirements and agreed work processes so that the

system can be used the most effectively. To support this, further analysis is required at a much more

detailed level to understand these areas of improvement.

Suggested Strategy

In order to provide improvements in the performance of ProjectWise in high latency offices, it is

recommended that the actions resulting from this report be undertaken with the following priorities:

Excellent Performance

Very Good Performance

Good Performance

ExceptableSome

ComplaintsPoor

Performance

Works But Barely Usable

Latency 0 50 100 200 300 500 1000

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

Milliseconds of Latency

Latency


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Turn off the Preview Pane in the ProjectWise Explorer Client within high latency offices. This will limit the amount of data and transactions needed by the Client during folder and file navigation.

Limit the use of custom Views, only displaying the minimal amount of data about each file.

Limit the use of titleblock integration with AutoCAD and MicroStation.

Limit the amount of attributes in any Environment being used in the high latency offices.

Utilize Caching Server(s) where possible in the high latency offices as file storage.

Utilize Caching Server(s) where possible in the high latency offices as file caching.

Utilize Fetchfile.exe to pre‐populate local file caching.

Refrain from exiting MicroStation or AutoCAD when opening additional files.

Limit the number of files in any one folder to a manageable amount.


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ProjectWise and WAN Optimization Tools Whether over the internet or on private networks, network speed is essential in keeping today’s

distributed businesses running at their maximum potential. In order to take full advantage of the

existing infrastructure, applications need to be smarter about the data they transmit and how they

transmit the data from server to server, client to server, and server to client.

Bentley’s solution implemented in the ProjectWise Application Server is called Delta File Transfer (DFT)

and results in compression of data requests between the ProjectWise Client and ProjectWise Server.

Through our testing of these technologies, using both Riverbed and Cisco WAAS, we have concluded

that there is no one perfect configuration that fits all networks. In general, the following can be used as

a guideline for configuration. Keep in mind that each network and optimization appliance is different

and may experience different results.

Turn off data compression at the user level for internal users.

For internal users in a high latency network, turn on data compression. This will reduce the

number of transactions needed to complete a task in ProjectWise.

Run the Delta File Benchmark Wizard to determine best settings for DFT. Some tests suggest

that having both DFT and Optimization Appliances on is the best method; others suggest that

one or the other might be best.

Utilize ProjectWise Caching Servers to cache and store files local to the larger offices, or higher

latency offices.

There may be other factors in your decision. First, how large is your optimization appliance? When

using a smaller device it may not be able to optimize (learn) much about the types of files you use and

therefore not as efficient. In some cases, ignoring the ProjectWise traffic on the appliance and letting

ProjectWise use its DFT may be best. Using it in that manner would allow the appliance to focus on

other traffic such as email or other enterprise solutions. The next consideration is the type and size of

files that are used. If you have many large files, it may be best to use DFT in conjunction with an

optimization appliance.

Testing DFT can be accomplished with a delivered tool. The Delta File Benchmark Wizard is a tool that

will generate three files in your workstation’s temporary directory and will use those files to gauge the

performance of the DFT technology. When the ProjectWise Administrator client is loaded, dftbmwiz.exe

is installed into the \ProjectWise\bin folder. The application will import these documents into a test

folder in the datasource, check them out, make a predefined set of changes to the file data, and then

check the files back in. This gives a report on file performance for check in and check out.


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Failover and Backup

Data backup, recovery, and failover of the ProjectWise system are critical for business continuity. Data

backup of ProjectWise data consists of two parts; the source files and the database. The source files will

be the files or documents stored in the defined storage areas. With the database, backup is a two step

process. Create a backup of the database and then write that file to some type of backup media. All of

the database management systems supported by ProjectWise have the capability to create database

backups. For example, with Microsoft SQL server, one could use SQL Server Management Studio to

manually create a database backup to the file system. It is also possible to create SQL scripts that can

be used to initiate a database backup very quickly.

In general, data backup consists of several areas of planning. These areas include:

Backup schedule

Backup type (see following section)

ProjectWise distribution

Data change rate

Data amount (real and projected)

Level of automation

How quickly does the data or ProjectWise need to be available to the user base in the event of a

hardware/data failure or catastrophic event? This question would typically be answered in days, or

hours, but could be minutes or seconds. The answer would be synonymous with response times once a

failure occurs. Answering this question will give direction toward planning for the right policies,

procedures and infrastructure needed to accomplish these metrics. This question may seem trivial at

first. You may say, “I want to be back online ASAP”. That’s not clear enough. This brings us to the

concept of “levels of service”.

Levels of service would be a cost of effort needed for requested response time. The table below serves

as an example of a high level planning approach. This example table could be used for catastrophic

disaster recovery planning and design, as well as day to day file recovery from a user deletion. Of

course, the cost values will be an educated guess. The real cost would come from detailed planning. It

is recommended to team up with the various departments your company may have related to the

network and hardware infrastructure.


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Service Level Response Time Cost

Level 1 Seconds/Minutes $$$$$

Level 2 1 Hour $$$$

Level 3 4 Hours $$$

Level 4 1 Day $$

Level 5 2+ Days $

Differences between the different levels of service

Level 1 requires redundancy and failover of vital systems. This may include the Integration Server,

Database Server, Caching Server(s) and possibly the ProjectWise Web Server and ProjectWise Gateway

Service. In some cases, this may be in a Cluster or Network Load Balancing. Level 2 may just require the

ability to restore a copy of a VM running the ProjectWise software. If total site failure is possible, then

the addition of remote redundancy is needed especially when located in an area that is susceptible to

natural disaster such as earthquakes, tornados, and hurricanes. As you progress through the levels,

various methods will be used to restore software, servers, and hardware. Some level may even require

reloading software manually which can be very time consuming.

Analysis

The analysis phase, at a minimum, should consist of the following points of analysis:

Impact Analysis – the act of determining critical and non‐critical systems, projects or other units

that pertain to the ProjectWise system and data.

