Bentley Transmittal Services (BTS) integrates tightly with ProjectWise, allowing project Managers to track the lifecycle of a process in a ProjectWise Project.

The service ensures the transmittal deliverable exchanges with external partners are trusted and processes are meeting schedules.

The BTS transmittal workflow consists of three major steps:

• Creating and sending the transmittal package
• Receiving the transmittal package to acknowledge, download, and respond
• Tracking transmittal package responses and status

For the BTS Transmittal Workflow details please refer to the following link…

http://docs.bentley.com/en/BTPortal/GUID-B929CB2F-908B-4A5F-ADDA-3426661829D2.html

The BTS is useful for ProjectWise projects and Managers who has needs for the following:

• Ensure the accurate and complete transmittal of
  documents pulled directly from ProjectWise with reference files included
• Automate transmittal processes through email
  notifications sent to each recipient with link to web-based portal
• Provide proof of delivery through transmittal
  register, built-in audit trail, and acknowledgement button
• Enable recipients to easily acknowledge, download,
  review, and respond to transmittals through external-facing web-based portal
• Ensure only authorized contractors and
  subcontractors have access to transmittal packages
• Provide current and accurate transmittal status,
  due dates, and actions needed to be taken though color-coded dashboards
• Expedite transmittal processes with visibility
  gained into urgent issues through dashboards

Problem:

ProjectWise integration has been working and no longer is working for one or more of the following Microsoft Office products:

• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Outlook
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Microsoft Word

 At times, one or more of the following errors are encountered: 

When checking the user ProjectWise Program Associations there are no apparent problems and no user associations have been created.

Troubleshooting Steps:

1. Open Word or Excel outside of ProjectWise and go to the options dialog box (file>options)
2. From menu on the left hand side select Add-Ins.  
3. From here select COM Add-ins from the Manage drop down menu and choose go                                                 
4. Verify that the ProjectWise Add-In is checked and has not been disabled                                                
5. If the box for the ProjectWise iDesktop Integration is not toggled on, toogle it on and select ok to close the dialog box.
6. If the selection does not stick, go back into the Options menu and this time choose Trust Center.
7. On the Add-Ins section, make sure that add-ins have not been disabled.                                                   

We always say, you can't mix ProjectWise versions on the same machine. So if you upgraded your client because you wanted the latest and greatest version of ProjectWise Explorer 08.11.11.559 and then upgraded your PW Admin to match, if you do not upgrade your database you will get error messages when you try to log into your datasources in PW Admin.  

Create Custom database Tables dialog box opens. "Do you want ProjectWise to createtables in database?  Enable"Create" button. If you select Cancel you will see Last Error 58198 "cannot login to the data source." Database table verification failed. One or more custom tables are missing. 

It has always been a requirement that PW Admin and Server versions to match up. This remains the case with the latest SELECTseries 4 Update. You will either need to downgrade the client on your pc or run PW Admin on the server.

Have you ever wondered how much disk space is available in your ProjectWise Storage Area?

Are your users constantly running out of space?

The ProjectWise Storage Area disk space availability and statistics option in ProjectWise Explorer can help determine what you have available.

To determine how much available disk space you have in your ProjectWise Storage Area you would do the following:

1. Log into ProjectWise Explorer

2. Navigate to any folder on the left hand windows pane

3. Right click on that folder in ProjectWise Explorer

4. Select Properties | General tab | Storage properties (ellipsis)

This will display the Storage Space Allocation as well as other statistics.

You will be presented with a screen that will display the following Line Items:

User available space

User volume size

Volume available space

Total storage area file size

Any ProjectWise user can see this information. This is not only for Administrators.

To get more information on this feature, go to ProjectWise Explorer help and run a search on storage properties.

You will get information under the title of the New Storage Area Disk Usage Information

     To make use if the AutoCAD Civil 3D 2013 Advanced ProjectWise integration features, you must install the ProjectWise V8i Select Series 4 Integration Module for AutoCAD Civil 3D 2013. In the ProjectWise SS4 first versions, there is Advance Integration for AutoCAD Civil 3D features that need a Server side procedure. There is a dmsconvert procedure where you need to add the AutoCAD Civil 3D Program Association, and update mime types.

     The full procedure is outlined in the ProjectWise V8i (SELECTseries 4) Integration Module for AutoCAD Civil 3D ReadMe.

      Part of the procedure (dmsconvert) results in a misleading message at the end of the process.

