bentleyuser.org - Moving to XM, an introduction

Moving to XM, an introduction
by Marc Thomas - 23 October 2006

I’m gradually working my way in to ADP’s XM installation so what I have to say on bentleyuser.org is not a complete guide to XM, more a winding path from place to place.

My start point was looking at the new features in the early beta and release candidates, followed by a lot of time on the new interface and how to customise it. My plan for ADP’s installation is to introduce XM with the interface set to look fairly similar to the current one and then gradually feed in new features and tools.

During the beta phase I was able to satisfy myself that this objective was achievable. Bentley added the ability to import existing interfaces to the customisation tools early in 2006. This makes the initial conversion of existing interfaces fairly easy. Existing Macros that do simple things like setting element attributes are easy to replace with Element Templates. More on this in a later feature.

Once we were out of the initial beta testing and into the Release Candidates the first thing to do was to get a new licence and install SELECT Server XM. The Release Candidates required a commercial licence, whilst these could have been supplied by Bentley’s hosted SELECT Server it seemed sensible to start as we meant to go on.

The next concern was how to avoid going around 70 client PCs installing the Pre-requisites and applications. Bentley are now moving towards packaging all of their applications into MSI files. These offer various methods of automating installation. I larger networks the IT department may run heavy duty Microsoft tools like SMS and MOM that can use MSI packages for deployment. Smaller networks may not have these tools but can use standard Active Directory Group Policies to install MSI packages.

However, The Pre-requisites installer is not an MSI, as it is a wrapper for a set of Microsoft packages, some of which are MSI, some not. Also at the moment the vertical applications are not MSI Packaged, this is due for TriForma, Bentley Architecture and others early in 2007.

This has led me to look into applications that can package the non-MSI pre-requisite components. Why Microsoft don’t issue all of their patches, updates and hotfixes as MSI packages is a mystery!

I currently have Group Policies that install MicroStation XM, Bentley Redline XM and the pre-packaged MSI pre-requisites. The remaining components will be packaged shortly.

Future features will expand on the topics introduced here.