Threat Analysis – The act of indentifying common threats for which the business should be

prepared. These could include natural disasters, hackers, power or network outages, hardware

failure, and terrorism.

Impact scenarios – The act of hashing out how potential threats could impact business continuity.

Recovery Requirement documentation – developing the business and technical requirements to

assist with implementation.

Types of backups

Full backup – Consists of a complete backup of a file system. This is very time consuming, and often

limited to a weekly or monthly schedule.

Incremental backup – The most basic form of incremental backup involves only those files that have

changed since the last backup. Since changes are typically slow, incremental backup is much smaller and

quicker than a full backup. For instance, following a full backup on Friday, a Monday backup will contain


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only those files that changed since Friday. A Tuesday backup will contains only those files that changed

since Monday, and so on. A full restoration of data will naturally be slower, since all increments must be

restored. Should any one of the copies created fail, including the first (full), restoration will be

incomplete.

Differential backup – A cumulative backup of all changes made since the last full or normal backup, i.e.,

the differences since the last full backup. The advantage to this is the quicker recovery time, requiring

only a full backup and the last differential backup to restore the system. The disadvantage is that for

each day elapsed since the last full backup, more data needs to be backed up, especially if a significant

portion of the data has changed.

Synthetic backup – Creates a virtual copy of a device or filesystem. Snapshots imitate the way a file or

device looked at the precise time the snapshot was taken. It is not a copy of the data, only a picture in

time of how the data was organized. Snapshots can be taken according to a scheduled time and provide

a consistent view of a filesystem or device for a backup and recovery program from which to work. They

also allow access to files and processing to continue as normal while snapshot is taking place.

Data Recovery Planning

Again, third party solutions will be employed here. Most likely, the solution used to perform the data

backup will be used to restore the lost data.

If it is necessary to rebuild a server from the ground up, there are a few things that need to be taken

into consideration:

1. Will the server name remain the same as before recovery?

2. Will ProjectWise network configuration change on the clients?

When performing a full database recovery, there are a few things that need to be considered:

1. Will the database server name be the same as before?

2. Will storage area definitions in the recovered database point to valid servers and file shares?

3. Will ProjectWise ODBC connections need to be reconfigured?

Failover Planning

Virtual Machine images

Clustered ProjectWise Servers

Virtual Machines and Clustered ProjectWise servers

Mirrored datacenters


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Routing and Networks

ProjectWise uses its own routing rules. In general, the client is told to go to a ProjectWise server. If that

is not the end point, then that server will tell it where the next hop is until it reaches its end point. It is a

best practice to always use fully qualified domain names instead of IP Addresses. The following diagram

shows some of the valid routes that ProjectWise traffic could make. All ProjectWise Explorer traffic is on

TCP Port 5800 by default, but could be changed by the administrator to a different port number.

Workstation Gateway ServerProjectWiseCaching Server

Gateway Server

Workstation ProjectWiseCaching Server

Gateway Server

Workstation Gateway Server

Workstation ProjectWiseCaching Server

Workstation ProjectWiseIntegration Server

ProjectWiseIntegration Server




In the network control panel on the user’s side you will need to point the clients to the

Gateway/Caching or Integration Server for both DNS services and datasource listings. This is telling the

client it will need to get its datasource listing and routing information from the gateway server. This can

also be setup as a registry key and pushed out to the client.


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Bentley provides pwping.exe which works much like a normal ping command, but utilizes ProjectWise

routing. This tool can be used to make sure the route taken is the desired route.

IPv6 is the next generation of Internet addressing. The current IPv4 system has run out of addresses. The

industry has no choice but to switch to the new addressing that has been around for about 10 years, but

has less than 0.5% adoption in the United States. Russia leads the charge with 0.76%. Bottom line,

nobody uses it yet, even though many operating systems have supported it for years.

IPv4 (the current IP address system) has 4,294,967,296 possible addresses. The new IPv6 has

approximately 340,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 unique addresses. That's 340

Duodecillion addresses (look it up, might come in handy on trivia night) or about 27 Octillion addresses

for every human on earth.

An example of IPv6 would look like 1366:0000:0000:FF02:2AAC:FB9A:0478:3342. Certain rules apply to

not displaying the leading zeros to shorten the display, but forget about the days of remembering all of

the IPs for all your servers.

ProjectWise V8i is IPv6 aware and has been tested against the new addressing. If you are currently

considering changing to IPv6 on your ProjectWise network, please contact Bentley Professional Services

for some guidelines in making this a success, as this is not automatic.


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The ProjectWise Database

ProjectWise utilizes two databases to operate. The first is the ProjectWise database which is the main

database for ProjectWise. It contains all of the metadata, security rights, checkout information, etc. for

ProjectWise. The second is the Orchestration Framework database.

The ProjectWise database is the main database for ProjectWise and will grow over time. This database

can either be an Oracle or SQL Server database. This database must be backed up as loss of the database

may result is loss of data. This database will grow over time due to added files or metadata associated

with the files. This includes possible metadata, security, and audit trail information.

The size of the database has many variables, but general guidelines include the following:

Thumbnails (28k each are stored as a blob in the database for every Office document, PDF, CAD

file, and Image that is configured to extract thumbnails.

Audit Trail information will consume anywhere from about 1K to 5K, depending upon the history

of the file.

General information including security and metadata will be another 1K to 5K.

Average size is between 3K and 35K per file, based mainly on whether thumbnails have been

generated for the files.

This is a chart showing the average size of a database. It reflects the average size of a database with 10

million files is between 100GB and 220GB.

Oracle vs. SQL Server is purely a user preference. Although the majority of deployments are on SQL

Server, about 25% of the deployments are on Oracle.

0

10,000,000

20,000,000

30,000,000

40,000,000

50,000,000

60,000,000

2 10 20 100 200 500 1,000

Number of Files

Database Size in GB

Minimum

Maximum


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SQL Express can be used as the main database for ProjectWise, but it has limitations which would limit

the number of files that can be added to ProjectWise for performance limitations. Following is a list of

limitations. These limitations would only support somewhere between 300K and one million files

depending on Thumbnails, Metadata, Security Model, Audit Trail, etc.

