BEXEL CDE – July 2024

Released: July 2024

BEXEL BCF.Server

The BEXEL BCF Server, based on the OpenCDE BCF API v3.0 standard, is here. Now, model-based communication is made even easier within the entire BEXEL ecosystem. Users can create Issues, Document Approvals, Discussions, and other unique workflows. 

Some of the key features are listed below: 

• Integrated into the BEXEL ecosystem
  • Instead of exchanging problems in a traditional way by sending BCF files to each other via emails or other communication channels, all participants can communicate directly within the BEXEL ecosystem without the need for any additional application. 
  •  All modules within the BEXEL CDE, including the BEXEL Viewer, BEXEL Docs, and BEXEL BCF Server, are connected and communicate with each other, giving users the full capability of a fully integrated BIM solution. 
  • Model-based collaboration using BEXEL Viewer increases the level of understanding of what the user exactly requested. 
• Document Approvals 
  • The highly customizable process of approving external or internal documents after being uploaded into the BEXEL Docs in any phase of the project. 
  • The process can include single or multiple reviewers. 
  • The process can be finished after a single-step or a multi-step approval. 
  • After any action, all users participating in this process will get an email notification about the change. 
  • All participants included in the process can communicate via the Comments section. 
  • The workflow is based on the ISO 19650 standard. 
• Discussions
  • An easy way to communicate in real-time on a specific topic through a chat-like interface between all stakeholders within a single project.
  • A custom number of Participants can be added to a discussion. 
• Participants 
  • Besides people who can change Issue (Created by or Assigned To) or Document Approval (Created by or Reviewers), any user can also be added as a read-only observer using the Participants list. 
  • Participants can add comments but cannot change the Issue or Document Approval. 
• Linked documents 
  • Any set of documents from BEXEL Docs can be linked to any type of issue including Issues, Document Approvals, or Discussion. 
  • All-access rights defined inside the Docs module will be applied, so users do not need to think about it again in the BCF module. 
• E-mail notifications 
  • Notifications will be sent for the following changes made inside the BCF Manager tab: 
    • Creation of a new Issue or Document Approval, 
    • Change of Document Approval status when any of the reviewers accepted, any of the reviewers Rejected, all reviewers from one phase (e.g., First Reviewers) have accepted, or all reviewers from all phases accepted,
    • The author has changed the linked documents and returned the status to ‘Pending for Approval’. 
  • Notifications are sent immediately after a change and are sent to a specific subset of users who are interested in a particular change. 
• Custom labels (tags) on a project level 
  • An administrator can define a custom set of labels (tags) based on project type, region, or company rules. 
  • New labels can be defined for any stage of the project and can be used for any type of issue. 
• Enhanced filtering 
  • Filter in this module allows users to filter issues by the person assigned to Issue/Document approval, Type and Priority of the issue, Status, Deadline, or Custom defined Tags.   
  • Also, there are predefined custom filters that can accelerate work. Some of them are Document Approvals, My Pending for Approval, Pending for Approval, Approved, or Rejected. 

BEXEL CDE

• Fixed the error that occurred inside the Edit project window when a user attempted to subsequently add a Viewer project to an existing CDE project.
• Fixed the issue that caused the Source structure to not be published in the right way.

BEXEL Docs

• Added the column Status which displays the approval status of a document and the option to filter documents based on the Status.
• Added the option to initiate a Document Approval process directly from the Docs module based on selected documents. After the process is finished, the status of all documents included in the process will be set to Approved or Rejected automatically. Also, for all documents that don’t need to be approved, the user can set the No Approval Needed status.
• Introduced e-mail notifications for the following changes made inside the Docs:
  • One or more documents were created or replaced by direct upload or using Drag&Drop options,
  • One or more documents have been deleted,
  • One or more documents have been renamed.

Notifications are sent immediately after a change to all users who have the right to see a particular document.

• If the session expires due to prolonged non-use, a message that it has expired will be printed, and an option to refresh will be offered.

BEXEL Viewer 

• Introduced improved email notifications when any of the source file conversions break, either when publishing from BEXEL Manager or directly uploading from the web portal.

BCF Manager

• The list of labels/tags within the form for creating/editing an Issue or Document Approval has been sorted in alphabetical order.
• Fixed wrong messages that have been displayed inside the BCF Manager tab.
• Filters didn’t work well after a user clicked on Sync inside the BCF Manager tab or after the Clear Filter option.
• I enabled the download of document types that weren’t supported for a preview option within the BCF Issue -> Document component. Like the document preview, this option can be activated by double-clicking on the desired document or by right-clicking and selecting the Download File option from the context menu.
• Enabled automatic update of comments within the issue when the Comments window is open.
• Enabled a much more flexible layout for controls within the BCF Manager tab.
• Enabled the ‘Find in Documents’ option for documents linked to any BCF issue or Document Approval. Right-clicking on a file opens a context menu with the additional option Find in Documents. In this way, the document related to an Issue can be replaced by clicking on the Replace button in the Documents tab.
• Fixed the issue that caused the deadline to be reset to today’s date when editing the issue regardless of the date that was previously saved.

QTO/CBS

• Disabled the creation of QTOs and CBSs when loading the project in the Share Link mode.