      On the ProjectWise Integration Server computer, open a command prompt and navigate to the …\ProjectWise\bin  directory. Then run the DMSCONV.EXE utility using the following syntax:

dmsconv.exe -d ODBCDataSourceName -u DatabaseUserName -p Password -appfile “Full_Path_To\

Civil3D.appinfo.xml”

       The dmsconvert does a scan of the database and looks for any Null mime entries, and most likely will find “none” which means it was successful !  However, the dmsconvert logs will return something like the sample below:

    INFO  pwise.database - Statement returned 0 bytes in 0 rows in 0.0333 seconds

    DEBUG dmsconv - resetting '<failed>' MIME type entries to NULL

    INFO  pwise.database - Executing statement 'update dms_doc set o_mimetype=NULL where o_mimetype = N'<failed>''

    INFO  pwise.database - Statement executed in 0.0534 seconds, -1 rows affected

    INFO  dmsconv - 0 '<failed>' MIME entries were reset

       NOTE: The word “Failed” should be ignored here – the wording is misleading – Please read this just

as  “0 MIME entries were reset” which is good, and you should go about testing your AutoCAD Civil 3D Data Shortcuts now !

One problem that seems to plague everyone whether you are using ProjectWise or not is performance.  Performance can make your system go from running smoothly to your users complaining that the system is unusable.  There are a number of different ways to do this, from looking at real time performance with the task manager's performance tab or to monitor this is with some performance monitors and then an analysis tool like PAL to interpret your results.  The most accurate way to do this is with some performance monitors and an analysis tool like PAL.  Reason being this will gather data over a specified amount of time with the performance counters and then deliver the results in a nice color coded report.  Below are steps on how to do this.  In order to get the best results it is recommended that you run this for a minimum of 24 hours, sometimes you may want to let it run for a week or more depending on what you are troubleshooting.  Things like overall performance are good to monitor for 24 hours at a time and things like memory leaks are normally better over a longer amount of time.  This all really depends on what you are trying to accomplish, but 24 hours during production time is normally the best for general performance monitoring:

1. Download the performance monitor counters that are attached to this blog post.  
2. Unzip the package and run the .bat file as an administrator.  These counters will set everything up for you and also add in some ProjectWise counters if you are running this on your ProjectWise servers.
3. Read the instructions on the screen to make sure that everything is running fine.  Allow this to run for 24 hours minimum for best results.
4. Download and install PAL here (feel free to use your own analysis tool, this is just a free option): http://pal.codeplex.com/
5. Once the performance monitors are done run the performance monitor logs through PAL.  PAL does take up some resources and will take some time to process all of the information, so make sure you run it on a powerful machine.

It is very important to read the readme as there are Requirements listed in the readme that need to be installed a ProjectWise Publishing Server.

For instance, if you want to publish .dwg file types, more specifically files created in the 2013 .dwg format then you will need to install Bentley V8i (SELECTseries 3) - Autodesk® RealDWG™ 2013 service pack 1.1 on the Publishing Server which is not listed in the readme. This assures that the Ustation engine that processes the files can read this file format.  

The readme lists two prior versions. You only need one. Use the one that coincides with the highest version of the version file formats you will be using.

**Don’t forget to associate the specific Application in PW Admin with ProjectWise Publishing Server in the Web viewing tab as detailed in the Implementation Guide.

This message is normal. The i-model packager does not extract
unchanged files on the system created the PMIM file. The i-model packager
requires the PMIM file content to have at least one of the files modified in
ProjectWise or in the package (on an ipad). It will not extract the unmodified content;
ProjectWise does not extract unchanged files.

For example, if you create an i-model package and then
immediately try to unpack it, you will get the message ‘No documents were
unpacked from …’

For additional information on using ProjectWise i-model Packager and
unpack a package, please refer to the PWExplorer online help link below,
Contents: Using ProjectWise i-model Packer.

http://docs.bentley.com/en/PWExplorer/index.php

ProjectWise Admin module offers a setting for reducing the amount of records you keep in your Dms-audt  table (Audit Trail records). If you are truncating millions of rows in your dms-audt  for the first time, you should enable the checkbox for “Move truncated records into a secondary table” on Off Hours (perhaps on the weekend.) Otherwise, the ProjectWise Integration Server may not be able to function well and authenticate Users, etc. The setting is in the Properties of the Datasource > Audit Trail tab. The truncation process will start within the hour, and proceed until the specified number of records to be kept is reached. This could take days if this is truncating millions of records, and depending on the number of records specified to keep.  After the specified number of records to keep is reached, the Integration Server will be truncating only on an hourly basis, a much more modest number of records.