Only Supports One Physical Processor

10GB Database Maximum

1GB of RAM

The Orchestration Framework Database is used as a temporary file for ProjectWise. It is used to in the

process of file extractions for thumbnails, full text search, file properties and other processors like

distribution jobs. In general, it does not require backups as it will re‐generate the next time a job is

started. The Orchestration Framework Database must be a SQL database. SQL Express is acceptable for

this database.


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Test and Development Environment

As with many enterprise systems, ProjectWise is often setup in a Development, Test, and Production

environments. This can be done to test configurations and customizations without the interference of a

production system.

These non‐production servers are available for no perpetual licensing cost, but must be covered under

Bentley’s SELECT (maintenance) or Enterprise License Subscription (ELS) programs. You must also have a

production license of any server in which you want a non production license.

For ELS accounts the use of non‐production licenses is deemed a benefit of the ELS agreement and SELECT fees are waived, however, the pre‐requisite that they must have production licenses prior to obtaining non‐production instances still applies.

Products available for non production licensing:

ProjectWise Integration Server

ProjectWise Caching Server

ProjectWise Web Server

ProjectWise Web View Server

ProjectWise Publishing Server

ProjectWise Dependency Server

ProjectWise Dynamic Composition Service

ProjectWise Dynamic Plot Service

ProjectWise InterPlot Driver Pack

ProjectWise InterPlot High‐Volume Driver Pack

ProjectWise InterPlot Mid‐Volume Driver Pack

ProjectWise InterPlot Server


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Customizing ProjectWise

Current Bentley SELECT subscribers who want to develop complementary applications exclusively for in‐

house customization, integration, and use on Bentley products can opt‐in as a Bentley Developer

Network member. Bentley Developer Network (BDN) membership is a benefit of Bentley SELECT and

incurs no additional cost. Benefits to being a BDN SELECT member include access to:

Current published Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)

Software Development Kits (SDKs) ‐ some available upon request

Comprehensive developer support

Critical technical documentation, notes, and reference material on the web

Online developer sessions hosted by Bentley programmers and software executives

The BDN Conference, where you will gain in‐depth, hands‐on experience, sharpen your skills,

and enhance your product development knowledge

The ProjectWise SDK download contains the necessary libraries, documentation and examples for

organizations to customize both ProjectWise Explorer and Web Parts.


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Dynamic Composition Server

Dynamic Composition Server (DCS) allows for server side creation of PDFs, i‐models, and raster formats

to be created. It is highly recommend that Dynamic Composition Server have a dedicated machine and

not share work with other applications. This is a very scalable solution, in which you can have a

combination of any of the following scenarios:

One Dynamic Composition Server set up in the same location as the ProjectWise Integration

Server. Most cost effective solution and the best solution for single data storage users.

Multiple Dynamic Composition Servers set up as a farm in the same location as the ProjectWise

Integration Server. Best solution for large deployments with a very high demand for rendition

jobs.

Distributed Dynamic Composition Server in the same location as a ProjectWise Caching Server.

Best solution for users who have a very distributed storage model. This can cut down on the

network traffic.

Any combination of the above.

The most common scenario is to have one scaled up Dynamic Composition Server in the same location

as the ProjectWise Integration Server. To determine the scale of server and the number of servers

needed, you will first need to determine the total number of files to be created. A daily projected

number would be the best place to start, though you may have periodic large rendition jobs that also

need to be accounted for. The complexity and size of files to be renditioned also will have an effect on

the output performance of Dynamic Composition Server as well as versions, managed workspaces, and

titleblock integration.

Following is a chart with our findings in a test environment. In our testing, we used a variety of user files

that would simulate real world designs and complexities. Our test jobs also ranged from 4,500 files to

181,000 files.


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To be fair, we also wanted to publish the hardware specs and configuration so you can estimate your

final output. Of course, there are so many variables that these figures should only be used as an

estimate.

Hardware

DS and DCS on VPC(s) running on Dell PowerEdge T710 (2 Intel X5670 hexacore CPUs, 48 GB

RAM, 4 NICs) via VMware ESXi 5.0.

DS and DCS VPC(s) configured for 8 virtual cores, 16 GB RAM.

No other VPCs active on VMware ESXi server.

ProjectWise Integration Server running on Dell Vostro 400 (Intel E6850 dual‐core CPU, 4 GB

RAM).

ProjectWise and Orchestration Framework databases hosted on Asus U46E (Intel I5 dual‐core

CPU, 8 GB RAM) running SQL Server 2012.

All computers running Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.

Configuration

InterPlot archive for Distribution Service set for 300 DPI PDF, no DPR or thumbnail, printer "HP

DesignJet 1055CM by HP".

Four HP 1055CM printers in Distribution Service archive group.

DCS uses "ProjectWise Dynamic Composition Server" printer.

DCS rendition format set for 300 DPI PDF.

Desktop heap size for non‐interactive logins: 3 GB.

ProjectWise network control panel applet configured for best performance.

Default iplot.cfg and iplotsrv.cfg

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

1 6 8 10 12 30

Files Per Minute

Processors

Expected Renditions Per Minute

Standard File

Complex File


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Point Cloud Server

Starting in ProjectWise V8i (SELECTseries 4) the available Point Cloud Service can stream Point Clouds to

client machines running MicroStation SS2, Navigator, Open Plant, Descartes SS3 and Bentley Civil

products. Much like Google Earth, Point Cloud Streaming only sends the needed information to the

client based on the location and zoom ratio. Point clouds can be from several megabytes to many

gigabytes in size.

The Point Cloud Service can be loaded either on an Integration Server or Caching Server. There is a price

difference, so consult your sales team for pricing. It is less expensive when running on a Caching Server.

Once configured, import your .las or .pod files into a storage area/folder on the Caching Server or

Integration Server that is running the Point Cloud Service.

