bentleyuser.org - MicroStation XM edition unveiled!

MicroStation XM edition unveiled!
by Marc Thomas - 10 May 2005

So finally what we've been waiting for! MicroStation XM edition is officially launched at the BE conference.

The first thing you'll want to know is when you can get it. The current schedule is a Beta Release in the next 30 days, so that's by early June. This will be followed by a release around October 2005.

To take full advantage of XM you will need to have updated your Windows system with the appropriate version of Direct X, see our earlier feature for more about this.

The headline features are first, as we have been expecting all along, the new display system, offering things like faster performance and transparency. We also get to say goodbye to the screen refresh command.

The PDF capabilities that were launched with PDF Composer have been extended. A lot is being made of the capability to produce entire sets of project documents using MicroStation's PDF tools.

There are two entirely new features. XM’s new project explorer lets users set up, maintain, and navigate a project table of contents, linked to all project resources. Sounds like the equal of the recent AutoCad features.

Also new, and much requested by users, are distributed DGNs, which Keith Bentley calls “the silver bullet of XM.” This is shared file access. We've been told for some time that the technologies first launched in ProjectBank would reappear in MicroStation. Well here they are!

The new display functions have also supported improvements to 3D modelling and rendering tools.

Bentleyuser.org has correspondents at BE 2005, we hope to have some reports from them soon.