You can stop the ProjectWise Integration Server “Services”, and then uncheck the “Move truncated records into a secondary table”, then Restart the “Services” in you have to operate more efficiently before the truncation  process has completed.    

ProjectWise TSG can advise on more specific recommendations depending on what type of database you have, and if you have to truncate in a ProjectWise Integration Server Load-balanced configuration.

Have you ever brought up a ProjectWise Administrator or ProjectWise Explorer and seen a red X on the datasource?

The reason behind it is due to a schema mismatch when doing a DMSconvert; it should recreate and force the DMSconvert process to recreate the table and indexes. In some cases it does not recreate the index and causes the red X to appear. For now we have found it is Oracle specific and for users moving to Select Series 3 from SelectSeries 1 or SelectSeries 2 and see the red X, there is a work around.

You will need to drop and manually create an index table with a unique keyword: In order to assure appropriate steps are taken please contact Technical Support Group ProjectWise so we can analyze logging and make sure this fix applies to the specific problem.

For users moving from SelectSeries 1, SelectSeries 2 or SelectSeries 3 to SelectSeries 4 (When it is released) you will not need to do anything except a DMSConvert  and it will update the scheme (tables and indexes) for you.

See Also

Red X showing on Datasource listing in ProjectWise Admin and Explorer

It has been determined that there is a change in how .NET framework 4.5 works that has caused problems in the functionality of Transmittals on client machines.  We are currently working with Microsoft to get to the root of the issue, however in the meantime we recommend also keeping .NET 4.5 off the Transmittals Server and Portal machines as well as the clients.  Any and all updates will be posted as comments to this blog.  As always, contact Bentley Technical Support if you have any questions.

Installing .NET framework 4.5 on your client machines will result in an error similar to the following when using Transmittals. 

The Uri passed is not a valid. eB expects to find a Uri in the form 'eB://<community string>/<integer for object type>/<integer for the objectid>' but got 'eb://0.0.0.0/9/20'
- Input string was not in a correct format.

May also recieve error:

Sequence contains no elements

Update:

Microsoft has released .NET framework 4.5.1, which includes the fix to this issue.  It can be downloaded here: www.microsoft.com/.../details.aspx

Overview

The ProjectWise User Synchronization Service (USS) is used to synchronize ProjectWise user and group accounts with Windows user and group accounts. This allows users to log into ProjectWise using the same username and password that they use to log in to Windows. 

We will look at a few areas in configuring the ProjectWise Synchronization Service, including Trust, Permission, and ProjectWise Administration.

Troubleshooting:

 Trust

 ProjectWise requires there to be a two way trust when the ProjectWise Integration and USS servers are in one domain and the users ‘live’ in another domain in Active Directory.  Make sure there is a two way trust between domains.

Permission

On the Integration Server, go to services:  the synchronization service 'logon user' must be a domain user and be able to enumerate users on each domain.

• Make sure this user has 'log on as a service' rights on the computer running the USS. (We usually use a domain admin.)
• If you had to change the user name or password, you need to uninstall the service, then reinstall and input the user name and changed password.  (This information gets set in the registry during the install.)

Administration

If your ProjectWise USS stops working, first check the services on the Server (typically the Integration Server) and ensure that the ProjectWise USS is running.

If the service appears to be running, open ProjectWise Administrator.

• In your data source, go to the Windows Security System node and right click User Synchronization Service, and select Properties. When the dialog opens you should see the name of the Computer that the User Synchronization Service is on. 

• Highlight and delete all entries (do not highlight and retype). Make sure you have the correct information before deleting the current entries.
• Retype the computer name where USS resides.  In some cases we have seen browsing to the Server may not work and you can’t find the Server name.  If this is the case, type in the name of the computer that has the USS running.  (Example:  \\myserver)
• Retype the ProjectWise username and password. The main ProjectWise Admin account.  (Not the service account and not a user account with “admin rights”).
• Restart the USS services.
• From the ProjectWise Administrator, execute User Synchronization. Go to the Windows Security System node and right click User Synchronization Service, then select Synchronize Accounts