In general, you can run one Point Cloud Service and have all of the point cloud files on one server, or you

can add multiple Point Cloud Services and store the point clouds in multiple storage areas. Keep in mind

there is no need to cache point clouds in remote office, as they will be streamed as needed.


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Bentley Transmittals Service

The newly released Bentley Transmittal Services (BTS) consists of three modules; the Bentley

Transmittals Server, Bentley Transmittals Portal, and the Bentley Transmittal connector for

ProjectWise. For optimum performance, it is recommended that each BTS module reside on its own

server, which is in addition to your existing ProjectWise (SELECTseries 4) Integration Server and

Database Server. Each BTS instance (Server and Portal) is configured for one ProjectWise Integration

Server. If that Integration server is configured with multiple datasources, you will have the ability to

enable transmittals on each of those datasources. The Transmittals Portal requires a SSL Certificate for

communications with users.

BTS currently is supported to run on Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Standard or Express only. Keep in mind

that SQL Express has a database limitation of 10GB. Oracle is not currently supported for BTS, but

your ProjectWise Database can be running on Oracle. A feature of SQL 2008 called FILESTREAM allows

transmittals themselves to be stored in the database. Enabling FILESTREAM on an existing database

engine should not affect any existing databases any more than reporting services would affect them; it’s

just another SQL feature.

Further, all BTS packages and their response documents will be stored in SQL Server (using FILESTREAM

storage). Make sure you set aside enough storage space wherever you decide to host the transmittal

database's storage area. When calculating the disk space needed, keep in mind that each transmittal

package is temporarily stored on the BTS Server and is roughly the same size as the sum of the files

contained in the package.


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ProjectWise and Network Security

ProjectWise traffic between clients and servers are done on tcp port 5800 by default for the thick client

and ports 80 and 443 for the web clients. Encryption can be enabled for thin and/or thick clients

independently and from different ProjectWise servers, allowing IT staff to only encrypt traffic that may

flow outside of the LAN or WAN. This is sometimes a preferred method to keep the overhead on

encryption from degrading performance in the local network.

The log in process when using the ProjectWise Explorer Client are encrypted using RC$ algorithm using

128‐bit keys. When logging into the ProjectWise Web Server when SSL is turned on it will use 128 bit

SSL session. When SSL is enabled for the ProjectWise Explorer (server setting) it will continue to use tcp

port 5800 by default, but traffic will be using 128‐bit encryption. Nothing other than that is done on the

client side. Once users bring up the ProjectWise Explorer they will need to accept the trust certificate

dialog.


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Working with Sub‐Consultants

When working with outside parties there are server considerations. First is how they are going to

connect and where is the data stored. Connectivity can happen using a browser based client or a thick

client. Each has its pros and cons.

The thick client access has the most functionality and can also provide direct integration inside of many

commonly used applications such as AutoCAD, MicroStation, Revit, Civil 3D, Microsoft Office, as well as

other applications. It also offers increased performance via data compression and delta file transfer

(DFT). Thick client access does require the installation of the ProjectWise Explorer on the desktop and

requires port TCP 5800 for connectivity and file transfers.

When utilizing the thick client it also gives added flexibility for routing since the ProjectWise Explorer

can directly contact a ProjectWise Gateway Server, ProjectWise Caching Server, or ProjectWise

Integration Server as the next server in the route. All three of these servers can pass routing

information to the thick client. If added performance is needed, or in a larger office with many users a

ProjectWise Caching Server may be utilized. Caching Servers can have a dual function. The first is being

able to store files as their home location. The second is caching of files from remote offices.

Thin client access is much easier since it works over standard web browsing ports. It also has

capabilities to allow viewing and markup of CAD formats through a browser with no design markup of

viewing tools installed. Browser users can check out/in files but need to understand that ProjectWise

would be unaware of reference or x‐ref attachments and require a scan be done on the file(s) after they

have been checked in so any changes in references would be picked up, therefore it is recommended

that CAD editors use thick client access to edit files. Viewers, markups, and Microsoft Office type users

can use the browser based clients without any issues. Thin client users would also not be able to take

advantage of DFT traffic, therefore users of larger files may benefit from thick client.

Client to Server communications are done on ports TCP 5800 for thick client access and ports HTTP 80

and HTTPS 443 for browser based clients. All server to server communications will be on port TCP 5800.

When working with a remote office port TCP 5800 will need to be open on any firewall between the

ProjectWise Explorer (thick client) and the next link in the chain which may be a ProjectWise Caching

Server, ProjectWise Gateway Server, or ProjectWise Integration Server. Also, any of the servers that are

next in line would also need to communicate using TCP 5800.

Browser based clients will utilize standard ports 80 and SSL 443 for communications. Browser traffic

cannot be relayed by a Caching or Gateway Server. It must have direct contact to the ProjectWise Web

Server. Once the traffic reaches the ProjectWise Web Server it will then communicate via port 5800 to

the other servers to process requests.


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If dual authentication is needed then VPN access may be required as the first level of authentication

with their ProjectWise login being the second. Other options may include a Citrix type connection to

ProjectWise which is a supported configuration.

The diagram below represents some of the common routes that ProjectWise traffic can take when

dealing with outside entities.


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Mobile Access to ProjectWise

ProjectWise can be accessed by many mobile devices including smart phones and tablets. This access is

either through an App which is the case for the iPad, which now has several ProjectWise related apps;

and via browsers on smart devices running such browsers as Safari or other non ActiveX browsers.

When connecting with a non ActiveX browser certain functionality is disabled or different workflows are

needed.

iPad connections are done via the ProjectWise Web Services which would typically be loaded on a server

in the DMZ. There is no license fee for the ProjectWise Web Services, but once an iPad logs into a

ProjectWise datasource it would then use a ProjectWise Passport (user license). iPads can also connect

via the Safari browser which gives the same functionality as other non ActiveX browser.

