Bentley ProjectWise vs. MicroStation

ProjectWise is good for really large projects with many team members. I would not recommend it for small projects or those with a small team of people working on them. It is best for technical people and those who plan to use it daily. There are better FTP options out there if you just want to use them for file sharing.

MicroStation is THE program to use for roadway and corridor modeling. Most departments of transportation and municipalities in my region require that the models be delivered in the dgn format, so it is MicroStation or bust. It is an absolute pain to use some of the add-in features though. Things that are easy in other programs like making smart tables that update with the latest information usually necessitate the use of Axiom or similar outside programs/add-ins. I design storm sewer systems, and it takes us 6 months to train up new hires on this software, because it is NOT intuitive. You need to know which buttons to press, since it is not designed to be easily command-based like AutoCAD Civil 3D.

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• It works for collaboration
• The backend is customisable to do work that other document management systems just cannot do.

• Plethora of design alternatives to choose from right from design to completed models
• Detailed approach towards parametric, mesh and surface modelling
• Well integrated modelling workflows
• Intelligent parametric components with 2D and 3D designs

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• many users cannot be in the same file at the same time
• files are not automatically freed upon closure
• copying files to another ProjectWise folder is complicated. There is an option to copy, another to copy to, etc.

• Some of the more complex models have had a few issues exporting.
• We've struggled with external consultants using the custom Autocad engineering tools, and it plays nicely with MicroStation.

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MicroStation is very hard to use for our newest employees. It is not intuitive, and you need to know where to find the buttons to perform the commands you would like to perform instead of typing in the commands like other similar modeling programs. Also, it has no good traffic turning add-ins. We continue to run ALL our turning in Autoturn, since this is not a usable feature with MicroStation.

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We haven't had to use it for many years, so not able to comment.

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Bentley ProjectWise from a user perspective just does not stack up to even something as simple as Dropbox. ProjectWise is powerful, it is capable, it has a ton of features. The best implementation I have seen from Projectwise is where the admins unlocked everything and let the users do as they please defeating everything it stood for and using it as a big Dropbox account, though even then the user interface couldn't be improved still causing significant workflow delays. I would reluctantly leave a good company if they implement ProjectWise, I respect that it's powerful for system admins but it sucks for users. This means 2-10% of what it is used for is well designed while the other 98-90% of its functions are just bogged down by a lack of development in its user interface and I say this as someone who has periodically used it over the last 10 years and seen no effective improvement in usability. Bentley ProjectWise was one of the first I believe to do this type of system, but as is common with being the first is you don't keep up with the times and bring a lot of baggage with you.

The only general purpose CAD program that you can compare MicroStation with would be AutoCAD. MicroStation, in my opinion, is a superior product in every way but one. That one issue is that there are just more people who have and know how to use AutoCAD than there are ones who know MicroStation. This makes AutoCAD easier to get up and running for most firms.

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• It has saved us time in archiving and versioning documents
• It has saved us effort in backing up files and restoring them when mistakes are made
• It has had an overall positive impact on our bottom line by helping with file sharing and collaboration

• MicroStation usage is primarily necessitated by our major client who also uses the program.
• Without using MicroStation there would be many times where we would not be able to provide our clients with what they need.
• Therefore, MicroStation has had an incredibly positive impact on the business I work for as its usage has continued to secure contracts.

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