Bentley I-model, interaction via ODBC

digital twin is Bentley's proposal to popularize the display of dgn files, with the possibility of analyzing, consulting and highlighting the embedded xml. Although there are plugins to interact with AutoDesk Revit and iPad, perhaps the functionalities created for pdf readers and Windows 7 explorer is the most evident in this new stage.

To download these plugins, go to the Bentley Systems iWare applications for interoperability page. It is necessary to have a Bentley SELECT account, if you do not have one, you register or ask them to remember the password to your email. The application to download is called i-model ODBC Driver for Windows 7, there are other drivers right there, some in beta version.

The I-model is a dgn file, Which has been generated by any Bentley application (Microstation, Bentley Map, Geopak, etc.), which has the variant of To have its objects associated with xml nodes, So that it can be read and analyzed from Common use programs, Such as databases, Excel, Outlook, including Windows Explorer 7.

Not all Bentley versions can generate an I-model, in the case of the geospatial line, it can do it Bentley Map, but no Bentley Power View.

Let's see in this case, how does access to the I-model through the ODBC connector

Creating the ODBC from Windows 7

None of this exists for versions prior to Windows 7, from now on there are both 32 and 64 bits. Once the installer is downloaded, which depending on the most recent version has a name like Dodd01000007en.msi  Is executed and ready:

When accessing the Control Panel, in administrative tools and ODBC Data Sources, you can see that it is already possible to create a new one that serves as a bridge to read I-models (digital twin). Here you specify the name of the access, the description and the folder where the dgn files are contained.

Once the ODBC is created, it can be accessed from Access, Excel, SAP Crystal Reports, from VBA or any other database that supports ODBC. This is, in practice, the migration of the traditional Mslink, which only Bentley understood, to the xfm node which is embedded as an xml node and which is a simple dgn called I-model (digital twin). The difficult thing about making applications for Bentley is that not doing it from VBA made it difficult to analyze the dgn, since you could barely see the mslink and the basic data exported to a link table.

In the case of Excel

To access it, from the Data tab, choose From Other Sources, then From Data Connection Wizard, ODBC DSN And then the I-model data source.

See that once choosing the dgn file, it can be seen as if it were a database, all the objects contained there. Surprising, if we remember that the beginning of XFM Was quite suffering.

The data comes within a range of cells that can be defined in the process. Within Excel, you can do the necessary operations that it allows.

If we do it from Access

From Access you can do more, not just import them; In case we are only interested in linking them as an external table:

In the Table ToolsWe chose External Data, then More, ODBC Database. Here we decide for Link to the data source by creating a linked table And there it is, our dgn seen from Access.

Here it is possible to associate them to another base, such as the parcels of a map to the base of the tax register. This maintains a direct link between the map and the base, then integrity standards, reports, etc. can be created.

From SAP Crystal Reports

Create a new, using the Report Wizard, Standard, ODBC (ADO), Bentley I-model (digital twin). Then the dgn file is chosen, in the folder where the ODBC directed us.

So simple (well, not so much)

There is also an example of an ADO.NET project in C# that can be worked with Visual Studio 2008, and where it is shown how the development works for an application that interacts with an I-model (digital twin) via ODBC. This, depending on our installation, should be stored in the path:

C: \ ProgramData \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Start Menu \ Programs \ Bentley \ i-model ODBC Driver for Windows 7 (beta)

I think it is a significant step by Bentley, to bring the dgn closer to the user. In this case, it is to make the dgn / dwg file readable as a database; which opens the door to stop seeing it as a vector file and can interact with it by linking it to other databases used by other applications.