ProjectWise offers three different apps relating to ProjectWise on Apple’s App Store. The first is the

ProjectWise Explorer Mobile which is the ProjectWise client for the iPad. This app allows the iPad user

to connect to a live datasource or utilize downloaded content in a disconnected mode. Documents in

ProjectWise can be checked out, edited, and checked in through this app. Files in ProjectWise can be

viewed and edited with various apps that can be downloaded from Apple’s App Store. New files can be

added via the app as well.

The Navigator and Navigator Pano apps can view packaged iModels of design content from various

design applications such as MicroStation, AutoCAD, Revit and others. These iModels can be integrated

for business intelligence, viewing, and markup capabilities.


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ProjectWise Server Module Overview

ProjectWise Integration Server The ProjectWise Integration Server is a central component of Bentley’s ProjectWise. Many deployments

require only one (1) ProjectWise Integration Server, however large organizations may implement

additional Integration Servers to provide redundancy or load balancing. Multiple Integration Servers

may be implemented when an organization has multiple locations that operate autonomously, or for

global companies that need multiples based on geography.

Licensing: The ProjectWise Integration Server requires a Right to Run Server license to operate.

IT Characteristics: This is the main ProjectWise Server that all traffic travels through. It can be clustered or put into a Network Load Balance environment. This server can be scaled up to meet the needs of several thousand users. In general, ProjectWise Integration Server can reliably handle up to 300 to 2000 simultaneous client connections per server. This is not a hard limit, and performance may vary with this many connections, depending on the robustness of your hardware and system configuration. (In this case, a client connection is any user logged in to ProjectWise through one of the various ProjectWise client applications.) Pre-requisites: RDMS database instance (Oracle or SQL Server – usually on a separate server)

ProjectWise Caching Server ProjectWise documents may be stored either on the ProjectWise Integration Server, or alternately on

any machine running the ProjectWise Caching Server. Additional ProjectWise Caching Servers are most

often required to enhance performance for larger organizations with multiple locations. A ProjectWise

Caching Server can either be used to store the master copies of documents managed by ProjectWise, or

can be used to manage cached copies of documents stored on other remote Caching Servers. This

provides LAN speed access to files that may be physically managed on those remote servers across the

WAN.

Licensing: A ProjectWise Caching Server Right to Run Server license is required. The Caching Server Qualifies for

Enterprise Subscription Licensing (ELS). Several may be needed for remote offices.

IT Characteristics: The Caching Server has a dual purpose. The first is for file storage and the second is to cache files that

are stored in other locations. Make sure enough disc space is added to contain all of the locally stored

files and/or the amount of files in active out of that office projects that are stored elsewhere but worked

on in the local office. Hardware should be similar to a typical file server to handle the user load and

space requirements; however it will have slightly higher CPU usage due to the Delta File Transfer


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processing. The Caching Server, when used for file storage, must be backed up. However the cache does

not need to be backed up as it is simply a copy of the originals.

Pre-requisites: ProjectWise Integration Server.

ProjectWise Web Server The ProjectWise Web Server is used to provide a web browser interface for ProjectWise users. Web

browser‐based access for ProjectWise is intended for casual users, where ProjectWise Explorer is

intended for every‐day users. Typically, those users working in content creation applications such as

MicroStation and AutoCAD can use ProjectWise Explorer, while those users only needing to

upload/view/redline documents will use a web browser. Without the ProjectWise Web Server, all users

will be required to use the ProjectWise Explorer client.

This feature includes a series of web parts enabling users to search and navigate (spatial and directory)

data managed in ProjectWise Integration Server. Also includes the Navigator Web Part enabling users to

view and markup 2D and 3D i‐models.

Licensing: ProjectWise Web Server requires in a Right to Run Server license, as well as ProjectWise Passport

licenses for client access.

IT Characteristics: In general, ProjectWise Web Server can reliably handle up to 300 simultaneous client connections. This is not a hard limit, and performance may vary with this many connections, depending on the robustness of your hardware and system configuration. You may want to set up ProjectWise Web Server on additional servers if you expect to have more than 1000 users accessing ProjectWise in a normal work day through ProjectWise Web Parts. Pre-requisites:


Microsoft IIS (not provided by Bentley)

Microsoft SharePoint 2007 or 2010 (optional – not provided by Bentley)

ProjectWise Web View Server The ProjectWise Web View Server extends any ProjectWise deployment by providing individuals with

web browser access to view ProjectWise managed content. This will make it easy for any number of

connected users to access and view work in a read‐only mode using a browser. And as the access is likely

to be infrequent, and will always be to consume rather than collaborate on ProjectWise managed

content, there will be no requirement for a user to possess a ProjectWise Passport. ProjectWise Web

View Server uses the same infrastructure and Web Parts as the PW Web Server, but simply limits them

to read‐only access and removes the PW Passport reporting requirement.


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Licensing: ProjectWise Web View Server both require a Right to Run Server license. No license is required for users connecting to the ProjectWise Web View Server.

IT Characteristics: In general, ProjectWise Web View Server can reliably handle up to 300 simultaneous client connections. This is not a hard limit, and performance may vary with this many connections, depending on the robustness of your hardware and system configuration. You may want to set up ProjectWise Web Server on additional servers if you expect to have more than 1000 users accessing ProjectWise in a normal work day through ProjectWise Web Parts.

Pre‐requisites:



Microsoft SharePoint 2007 or 2010 (optional – not provided by Bentley)

ProjectWise InterPlot Server The mission of ProjectWise InterPlot Server is to automate the production plotting process, thus

exposing engineering drawings to those users who don’t use MicroStation or AutoCAD. ProjectWise Plot

Server makes this possible via both paper and electronic media. ProjectWise InterPlot Server is designed

to batch process entire projects (potentially hundreds of drawings) either to paper, or immutable

electronic format (e.g. PDF); and is typically invoked on the most recently issued drawing. In short,

ProjectWise Plot Server serves to automate the production plotting process

Licensing: ProjectWise InterPlot Server requires a Right to Run Server license.