** If none of the above resolves the problem please configure logging by doing the following:

• Go to the drive that USS is installed on.
• On a Windows 2008 Server go to .. \Program Files (x86)\Bentley\ProjectWise\bin and open the usersync.log.xml file in notepad.
• Change all priority values = "warn" to "all".  Save the file, then stop and restart the synchronization service.
• Execute a "synchronize accounts".  Wait a few minutes for the log to generate. The usersync.log file is located under C:\Users\Public\Bentley\Logs directory and is called usersync.log.
• Open the usersync. log with notepad and do a search for “Unique constraint violated” (without the quotes)You will likely find a line that looks similar to this:

 User group issue

2014-02-19 15:22:03,761 ERROR [0x00000000] pwise.usersync - Failed to create user group 'MyDomain\MyGroup[MyDatasource://MyDomain.com/DC=us/OU=company/OU=MySection/CN=MyGroup] [S-1-2-12-123456-123456789-123456789-12345]' in the datasource 'PROJECTWISE.mydomain.com:PWdatasource'. Unique constraint violated

 User issue

2014-02-19 15:22:04,856 ERROR [0x00000000] pwise.usersync - Failed to create user 'MyDomain\MyUser [MyDatasource://MyDomain.com/DC=us/OU=company/OU=MySection/OU=MyGroup] /CN=MyUser] [AD:S-1-2-12-123456-123456789-123456789-12345]' in the datasource 'PROJECTWISE.mydomain.com:PWdatasource'. Unique constraint violated

 Follow the instructions below to fix the user and groups that are listed in these lines.

What if only one user has a problem or several random users are not being synchronized?

Typically there is a lost SID or the user was created in ProjectWise with a SID that no longer matches the SID in Active Directory.

• In PW Admin, go to the User Account Properties. 
• On the General tab, under Security, switch the account type from window-synchronized to windows 
• Run user synch.
• Go back to the user account and switch back to Windows-synchronized.
• Run the User Synch again.

If you have several users or groups you can highlight them all, go to properties and make the changes as directed above.

 Switching the user to “windows” and then back to “windows synchronized” should flush and recreate the user SID.

1.     Is it ok to delete the contents of this directory?

•  Yes, it is ok to delete these files in the async-extraction”  directory

2.     What are these files and where do they come from?

• Files are placed in the async-extraction directory by one of the Document Processors. The Full Text Extraction, Thumbnails or File Properties. Once these files have been processed they should automatically be deleted from this directory. If these files are not getting deleted automatically, it could mean that the file is corrupt, or something is just not working correctly during the extraction process. Look to see if there is a particular file type that is not getting deleted. The problem could be the document processor is having trouble with that type of file.

3.      Other possible reasons a file will may get stuck in this directory:

• Large files
• File is not extractable
• Corrupt file

4.      Where is this asyc-extraction directory?

• On Windows 2003 and older It is located in the ‘C:\Docuement and settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Temp
• On Windows 2008 It is located in the C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\Temp\async-extraction

 5.     Is there a preferred method to deleting these files?

•  Not really. You can monitor the drive and or create a procedure to periodically check this directory and delete the files if necessary.

6.     Where can I get more information on how this works?

•  You can get more information by looking at Chapter 6 of the Implementation Guide or by reading the Extractions section of the ProjectWise Administrator help.

How to enable and Disable the Dependency service in Projectwise

***Please note that The Dependency Service does require a license.
***License usages will be reported as long as any datasource on the server has the Dependency authoring enabled.

On the Projectwise Integration server, install\modify the Projectwise Administrator installation and be sure to check the “Dependency Service Administrator” option (as it is off by default).
Launch the “Start\Programs\Bentley\ProjectWise v8i\Administrative Tools\Dependency Service Administrator, and log into the datasource where you wish to enable the service.
You will be prompted to create tables, check the box and click create.
At this point Dependency viewer is enabled for this datasource.
To enable the Dependency Service in other datasources, simply run the Dependency Service Administrator and log into a different datasource and create tables as you did before.

On the client side:  When installing Projectwise Explorer, be sure to check on the option for “Dependency Service”.  Once enabled, launch ProjectWise Explore, log into the datasource and the “Dependency Viewer” tab is now shown as the “Dependency Service”

You can disable the Dependency service for a datasource at any time.
Simply run the Dependency Service Administrator, click on the Dependency Service node and uncheck the box that says “Enable Dependency Service Authoring for this datasource”
Click “yes” to the dialog confirming this action, and close the Dependency Service Administrator.

For more information about the ProjectWise Dependency service, see chapter 3 of the Projectwise Implementation guide, and for installation see Chapter 17, or check out the ProjectWise Administrator help under Projectwise Implementation, ProjectWise Dependency Service Configuration.