IT Characteristics: Pre-requisites:

ProjectWise Dynamic Composition Server ProjectWise Dynamic Composition Server provides the ability to automate and enforce project

standards for the publishing and packaging of i‐models, PDFs and raster renditions from commonly used

design and office documents managed by ProjectWise Integration Server. It also enables interactive

publishing for users of ProjectWise Explorer to batch publish PDF and raster renditions on demand. The

ProjectWise Dynamic Composition Service can be configured to automatically publish rendition output

based on changes to the source files or ProjectWise metadata, such as workflow state.

Licensing:ProjectWise Dynamic Composition Service requires a Right to Run Service license, as well as

ProjectWise Passport license for the i‐model Composer instance used as the publishing engine.

IT Characteristics:


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Pre-requisites:



The ProjectWise Dynamic Plot is a Review/Markup solution that uses plain paper and a digital pen to

dramatically streamline the process for capturing markups that are made to paper plots. The

ProjectWise Dynamic Plot Service is the software product that extends ProjectWise InterPlot Server to

produce the patterned plots and registers which plots go with which design data stored in ProjectWise.

Once the paper plots are marked upon with the digital pen, the ProjectWise Dynamic Plot Sync client is

used to extract the markups from the digital pen, convert them to overlay files, and place them into the

ProjectWise datasource.

Licensing: ProjectWise Dynamic Plot Service requires in a Right to Run Service license. ProjectWise Dynamic Plot

Sync client requires a ProjectWise Passport license.




ProjectWise Business Process Template for BS1192

The ProjectWise Business Process Template for BS1192 delivers a preconfigured set of rules that

encapsulate best‐practices for BS1192 work processes based on the ProjectWise platform. In operation,

it allows users to initiate operations and automatically execute a sequence of actions, which

check/modify ProjectWise document properties and metadata based on the rules defined in the

Template.

Licensing: ProjectWise Business Process Template for BS1192 requires in a Right to Run Service license.



ProjectWise Standards Validation Service

The ProjectWise Standards Validation Service is a tool for organizations wishing to enforce consistent

documentation and deliverables standards within their internal team and to external suppliers


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producing engineering contents. The ProjectWise Standards Validation Service automatically validates

CAD file contents and ProjectWise metadata (more than just a CAD standards checking tool) against the

standards defined for the project. It supports configuration of different standards for multiple projects

and produces compliance reports for review.

Licensing: ProjectWise Standards Validation Service requires a Right to Run Service license.



Bentley Transmittals Service

The Bentley Transmittals Service adds the ability to package, register, deliver, and track Transmittals and

Submittals to ProjectWise. Transmittals and Submittals are the key unit of currency for deliverables

between organizations involved in design, construction and operations. The Bentley Transmittals Server

enables these organizations to standardize on a single platform that can be used across an asset

lifecycle. By providing a transmittal capability tightly integrated with ProjectWise, the Bentley

Transmittal Server helps organization accelerate their critical project deliveries and reduce their risks by

tracking transmittal status across all projects including a permanent record on what documents have

been send, to whom, when and if/when it was acknowledged and responded to. Dashboards in the

Transmittal Portal provide external participants a quick way to check the response status for all of their

assigned transmittals and internal project rollup dashboards allow Project Managers and other project

control staff to quickly track progress and identify the most urgent issues.

Includes: a Transmittal Packager, Transmittal Portal, and Transmittal Registry.

Licensing: IT Characteristics: Pre-requisites:


ProjectWise PDx Dynamic Review Service

The ProjectWise PDx Dynamic Review Service natively references and extracts all PDS model and file

data with full fidelity directly from PDS’s existing Oracle or SQL Server databases without requiring PDS

software. Unlike the traditional DGN/DRV file route, ProjectWise PDx Dynamic Review Service opens up

the entire PDS project database and provides read access to anyone using Bentley’s MicroStation,

ProjectWise Navigator, or ConstructSim. The ProjectWise PDx Dynamic Review Service automates the


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creation of i‐models or V8i DGN files from the PDS project database, these i‐models or DGN files can

them be used in cross‐discipline design review and other workflows.



ProjectWise Geospatial Management

ProjectWise Geospatial Management extends the base ProjectWise spatial capabilities with advanced

tools for geospatial data management. There is support for geocoded images, point clouds metadata,

and display of documents thumbnails on a background map. It provides support for ArcMAP iDesktop

integration and MXD, MXT, SHP, BIL, and BIP file formats.

The relationship between the ArcMap project file and its content is managed and ProjectWise

integration is added into ArcMap. ProjectWise iDesktop for MapInfo adds similar ProjectWise

functionality to support MapInfo data. MapInfo file formats can now be stored in ProjectWise, and users

can scan the relationship between TAB (table document) and WOR (workspace document) files in order

to create sets. ProjectWise Geospatial Management also adds Linear Referencing system capabilities

allowing documents to be located along linear assets like roads or pipelines. Dynamic background maps

are enabled in ProjectWise Explorer by using a Bentley Geo Web Publisher engine. These background

maps can be generated from a variety of sources including GIS and spatial database layers as well as

Web Map Services (WMS).



ProjectWise Connector for ArcGIS

This product supports user‐initiated or scheduled based interoperability with ESRI ArcSDE Geodatabases

through an intelligent extract, modify, and post paradigm. Bentley users can retrieve information from a

Geodatabase for viewing using the Connector, and when the Connector is used in conjunction with

Bentley Map or other Bentley applications based on Bentley Map, the data can be edited.

Engineers can use the information as a backdrop or source information for new projects, and they can

modify existing information with updated, as‐built information after the engineering project is


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completed. Features can be extracted from the Geodatabase into managed DGN files and used in design

sessions. Domain constraints and rules are preserved in the extraction process and respected during

feature creation or modification within Bentley applications. This is facilitated by Bentley’s XML Feature

Modeling (XFM) technology that is inherent in virtually all Bentley GIS applications.



ProjectWise Geospatial Management

ProjectWise Connector for Oracle The connector is a high‐performance server product ideal for organizations that use MicroStation

applications with Oracle as their main data repository in integrated engineering and geospatial

workflows. Information is extracted to the XML‐enabled (XFM) environment supported by all Bentley

Map editions (Bentley Map PowerView, Bentley Map, Bentley Map Enterprise) and applications built

upon them (Bentley Cadastre, Bentley Electric, Bentley Water, Bentley Wastewater, and the Bentley

Communications products).

All of the database schema, domain constraints, and other information needed to maintain data

integrity according to enterprise definitions is extracted along with the spatial and attribution

information. Modifications are tracked so that only changes are sent back to Oracle upon completion.

All the updates are managed through Oracle versioning via Oracle Workspace Manager, allowing multi‐

user editing in long‐transaction workflows. Reconciliation tools are provided that allow inspection of

versions, version reconciliation, conflict visualization, and conflict resolution for both geometric and

attribute information.



ProjectWise Geospatial Management Service

Bentley Geospatial Server Bentley Geospatial Server is a combination of products which allows users to organize their projects and

data with geospatial reference as well as work with Oracle spatial databases.

It brings together information in spatial databases, drawings, business documents, and other forms

through a unique federated information management approach. Information in enterprise databases,


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legacy and departmental systems, and project‐based data stored in virtually any format is accessible to

users through a geospatial interface.


RDMS database instance (Oracle or SQL Server, not provided by Bentley)

Bentley Geospatial Server is a bundle of the following products: ProjectWise Integration Server,

ProjectWise InterPlot Server, ProjectWise Geospatial Management and ProjectWise Connector for

Oracle.

Bentley Geo Web Publisher Bentley Geo Web Publisher is a high performance Web GIS. It allows organizations to integrate a variety

of data sources both spatial and non spatial in a single portal. Administrators can author and maintain

Web GIS applications with simple and easy to use tools which do not require programming skills. The

Web GIS Application generator can create both fully operational GIS web applications as well as GIS Web

services and Silverlight based applications.

Bentley Geo Web Publisher is OGC compliant and supports many OGC standards such as WMS client,

WFS server, WFS server, WFS client, KML and GML, these standards allow organizations to publish data

to other server or desktop GIS systems, as well as read data from other GIS servers.

Bentley Geo Web Publisher enables a wide range of applications such as municipal information systems,

image or drawing archives, map‐based navigational sites, project sites, and public information portals.

Note: If ProjectWise Integration server is present, Bentley Geo Web Publisher can publish files managed

by ProjectWise.



ProjectWise Gateway Service

The ProjectWise Gateway Service is used to enable external ProjectWise Explorer clients (individuals

located outside the company’s firewall) to reach a ProjectWise Integration Server residing on the secure

local network inside the company’s firewall. This scenario is often referred to as a DMZ configuration. In

this configuration, the external client cannot reach completely through the firewall to the ProjectWise


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Integration Server, but is allowed to reach into a “neutral zone” where the ProjectWise Gateway Service

resides. The ProjectWise Gateway Service then contacts the ProjectWise Integration Server on behalf of

the client.

Licensing: There is no additional software cost associated with the ProjectWise Gateway Service (it is included with

the purchase of the ProjectWise Integration Server), but additional services are required to deploy this

module. The ProjectWise Gateway Service does not require a license under normal operation. However

the ProjectWise Gateway Service can also provide File Caching capabilities. In order to enable file

caching on a ProjectWise Gateway Service machine, a ProjectWise Caching Server license is required.



ProjectWise Indexing Service

ProjectWise Indexing Service is required when configuring the ProjectWise Full Text Document

Processor to use Microsoft Indexing Service on a separate server from the ProjectWise Integration

Server. This can reduce the processing load on the ProjectWise Integration Server.



ProjectWise Orchestration Framework Service

Microsoft Indexing Service (not provided by Bentley)

ProjectWise User Synchronization Service The ProjectWise User Synchronization Service is used to synchronize ProjectWise user and group

accounts with Windows user and group accounts. This allows users to log in to ProjectWise using the

same username and password that they use to log in to Windows. If it is enabled, users can also take

advantage of the convenience of Single Sign‐On which removes the need for the user to type in

username/password when accessing a ProjectWise datasource via the Explorer client interface. In

addition, those individuals performing ProjectWise administrative tasks will have their workload

significantly reduced with respect to creating and maintaining ProjectWise user accounts.

Licensing:


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There is no additional software cost associated with the ProjectWise User Synchronization Service (it is

included with the purchase of the ProjectWise Integration Server), but additional services are required

to deploy this module.



Access to the organization’s Windows Domain Controller or Active Directory

ProjectWise Orchestration Framework Service The ProjectWise Orchestration Framework Service provides the underlying services for various

ProjectWise functionality including Automation Service, Distribution Service, and the Document

Processors (Full Text, Thumbnails, File Properties) used with the ProjectWise Integration Server.



Microsoft SQL Express (not provided by Bentley) or Microsoft SQL Server (not provided by

Bentley)

ProjectWise Automation Service

ProjectWise Automation Service enables server‐side processing of documents, which in turn is

accomplished through the configuration and use of document processors. Document processors can be

developed and configured to perform a number of document‐related tasks. One of the more common

tasks performed is that of extracting information from a set of source documents and then importing

the data into ProjectWise as components. As part of the process, a component index is typically

generated for tracking the documents in which each component was found.



ProjectWise Orchestration Framework Service

MicroStation V8i (provided by Bentley to operate unlicensed in non‐graphic mode)


GREENBOOK


ProjectWise Publishing Gateway Service

The ProjectWise Publishing Gateway is an optional component that is only required when ProjectWise

Publishing Server is to be integrated into a ProjectWise Integration Server solution. This component

provides communication between ProjectWise Publishing Server and ProjectWise Integration Server so

that Publisher is able to locate drawings and references within the ProjectWise repository. There is no

software cost associated with this component, and the deployment services are rolled up into the

ProjectWise Publishing Server deployment services item.


ProjectWise Web Server or ProjectWise Web View Server

ProjectWise Publishing Server

ProjectWise Web Services ProjectWise Mobile Access Server enables users to directly connect to ProjectWise from their iPad over

a WiFi or 3G connection using the iPad app: “ProjectWise Explorer for the iPad”. Users can access and

manage documents in their ProjectWise database from within the iPad without using email or Dropbox

to send documents to the iPad. Users can download and install this application (or have their

ProjectWise system admin do it) to get a "key" to connect to ProjectWise from the iPad. Users can then

use their ProjectWise credentials to log in.

Licensing: ProjectWise Web Services requires a ProjectWise Passport license.



ProjectWise Desktop Applications

Bentley Navigator Bentley Navigator is a visual collaboration tool used for immersive project review and analysis to

support design and construction management processes and to manage assets in real time.

Licensing: Bentley Navigator requires a ProjectWise Passport license.


GREENBOOK



ProjectWise Explorer The ProjectWise Explorer is the primary client application used to access the ProjectWise system.

ProjectWise Explorer is a thick client application that is installed on each desktop machine and provides

tight integration with the editing applications like MicroStation, AutoCAD, and Microsoft Office. Once

installed, any user of that machine will be able to access documents stored in ProjectWise Integration

Server, provided they are allowed access to the project. ProjectWise Explorer client communicates with

the ProjectWise Integration and Gateway Servers via standard TCP/IP protocols.

Licensing: ProjectWise Explorer requires a ProjectWise Passport license.



ProjectWise Administrator ProjectWise Administrator is the primary application used to administer the ProjectWise Integration

Server System. ProjectWise Administrator is a Microsoft Management Console Snap‐in that would be

installed on each desktop from which a user would need access to administrative functionality.

Licensing: ProjectWise Administrator requires a ProjectWise Passport license.



ProjectWise Web Parts The ProjectWise Web Parts are the primary web‐based user interface for ProjectWise. This user

interface is enabled when the ProjectWise Web Server is installed and requires no software deployment

on the client‐side machine. ProjectWise Web Parts communicates with the ProjectWise Web Server (&

IIS or SharePoint) via standard HTTP(S) protocols. ProjectWise Web Parts use an ActiveX control to allow

multi‐file upload and download capabilities and supports document/folder creation, check in/out,

attribute modification, searching, redlining and viewing with ProjectWise Publishing Server and Design

Compare with the combination of ProjectWise Publishing Server and ProjectWise InterPlot Server.

Licensing:


GREENBOOK


ProjectWise Web Parts require the use of ProjectWise Passport licenses (when used with PW Web

Server, use with PW Web View Server does not require ProjectWise Passport licenses)


ProjectWise Web Server Or ProjectWise Web View Server

ProjectWise InterPlot Organizer ProjectWise Plot Organizer is the plot definition and submission component for ProjectWise InterPlot

Server. It includes the tools needed to compose, preview, and submit for plotting or renditioning

MicroStation, AutoCAD, Word Excel, Raster, and DPR files to a networked computer running ProjectWise

Plot Server. InterPlot Organizer includes a wide range of tools (Design Scripts and settings files) to tailor

and automate the plotting process.

Licensing: ProjectWise Plot Organizer requires a ProjectWise Passport license.



ProjectWise Dynamic Plot Sync

The PW Dynamic Plot Sync is the software product that sits on the reviewer’s machine and is used to

collect the markups from the digital pen when docked, and then synchronize the markups with the

originating design data in ProjectWise.

Licensing: ProjectWise Dynamic Plot Sync requires a ProjectWise Passport license.





ProjectWise Explorer

ProjectWise InterPlot Organizer

ProjectWise Explorer for the iPad


GREENBOOK


Using this iPad app, users can access, review, and return secure work packages created from PDFs,

spreadsheets, photos, and design models. A wide variety of file types can be added to a package and

sent to the iPad for use at a construction site or other remote location. This iPad app lets users open

these packages, view their contents, see properties of individual files, and preview certain file types. It

also allows sharing files with other applications that offer advanced editing features, such as Apple's

iAnnotate for PDFs and Apple's Keynote for PowerPoint, which allows annotation of documents. Once

annotated, documents are created on the iPad, a return package can be exported to ProjectWise

Explorer, and synchronized for review.

Note: Bentley’s ProjectWise software is needed to make full use of this app.

Bentley Navigator Pano Review for the iPad

With this iPad app, users get a 360‐degree panoramic view of 3‐D design models. By creating ‘points‐of‐

interest’ they can quickly access the information they need when they need it. Any annotations made in

the iPad can then be merged with the models on their desktop software. Bentley Navigator Pano

Review for the iPad lets you navigate, view, and mark up 3D models for design review and coordination

as well as site inspections – all with full markup synchronization in collaborative workflows – now

anywhere, right on your iPad! It also uniquely provides panoramic navigation in an immersive

environment for true “hands‐on” reviews. With this innovative capability, you can navigate models by

simply moving your iPad as though it were a “window into the model.” And the iPad’s motion sensors

and touch screens also give you fast and easy access to object properties – such as the thickness of a

pipe, its color, or its pressure rating.

Use this versatile app to review “points‐of‐interest” in models to quickly access the information when

needed. Any annotations made on your iPad can then be merged with the models on desktop software.

Bentley’s i‐models (containers for open infrastructure information exchange) optimized for the iPad can

combine any DGN, Revit, DWG, DXF, Rhino (3DM), and 3DS files.

Bentley Navigator Mobile

Navigator Mobile app allows you to review 3D models and documents contained in an i‐model. To

generate an i‐model for use in Navigator Mobile, you must convert it using Navigator Mobile Publisher.

I‐models can be added to the app through iTunes, cloud services and ProjectWise. The app contains four

different screens, each with a specialized purpose.